Calligraphy resources online?

[lizcommotion]

Before I start a duckduckgo search that may lead me down the rabbit hole, I was wondering...

• if anyone here does calligraphy?
• if anyone has a recommendation for a teach-yourself-calligraphy online resource (preferably not YouTube because they and my Gnash player don't always play nice and I'm trying to stick to Free Software)?

Whilst cleaning out my pens I found a few calligraphy pens, and I thought it might be worth learning a bit so I could make some stationary or something. Or keep myself out of trouble for a bit, at least.

Comments

[pseudomonas]

Hello! Yes, I do calligraphy. I can recommend some books that aren't too expensive, though I don't know much about online resources. This is the book I use the most, and I find it very useful to have as a reference book.

Also, some unsolicited advice: Get hold of a pad of graph paper for practice (or print some out). It's way less annoying than ruling lines for middle and top of letters, and having these lines helps enormously.

(BTW, I think DownloadHelper for Firefox will download youtube videos without any Flash player, and you can then play the downloaded vids in Totem or VLC or something)

[pseudomonas]

Looking at the "how-to" section of the book, it's quite slim, so maybe an absolute beginner would want something more introductory as well - though I still think having a book with lots of alphabets is a very useful thing, even for a relative newcomer.

[lizcommotion]

(There is a way to do it with VLC but it's being finicky atm and making me gnash my teeth.)

Graph paper - check! thank you for the tip!

I'll see if my library has that book! ^_^

[anke]

I'm only just starting myself, so not much, but...

Handwriting Tips at papernalia.com has some tips more fundamental than letter shapes. I've been doing a "training programme" based on the suggestions there for two weeks or so and am seeing improvement.

http://www.calligraphy-skills.com might be useful, though I've been skipping stuff and mostly been using the instructions for the gothic alphabet there.

[altamira16]

I think this link from your second website really would help a total beginner a lot.

There are a lot of books that show you the shapes of letters, but they do not give you the arrows to show you the steps so people may guess how to do it, but that seems a lot more frustrating than something that gives you numbered steps and arrows.

[lizcommotion]

That link definitely helps a lot, thanks! Have always been wondering which blasted angle to hold the pen to make the ink flow best.

Also, was messing around, and 3rd grade penmanship came back to me. Was rather fun. I usually don't bother with cursive anymore, but I think I may write a letter to a penpal in cursive and see what they say! (And then vary other letters with some calligraphy...)

Thanks!

[lizcommotion]

Both really helpful, thank you! ^_^