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Oh boy it has been a long time since I have done a hand-lettering post!
Hand-lettering (calligraphy is a form of hand-lettering) is such a fun skill to know! I do hand-lettering on pretty much every Bible journaling page that I create. It is the perfect way to incorporate the verse without having to use stickers or stamps.
I have done quite a few lettering tutorials in the past on faux calligraphy, brush calligraphy, and hand-lettering styles, but it has been a long while!
So today I wanted to jump back into the lettering world with five brush calligraphy tips that I have learned after lots of practice!
Hand-Lettering and Calligraphy Basics
Now, this post is more for those that have already seen my other lettering tutorials and understand the basic concepts. If you are brand new and don’t know where to start, check out the posts below first.
The great thing is that most of these posts also contain free practice sheet printables!
- Faux Calligraphy Tutorial (With Free Practice Sheets)– This is where I recommend starting. Once you have faux calligraphy down, you can move on to brush calligraphy
- Brush Calligraphy Basics (With Free Practice Sheets)– Learn all about using a brush pen to create calligraphy
- Bounce Lettering (Brush Calligraphy. Also includes free practice sheets with an email sign-up)– This is how you can learn how to create the more whimsical and bouncy brush calligraphy that is my go-to style
- 10 Easy Hand-Lettering Styles (With Free Cheat Sheet)– There are so many other hand-lettering styles that you can create with a brush pen. This post goes over ten of the easiest styles
- Brush Calligraphy Capital Letters (With Free Practice Sheets)
- Watercolor Calligraphy Tutorial
Supplies
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen– These are my #1 favorite brush pens that I use all the time. They come in packs with both a hard tip and a soft tip which I use interchangeably; so I recommend trying both. They also are waterproof and the only brush pen that I have used that does not bleed through an unprepared Journaling Bible page!
- They now make the Fudenosuke in colors. They write exactly the same as the normal soft tip, but in my experience, they do bleed through an unprepared Bible page. Just something to keep in mind.
- Some other great lettering brush pens are the Tombow Dual Tips, Pentel Sign Touch, and Sharpie Brush Pens. (All of which bleed heavily through a Bible page, but you can still use them if you prep your page with gesso.). There are a TON of brush pens on the market, so I would definitely encourage you to try different kinds out to see which ones you like the most!
- As mentioned in the “Bonus tip” below, I highly recommend practicing your lettering on tracing paper! You’ll save money, can trace over practice sheets without having to print them out a bunch of times, and it provides a great lettering surface.
- If you are a Bible journaler, You can find out more about my favorite supplies HERE.
Five Brush Calligraphy Tips
Check out the video below to hear more about my five brush calligraphy tips and see some examples!
1. Go Slow
My first tip is to go slow. When I am helping others letter, the first thing I notice is always that they are going to fast.
*The videos I post on Instagram and YouTube are almost always at least 4x my real lettering speed! Though I have gotten faster as I’ve grown more comfortable lettering, I still go fairly slowly!*
You are much more likely to get the letters you want when you go slower. If you rush your lettering you will end up with uneven upstrokes and downstrokes. You also may end up with letters that are bigger, smaller, rounders, skinnier, etc. than you are looking for.
Going slow allows you time to create the shape you want, as well and the stroke thickness you want.
2. Pick Up The Pen
Did you learn cursive in school? If you did, you were probably taught not to pick up your pen from the paper until you finish the word. I mean, the whole concept is about being able to write a word without ever picking up the pen!
But nowadays, we don’t need to worry about following those “rules”! Another common issue I am called to help with is that they can’t figure out how to switch pressure when creating upstrokes and downstrokes.
So my answer to this is to pick up the pen! You are fully allowed to create the upstroke, pick up the pen, and then create the downstroke! Give it a try, it may make calligraphy way easier for you!
3. Hold The Pen At 45 Degrees
One of the most important things about using a brush pen, is that you have to hold the pen at a 45 degree angle to create both the best upstrokes and the best downstrokes.
For example, if you hold your brush pen straight up, you’ll get thin upstrokes, but you will also get thin and wonky downstrokes. Likewise, if you hold you pen super horizontally, you will get super thick downstrokes, but also thick upstrokes.
The 45-degree angle also provides you the perfect amount of control. It doesn’t necessarily matter how you hold the brush, as long as your hand is comfortable and you can get that 45-degree angle. However, if you are having a hard time, you may want to try changing up the way you hold the brush pen.
4. Go Back Over It
Okay, this one seems like common sense, but I promise you, it often slips our mind. Commonly, when lettering we get so focussed on creating the perfect letters, that we forget they don’t really need to be perfect the first time around!
Did the pen lift and leave gaps? Do you have a weird connection between an upstroke and downstroke? Is your downstroke to thin? GO BACK OVER IT!
I almost always have to go over at least parts of my lettering to fix things up, and that is perfectly okay! So this is just a reminder, don’t get discouraged if you make a minor mistake, try going back over it, and it might just fix the issue.
5. Breathe and Eat
I don’t know about you, but when I am really focusing I can get super tensed up.
I find that when I am creating lettering I will even hold my breath. This, of course, makes brush calligraphy super hard to create! I think that this is also something we don’t always notice, and we blame our skills. But really, our body just needs some air and nourishment!
The same shakiness happens when I haven’t eaten in a while!
So, if you’re struggling to get the lines you want, take a few deep breaths. Or better yet, take a break and grab a snack or eat a meal. Then try again.
Bonus Tip: Practice!
One last tip I have for you, and really it’s the biggest one, is to PRACTICE!
Truly, the only way to improve is to keep doing! I have improved sooo much since I first started hand-lettering almost four years ago! I will put a couple of pictures below of my then-and-now work so you can see.
Especially when you are first starting, don’t look at other experienced letterers and compare yourself to them. I can guarantee you, that their early pieces look something just like yours! It just takes time and effort! Practice!
*P.S. I recommend practicing brush lettering on tracing paper! It is cheeper than normal paper, can be used on top of practice sheets so that you don’t have to print the sheet out a gazillion times, and it provides a nice smooth surface for your pen.
See the pictures above? I lettered the chalkboard on the left just over three years ago! I quickly lettered it again today and that is the image on the right! My lettering on the chalkboard is not bad, but I have definitely improved a lot! It just takes practice!
