Week 3...The Learning Continues
The online course I enrolled in (see other post if you're interested) started this past Monday and each day this week I was introduced to some of the many key strokes which make up calligraphy writing. They are: the upstroke, the downstroke, the underturn, the overturn, and the compound curve. A week ago I had no idea what any of these terms meant, but now I would consider myself somewhat proficient at understanding what goes into each stroke and when they are used.
Before I begin explaining the strokes, I have to reveal something to you and where I had trouble this week. Remember those markers I shared? Turns out they really do not stand up to the calligraphy test. I found them to lose their sharp tip relatively quickly, and making clean solid lines was quite difficult with them. Therefore, I went back to Google to do some additional research on the exact markers calligraphers recommend. I really had no idea how many top-of-the-line writing utensils existed out there before Monday, but to save you the trouble, let's just say there are a lot. What I was finding among the community of calligraphers was that the brand "Tombow" was excellent and a fan-favourite in the categories of durability, pigment, and preciseness. Their 'brush pens' (they're really more like markers but that's what they are referred to) are made using nylon fibres which ensures that the brush tip does not fray like other brush pens (what happened to the ones I originally purchased). I bought a 3-pack of the "Tombow Fudenosuke" pen which honestly blew my mind once I tried it. That night I really did not do anything else but practice my strokes and had so much fun playing around with the different things I could do with this pen. I also purchased the "Tombow Dual Brush Pens"which allow me to make thicker lines and are great for working on brush calligraphy. These pens also have a fine tip on the other end of the brush which would be useful for tracing or outlining. There are a variety of colours to purchase, but I went with the basic primary palette to start out because they were the brightest and I thought they'd be the most practical and basic. I will include these links at the end of the post for you.
*Fudenosuke pen tip
Okay, after that marker debrief let's get back to the first five basic strokes! The two most basic strokes are the upstroke and the downstroke. Any time you move in an upwards direction when writing calligraphy, you should be applying very light pressure to get a nice thin somewhat curved line. I found that when I first started doing the upstroke, my hand was extremely shakey which resulted in not the cleanest looking line. However, with practice, I felt that I improved a little. Note: In each picture sample below, I used the Fudenosuke pen on the top line, and the brush pen on the bottom so you can see the difference.
The downstroke was easier than the upstroke because it requires you to move the pen down on an angle applying a much greater amount of pressure to create a thicker line. For someone with shakey hands, I found the downstroke easier. When writing, anytime the pen is going in a downwards direction, you would apply more pressure and use a downstroke.
Now I bet your next question is "What happens when you need to join an upstroke and downstroke?" and I present to you the overturn and underturn. The overturn requires you to start with an upstroke, but instead of taking the pen off the page, you now continue to glide it in a semi-dome, slowly increasing pressure until you transition into a full downstroke. The overturn shows some resemblance to a letter 'n' (although it is different but we'll cover that in a later week). For the underturn, it is the exact opposite of the overturn. It starts with a downstroke and slowly transitions to an upstroke. The final stroke that I learned this week was the compound curve which is a combination of the overturn and underturn joined together. Hopefully the pictures of my work help you to get the idea of what I practiced.
Yours in writing,
Jacqueline
Links:
Tombow Fudenosuke pens: https://www.amazon.ca/Tombow-Fudenosuke-Lettering-Calligraphy-GCD-112/dp/B07DN6TCZM/ref=sr_1_10?crid=17QWG1FAV83PW&keywords=tombow+fudenosuke+brush+pen&qid=1643486797&sprefix=tombow+fude%2Caps%2C521&sr=8-10
Tombow Brush pens: https://www.amazon.ca/Tombow-Brush-Markers-Primary-10-Pack/dp/B0044JIU2S/ref=sr_1_4?crid=196ONI6XAUECT&keywords=tombow+dual+brush+pen&qid=1643487141&sprefix=tombow+du%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-4
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