How to Start Doing Calligraphy in 6 Steps (with video tutorial)

What is calligraphy?

Just briefly, let’s make sure you understand what calligraphy is.

Calligraphy isn’t just fancy cursive.

To do calligraphy, we write each letter piece by piece (instead of continuously like cursive) and use a flexible pen to do thick and thin strokes.

We write letters by putting together individual strokes called the basic strokes.

The goal of calligraphy is not to write quickly, but to write beautifully!

That’s why it’s called “the art of beautiful writing.”

There are many different styles of calligraphy and different pens that are used, but in this post I’ll be talking about how to do modern brush calligraphy.

Modern brush calligraphy is a modern style of calligraphy using a flexible brush pen.

(Sometimes it’s also called “brush lettering.”)

For more, check out this post: Handwriting vs Calligraphy: What’s the Difference?

Guidelines

In calligraphy, we use guidelines to keep everything neat and show us where to end or begin strokes.

The top and bottom guidelines are called the “ascender” and “descender” lines.

Then there are two guidelines in the middle called the “waistline” and the “baseline.”

The letters will “sit” on the baseline.

The area between the baseline and waistline is called the “x-height.”

Some worksheets will also have slant lines to help you keep everything at consistent angle.

Calligraphy guide sheets will already have the guidelines set up for you, so that makes it easy!

If you don’t have calligraphy guidelines, you can use lined or grid paper and just mark where the x-height and ascender/descender lines will be.

The 3 supplies you need to start

Now for the supplies you’ll need to start.

To start doing brush calligraphy, all you need are 3 things:

• Brush pen
• Paper
• Worksheets

Nice and simple, right?

Here are the specific supplies I recommend (affiliate links):

• Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens
• Smooth tracing paper
• or smooth marker paper like Canson paper
• Brush Calligraphy for Beginners workbook

Brush pens

Brush pens have flexible brush tips. You can use them to get thick and thin lines by adjusting the pressure you put on the pen.

I highly recommend starting with small brush pens.

(Check out my full list of recommendations in this post: Best Brush Pens for Calligraphy Beginners)

Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens are my top choice.

These pens come in a pack of two, with a soft tip pen and a hard tip pen.

I recommend that you start with the hard tip because it’s firmer and easier to control.

If you want colorful pens, these also come in a colored set that includes one black hard tip pen.

Don’t have brush pens yet? You can even start doing calligraphy with a pencil!

Paper

Pick a smooth paper that won’t fray your brush pens, like tracing paper or marker paper.

Why use transparent or semi-transparent paper? Because you can put it on top of worksheets and still see the guides underneath!

For more about the best paper to use, read this post: Best Paper for Brush Pens: A Complete Guide

Worksheets

The worksheets you pick are a big deal, because they determine how you learn and what kind of calligraphy you learn.

I’ve already created a workbook that covers everything you need to know to do beautiful calligraphy with a brush pen.

This download-and-print resource gives you everything you need in one place – traceable worksheets, written instructions, and examples.

The workbook walks you step by step through learning calligraphy and covers more than I could fit in this post!

This workbook is also INCLUDED with my online course, Modern Brush Calligraphy for Beginners, which has videos that show you exactly how to do every stroke.

You can also look for free worksheets if you’re not sure you want to spend money on this yet.

Digital calligraphy supplies

If you have an iPad and would rather work digitally, you can learn calligraphy on your iPad, too.

Here’s what I suggest using:

• Apple Pencil (make sure it’s compatible with your iPad)
• Procreate app for iPad
• Calligraphy Procreate brushes by MegBon (the “Jagged Edge” brush is my favorite)
• Brush Calligraphy for Beginners workbook

If you’re new to Procreate, here’s a YouTube video tutorial for beginners to give you an overview of the basics.

You can easily bring JPEG worksheets into Procreate by tapping “Photo” from the Gallery, or open a canvas and click “Add” inside the wrench symbol menu to add photos that way.

I suggest keeping each worksheet on its own layer and working in a separate layer above it.

How to hold and use a brush pen

Before you start doing calligraphy, you need to make sure you’re using the brush pen correctly!

Flexible brush pens are pretty different from regular pens, so we have to use them differently, too.

Pen position

Make sure to hold a brush pen at about a 45 degree angle to the paper.

Like this:

You’ll also need to position the pen tip to the side of your writing.

So the pen tip should be pointing toward the side of your paper. Like this:

Don’t hold the pen below your writing, because you won’t be able to get very thick lines (and the thickness will end up in the wrong places).

Then you’ll want to figure out a pen grip that feels comfortable for you.

Find a pen grip that’s comfortable but also gives you good control of the pen. (Avoid holding the pen loosely.)

If you’re like me, you’ll have a “special” pen grip for doing brush calligraphy that’s different from how you usually hold a pen for writing.

I also have another blog post explaining right and wrong ways to hold a brush pen: How to Hold & Control a Brush Pen for Calligraphy

Using a brush pen for calligraphy

Next you need to learn how to adjust the pressure you put on the pen so you can get both thin lines and thick lines.

First, press lightly and use the tip of the pen to make thin strokes going up.

Then press hard and use the side of the brush tip to get thick lines going downward.

Notice how the brush tip flexes as you add pressure.

Don’t be afraid to press hard – brush pens are made to take the pressure!

In calligraphy, upstrokes are thin and downstrokes are thick.

This means that when your pen is moving in a downward direction, you do heavy pressure.

When your pen is moving in an upward direction, you use light pressure.

Warming up

Next I want you to experiment a little. How thin can you make the lines with this pen? How thick can you make them? What about in between?

Get to know your pen by doing warmup exercises.

The better you’re able to control a brush pen, the better your calligraphy will be.

When using a brush pen, I suggest trying to control the pen with wrist movements instead of just with your fingers. This just gives you better control.

Transitions

When you’re doing calligraphy, you will need to transition between thin and thick lines while you’re writing.

This is one of the trickiest things about calligraphy: doing those transitions smoothly.

It will take some practice. It does for everyone, so don’t get too frustrated if you don’t get it at first!

To transition from thin to thick, you will start light and then gradually increase pressure.

For example, when you’re doing an oval.

To transition from thick to thin, you’ll start with heavy pressure and gradually lighten pressure.

Like this:

Notice how I transitioned from heavy pressure coming downward to light pressure going up?

The basic calligraphy strokes

The basic strokes are the building blocks of lowercase letters.

With these eight strokes, you can write the entire lowercase alphabet (with the addition of several “odd” strokes).

Practicing the basic strokes before you start writing letters is key, because the better you get at writing these 8 strokes, the better you’ll be at calligraphy!

As a matter of fact, once you get really good at the basic strokes, you can’t not be good at calligraphy.

It all comes down to these strokes:

The basic strokes all have names, too. Don’t worry, you don’t have to memorize them all.

First there’s the entry/exit stroke, then the overturn, underturn, compound curve, two ovals, an ascending loop, and a descending loop.

Let’s practice each one of these together.

Entry/exit stroke

The entry/exit stroke is a thin line done with light pressure.

It starts at the baseline and comes up to the waistline and has a slight curve to it.

This one is pretty simple, so just try to keep the thin line consistent.

Overturn

The overturn stroke is a “hump” shape that starts with light pressure on one side and finishes with heavy pressure on the other side.

Start at the baseline and come up light. Then as you come to the waistline, you’ll turn and come down with heavy pressure.

The tricky part is keeping that transition at the top nice and smooth.

Underturn

The under turn stroke is just the reverse of the overturn.

It’s a U shape that starts with heavy pressure on one side and finishes with light pressure on the other.

Start at the waistline and come down with heavy pressure. As you come to the baseline, slowly release pressure as you turn to come back up light.

Once again, keeping that transition at the bottom smooth will take some practice.

Compound curve

The compound curve is a combination of the two previous strokes.

So it’s like an overturn and underturn merged into one stroke.

Start at the baseline and come up with light pressure. As you come to the waistline, transition to heavy pressure as you turn and come back down.

Then you need to lighten pressure again as you come to the baseline and turn to go back up. You’ll finish the stroke at the waistline.

This stroke can be tricky because you have to make two pressure transitions in a pretty short time.

Oval

Ovals are some of the trickiest of the basic strokes!

For the first oval, you’ll move in a counter-clockwise direction.

Start at the right side of the oval with light pressure. As you come around the top of the oval, transition to heavy pressure.

Then as you come to the bottom the oval, you’ll need to release pressure and come back up light to finish the oval at the side.

Because of the oval shape, you really have to focus on those transitions to keep the oval smooth. It can feel kind of tight!

Reverse oval

The reverse oval goes in the opposite direction.

Start on the left side of the oval with light pressure. As you come around the top of the oval, transition to heavy pressure.

Then, as you come around to the bottom of the oval, transition to light pressure again and finish the oval shape where you started it.

Smooth ovals take a lot of practice, so these are some basic strokes that you’ll have to practice often!

Ascending loop

The ascending loop stroke is the tallest stroke.

Start at the waistline. With light pressure, come up in a loop shape to the ascender line. Then you’ll turn and come down with heavy pressure to the baseline.

You’ll want to just cover up the beginning of that loop with the downstroke.

Descending loop

The descending loop stroke starts at the waistline.

Come down with heavy pressure all the way to the descender line.

Then turn, transitioning to light pressure, and loop around to finish the stroke in the downstroke at the baseline.

As you practice these loop strokes, try to keep the size of the loops generally consistent.

And those are the 8 basic calligraphy strokes!

They’re not very difficult to do, but it takes practice to make them neat and consistent.

The more you practice these, the better!

Try spending 15 minutes a day just practicing these strokes. Fill an entire page (or more) with each one.

When you get really good at the basic strokes, writing letters will be a breeze!

As you practice, go slowly and work on smooth pressure transitions and keeping the shapes consistent.

You’ll also be training your hand to make those subtle pressure adjustments the more you practice, which means it’ll feel easier over time!

Need help with those pesky transition areas? Read this post: How to Get Rid of Messy Transitions in Calligraphy (easy fixes)

Building lowercase letters

Once you feel really comfortable doing the basic strokes, you can put them together to write lowercase letters.

For example, an oval + underturn makes the letter “a.”

An ascending loop + reverse oval + exit stroke makes the letter “b”.

And so on through the entire lowercase alphabet.

You’ll write these strokes so they just overlap each other and… ta-da! You have a letter.

There are several stroke variations and odd strokes that are needed for some letters, but for the most part the lowercase alphabet is made up of those same 8 strokes that you’ve practiced.

(Need traceable guides to follow so you can write the entire alphabet? Grab my beginner calligraphy workbook that has everything you need inside.)

Something fun you can do is use a different colored pen for each stroke that you write.

This reminds you to pick up your pen after each stroke!

(Here’s a colored set of the Tombow Fudenosuke pens on Amazon.)

In the picture above, notice how I’m writing the lowercase alphabet all connected.

After you’ve practiced lowercase letters, you can start connecting them.

Connecting script letters

The next step is connecting the letters and writing complete words.

Notice how every letter ends with an exit stroke?

That will be the connecting line to the next letter when you’re writing a word.

You’ll write the first letter, then write the next one so it just overlaps the exit stroke of the previous letter.

The exit strokes are essentially the “spacers” between letters, so pay attention to those.

When you keep exit strokes a consistent distance from the letters, the entire word will be evenly spaced, too.

Important tip for connecting letters

There’s one important tip you should know about when you’re writing words.

Typically, as we write letters, we finish them by bringing the exit stroke up to the waistline.

But when you’re writing a rounded letter next (like e, c, o, d), it’s a little harder to cover up the end of that exit stroke.

So, an easy way to fix this is to only bring exit strokes up about halfway to the waistline.

This makes it much easier for yourself to cover up those ends as you’re writing a word.

It will likely take some practice to get used to just overlapping the end of an exit stroke when you’re writing the next letter.

If you ever just miss connecting them, you can always draw in the connection and nobody will notice!

Writing neat words

To write neat, consistent words in calligraphy, there are several things to keep in mind.

• Spacing. As I mentioned before, aim to keep the spacing between letters generally consistent. Remember that the exit strokes are like spacers.
• Angle. The angle of each letter should ideally be the same. Pay attention to the previous letters and try to stick to the same angle. This is a lot easier when you’re using worksheets with slant lines on them!
• Sizing. The more you practice the basic strokes, the better you’ll be at making the strokes a consistent size. You just don’t want anything to be a lot bigger or smaller than the other letters.
• Pay attention to what letter comes next. Some letter connections are a little trickier than others and sometimes you need to think ahead when you’re writing a word.
• Don’t overlap too much. When writing the next letter, make sure to just cover up the end of the previous exit stroke and don’t overlap it too much, or the word will look messy.

Obviously perfection isn’t the focus, but these are things to keep in mind as you practice your calligraphy.

Related read: 3 Important Things to Check For When Doing Calligraphy

I’ll also say this: if you go through the steps in this post and start writing words and they don’t look very good, it’s not because you’re bad at this!

Instead, you just need to spend more time practicing the building blocks (the basic strokes) and getting really good at those first.

When you do, I think you’ll easily see how much better the letters and words you write look.

The uppercase calligraphy alphabet

The uppercase calligraphy alphabet is pretty different from the lowercase alphabet.

Uppercase letters are not necessarily made up of the same basic strokes of lowercase letters.

They’re larger (obviously), more stylized and unique, and are made up of many different strokes that aren’t like the ones you’ve done yet.

I suggest waiting to learn an uppercase alphabet until you feel really confident with lowercase letters.

When you are ready to learn uppercase letters, there are many different styles of them that you could learn!

Here’s an example of the uppercase alphabet that you learn inside my workbook and course:

Practicing modern calligraphy

So how do you practice calligraphy so that you actually improve?

Here are 6 tips for practicing calligraphy effectively.

1. Start by warming up your hand

No matter your experience – whether you’re a beginner or have been doing calligraphy for a long time – it’s always a good idea to warm up your hand before you start.

This can just look like simple doodles and exercises to get your hand loosened up.

It doesn’t have to be with a brush pen, either; a pencil works great, too!

You can also warm up by practicing the basic strokes themselves.

2. Practice the basic strokes

Practicing the basic strokes is a must if you’re new to calligraphy.

If you don’t know what to practice, or you want to get better at calligraphy, or you feel rusty… practice the basic strokes!

Fill pages with them. Date the pages to see how you’re improving. Work on smoother transitions and more consistent shapes.

I said it earlier but I’ll say it again… the better you are at the basic strokes, the better you’ll be at calligraphy.

For even more practice tips, check out this post: 17 Must-Know Calligraphy Practice Tips for Beginners

3. Practice with repetition

Don’t just practice a stroke a few times and move on.

To really make progress, you need to practice each stroke repeatedly. Yes, even fill entire pages with just one stroke.

Why is this important?

Because repetition builds muscle memory in your hand.

This is why calligraphy looks so effortless when you see some people do it.

When you practice strokes repeatedly, you will form muscle memory over time. Muscle memory makes it easier to do the strokes and pressure adjustments without even having to think about it!

Even if it feels hard now, keep up with your practice and it will start to feel much more easy and natural.

I don’t remember exactly at what point this happened for me, but once it does happen, calligraphy becomes even more fun and relaxing.

Recommended read: 16 Fun Ways to Practice Calligraphy Without Getting Bored

4. Practicing consistently

I’ll be honest with you: when I was learning calligraphy, I did not practice specific things for a certain amount of time each day.

It was much more random. Whenever I had time… whenever I felt like doing calligraphy… whatever I wanted to write.

(And no, I did not practice the basics as much as I should have!)

This is what some of my early calligraphy looked like, by the way:

So, I’m not going to tell you to do what I never did as a beginner.

Instead, you decide how much time you want to spend practicing your calligraphy.

There’s no right or wrong. We all have different priorities and there’s only so much time in a day!

BUT, if you want to get good at calligraphy faster, you’ll need to practice consistently if you want to reach your goals.

15 minutes a day of calligraphy practice is a great starting point. The more time, the better!

In the beginning, you’ll just be practicing the basic strokes. Then you’ll practice writing letters, and eventually writing entire words.

Clear your workspace, put on some music, and practice the strokes slowly. (Don’t put pressure on yourself. Calligraphy shouldn’t be stressful!)

As you practice, remember to…

• Use guidelines or lined/grid paper
• Check for consistent spacing, angles, and size

I know practice can feel boring (especially repetitive practice), but it doesn’t have to be.

Turn it into some relaxing time for yourself while listening to your favorite music or podcast!

5. Only continue to the next step when you’re ready

There’s no need to rush through all of this.

In fact, you’ll be happier with your calligraphy if you take time to practice each step for a while before you move on to the next.

If you don’t yet feel confident doing one step, that’s okay and totally normal.

Just spend more time (days or weeks if necessary) on that concept, practicing repeatedly, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

Only move on to the next thing when you feel ready.

Related: How to Use Calligraphy Worksheets to Boost Your Practice

Expanding your skills

It’s important to learn all the basics of calligraphy first, before you start playing around with it more and “breaking the rules.”

But once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you can start expanding your calligraphy skills and trying new things.

This is where it gets really fun!

There are so many things you could learn next. Here are some ideas:

• A different calligraphy style
• Faux calligraphy (doing calligraphy with a regular pen and drawing in the thicker downstrokes)
• Color-blended calligraphy with colored brush pens
• Flourishing
• Bounce calligraphy
• Doing larger-sized calligraphy with big brush pens
• Stylizing your calligraphy

Getting better at calligraphy is something that happens gradually and naturally as you continue to discover new things and add to your skills.

Wrapping it all up

As a quick recap, here’s what you need to do to learn modern brush calligraphy as a beginner:

1. Get some supplies (brush pen, paper, worksheets)
2. Learn how to use a brush pen
3. Practice the basic strokes (a LOT)
4. Put the basic strokes together to form lowercase letters
5. Connect letters and write words
6. Learn an uppercase alphabet (when you’re ready)
7. Keep practicing with repetition!

Remember you don’t have to do this all at once… as a matter of fact, there should be plenty of time in between steps where you’re just practicing the last concept you learned.

Online calligraphy course

If you need more guidance (and motivation) through these steps, I have an entire course where I teach you exactly how to do beautiful calligraphy so you don’t have to waste time sorting through all the information that’s out there.

In a blog post I can only explain so much, but in the course videos I show you how it’s done and share my best tips with you so you don’t have to make all the beginner mistakes (like I did).

In the course you’ll learn…

• How to use and control a brush pen confidently so you’ll have an easier time making the strokes
• How to write beautiful lowercase and uppercase letters with or without guides!
• Fixes for common calligraphy mistakes so you can reach your goals faster
• The secrets to making your calligraphy look elegant and beautiful
• How to arrange larger amounts of words so you can take on any DIY calligraphy project you want to!

Most importantly, it frees you from feeling overwhelmed by all of the information, methods, and materials you hear about in Facebook groups, videos, and online searches.

I’ll guide you step-by-step through learning calligraphy in a calm, easy-to-understand way… so you don’t have to feel stressed, confused, or wonder if you’re doing it right.

All you have to do is watch the videos, trace the worksheets, and follow the steps 🙂

I’d love to see you inside!

However you decide to pursue your interest in calligraphy, remember this:

If you’re willing to practice, there’s nothing stopping you from being awesome at calligraphy.

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