Calligraphy hints

Concentration

Even a fumbling calligrapher can achieve good results by concentrating. An efficient trick is to hold your breath while you draw a line or write a letter. This increases attention and prevents unwanted body movements which may affect your hand. Don't fill your lungs as if you were going to blow up a balloon, just stop breathing for a couple of seconds. Don't sit with your legs crossed. Don't lean your head on your free hand, but sit up straight. And never write while there are other people seated at - or even standing near - your table!

Tall letters

Some minuscules are "low": a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z. Others are "tall": b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, p, q, t, y. The guiding lines are meant to denote the height of the low letters. But how far above the guiding line should you extend the tall letters? This depends on which language you are writing in. The fewer tall letters you have, the taller you can make their stems. Latin has rather few tall letters, so do other roman languages. English has somewhat more of them. If there are too many tall stems, the visual impression will deteriorate. So keep your stems just a little less than twice as tall as a low letter. (Note that the letter "t" can be made considerably lower than that, while the letter "l" will often look better if it is slightly taller than "b" and "d".)

When you use a broad nib to produce big text, or if there is a lot of space between the lines, you may need a separate guiding line to limit the height of the tall letters. Majuscules which stand at the beginning of a word should be slightly lower than the tall stems, otherwise they will dominate too much over the rest of the word.

Vertical guiding lines

It is also very important to make all vertical lines vertical. If they lean (for italics), they should all lean equally. Any letter which is not aligned will stand out to the viewer. A good thing is therefore to draw a few vertical guiding lines with you pencil, about one inch apart, to help you orientate "up". This is particularly important if your letter size is big.

Angle of the nib to the writing line

A right handed person will automatically hold the pen so that the writing edge of the nib forms an angle of about 30-45 degrees to the writing line. In most cases, this is quite correct. It's important that you keep this angle constant. Don't turn the pen! Once you have started writing a character with a certain angle, you should keep this angle throughout, so that the "exit line" will have the same angle as the "entrance line".

In some scripts it is not wrong to turn the pen. If you examine certain historic originals, you will find that the artist has indeed turned the pen on purpose, to achieve a special effect. Or he may have pressed it harder onto the surface in some places, forcing the nib apart to get a broader line. Insular minuscules often have such effects, where for example the stems of letters may be slightly thicker at the lower end. But it is very difficult to both move the pen correctly over the paper, and at the same time turn it between your fingers. And those scripts that need such tricks are a bit special in other respects, too. I suggest you leave them until you are ready to learn advanced techniques.

Choose an angle that suits you. The general rule is that a broad, round style (like Carolingian minuscule) should be written with 30 degrees and a narrow, tall style (like Blackletter) with 45 degrees. The most extreme styles are uncials and insular majuscules, which should be written with an angle of zero degrees, i.e. the writing edge of the nib should be parallel to the writing line. This is greatly facilitated by using a nib that has been cut at an angle so you don't need to use a different hand position.

Holding the pen

The pen can be held at different angles to the writing surface. A higher angle (more vertical pen) gives better precision and detail, while a lower angle increases your reach (you don't need to move your hand so often), and may give you a safer control over the pen. According to Marc Drogin, the medieval scribes held their pens almost at a right angle to the paper. Experiment! Don't squeeze the pen too hard. This will give you writing cramp, and your letters will look clumsy.

Serifs

Serifs are the small finishing lines at the top and bottom of stems. These are made with a couple of extra strokes, after writing the letter. Serifs contribute to the beauty of the letters and also provide the calligrapher with an opportunity to adjust the height of stems that are a little too short.

Protect your paper!

Fingerprints on the writing surface are a mortal sin! Woe unto thee if thou as much as touches the paper with thy clammy fingers! Thou shalt weep and gnash thy teeth until the end of time, and thy documents shall be thrown in the eternal trash can. Your fingerprints contain grease and moisture which will penetrate the paper and dissolve the fibres. When ink is applied on the fingerprint, it will run in all directions and produce a nasty blob. This is RULE ONE: Always have a protective piece of scrap paper under the part of your hand which rests on the writing surface!

I cannot give you more help than this concerning how the individual letters are written. If you want more detailed instructions on the various scripts, try the excellent book "Medieval Calligraphy" by Marc Drogin. This is simply The Book. It contains detailed analyses of how to write different scripts, and is a great help for every scribe who wants to advance himself. But no matter how good instructions you get, you cannot learn by reading only. You also need to write, to practise. It's hardly possible to overstress the importance of practising the characters. In spite of that I have been doing calligraphy for several years, I often have to go back and practise letters again. After a time, natural laziness and inattention makes my letters deteriorate, and I must go back and look at the originals again.