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HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Okay, so... before we do anything with pressure and strokes, let's talk supplies, because the wrong pen will make you think you're bad at this when really you just bought the wrong pen. I did that. Let's not repeat it.
Here's the thing about calligraphy supplies: you do not need to spend real money to find out if you like this. Buy cheap first. You will ruin a pen while you're learning pressure control — everybody does — and I would much rather it be the four-dollar one than the twenty-dollar one. My very first brush pen frayed clean out in about a week because I was pressing straight down on it like a pencil. It sits in my pen cup now as a warning to myself.
Budget Tier (start here, seriously)
- Brush pens, small tip, 2–3 pack — craft store brand is fine. Look for "small" or "fine" brush tip, not the fat marker-style ones. This is your main tool for the whole class.
- Practice paper — plain copy paper works. I know that sounds too simple. It's smooth enough and cheap enough that you won't tense up over wasting it.
- A guideline sheet — I'll give you a printable one, or you can rule your own with a pencil and ruler. Don't skip this. Slant drifts more than people expect, mine included.
- Pencil and eraser — for the guidelines, not for tracing letters. We'll talk about why in class.
That's genuinely enough to start. If you only buy from this list, you're set for the whole course.
Nice-to-Have Tier (once you know you're hooked)
- A slightly better brush pen — something with more flex, a "soft" or "brush" tip rated for calligraphy specifically. This is where you start noticing thick-thin control gets easier.
- Watercolor brush pens — fun once you've got the basic strokes down. You'll need a little water dish for these.
- Nicer paper — something with a smoother finish (marketed as "hot press" or "smooth") so the tip doesn't catch.
- A pointed pen and holder, with ink — this is a different animal, dip-pen style, and it's genuinely a step up in difficulty. I'd hold off until you're comfortable with the brush pen. That's just me, but I've seen people get discouraged jumping here too early.
A couple of practical notes
If you go the watercolor-brush-pen route eventually, use distilled water in your rinse dish, not tap. Our water up here is hard enough that it left a weird mineral film on my dish for months before I figured out what it was. Distilled water, problem solved, and it's cheap at any grocery store — I usually just grab a jug when I'm doing a Costco or Macey's run anyway.
Don't buy the expensive pen set for yourself as a "motivation" purchase. Wyatt got me a nice set for my birthday once and I was almost afraid to use it for a month, like it was too good for practice paper. It's not. Tools are for using.
And skip the elaborate tracing workbooks, at least past day one. They're fine for showing your eye what a letter should look like, but they don't build the muscle memory in your hand, and I'd rather you draw a wobbly freehand oval than a perfect traced one. We'll get you drawing shapes freehand quick.
Bring what you've got to the first class, even if it's just the copy paper and one pen. We'll build from there.
HandoutCheat Sheet: Modern Calligraphy Basics
Cheat Sheet: Modern Calligraphy Basics
Keep this by your practice sheets. It's the stuff I find myself repeating at every table, so I figured I'd just write it down once.
The One Rule
Thick on the down, thin on the up. That's the whole thing. Not the pen, not the fancy loops — pressure. Press when your hand is moving down toward you, ease off when it's moving up away from you. Everything else in this course is just you getting better at that one motion.
Pen Grip & Angle
- Hold the pen like you normally would, just looser. A death grip kills your control.
- Angle around 45 degrees to the paper. Not straight up and down like a pencil — that's how you fray a nib in a week. Ask me how I know.
- Rest your whole forearm on the table, not just your wrist. Your arm should move a little too.
Pressure Guide
Stroke direction Pressure What it should look like Downstroke (away from you toward your body) Press firm Thick line Upstroke (away from your body) Barely touch Hairline thin Transition Ease in/out gradually No hard edges between thick and thin If your transitions look stair-stepped instead of smooth, you're pressing and releasing too fast. Slow the whole stroke down.
Basic Practice Strokes (drill order)
- Straight downstrokes, thick
- Straight upstrokes, thin
- Overturns (the "u" shape)
- Underturns (the "n" shape)
- Ovals — the letter "o," freehand, not traced
That last one matters. Tracing worksheets are fine for a day to train your eye, but past that they're teaching you to copy, not to make the shape yourself. I'd rather see a wobbly freehand oval than a perfect traced one. The wobbly one means your hand is actually learning.
Paper & Pen Notes
- Pens: cheap brush pen to start. Something with a little give in the tip, not bone dry. Save the nice set for after you've ruined a cheap one — and you will.
- Paper: smooth, not toothy. Regular printer paper is honestly fine for practice. Save the nice cardstock for real pieces.
- Water dish (if you're using watercolor brush pens): distilled water only. Our tap water here is hard enough to leave mineral spots on your brush and in your dish — took me way too long to figure that out.
Drying Time
Let ink sit at least 60 seconds before you touch it, longer if you laid it on heavy. I once addressed forty wedding envelopes and stacked them too soon. Half of them smudged. Learned that the expensive way.
Guidelines
Use them. Every time, not just when you're learning. I still use a guideline sheet to keep my slant consistent, especially if I'm tired — my letters drift upright when I am, and a guide catches that before the ink does.
When Something Feels Hard
Some letters just fight you and that's normal, not a sign you're doing it wrong. Lowercase "s" took me about two weeks to feel good about. Lowercase "r" still isn't my favorite, if I'm honest. If a letter is giving you trouble, that's not a you problem, that's a letter problem. Keep going.
Quick Troubleshooting
- Nib fraying or splitting: you're pressing too hard, too often, or straight down instead of at an angle.
- Ink skipping: you're moving too fast. Slow down, especially on upstrokes.
- Letters look "fancy" but you can't read them: back off the flourishes. Clean and plain beats wobbly and ornate every time. Flourishing is its own skill for later — I'm still working on mine, honestly.
WorksheetHandout 3: Practice & Progress Checklist
Handout 3: Practice & Progress Checklist
Print this one and keep it in your folder. This is the sheet I want you filling out for real, not just checking boxes to feel productive. The point is to notice your own hand, because that's what actually teaches you… not me talking at you.
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Warm-Up Strokes (do these every session, even after class ends)
- [ ] Full pages of pull-downs (thick, straight down)
- [ ] Full page of push-ups (thin, straight up)
- [ ] Overturns (the little "u" shape)
- [ ] Underturns (the little "n" shape)
- [ ] Ovals, freehand, no tracing
Which one gave you the most trouble today? _________________________
I'd rather you circle one honest answer than pretend they all felt fine. They don't all feel fine. Mine still isn't the "r."
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Pressure Check
Pressure is the whole thing. Everything else is practice on top of that.
- [ ] My downstrokes are noticeably thicker than my upstrokes
- [ ] I'm not pressing so hard the nib is splaying (check your pen — is the tip fraying?)
- [ ] I paused and lifted pressure smoothly, not in a sudden jerk
If you're not sure, hold your pen up and look at the tip. If it's starting to look like mine did that first week, ease off. Better to ruin the cheap pen now than the nice one later.
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Letters Practiced This Session
Circle the ones you drilled:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y zWhich letter felt the most natural? _________________________
Which one fought you? _________________________
Everybody has one. Mine's the "r," has been for two years, I've made peace with it.
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Word Practice
Pick one word and write it slowly, ten times, on your guideline paper. Not fast. Slow.
Word I practiced: _________________________
- [ ] By the last few, the word started looking less like a word and more like shapes
That's actually a good sign, not a weird one. That's your hand starting to take over from your brain.
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Self-Check (be honest, this isn't for me)
- [ ] I slowed down instead of rushing through nerves
- [ ] I used guideline paper instead of freehanding blind
- [ ] I let ink dry fully before touching or stacking the paper
- [ ] I used distilled water in my brush pen dish, not tap (hard water leaves spots — ask me how I know)
- [ ] I did not reach for the fancy pen set today
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One Thing to Work On Before Next Class
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Pick just one. Not three, not twelve. One thing solid beats a list of fuzzy ones.
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Bring this sheet back next week. I like seeing what you circled — it tells me where to sit down next to you.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Okay, so. Everybody hits the same handful of walls with this. I hit every single one of them, some of them twice. Here's what's probably going wrong and what actually fixes it.
1. My downstrokes look scratchy, not smooth. You're going too fast. Slow down, more than feels natural. I'd rather see one careful stroke than a fast page of scribbles. Also check you're not pressing at an angle — the brush tip wants to flex straight down, not sideways.
2. My pen frayed out after like a week. You pressed too hard, straight down like a pencil. I've got my first brush pen in a cup on my shelf for exactly this reason, tip splayed out like a little paintbrush that gave up. Ease up. The pressure should feel like you're gently squeezing something soft, not stabbing paper.
3. My upstrokes are thick too, not thin. Same issue from the other direction — you're pressing on the way up instead of releasing. Down is heavy, up is light, that's the whole trick. It helps to say it out loud while you practice. I did. Felt silly. Worked anyway.
4. My letters look fine alone but the word looks off. Spacing, almost always. Beginners get so focused on the letter shape they forget the letters have to talk to each other. Try writing the word bigger and slower first, then shrink it down once the spacing feels right.
5. My ink smudged after I thought it dried. Wait longer than you think you need to. I addressed forty wedding envelopes once and stacked them too soon — half arrived smudged. My sister was gracious about it. I was not gracious with myself. Give it a full minute, longer in humid weather, though up here the dry air actually works in your favor.
6. My water brush pen is leaving weird spotty marks. If you're rinsing it in tap water, that's probably mineral deposits — our water's hard here at the point of the mountain and beyond. Switch to distilled water for rinsing. Took me embarrassingly long to figure that one out.
7. My ovals look lopsided, not round. Everybody's do at first. Don't trace them — draw them freehand, slow, and let your hand feel the shape instead of your eye copying a worksheet. Tracing teaches the eye. It doesn't teach the hand. You need the hand.
8. My letters lean a different direction every line. Use a guide sheet with slant lines under your paper. I still use one. My slant gets more upright when I'm tired and I can see it in the finished piece if I skip it. Not a beginner problem, just a human problem.
9. I nailed a letter yesterday and today it's gone. That's normal. Muscle memory builds slow and uneven. The letter "s" took me two weeks. A friend of mine got it in ninety seconds and I was thrilled for her and a little annoyed, both at once. Some letters just take what they take.
10. My hand cramps after ten minutes. You're gripping too tight, probably bracing your whole arm instead of letting your fingers do the small work. Take breaks. Shake it out. This isn't a race and nobody's timing you.
If something on this list is still fighting you after a few sessions, bring it to class. I'd rather look at your actual hand doing the actual stroke than guess from a description.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and that's the part people don't believe, that it's not about a fancy pen at all.
ASHLEE: It's not. It's pressure. Thick on the down, thin on the up. That's the whole secret and I'm giving it away for free right now.
JESS: You really are. Okay, so for anybody just joining us, this is the podcast for Modern Calligraphy Basics, the class that starts up next week here at the community center. I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Utah Community Learning, and this is Ashlee, who's teaching it.
ASHLEE: Hi.
JESS: We do this little episode before every class starts so people know what they're walking into. And Ashlee, I want to start with — how'd you even get into this? Because you were a photography person before.
ASHLEE: I was. It came in sideways, honestly, the way most things do for me. I was addressing envelopes for my sister's wedding, just plain print, and the stationer sent these sample cards with the fancy lettering and I kept staring at them thinking... that's not magic. That's just pressure changing through the stroke. And I wanted to know why my hand wouldn't do that.
JESS: So you bought a pen.
ASHLEE: One pen. Then a book. Then two more books. There's a shelf in my house now where the photography books used to have room and they don't anymore.
JESS: Ruthless.
ASHLEE: A little. I practice at the kitchen counter after the kids are in bed. Same counter I dance in, actually, which — that's its own conversation.
JESS: We'll get there eventually. Okay, tell people the story. The one about teaching your friend.
ASHLEE: Oh — the "s" thing?
JESS: The "s" thing.
ASHLEE: So the lowercase "s" took me about two weeks to get right. Two weeks of it looking like a snake that lost an argument. And I taught a friend the alphabet in one afternoon, just sat her down at my counter, and she got the "s" in ninety seconds. Ninety seconds.
JESS: And how did that feel.
ASHLEE: Thrilled. Genuinely thrilled for her. And also a little bit annoyed, and I'll just say both those things are true at once. That's allowed.
JESS: I love that you're not pretending you weren't a little annoyed.
ASHLEE: Why would I pretend. It's a real feeling. Anyway, it taught me something, which is that everybody's hand is different, and the letter that fights you might not be the letter that fights the next person. Mine's the lowercase "r," still, to this day. I don't love it.
JESS: You'll get it.
ASHLEE: Maybe. We'll see.
JESS: Okay, give people something they can actually use right now, before they've even signed up. A real tip.
ASHLEE: Okay. Real one. If you're going to try a brush pen at home — get the cheap one first. The four-dollar one from the craft store, not the nice set. You are going to ruin a pen while you're learning pressure control. Everybody does. I did, my very first week, pressed straight down like a pencil and frayed the tip right out. I still keep it in my pen cup so I remember what "too much" looks like when it's gone all the way there.
JESS: So don't spend forty dollars to learn that lesson.
ASHLEE: Spend four. Save the nice pens for after your hand knows what it's doing. That's just... that's not a suggestion, that's really how I'd do it.
JESS: Okay. And slow down, right? That's the other big one you say.
ASHLEE: Slow down, yes. Beginners go fast because they're nervous, and I get it, but I would honestly rather see one careful stroke than a whole page of scribbles. The slowness is where the pressure control lives.
JESS: We've got, what, four seats left for the session that starts Tuesday?
ASHLEE: Something like that.
JESS: So if you're on the fence, this is your nudge. Ashlee, what are we doing in session two, give people a preview.
ASHLEE: Session two we're doing the ovals. Freehand, no tracing worksheets, which is a little different from how some people teach it, but I think tracing past the first day just teaches your eye and not your hand. So we draw ovals until one of them looks balanced, and when that happens I'm going to point at it and say "there, see that, that's the one." And I mean it every time.
JESS: That's the whole class in a sentence, honestly.
ASHLEE: That's the whole class.
JESS: Alright, that's it for this one. See you at the counter next week — or, well, at the actual classroom counter, not Ashlee's kitchen one.
ASHLEE: Same energy, different counter.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so I told her, I don't think that's a real word, and she looks at me dead serious and goes, "it's calligraphy, Jess, everything's a real word if you letter it nice enough."
ASHLEE: I stand by that.
JESS: Okay, welcome back, this is Ashlee, this is the podcast that goes with Modern Calligraphy Basics, I'm Jess, I produce these and I mostly just try not to talk over her.
ASHLEE: You do fine.
JESS: So last session was strokes, this coming one's letters, right? The actual alphabet?
ASHLEE: Right. Lowercase first. And I want to say something before we get there, because people show up to session two a little discouraged, usually.
JESS: Because the strokes were hard?
ASHLEE: The strokes are hard. Thick down, thin up, that's the whole thing, I say that every class probably four times, and it sounds simple and it is not simple, your hand does not want to do it at first.
JESS: Okay tell the pen story. The one you keep in the cup.
ASHLEE: Oh, the ruined one. Yeah. My very first brush pen, ever, I pressed on it straight down, like I was writing with a pencil, and in about a week I frayed the tip clean out. Like, done. Splayed out, couldn't make a clean line anymore.
JESS: And you kept it?
ASHLEE: I keep it right in my pen cup at home. Partly reminder to myself, partly... I show it to people now. This is what too much pressure looks like when it's gone all the way wrong. You don't have to get there. But it's useful to see it once.
JESS: That's kind of a great visual, actually. Like a cautionary tale you can hold in your hand.
ASHLEE: That's exactly what it is.
JESS: Okay so practical tip, something people listening could actually use even if they never take the class.
ASHLEE: Sure. Here's one. If you're using a brush pen — any brush pen, doesn't have to be fancy — go slower than feels natural. That's it. That's the tip.
JESS: That's it?
ASHLEE: That's it. Beginners rush because they're nervous, they think fast looks confident, and it's the opposite, the ink doesn't have time to lay down right and the pressure gets sloppy. One slow careful stroke teaches your hand more than a whole page of fast scribbles. I'd rather see one good stroke.
JESS: I feel like that's a life tip too, honestly.
ASHLEE: ...I mean, sure, if you want to make it deep. I just mean the pen.
JESS: Fair. Okay, so, session two, lowercase letters. What should people expect walking in?
ASHLEE: We start with ovals. Freehand, not tracing.
JESS: Not tracing? I thought tracing was how everybody learns this.
ASHLEE: It's how a lot of people teach it, and I get why, but past the first day I think it's overrated. Tracing teaches your eye. It doesn't teach your hand. And people get stuck copying the line instead of actually building the muscle memory that lets them do it on their own paper, in their own hand, later.
JESS: So you just... throw them at the oval.
ASHLEE: I throw them at the oval. And I tell them upfront, this might take you two weeks to get right, and that's fine, that's normal, that's not a sign you're bad at this.
JESS: Did it take you two weeks?
ASHLEE: It took me about two weeks. And when I finally got a real one — like an actual balanced oval, the letter o that looked like something — I was so excited I took a picture of it.
JESS: Like for Instagram?
ASHLEE: No, for my notebook. I have this habit from photography, where I write down the settings under a picture I like. Aperture, light, whatever got me the shot. So I go to write the settings under this oval and I just... sit there. There are no settings. It's a pen and paper.
JESS: What'd you write instead?
ASHLEE: I wrote down the pen and the paper. Habit's a habit, you just point it somewhere useful.
JESS: I love that. Okay, last thing — next session, what are we telling people to expect?
ASHLEE: Next time we're doing full lowercase, all the letters, and we start connecting them into actual words, which is where it starts looking like something instead of just shapes on a line. And I'll warn people now, there's one letter that gives everybody trouble.
JESS: Which one?
ASHLEE: Lowercase r. I still don't love it. Two years in and it just... fights me a little. So if you get to it and it feels wrong, good, that means you're doing it right, basically.
JESS: That's oddly comforting.
ASHLEE: That's the goal.
JESS: Alright, that's episode two. Bring your cheap pen, not the nice one yet.
ASHLEE: Never the nice one yet.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and that's the part nobody believes until they see it, that it's not a special pen doing something magic.
ASHLEE: Right, people want it to be the pen. It's pressure. Thick on the down, thin on the up. That's the whole secret and it's kind of an annoying secret because it just means you have to practice it with your hand.
JESS: Okay, so, welcome back, this is episode three, we're partway through Modern Calligraphy Basics with Ashlee. If you're new to the podcast, hi, I'm Jess, I produce these for Utah Community Learning, and I mostly just sit here and ask Ashlee things.
ASHLEE: And correct me when I mispronounce something.
JESS: I don't correct you, you correct yourself out loud mid-sentence, it's a whole thing.
ASHLEE: That's fair, that's fair.
JESS: So last session was ovals, this coming one is words, actual words, which feels like a big jump.
ASHLEE: It is a jump. And the thing is, the letters aren't really the hard part by that point, if people have been doing the oval drills. It's the transitions between letters that get people. Some combinations just fight you.
JESS: Give me an example.
ASHLEE: Okay, so… my son Daniel, a while back, asked me to letter "GAME OVER" for a birthday sign for a friend of his. Fancy style, he wanted the loopy version.
JESS: Sure, normal request.
ASHLEE: And I thought, easy, one word. And then I got to "over" and it took me three tries because you've got that o, then the v, then the e, and it's just this run of round shapes that all want to look the same and none of them are supposed to. I was up at the counter longer than I want to admit for a birthday sign.
JESS: Did it turn out?
ASHLEE: It turned out fine. But I learned more lettering that one word than I did in a whole chapter of one of my books. Because a book can tell you "vary your round letters" and it means nothing until your hand is stuck on an actual word and you have to solve it.
JESS: That's kind of the theme of this class though, right, you keep saying you learn it by doing it wrong first.
ASHLEE: I do think that. I'd rather someone leave here having ruined one pen and figured out three things solid than left knowing twelve things fuzzy.
JESS: Speaking of ruining pens — give the people a tip. Something they can use whether or not they ever take the class.
ASHLEE: Okay, real quick, because it'll save you later. If you're using a brush pen — the little marker kind, not a fountain pen — do not press down like you're using a pencil. That's the number one thing that kills a nib early. You want light pressure going up, and you let the pen do the work going down, you don't push into the paper.
JESS: How do you know if you're pressing too hard?
ASHLEE: If the tip starts to fray or splay out at the end. My very first brush pen, I ruined it in about a week doing exactly this, pressing straight down, and I still keep it in my pen cup. I show people what it looks like when it's really gone. It's not subtle once you've seen it.
JESS: That's a great visual, honestly, having the ruined one on hand.
ASHLEE: It's a good reminder for me too. Because I still catch myself pressing too hard when I'm tired or rushing.
JESS: Okay so next session, words. What should people expect walking in?
ASHLEE: We're doing full words, connected letters, and we're going to talk about that letter-to-letter spacing, which is where most of the wobble happens for beginners. I'm also going to bring my drying-time speech.
JESS: Oh, the drying-time speech.
ASHLEE: It's a whole thing. I have opinions about drying time from personal experience.
JESS: We'll save that story for another episode, I think, because I know it's a good one.
ASHLEE: It is a good one. It involves a wedding.
JESS: Ooh. Okay, we're teasing that. Bring your pens, bring some scratch paper if you have it, and if you don't have distilled water yet for the watercolor brush pens, grab some, it actually matters here with our water.
ASHLEE: It really does, our water's hard enough that it'll leave spots on your little water dish and you'll think something's wrong with your brush. It's just minerals.
JESS: Utah problem.
ASHLEE: Utah problem. Alright, see everyone next week, bring a steady hand and low expectations for the first attempt at "over."
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- Calligraphy for Absolute Beginners: The Only Video You Need!The Happy Ever Crafter
Pay attention to the basic drills before letters, since consistent strokes are the real foundation of calligraphy.
- Where to start & HOW to succeed! Modern Calligraphy for BeginnersHow to Hand Letter
Notice the tips on practice habits and common beginner mistakes to avoid early frustration.
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