How To Teach Yourself Calligraphy Fast: 9 Easy Tips
When you’re just a beginner at something new, there’s no magic trick to immediately get good at that specific skill. In order to become great at something, there are two things that are required, time and practice.
But this doesn’t mean that learning something new has to be stressful.
In fact, teaching yourself calligraphy can be an exhilarating task and will encourage you to feel proud of turning a blank piece of paper into art. There’s nothing better than that!
There are plenty of tricks to try that may help boost up the learning speed when it comes to calligraphy.
To make things easier for you and help guide you towards the right step, here are a few that you can try:
How Long It Takes To Learn Calligraphy
Learning calligraphy from scratch on your own will require quite a bit of determination and consistency.
You’ll need to put in the time if you want to see the results but getting the hang of calligraphy will really take you at least 2 – 3 hours or so but becoming decently good at calligraphy can take anywhere between 2 – 5 months depending on your progress.
When it comes to developing your own style, this will eventually come with practice as you pick up what you like or dislike and the new calligraphy styles used throughout the process of calligraphy.
As long as you are willing to dedicate the time needed to practice calligraphy, you’ll find yourself shocked to see how much improvement you will make as you go day by day.
Ways To Teach Yourself Calligraphy Fast
1. Learn The Basics
To really understand the art of calligraphy, you’re first going to need to learn the basics. This means you’ll want to learn how to hold the pen correctly and how to apply the pen to give you certain strokes.
Also, by practicing each individual calligraphy letter of a specific style will benefit you in the long run. Once you nail the art of each letter, you’ll be sure to see how effective it was in doing so.
I highly recommend that you watch videos online that teach you how to write calligraphy letters and practice them over and over.
You could also use practice sheets that are available online for free here you can print a few pages and trace over them before you begin trying them on your own.
When you feel confident enough that you know how to form the calligraphy letters correctly, make sure to use guidelines on the paper to help you further your understanding.
With guidelines, you can easily correct mistakes but it’s a fantastic way to get the shape of the letter down easily.
2. Supplies You’ll Need
To really learn calligraphy fast, you’re going to need the correct supplies. I know how hard it must be to feel like you’re going to waste these expensive supplies but if you don’t know how to use your tools correctly, it’s not going to get you far.
It’s best to become accustomed to the supplies that you have and this way, you’re also becoming familiar with how these supplies should be used.
But if you’re only curious about calligraphy and still unsure if you’re actually going to enjoy this art, grab a pencil and start sketching the basic letters.
Of course, it would be a much better experience to actually use a calligraphy pen or brush pen, creating calligraphy with a pencil can give you the confidence you need to get started.
One more thing that should be mentioned is that the correct art supplies will definitely impact your experience when it comes to calligraphy.
Bad art supplies can make it difficult for you to learn calligraphy which is why it’s important to pay attention to the calligraphy supplies you buy in terms of nibs, brush pens, and the type of paper you will use.
However, this is trial and error which means you will have to try a few before you find the right one that works for you.
3. Browse Videos on YouTube
As mentioned earlier, Youtube is a great source to learn the basics of calligraphy fast, especially if you are learning to teach yourself calligraphy fast.
You’ll find different kinds of calligraphy and hand lettering tutorials that will take you to step by step throughout the entire process and this can be used to learn many new things about calligraphy.
Use the videos to help you understand the basics but be careful not to overthink the process.
In fact, it would be best if you watch a video a few times and grab your calligraphy pen to actually recreate what you have been taught.
This step is incredibly important because the action is what will make you good at calligraphy. Just remember, that the first few times that you attempt calligraphy is not going to be good at all.
In fact, they may turn out terrible! Keep trying until you get close to what you see in the tutorial.
4. Join a Calligraphy Course
Sometimes, you may not find what you are looking for exactly on Youtube and that’s when calligraphy courses come in handy.
These courses are specially designed to really show you the exact steps and usually in real-time which many will find useful when you’re new at learning something.
They may also offer guidance and feedback depending on the type of course you take but these calligraphy courses can help you further your skills if you want to take your calligraphy skills to the next level.
It may be easier sometimes to have all the information laid out for you rather than having to shuffle through the vast range of information when teaching yourself calligraphy on your own.
5. Use a Separate Journal for Calligraphy Practice
The first few calligraphy artworks you will do is probably not going to be anywhere near amazing but that’s absolutely perfect because you know why?
Later on from now, you’re going to feel thrilled to see how far you’ve come and these first few scribbles will be worth gold to you.
Keeping a separate journal dedicated to only calligraphy practice will cut down that fear of wasting precious art supplies and you’ll feel more motivated to really let loose when learning rather than aiming for perfection on every try.
Having a specific place that you can feel comfortable experimenting with will be freeing and the pressure of having to create something beautiful is not quite there because this journal will be that place where you feel confident in messing up.
Using these calligraphy practice journals will be a great place to warm up before working on a new piece.
You could also use them to write notes and learn from your mistakes!
See also: Calligraphy Mistakes You Might Be Making (& How To Fix Them
6. Focus On One Calligraphy Style
The best thing you could do when learning calligraphy fast is to focus on one area before you hop on to the next. When you become familiar with a calligraphy style, then only you should head over to the next because this way, you have the basic foundation of calligraphy which will help you understand the other styles better than if you had to learn all of them once.
Giving one specific style of calligraphy attention will help you focus better rather than feeling at a loss.
As you practice calligraphy, you’ll notice that there are different strokes and techniques required for different calligraphy styles.
If you don’t have the basics down for one style, you’ll find it’s easy to confuse them if you do focus on all of them at once.
Practice a specific calligraphy style until you feel confident to tackle the next and when you realize how good you;ve become at one, this will only increase your confidence to tackle the next.
7. Practice Daily (Use Practice Sheets)
Learning a new skill fast on your own will only work if you do the work and this means you have to practice consistently. You have to allow yourself to make mistakes and learn from them if you want to improve.
It’s the same with learning to draw or paint.
The more you do something, the better you become at it as long as you are aware of where improvements are needed but also praising yourself and appreciating the good parts of your work.
If you really want to learn calligraphy fast, then begin by practicing calligraphy letters at least an hour or so a day.
Make sure to use practice sheets to become accustomed to the shape of the letters and the curves.
8. Take Breaks and Keep Practicing
It’s okay to miss a few days if you’ve been practicing daily however, be sure to never quit. It’s so easy to become defeated by our own self-doubt and negative self-talk that we may talk ourselves out of doing something we love.
It’s also easy to become frustrated at the lack of progress we’ve been making especially if you’ve been doing it for a long time.
Stepping back from something for a while can help refresh your thoughts and rediscover inspiration. In fact, taking breaks is highly advised since it can give you a different outlook on things.
You’ll also be able to look at your work with fresh eyes and notice mistakes or things you may have not otherwise noticed before. As long as you get back to practicing calligraphy after a short or prolonged break, it’s totally fine!
9. Ask For Advice For Further Improvements
Lastly, you’ll want to seek out others who have been doing calligraphy for a while or someone you draw inspiration from to give you a few pointers on where you might be going wrong or how to improve from where you are.
Seek out those who are also learning calligraphy that will encourage you to keep going but also understand your frustrations.
This advice can be used constructively to make improvements to your calligraphy and you will be able to learn from your mistakes or try new things that will help you learn calligraphy faster.
Related Post: 38 Most Inspirational Bullet Journal Quotes You’ll Love