By Lady T

Calligraphy may be a bit of a lost art but with all of the journaling and planners back in style, more than ever people are working on their handwriting skills again. 

I learned how to do calligraphy in high school in art class.  Its something I was never great at because my own handwriting is terrible.  However with practice and just plain having fun you can develop your own style  that will look great and you can use it for so many things.  Prints for your wall, scrap-booking, journals, planners, art and more. the list is really endless.

Today I have for a limited time a free* printable calligraphy practice sheet for you and after *May 31st 2017 it will be $1.00 to help support this site, but it will continue to be free to premium Members. This printable is to help you develop your hand writing skills,  just click on the image below to get it. Then come on back for some tips and hints. 

Hand lettering is a wonderful skill to develop and if you become good at it you an even make a side business of it by doing cards and prints for friends and family.  As you can see above left, mine is not so wonderful and needs lots of work.  I will be using these sheets myself as I work on my hand lettering. 

I love all of the faux modern calligraphy I see now and its easy to mimic with a little practice.  Starting with a simple word like Hello, lets choose a pen to start with. Microns are the best because they do not bleed so easily and are permanent, plus you can get a full set for around $8 at Michael's or on Amazon. Or just start with any black flair pen. I used a Paper mate flair above left.  As for paper I prefer something smooth and thick. You can also buy many different varies of bulk paper on amazon for very cheap. The paper I used to write on in this post is 32 weight HP ink jet paper.  You can keep track of the pen types you try and use on the bottom of the printable. That way you can determine which pens you liked best when you are working with them  as well as what worked best for which type of work you are trying to do.

Making your "hello" letters have the “calligraphy look”.  Make sure your down-strokes have more thickness to mimic the look of a calligraphy nib. A down-stroke is created anytime your hand moves downward while creating a letter. See image above. How did I do this? I drew a parallel line next to the down-stroke line and filled it in. I messed up on the e. But you get the idea.  The sentence above it "lot's of practice" was written the same way as hello without me thickening the down-strokes.

Start out practicing and getting comfortable  with this and we will add more lessons to this later!

I have a real treat for you, Rene Blooms of  Reneblooms.com has designed a Mother's Day kit of Lilac Papers and Illustrations to help you design you own handmade cards. Rene pronounced "Ree-Nee", not Renee) has been teaching herself graphic design over the past few years. It really is her "calling".

She is a fellow designer and sufferer of chronic depression and talks about it on her site freely and how it effects her daily life. As I am also a sufferer I am blessed and excited to have a partner in the artistic walk of life. I am also excited to have her join the team here at Graphic Quest as a Collaborator. 

This free Lilac Mother's Day paper set Rene Created for you can be used Commercially, Personally or however you want. Click on button below to download. Enjoy! 

Using the paper design above I created a Free Mother's Day Gift Card & Gift Set that you can have for free on Rene's Website. She will be publishing it soon. Here is what it looks like. How do you get it? Visit Reneblooms.com