In the previous lesson you learnt some basic details about Calligraphic hands.
In this lesson you will learn one specific hand known as Foundational.
The following shows a set of guidelines for the Foundational hand.
Here we can see that the x height is 4.5 nib widths, the descender is 2.5 nib widths.
The top of the Minuscules is 2.5 nib widths above the x height and the top of the Majuscules is 1.5 nib widths above the x height. The upright guidelines are vertical.
Calli-Graphic II, the Guideline drawing software, makes producing these guidelines very easy
In the Foundational hand the upright parts of the letters are vertical and the round parts are based on a circle, see the diagram below.
This diagram illustrates the basic principle of the Foundational hand, that is that the round parts generally follow a circle and that the upright parts are vertical, not inclined.
The pen angle, generally, is 30 degrees, but some manipulation of pen angle is used.
Draw your guidelines
In the lesson 'Introduction to Broad Pen Calligraphy' we learnt how guidelines can be used to give consistency to our lettering, so now is the time to draw some.
Obviously you can use Calli-Graphic II to produce your guidelines.
For beginners it is strongly advised that you use straight guide lines,
leave the curves until later.
Follow the instructions for the HLines, in the
Calli-Graphic II instructions.
If you prefer you can draw the guidelines manually as follows
First draw a nib ladder consisting of 10 nib widths, see how the Foundational hand uses 9.5 nib widths.
Draw a number of these nib ladders, leave a space of 2 nib widths between the sets. This gives a total of 12 nib widths before a repeat.
Using your pencil and ruler draw the guidelines to the pattern shown above. There should be five guidelines to a set. Make sure the guidelines are parallel to each other. A drawing board and a tee square help a lot to ensure the guidelines are parallel. Also draw a series of vertical guidelines, draw these approximately 3 nib widths apart.
As an alternative you can used squared paper, particularly if the size of the squares matches the width of your pen nib.
Using Calli-Graphic II guideline drawing software, you can quickly and easily generate the required guidelines. Foundational is one of the pre-loaded hands. Just select your nib from the extensive list of popular brands and print as many as you want. Use your 30 day free trial to see how time consuming it is to draw guidelines and how easily Calli-Graphic II does this for you.
If you don't want to draw the guidelines by hand and don't want to download Calli-Graphic II, then you can download sample guideline sheets from here.
To view and print you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader program, available
free from http://www.adobe.com
Right click the links above and click on "save target as"
to download the files.
If you left, click and have Adobe Acrobat loaded on your computer, it will
load automatically and you will be able to print directly
To get warmed up draw a number of straight lines, with your Calligraphy pen, as shown below. Keep the pen angle at 30 degrees. See how the thickness of the lines varies depending upon the direction in which they are drawn. This variation in line thickness gives a 'Calligraphic feel' to your writing. Always Pull rather than Push the pen.
Note the outlines shown in these lessons are intended to illustrate the way in which the shapes (letters) are formed, they represent the path of either edge of the pen.
It is not intended that they be drawn out and then filled in, the pen does all the letter drawing.
Lets get going
o, c & e
A number of letters in a hand have similar characteristics and letters are generally learnt in groups. First lets start with the letter 'o'.
In Foundational the shape of letters like 'o' are based on a circle.
Draw a half moon shape as shown below. Start with the pen at the 10 o'clock position and, using a circular motion in the anti-clockwise direction, draw round to the 4 o'clock position, as shown. Do this a number of times until you get a degree of consistency, then do the same but in a clock wise direction. Then do both and join them as shown. Congratulations you have drawn a letter 'o'.
Note
direction in which the two halves of the letter shape are formed.
Next do the same but stop the upper half moon at about 2 o'clock. This forms the letter 'c'
Next do the same but draw an inclined bar to form the letter 'e'.
Note the top curve on the 'e' is tighter than the circle for the 'o' or 'c'.
The letter 's' consists of two ellipses one on top of the other and slightly off set.
An ellipse, or oval, is like a slightly flattened circle.
Use a 30 degree pen angle.
The letter 'i' consists of an upright vertical, part of a circle, a small serif and a small diagonal.
Serifs are small strokes added to letters to 'finish' the letter, we will look at them in more detail later in the lessons.
Let's see how it is built up
Again, these outlines are intended to show the make up of the letter. It is not intended that you draw them out and fill them in.
First there is a short vertical straight line, keep the pen angle at 30 degrees.
The tail consists of part of a circle.
Removing the bits we don't want leaves the following
Lets add the serif, we'll show you how to draw it later
The serif follows part of a circle, removing the bits we don't want gives us the following
Now add the 'dot', which is a short straight diagonal line, make sure the pen angle stays at 30 degrees.
Let's see the animation.
The Letter 'l' is similar but taller
A letter 't' is similar to an 'i', slightly taller and with a cross bar.
Like the letters 'i' and 'l', 'b' consists of a vertical straight line, part of a circle and a serif, as shown below.
Removing the over laps gives the following.
In practice the transitions are naturally smoothed out by the pen as follows
Draw the serif first, then the down stroke and lower bowl, as with the 'i'. Then draw the upper part of the circle in the same way it was drawn with the 'o'.
d, p, & q are constructed in similar manner. Note the different stroke order, otherwise referred to as 'ductus'.
The second stroke of the 'q' is a flat curve (rather than a circular one) to bring the pen close to the start of the third stroke.
The letters g & y are formed in a similar manner except they have curved tails. Look at these examples and follow the ductus
The top of the 'g' is the same as the 'q', the tail is part of a flattened circle.
The letter 'y' is similar except the first stroke starts with a straight vertical line. Adding a small serif helps balance the uprights.
The letter 'j' is similar to the 'y' without the first leg. It has a dot and a serif similar to the 'i'.
The letter 'u' is formed in a similar manner to the 'y', except there is no tail.
Finish off the second stroke with a slight upward stroke.
Let's leave the letters for a moment and practice a few words with the letters you have learnt.
The vertical guidelines are there to guide your strokes, not to provide spacing for the letters. The spacings between letters in a word vary depending on the letter pairs being written. Look at these examples.
Generally in letter spacing the aim is to provide a balance of White Space. White space is the space between letters. Try to keep the area of White Space the same between letters.
A pair of letters with two verticals adjacent, such as 'db' or 'qp' will be spaced further apart than a pair of letters with adjacent curved parts such as 'bo' or 'pq'. See how parts of the 'c" and 'd' can even overlap. In typography this is called kerning.
Now try some words with the letters you have learned.
Here's some combinations to try; bed, cop, cod, bill, doll etc..
