How to Do Calligraphy and Hand Lettering for Beginners

Steps

1. 1. Gather Your Supplies

   The most popular starter tool is Tombow Dual Brush Pens - one tip works as a brush pen, the other as a fine line marker. Tombow Fudenosuke pens are smaller and more precise, good for tighter writing.

   

2. 2. Practice Upstrokes and Downstrokes

   Before any letters, practice the pressure mechanic on its own. Draw a wavy line that looks like a series of side-by-side U shapes.

   Tip: The wavy line exercise is also where you find the right grip. If your wrist gets tired or your strokes are inconsistent, you're gripping too hard. Loosen up.

   

3. 3. Learn the Typography Guidelines

   Draw four parallel horizontal lines like the ruled paper from kindergarten. From top to bottom: ascender line, top guide, baseline, descender line.

   

4. 4. Practice the Full Alphabet

   Work through every lowercase letter with thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes. There's no single correct way to draw any letter in modern calligraphy - try several variations of S, R, F, K and pick what you like.

   

5. 5. Connect Letters Into Words

   Move at a steady pace through a whole word. Too fast and the strokes go sloppy; too slow and the line gets shaky.

   

6. 6. Add Personality with Baseline and Spacing

   Once a word is comfortable, start playing with the rules. Vary the baseline so each letter sits at a slightly different height - one letter dips low, another rises high.

   

7. 7. Fake Calligraphy with a Fine Liner

   If you don't want to buy a brush pen, you can fake the look with any fine-tipped pen. Write a word in regular cursive at normal size.

   Tip: Faux calligraphy is also useful when the pen you want isn't available - chalk markers, paint pens, gel pens. Anything that won't bleed when you double up the line works.