Week 1: There's ink on my fingers

Hello people!!!!!

I tried my hand at calligraphy for the first time this week! There is ink ALL OVER MY FINGERS!! I started with the real calligraphy pen and let me tell you, it is so fun, but pretty difficult.

Alright, so pens. I don't think I'm going to use a brush pen. The actual calligraphy pen is pretty difficult because of the upward/downward strokes and the amount of pressure that needs to be applied, so I think it will be enough without the brush pen. The calligraphy mini set I purchased has 4 ink cartridges and 3 different nibs (tips). The tips are fine, medium, and broad. I did not try the fine tip, but I used both medium and broad. I liked the medium much more than the broad because the broad bled too much. But when I switched the tips, I got a tonnn of ink on my hands #art

So, slight change of plans. I've decided to change the alphabets I want to learn. I will still pursue the lowercase alphabet I posted previously. The calligraphy set that I bought comes with an uppercase alphabet that I will be working on in tandem with the lowercase alphabet I already posted. In addition to that pair, I will be working on a Seb Lester style. Seb Lester has a form of calligraphy using a thick marker and making block-type letters. There is a certain way that the rounded letters have to be made, and everything has to be written with precision.

Seb Lester style

Through this week, I've learned a couple of things. The first, and most blatantly obvious to me, is that my cursive is SERIOUSLY lacking. One alphabet that I'm focusing on is deeply grounded in cursive, obviously, and the way you hold the calligraphy pen is how you are supposed to hold the pen while writing cursive. Because I haven't had "formal training" in cursive, I struggle a little with the calligraphy pen, but whatever. Another thing I've realized is that calligraphy isn't always cursive or elegant handwriting. It can be something like what Seb Lester does or anything that can be categorized as beautiful handwriting. 

Ok, so actually getting to my calligraphy. This was just some of the final products I did. I had 3 pages of my struggles with the pen, but I'm choosing to not post those because... you know... they're terrible. Anyway!! Here's some of my writing: 

Here are a couple of the links that I used while writing: 

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOsGCh1ltFw

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=comgcj90TFs

Bye for now

Getting Started

Lake Jenny, Grand Tetons

Hello people! Welcome to my calligraphy blog.

I hope you already know since we're all in the same class, but my name is Dana Kuo. I have no artistic ability at all, so I figured calligraphy would kind of (not really) just barely bring me into the world of art. I take pictures too so I suppose calligraphy is another art form that does not focus on actual drawing. I love traveling, snowboarding, and playing softball. Yup, that's about it.

Calligraphy has been a large part of my life since I was a child. My grandfather loves writing in calligraphy. He has been trying to teach me Chinese calligraphy since I was young. I figured I could use this project as an opportunity to improve (and honestly start) calligraphy and become closer with my grandfather. He will be my "expert interview" because of a super fun amazing story that you won't hear until I post my interview. I just love to keep you in suspense
Anyway, I also thoroughly enjoyed writing in cursive in elementary school, and some calligraphy styles branch off of cursive so why not.

For this project, I will need a few different writing tools because there are many ways to create calligraphy. One way is to write in cursive and add an outline. I will only need regular pens for that. I will also buy a brush pen from Amazon and I already purchased a small beginner calligraphy pen set for actual calligraphy.

I have 3 sets of goals. By the 2nd entry I want to have learned about 2 or 3 different calligraphy styles (alphabets). By the 4th entry I want to be able to write a daily quote with my favorite style of calligraphy. By the last entry I want to be able to write a daily quote with all of the styles I've learned, and maybe work on writing in different sizes (headings, invitation size, actual writing size...).

Here are a couple of the styles I am considering (or at least something similar to these looks):

Here's a link to my pitch presentation for a "summary" of part of this blog post: 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ad_Hu6RGig-0md6Nr-nRGCqcDD_kaCwOwi9FvQUQ7-s/edit#slide=id.p4

Well guys, I wish you luck on all of your projects, please wish me luck on mine (since I have no artistic ability whatsoever but just go with it). 

Bye for now