When I was 21 I traveled to Germany to study at an art and design school in the town of Hildesheim. This particular school offered calligraphy courses with master calligrapher Herr Pott. I cannot stress how big of a deal this guy is in the world of calligraphy. I attended his class for only 4 days. In my infinte 21-year-old wisdom I decided that I’d rather go to the bar than draw the ‘R’ for an hour and half. So I stopped going.
Fast forward to the present day.
My interest in calligraphy has grown to a point now that I really want to learn it, and I’m kicking myself for not sticking with Herr Pott’s class. Such is life. Last weekend I picked up some pretty cool Coit pens and a Speedball calligraphy starter kit. Now the prospect of sitting and drawing the letter ‘R’ for an hour and half sounds awesome. But, I’m starting with something easy, ‘a.’
It seems that the thing that’s toughest to learn about calligraphy is the perfect balance between concentration and instinct. One the one hand you really need to pay attention to where you’re putting the pen and how to form your strokes, but if you concentrate too hard the forms and strokes look stilted, unnatural, even ugly. Conversely, the ability to listen to the pen and your hand and what they want to do together is important but it you don’t pay attention they’ll run all over the page ruining what it is you’re working on. And it’s really easy to ruin what you’re working on. Practice makes perfect and I’m really trying to get myself to understand that I’m going to have to go through a lot of paper, a lot of ink, a lot of nibs, and a lot of time before I get ‘good.’ I found a great story about this at Caligraffiti. It goes like this:
THE KING AND THE CALLIGRAPHER
A story is told of a King who summoned the nation’s best living Calligrapher and demanded of him that he make a drawing to symbolize the Kingdom. The Calligrapher reassured his lord as to his loyalty and left to undertake his task.
Days passed; then weeks. The King sent a messenger to the Calligrapher’s remotely located studio to find out what was happening. The messenger returned with the report that the drawing was not ready. Months came and departed. Every envoy to the Calligrapher was curtly dismissed with the same information; that the drawing was not yet complete.
After years had passed, the King could contain his impatience no longer and stormed off to the Calligrapher’s studio himself. The Calligrapher is sitting there, quietly and evidently quite at ease. The King is furious, ‘Where is my drawing?’ he shouts. At this the Calligrapher bows silently, pulls a large sheet of paper towards him, sets a variety of jars before him, picks up a brush and, within two minutes, has executed the most wonderfully sinuous design to represent the Kingdom.
The King can scarcely control his rage, ‘If it is so easy, why have I had to wait so long?’. Still maintaining his silence the Calligrapher goes to the back of his studio where there is a large alcove with doors reaching from the floor to the ceiling. He opens the doors and out onto the floor pour thousands of study drawings.
The practice pieces above are about an 1/8 of what I worked on last night. The top piece is done with a Speedball C3 pen. The larger ‘a’s are done with a Coit 1/2” folded brass nib. Click for hi res.
Filed under: Work I've Done , calligraphy, focus, instinct, practice makes perfect, regrets
