How to Draw Borders for Calligrapy Art Work
Calligraphy is an art form in its own right. Although the lettering alone can be deemed works of art, there is another part of the design in Calligraphy---the border art. These beautiful page adornments can be seen not only in modern works of Calligraphy, but also on the illuminated manuscripts of old. Creating stunning borders for your Calligraphy is simple enough. Although you must use modern supplies to create these masterpieces, the results can be just as beautiful as the works of art of old.
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Things You'll Need
- Graph paper
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Pointed pen nib and ink or fine point marker
- Tracing paper
- Carbon paper
Instructions
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Drawing Calligraphy Borders
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1
Get comfortable with Calligraphy border art basics. You should draw a few basic shapes until you're comfortable with the art form. (For a visual understanding of some of the basic shapes, see "Calligraphy Design: Simple Drawn and Painted Borders" in the References at the end of this article.)
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Practice drawing the basic shapes used for Calligraphy borders. These include the line, circle, diamond, hook and squiggles.
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Try other basic Calligraphy border designs like flowers, ivy patterns and others as well.
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Become acquainted with the different styles of borders like the symmetrical border, the repeating spiral border or the border with ivy or other decorative motifs.
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Practice the basics of each design type first. After you've done this, you can make the designs fancier or add more detail by coloring them in. By completing these steps, you'll have a basic border design. (See References to learn how to make your designs more elaborate.)
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Draw a line down the center of the graph paper to start a symmetrical design border.
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Alternate drawing long, then short curved branches emanating from the center line in succession.
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Draw diamond shapes at the end of the long branches. These represent the leaves.
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Adorn the short branches with berries made from simple circles.
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Create a decorative element by drawing a hook shape between each long and short branch pair.
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Embellish the berries by topping with a squiggle design.
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Map out a spiral shape on the graph paper. The easiest way to do this is to draw dots in a circular pattern onto the graph paper. Then connect the dot until you have curly vine shapes in repeating succession.
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Adorn the vines with ivy leaves and berries. Essentially almost any basic design element that has been used in the previous design can be adapted for this design.
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Create a border bar with ivy by drawing two parallel lines down the middle of the graph paper. You'll want to select two lines right next to each other on the graph paper.
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Draw a line on each line of the graph until the lines almost meet the top of the graph paper.
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Make a scalloped shape on the ends of each line. To see an illustration of what the scalloped shape looks like, refer to the Reference material.
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Add a curly vine in the very middle of the lines. It should curl around and overlap both lines on the design.
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Decorate the curly vine and the scalloped ends of the design with flowers or ivy.
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Transfer the pattern onto tracing paper and then to the final manuscript using the carbon paper if you're done with the design.
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20
Make the design fancier if you don't want to stop with a basic design. Color in the leaves, alternate flowers in the place of the leaves, add pen sprays or design raindrop shapes instead of flowers or leaves at the ends of the branches.
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References
Resources
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Comments
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suck it!
