Western Calligraphy Composition Tips

Series Summary

Calligraphy is the art of stylistic writing. It is also known as the practice of giving an artistic form to letters and signs. It is considered a skill and is often taught in art classes or craft seminars. The skill set learned in calligraphy classes ranges from practical usage to artistic interpretation. In the latter form, function takes a backseat to artistic expression. Practical uses for calligraphy include fancy invitations, font design, logo design, maps, and documentation of other sorts. Depending on the area you are in, different types of calligraphy include East Asian character calligraphy, Indian calligraphy, Persian calligraphy, Islamic calligraphy, or Western calligraphy. There are many different tools used in calligraphy but the two most important are the paper and the pen.

In this series of instructional videos, you will learn more about the art of calligraphy. Our expert explains the history and demonstrates Western calligraphy. You will learn more about the resurgence in popularity and the functionality of this style of writing. Watch as an expert demonstrates each letter, number, and symbol used in common calligraphy. Get instructions for changing colors of ink during a calligraphy project. See examples of upper and lowercase letters written in this style of calligraphy. See different examples of calligraphy styles and get ideas for projects. Get recommendations on types of paper and pens or markers used for creating beautiful calligraphy pieces in these expert videos.

Video Transcript

"Let's talk a little bit about composition. The composition is the basic overall design of your page. And historically, there is a composition idea that starts out very simple and it winds up getting more and more complex, OK? In the beginning, when there was just the square, the Roman square capitals, which are the ones that jumped down to the page from the monumental Romans. What you had was basically a kind of mass. I would call that a mass lining. And in fact, there wasn't much in the way of differentiation between big letters and small letters, that came gradually. There was almost no punctuation. That in itself is a kind of constant changing, distinguishing, getting more specific. So it's almost as if we can think of history, our magical history tour, as being the history of one psyche and how things become realized. So, now in our present day, you have your choice of doing anything you want in terms of composition. OK, these are all ideas for composition, that have to do with, you know, you start out with a certain shape, you have a certain thing that you want to relay in terms of communication, that may or may not be actual words. In most cases, in the beginning, you're definitely thinking in terms of words. So, you are going to be thinking in terms of directing the eye of the viewer. And this is no different than what happens in painting. And it's no different even then when you're looking at a movie. Every single frame of the movie has a certain design to it. That's what cinematography and film editing and art direction is all about. So, there is a kind of drama that goes along with this. I would say that in general you want to think in terms of having no more than three changes. But you do kind of want to have, you don't want it to be completely mass lining, until you get so abstract and marvelous that you can do things like that. But you see, one, two, three. So, I would say that's a good rule of thumb."