How to Use Calligraphy Pens

Video Transcript

"I'm Joanna Joseph for Expert Village. We're talking about calligraphy, and we're talking about just playing with the pen, and seeing the things that it can do, and the marks you can make. And, it's kind of a good idea to let your eyes go soft focus and pay attention to what it feels like. Feel the contact of the pen with the paper. And start to see, start to see the white and black patterns. My logo as a professional calligrapher is a zebra, and the reason I chose a zebra is because it's all about the relationship of black and white and the negative space. It's as important to see that white shape, that's carved out by the black marks, as it is to see the black marks. There's something called "counters", or the negative space inside the letters. It's important to start seeing them, and sensing them as a real weight. You want to work on spacing. Pretend you're pouring a little, like a shot glass of Kool Aid or something between each letter and you want it to be the same amount. And then when it is, your spacing is right. This isn't perfectly spaced. I would be, if I chose this, I would work on it some more, tighten up that "easy". Same thing here: this is a challenge right here, between these two letters, that's just naturally a big space, so somehow I've got to figure out how to tighten that up, and I could."