How to Write the Letter "A" in Calligraphy

Video Transcript

"Joanna Joseph for Expert Village. I want to show you one letter written in different historical alphabets. Let's take the letter A. Here it is as the Romans would write it. Perhaps a serif there. Here it is as the Irish might write it, in the Uncial alphabet it's called. Here's what later Italy did with the A. Here's the lower case A. I'll draw that for you upper case. This is the Foundational version, which is English. Very staid and conservative. I'm not being especially chronological here. This is the Carolingian version which goes back to the time of Charlemagne. And each one of these has a different flavor. I once wrote the word Tuesday about four different times in different alphabets, and each one depicted a different kind of Tuesday. So calligraphy takes respect for the tools and the ink. It really takes patience, develops patience. I once lettered a piece that was an actual quote from 1416. It was the head monk in a Scriptorium. His name was Johannes Trithemius. And he says "You lazy, negligent fools." He apparently was talking to the monks under him. "Do you think God can be pleased with the sacrifice of fools, pay attention to what you're writing." So I found calligraphy, I really took to it, I found it to be a very satisfying discipline and it's allowed me to express a lot of things. It does take a lot of patience, but it's worth it."