How to Ink Pen for Uncial Calligraphy

Video Transcript

"The next thing is to get the ink into the pen. Now, if you're using markers you don't have this step, but I hope you're not using markers, I hope you're using a real pen with fluid ink. The pen carries the ink in the reservoir, which is right here. So, in order to get the ink into that reservoir we're going to have to dip the pen. Now, I've put my ink in the lid so that you can see what I'm doing, otherwise I'd be hiding it in the bottle. I'm going to dip the pen about up to the bump, about two thirds of the way in, not up to the shank because then your fingers will get all black. Dip the pen about two thirds of the way. Wipe the bottom of the pen on the edge of the ink bottle and then take the first stroke which is, I'll call it a dumping stroke, to get you can see how shiny that ink is and how crowned it is. There's too much ink in the pen to make a proper letter. Now, then I'm going to write a line, let's say just an, just for your first strokes I recommend just take some practice lines. One of the things that we probably are going to need to practice is keeping the whole nib on the paper. So we want to keep the whole nib on the paper the whole time, not part of the nib."