Calligraphy Tips: Writing Letter Q

Video Transcript

"Here we are with a "Q", and what is this distinguishing characteristic? I bet you know, it's this guy right here, we call this a tail. You're making an "O", and then you're adding a tail, and it becomes a "Q". I personally don't like the idea of crossing like this, bringing that third stroke from inside the letter, I don't think it's necessary, and what we're working with here, remember our definition of beauty is no unnecessary parts. Also, you know what happens if you put that stroke there, is you're actually making the work "ox", and guess what, there is an ox in the alphabet, but it's the letter "A", because the letter "A" actually started out as- the letter "A" started out as a shape like this, a pictograph; can you see the ox? here's the head, here's the horns, here's the ears, and it got turned over, and used this way for a while, and it was the Romans who took the shape and cleaned it up and made it a beautiful form in harmony with all the others. So there's our "Q"."