Simple Gothic Hand Calligraphy

Instructions and exercises for a simple gothic script using traditional pen and ink

Created byMary-Jane Roussel

Last updated 11/2022

English

What you'll learn

Write in a beautiful Gothic Hand calligraphy that can be used for gifts and greeting cards, poems and letters, or simply for personal satisfaction.
Use the easy and pleasant artistic activity calligraphy as a near-meditative experience!
Embellish your daily life with beautiful hand-drawn letters.

Course content

8 sections • 25 lectures • 38m total length

Introduction0:29
The instructor of this simple Gothic Hand Script calligraphy course, introduces herself : Mary-Jane Roussel, calligrapher and designer based near Avignon (France).

Getting Started2:24
In this first Simple Gothic Script video, you will get a glimpse of the worksheet that you should print out (Lecture 2), see how to arrange your material on your desk, learn that posture and breathing is important in calligraphy, see how to load the ink into the reservoir and how to get the ink to flow out of the reservoir. Also, you will see how to place your pen to paper at a 45° angle.
Print the sheet of guidelines1:00
Print the guidelines sheet, get your supplies ready, load the pen with ink and get the ink to flow out onto your paper.
Warm-up exercises worksheet1:00
Use this worksheet for your Simple Gothic Script warm-up exercises (following lecture).
Warm-up exercises3:11
If you have printed out the exercise worksheet (previous lecture), you are now ready to move onto these four warm-up exercises, that are essentiel to mastering our Simple Gothic Script.

Practise worksheets (lowercase)4:00
Throughout this course, you may work directly on grid paper, or you may draw your guidelines on plain paper, or you may print out these worksheets and draw your Simple Gothic Script letters in the space provided to the right of the model letters.
i, n, m, u, v, w1:55
Simple Gothic Script lowercase letters : i, n, m, u, v, w
y, t, r, x2:03
Simple Gothic Script lowercase letters : y, t, r, x (yes, that's really the x!)
l, h, k, f, j, p1:43
Simple Gothic Script lowercase letters : l, h, k, f, j, p
The "o" group3:07
Simple Gothic Script lowercase letters : o, g, q, b, d, c, e,
a, z, s1:47
Simple Gothic Script lowercase letters : a, z, s

ABCDaire1:00
Congratulations! Now that you have finished watching all the video, all that is left to do is ... practice, practice, practice! It's the only way to perfect your letters. Use calligraphy at every opportunity : addressing enveloppes, gift tags, birthday and Christmas greetings ... To help you, here is an ABCDaire* of our Simple Gothic Script letters.

*ABCDaire : that's a French term meaning a reference page containing all letters of the alphabet.

Requirements

Grab a 3 mm pen nib, a pen-holder and some ink ... or if you don't have that, a calligraphy marker or fountain pen with a broad nib will also do the job.
Print the practice sheets on good quality printer paper.

Description

Follow the lessons to

learn how to insert the nib into your holder ;
comprehend how to get the ink to flow from your pen ;
understand letter weight and proportion ;
befriend those oh-so-necessary guidelines ;
master the ductus (that's the "recipe" to follow for learning each letter).

Then,

draw each letter of the alphabet, first the lowercase letters, then the uppercase. The letters are not demonstrated in alphabetical order; they are presented to you in groups of similar letters ;
plan and execute a project with a short text.

Using a 3 mm Brause nib (or similar) and ink will give you the most "authentic" experience, but of course you can use calligraphy markers or cartridge pens with a calligraphic nib if you prefer.

Some of the benefits of doing calligraphy are:

calligraphy is yoga-for-the-soul. In doing calligraphy, you set aside some time for yourself, and you will feel great for it ;
calligraphy contributes to neuroplasticity —which basically means that, while teaching your (old) brain new tricks, you are creating new pathways in your brain and paving the way to sharper neurological skills;
embellishing your daily life with beautiful letters. . Creating beauty of any sort is a wonderful thing to do !

Several downloadable documents are included (practice sheets, letter reference sheets ...).

Calligraphy is not just a pleasant artistic activity, it is almost a meditative experience!

Grab your pen and paper, and come along on this calligraphic journey!

Who this course is for:

No previous calligraphy experience is required. You'll just need a little perseverance and some practice time!
You don't need to have any artistic talents! All you need is a desire to learn ...

Simple Gothic Hand Calligraphy

What you'll learn

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Course content

Start Here1 lecture • 1min

First of all ...4 lectures • 8min

Lowercase letters6 lectures • 15min

Uppercase letters3 lectures • 11min

Numbers & Punctuation1 lecture • 4min

Congratulations!1 lecture • 1min

Examples1 lecture • 1min

Updated videos (nov. 2022)8 lectures • 8min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: