Baby You're so (not) Classic (2)

  I realized that I should probably stick to strictly modern calligraphy. While I have made slight progress over the past week, I have also come across some bumpy roads (which doesn't work when trying to practice calligraphy in the car.) I talked to my mother more about my project and she decided that if I'm going to do this, I better to it well. She ordered me a bunch of calligraphy stuff: two instructional books, a sketchbook, and a calligraphy pen set.

  

   Of course I was so excited to use these and dive deeper into this topic, and all of these are a great addition to my journey. The only thing that didn't go my way was the set of pens. It stressed me out so much, and I had a very hard time actually writing with the pens. I didn't realize how much easier regular markers were (maybe that's only because I got used to them.) Take a look at how awful my writing looks with these traditional pens.

   This is what I call a calligraphy catastrophe. I'm not going to give up on these pens, because they are one of the most popular tools for calligraphers (is that what they're called?) The pen just feels so stiff, like it takes away all of the freedoms that I received at birth. The crayola markers write so smoothly and glide across the paper so much better. Despite the many reasons why I do not like these pens, I will pull through and hopefully get used to them. 

   On top of this minor setback, I also realized that 5 new fonts is a lot to learn each week. Over the past week I learned one font, called Alex Brush. I practiced writing with this, and also simply freestyled. I write down whatever is going through my mind, because it makes the writing seem more natural. The whole "thick down stroke, thin up stroke" idea is not engraved into my mind, and I actually really like the way it looks. This took lots of practice, because I needed to make sure that it became an instinct while writing any word. 

   My best bet is probably to lower the number of fonts to 2 or 3 per week. That way I am still learning a bunch, but I also don't have to stress out about mastering so many. I've also decided that I will use each font that I pick up to write something pretty, and then I will decorate it. I did this with the first font, and it actually turned out well. 

   There is obviously lots of room for improvement, but I think I'm off to a good start. I've also decided to reach out to Seb Lester (the calligraphy god) for my expert interview, which I will keep you all updated on. Quick question to everybody reading this (who feels like commenting): what do you think of me making an instagram/youtube page? I thought it might be another good way of monitoring my progress. I also want to feel like one of those really cool people who make the time-lapse videos of them writing pretty stuff. To end on a somewhat fun note again, here is some of the freestyle work that I've done!:

  Here's a nice YouTube video that helped me a lot (I might link one in every post):