Calligraphy Every Day: 365 new ways to explore the ABCs

I'm introducing a new series here, called Calligraphy Every Day.  If you check in daily during 2013, you'll find a new alphabet you can write by hand with a pen.  Plus each week on Sunday you'll find a simple project that suits the season and puts your new alphabets to use.

Holidays are marked with their own logos throughout the year.

How-to basics. 

Each alphabet is packed with guidance:

• A diagram of the kind of pen point you need.  It doesn't matter if you use a calligraphy marker, fountain pen, or dip pen, or even an old fashioned hand-cut quill pen, as long as it suits the line.  Almost all of the styles ask for a broad-edged nib that writes thick and thin strokes, a monoline pen with an unvarying line, or a pressure-sensitive brush or quill. 
• At the very left, the number of pen-widths that determine the height of the letter.  
• Half a dozen basic strokes, which are the building blocks of the letters. Also precise corners, ascenders and descenders, serifs, or other special construction features.   
• Dozens of left-hander-friendly alphabets are marked with a little pointing hand. 



A weekly idea and how-to for a calligraphy project. 

• Some of the styles are eye-catching variations on basic pen alphabets such as Roman capitals or Gothic blackletter.  I've covered these in great detail in Learn Calligraphy, available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble . Or you can wait for later in the year, when the basic styles turn up on a daily lesson. 

This marks alphabets for lefthanders

The daily alphabets and weekly projects here are adapted from my seventh book [out of 17], Calligraphy Alphabets Made Easy, which is now out of print and very hard to find.

December 31 offers suggestions for writing your calligraphic Resolutions.  And then, Happy New Year!  I look forward to helping you explore a completely new alphabet every day. 

Preview of January's first alphabet.