I'm very new to calligraphy. So new that the paint hasn't dried yet.
I am learning as much as I can about nibs and paper and ink and, and, and, and,.... make it stopppp! ...
@Carpio I also am new to calligraphy ... so much so, that I won't even attempt to provide any particular
technical advice about nibs and ink and paper and pressure and .... yes, make it stopppp! There are many skilled and helpful people here on the forum that will provide that.
What I
will offer is moral support through some encouragement. My first year of learning Spencerian I practiced
only with fountain pen. To try to keep things simple, I didn't attempt to learn any shading and was just writing monoline. After the first year I purchased my first dip pen and oblique holder, and
everything changed! It was honestly as though I'd started completely over. I just could not figure out how to make that new writing utensil work, and it was very frustrating! I encourage you to continue to do what you are doing: keep researching, studying, trying new things and asking questions of others on the Forum.
As
@Erica McPhee wrote, "
It can take some trial and error to find the right combination that works for you." This was certainly true in my case. I did learn, though, that the choice of ink can, and did, make a huge difference for me! Switching from Higgins Eternal
(infernal) Ink to Tom Norton's Walnut made things just start to work for me, in a fashion. No doubt, everyone's experience will differ in this respect, but I was completely taken by surprise that just the ink used would have that profound an effect! From there, I tried some papers and got an assortment of nibs. I took a tremendous amount of experimentation, but little by little I was able to make the pen work.
The angle of approach of the nib to the paper was another eye-opener for me.
It was only after months of messing about that I discovered Kestrel Montes's excellent "Pointed Pen Tips & Tricks" online tutorial. Although, by then, I'd already figured out a few things for myself, if I'd availed myself of this tutorial earlier, I would have spared myself a lot of grief. The course is $75, and was well worth it, in my opinion. I hope it's OK to post this link on the forum, but if not, I welcome Erica to edit:
https://www.learncalligraphy.com/pointed_penThe overall encouragement I offer is not to give up hope or to feel overly discouraged. I remember feeling really bleak when I saw so many gorgeous examples of what skilled penpeople could do with their pointed pens, and what I mostly did was scratch and splatter. The huge number of
variables, in tools, materials and technique, made it that much more disparaging ... at the time. I've since discovered that learning the art of calligraphy is a marathon, not a sprint, which is what makes it so admired and coveted.
~Karl