Cheating at Calligraphy

Hello again!
The following article will assist any newcomers to the art of calligraphy.After using this methodology to produce a fair standard of lettering, the novice
calligrapher will be encouraged to progress into the advanced skills:
I have been telling people for years that the way to cheat at calligraphy is with a
light box and the ability to trace. But obviously, it can be a wee more detailed
than this tossed over the shoulder comment. Good calligraphy can easily be a lot
more involved than just that, and these tools can use more technical skills to
become even more authentic, as well as be an excellent way to assist in the
mastering of calligraphy.
One of the hardest parts is finding appropriate fonts that look right. I do
recommend looking at examples of period hands before trying to pick a font on
your computer.
Then you need to look at the piece you want to calligraph- how much space do
you have? I do get out a ruler and measure it. I set up the word processing
program’s borders to fit in that space, and try to pick a font and font size that will
fill that space appropriately. Another thing to consider is that modern word
processors and aesthetics are not the same as period hands. Look carefully at the
spacing of your period exemplar and how close the lines and letters and words
are. If you understand the formatting of your word processor, you should adjust
the spacing appropriately to better approximate the look of period writing.
When you have the right size nib for the job, it's easy just to write over what you
see with the light box, and try to match what is there. I have found it is good to
have a second copy of the printout to look at for clarity, as well as a period
*good* example of what the font is supposed to look like. When you don't have
the proper size of pen, or for the big letters, it's easiest to trace the large letters
and then fill in. Also, you can use a drawing pen for when you want to do the
decorative connectors between letters that the computer fonts simply cannot do.
I have also sometimes done a tracing of the writing on a spare sheet of paper just
to get into the flow of the writing before actually working on a scroll. This helps
warm up my hand and build my muscle memory so that I can do the hand better.
To learn a hand for the first time, this is often a good idea.
The nice things about using the light box to trace the calligraphy is that it can
lower your chances for misspellings and forgetting words. You can use as
authentic of materials as you wish, and no one will ever suspect you of tracing
unless you tell them. Very few will approach you and ask if that's Lucinda or
Diploma, or [other font name here], mainly because your copy will not be as
precise as the printout, and it will look like you spent more time on it than you
did.
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