What Are The Best Brush Pens For Calligraphy?
History of calligraphy & brush lettering
Calligraphy has been around for centuries. For as long as there has been written language, there’s been a want to display it beautifully, and that is what calligraphy is - creating art with words. Even the word itself tells us such - it comes from the Greek word Kallos: meaning beautiful) and Graaphien: meaning writing. But it is more than merely pretty handwriting. Over time calligraphy has been the work of artisans, who create and use amazing hand-styled fonts for official documents or the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the mediaeval period. But, as with most crafts, the age of machine and technology caused calligraphy to fall out of favour, to make way for standardised and easily readable print text. That is until the late Victorian era, when certain groups of people rebelled against the sterile and the mechanical of the Industrial Revolution and a new obsession with the study and development of calligraphy (as well as other handmade crafts) came about. One of the leaders of this new movement is Edward Johnston and who we have to thank for the globally recognised font used for the London Underground: the iconic sans serif Johnston typeface. And therein lies the future of calligraphy - not instead of printed text but alongside it, informed by it and embellishing it. But more on that later. In the past decade or so, calligraphy has once again become a favourite pastime. As we reach out for hobbies that do not involve screen time, we are picking up our pens and brushes and learning the age-old skill of artistic penmanship. It has grown ever popular in a more commercial sense too, from greeting cards (such as our modern calligraphy designs) to wedding invitations and certificates, as well as word-based artwork from displaying in the home and office. As with most trends, everything is cyclical. While the 21st-century calligraphy revival was born out of a need to rebel against the tech-heavy designs of computer-generated text, the lines have become blurred once again. There are now a range of computer generated typography fonts that replicate handwritten calligraphy into a faux handwriting style. You’ve probably seen it used by large companies that are trying to create a more approachable, artisanal aesthetic for their branding. Here at Katie Leamon, we love a good font. Whether it be a classic typographical design (such as the ones in our Type & Font series on Instagram) or a wonderfully characteristic handwritten one, there’s nothing more pleasing than finding the perfect writing lettering style for a purpose. One such playful handwritten font type is brush lettering. But what is brush lettering, how is it different from calligraphy, and what are the best brush pens for the job? Read on to find out.
What is brush lettering?
Whereas before calligraphy meant precision and replication of tightly spaced copperplate or gothic middle-age words, the modern-day version is much more relaxed. It features a looser, more embellished style, with a playful take on character size and spacing where the tops and bottom parts of the letters (known as the ascender and descender) form pretty patterns in and of themselves. It is this looseness and easygoing approach to design that makes it so appealing to beginners - you can make as much or as little of it as you wish. And all you need is a pen and paper…What are the best brush pens? (and why choose them in the first place)
Technically, to practise calligraphy you don’t need fancy pens. Most styles can be replicated with a biro by filling in the thicker lines. But then you are missing out on a lot of fun, and the result won’t look as polished. For some of the more technical, traditional forms of calligraphy, you will nearly always need to suitable writing apparatus for that particular style - a broad edge pen for thicker styles, a pointed pen for hyper-thin copperplate, a dipping pen for the authentic scratch and blotch experience - but for modern brush lettering you only need a brush pen. Brush pens are pretty much what their name describes - a pen with a brush nib. They come in different lengths and softness of brush but to begin with, you cannot go wrong with a Tombow Dual Brush pen. They consist of two nibs: the eponymous brush end and a thinner, bullet shaped nib. The bullet nib can help with filling in parts of text that a brush missed, or creating block capital text to go alongside the calligraphy font.
How to use brush pens
There are so many useful video tutorials online that will help you learn and hone your skills, but we thought we’d go through the basics. Brush lettering (and many other kinds of calligraphy) relies on the concept of applying pressure when forming your letters. The more pressure you apply, the thicker your pen nib with splay and the thicker the resulting ink mark will be. When it comes to writing, we apply the pressure on the downstroke and reduce it on the upstroke. This is what causes the pleasing disparity between different parts of the letter. You can practise this style with any pen with a flexible nib, such as fountain pens. This effect is emphasised when using a brush pen, as the brush nib bends with the movement of your hand, as well as the pressure you exert. The key to a good, uniform style, is to do each letter independently (even when creating a joined up word) so that you can focus on each brush stroke, ensuring that it is exactly the shape and thickness that you want it to be. Some brush pens can also be used with water to create other patterns, such as ombre-coloured lettering or watercolour effects.Tips for beginning calligraphy & brush lettering
- Put in the time
- Make sure you have the right tools
- Remember it is supposed to be fun
- Expect to be bad before you are good.
- Discover your own style.
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We could write all day about our love for all things pen and ink, paper and stationery but we’ll leave it here for today and get back to providing you with high quality, lay flat notebooks and the very best writing tools on offer.