How to Do Brush Lettering + Calligraphy. Learn the difference, watch the video lessons, download some free worksheets, and get practicing!
How to Do Brush Lettering + Calligraphy
Brush Lettering + Calligraphy take some practice but are so much fun! First, let’s chat about the difference between lettering and calligraphy.
Lettering is the art of drawing letters. For example, you may use faux calligraphy to achieve a calligraphic style.
Brush Calligraphy, by contrast, is created by using pressure to create a calligraphic style of letters and words. Typically, it is done with a dip pen or brush pen/marker.
Brush Lettering + Calligraphy: Getting Started
A video look at the supplies I use and recommend.
The Basic Strokes
On the upstrokes, you use light pressure and on the down strokes, you use heavier pressure. I’ll demonstrate this in a video below.
Paper Matters
As I mentioned in the first video, using the proper paper keeps your brush tips in great condition so look for ultra-smooth paper designed for use with brush pens and markers.
My favorites are:
- Rhodia Dot Pad
- Canson Marker Paper
- Copic X-Press It Paper
- Watercolor Paper: Hot Press is smoother than Cold Press so opt for the hot press!
- Copy Paper: HP Premium Choice Laserjet Paper
Holding the Brush Pen
You can really hold your pen however it is comfortable for you, but one thing you need to do is hold it at a roughly 45-degree angle, as demonstrated in the video lesson.
Free Practice Sheets
Practice definitely makes progress, so I share a TON of free printable practice sheets here on the blog. I suggest printing these and trying to do at least one sheet per day until you are comfortable with using pressure to create the calligraphic lettering style.
- Basic Strokes for Small Brush Pens
- Basics Strokes for Large Brush Pens
- Practice Sheet Archives
- Join my free Happy Email Club and you’ll get an exclusive new free practice sheet every single Monday. ? You’ll also get the password to access the library of past worksheets!
From the Lettering Shop!
30 Days of Drills Workbook
This workbook is perfect for busy beginners who want to learn the art of Brush Calligraphy.
Commit to doing just one worksheet every day for 30 days and keep track of your progress with the included checklist!
30 Days of ABCs for Small Brush Pens
The second workbook in the 30 Day series. Pop over and read all the amazing reviews!
Want more video lessons?
I started a new video series on Brush Calligraphy Basics in the Summer of June 2019. Watch the lesson on Video A/a below, then subscribe to my YouTube Channel to watch all the coming lessons for each letter of the alphabet!
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so cute i love lettering <3
Thank you so much for this! I am just starting to get into brush lettering and I can’t wait! I got my Tombow Dual Brush Pens from Amazon today and I’m so excited!
Yay! It’s so fun! You’re going to love those pens!
Omg! me too! I was thinking to get thos pens!
Thank you so much!! Can’t wait to practice.
thank you so much!!
Hi! I am a lefty myself trying to practice a bit of brush lettering everyday. I use Tombows as well but I have a problem with the tips “fraying” quite fast. Do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks for the videos and the practice sheets, can’t wait to practice on them 🙂
Hi Alana! Check out these tips from fellow brush calligrapher Sharisse: https://www.instagram.com/p/6i3b1KkQYI/ 🙂
Hi Dawn. These look great, thanks so much! Unfortunately, when I printed the practice sheets from the PDF, they came out as your bog-standard Arial (or something similar). Is there a special setting I need to print them out? I’ve copied by eye this morning but my letter sizes are all over the place even on grid paper. xD
Hi Emma! I’m so sorry I can’t seem to replicate this issue and all my art class students have been printing these just fine. Is your Adobe Acrobat Software up to date? Try saving them to your desktop, opening and printing with up to date Adobe Reader.
Oh yes, that made a tremendous difference! I just opened it up in Adobe Reader (no saving required, for anyone who might have the same issue). I’m guessing it’s something about Firefox that doesn’t render the images properly.
Thanks Dawn <3
u were so cool letting us download this perfect practice sheet!! thanks so much, btw i love this font that im using to comment here, what is it?
Hi Dawn I was wondering if there is another brand besides towbow that you could suggest. Amazon has 1-3 month to ship on towbow and I just cannot see waiting that long. Thanks much
Hello!
Fist of all Thank you Very Much for all these amazing brush lettering worksheets because you give us many free oportunities to improve our lettering or just begin as in my case. I’ll buy your brush book with practise worksheets the quick I can. Thank you again for everything. I live in Spain and it’s not easy to find worksheets so thanks to you I can begin learning in my few free time.
I am having difficulty downloading the practice sheets for the brush strokes. Is there a different way to access them? Thank you in advance.
Hi Cherish! I just double checked the link and the download is working properly, so maybe try with another browser? Also make sure to use a laptop or computer, not a mobile device. 🙂
I can’t figure out how to get worksheets to print, when I click on print worksheets here…it won’t bring anything up.
Hi Pam! It’s working for me. Maybe trying clearing your cache/cookies on your Internet browser and try again. Also try from a computer, not a mobile device. Sometimes ipads/phones are glitchy with the downloads. 🙂
SOOOO happy to find a fellow lefty!!! 🙂
Hi There! I’m so excited to start practicing. What type of paper do you recommend for printing the worksheets? Thank you!!
Hi April! For practice I use smooth laser jet copy paper. 🙂
Hi thanks for the lovely freebies!
I have a quick question. Do these worksheets work well for calligraphy pen?
Hi Adrianna! The worksheets in this post would be better for a calligraphy pen: http://bydawnnicole.com/2015/12/modern-calligraphy-101.html. 🙂
All our web is amazing, thanks for your effort and sharing for free!!
Hi, printed off your sheets! Are yours on A4 Sheets? I ask because the tombow dual brush pen I bought doesn’t seem thick enough.
Be sure you’re holding the brush pen at a 45-degree angle and don’t be afraid to push down. The Tombow dual tips can definitely get that thick. But focus more on the thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes than matching the worksheet exactly. 🙂
ahhh thank you so much for the free worksheets!! it helps me a lot to practice hand lettering
So beautiful. Thank you very much. Good for beginer.
I was linked to this page from your “How to do Watercolor Brush Lettering”. First of all, thank you so much for making all of these videos. I am just starting to do watercolor brush lettering and I have the ideas down but it just doesn’t look right no matter how hard I try. Any tips?
Thanks again,
Caroline
Hi Caroline! Check out my Brush Calligraphy FAQs post for a ton of tips: http://bydawnnicole.com/2016/04/10-free-hand-lettering-practice-worksheets.html 🙂
Sorry, I sent the wrong link. This is the correct one: http://bydawnnicole.com/2016/12/brush-calligraphy-and-lettering-faqs.html
So wonderful! Thank you!
Hugs
Marguerite
Thank you for these! What kind of board is that you are writing on, would love to get something like that for my desk.
Hi Alonia! It’s a Vantage cutting mat and I got it on Amazon.com. 🙂