Lefty Tips for Hand Lettering and Calligraphy. I’m a lefty myself, so I love seeing other lefties overcome the myth that lefties don’t make good letterers!
Lefty Tips for Hand Lettering and Calligraphy
Some people say that lefties don’t make good letterers, but that’s a big myth! I’m a lefty, and I know plenty of amazing letterers and calligraphers that are lefties as well.
A lot of people see the below photo or other photos with my hand in them on social media and exclaim: “Hey! You’re a lefty?! I’m a lefty, too. Please share some tips!”
I have some lefty tips within my Brush Calligraphy FAQs page on the blog, but I thought I’d dedicated a post them to make it easier for my fellow lefties to find. *lefty fistbump*
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Lefty Supplies
Before we get to the tips, I wanted to address the subject of lefty supplies, because that’s something I’m also asked a lot.
While there are some supplies on the market for lefties, I don’t use anything that is specifically designed for left-handed people. I use the “regular” supplies and make them work for me.
If you’d prefer to try the lefty goodies, go for it!
And now, here are a few tips for my fellow lefties!
Tip One: Practice. Practice. Practice.
We lefties often just need to work harder at lettering and calligraphy! The more you practice, the more natural it starts to feel. It gets easier, and your lettering will continually improve. I keep all my old sketchbooks so I can look back and see all the progress I’ve made over the years.
Tip Two: Learn the Rules. Then Break ’em.
But it’s ok to break them and do what works for you. This is especially true of how you hold the pencil/marker/paintbrush (with the exception of needing to work from a roughly 45-degree angle for brush calligraphy).
People sometimes comment that I hold the pen weird. SO WHAT?! It works for me, and most of my lefty lettering friends have an unconventional grip too. Embrace it and rock it.
Tip Three: Adjust Your Paper Angle.
Your arm should stay close to your body as you work, so focus on changing your paper/angle instead of your wrist/arm. This also helps keep your lines less shaky.
Related Post: 4 Tips for Improving Shaky Lines
Tip Four: Use a guard sheet.
This is just placing a scrap paper under your hand to keep from smearing your work. It also keeps my hand from being covered in ink/pencil (like in the below pic when I didn’t use a guard sheet)!
Photo via my Instagram Stories @bydawnnicole
Bonus Tip: Take an Online Class just for Lefties!
The Lettering for Lefties class, taught by my friend Lauren, a new to Brit + Co’s class roster. I’ve taken six of the Brit + Co classes and they never disappoint!
Watch the Brush Calligraphy Basics Video
(See some lefty lettering in action!)
This video is a free real-time mini bonus module from my Constellation Lettering Online Class.
Are you a lefty?
Share what works best for you in the comments!
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I think the biggest obstacle was getting the writing angle down. I read many books and articles about calligraphy writing and there is always this small paragraph for lefties. I just didn’t think it was enough information on how to actually hold the nib and what angle to hold it at. Perhaps if I took a calligraphy workshop and had an instructor tell me what was right/wrong, the learning curve may have been very different. This just took a lot of practice at the beginning to figure out which angles worked and which didn’t.
I enjoyed your demonstration for leftys. I wanted to leave a comment about my left hand experience with calligraphy. I have learned eight different hands but my hardest challenge was the thick/thin lines in italic and blackletter. I found success with both of them with my paper position. I was the only lefty in the class and my instructor had never had a lefty so I just kept changing my paper position until I had both thick-thin. It seems weird to my instructors because I am writing with the bottom of my paper at an angle of approximately 120 degrees. I am not writing completely upside down but it feels like it. For some reason my brain accommodates it. The hardest part of writing that was getting the b and d correct but I finally got my brain trained to do them correctly. I was happy that you said to break all the rules because for me it was the only way I could do it to my satisfaction. Thanks so much!
Hi dawn, following your blog since january.
and learned a lot just wanted to say hello and thank you.
I’m also a lefty thank you for inspiring me to practice and never give up.
I can’t believe my luck in finding someone who is a lefty and doing phenominal lettering! About 10 years ago I attended a calligraphy class and out of 15 people, I was the only lefy. The instructor said to me, “in my 30 years of teaching calligraphy, I have only seen 2 left-handed people succeed.” I was deflated. I went home, told myself I had enough to do without spending hours trying to master calligraphy, only to fail. I am overjoyed that I found you. Thank you for the beautiful and inspiring work you do.
Hi Lynn!
Thank you so much! As frustrating it is to me that some people think lefties can’t do lettering and calligraphy (especially when they’re being discouraging to others), it’s a wonderful source of motivation for me to prove those naysayers wrong. Lefties unite! We can do this! 🙂
Have a great rest of your week!
Dawn
Hi Dawn.
Thank you so much for this article for Lefties.
I’ve been practicing calligraphy for a while and have been really struggling as a lefty, as the books I’ve read and videos online are all by right handed people and their techniques don’t always work the same for me.
I wish I had discovered your site at the beginning of my creative calligraphy journey as I’ve discovered things the hard way. But its been fun learning. You site is a great source if information and inspiration for me and I completely agree that you have to find out what works for you. I’ve also been told all my life I hold a pen and paint brush wrong, but as you say, SO WHAT! it works for me.
The bit about using a guard sheet is brilliant and I’m going to start doing that from now on. As I’m probably not alone as a lefty who get my hand covered in ink when writing.
Keep up the beautifully work.
Hey Dawn! Thanks so much for inspuring all us lefties out here to carry on with brush calligraphy!
What works best for me is definitely rotating the paper, but whenever I do that, I can’t get my words in a straight line–they’re uneven accross the whole page! Got any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks again!
Hi Amelia! I always just draw straight guidelines lightly on my page with a ruler and pencil to help keep my lettering straight. 🙂
I was so pleased to see someone left handed doing calligraphy. I was told left handed people can’t do it, I tried it and couldn’t do so stopped. I am sooo glad I now know left handed people can saw your work. I am now going to try again Thank you very much for your demo, I keep watching it.
Hi 🙂
I’m new to this Bujo world (and also I’m from Denmark, so sorry for the poor english skills) and i found this post through facebook.
I’s so nice to see a lefty writing about handwriting, because it’s something I struggeled with during my teenage years… (i’m 33 today). I found a method to avoid the smudge on the paper at your hand. I hold the pencil beneath or under the line or letters that i write.
Somehow this became a habbit for me and don’t know how to hold it any different now.
The world of Bullet journaling has made me want to practice my handwriting again, like I did back in the 90′, and your site is so inspiring – so thank you for that 🙂
Kind regards
Karina in DK