I’m stuck at home,
I never get a chance to attend a modern calligraphy workshop

There are lots of reasons why one would be looking to learn modern calligraphy at home.
You may not be able to visit the location where the calligraphy workshop is being held. You might be the main carer at home or have small children and childcare is difficult to arrange (believe me I’ve been there with the childcare issues!). It can be frustrating and extremely disheartening when you can’t access the resources or in person workshops to help fuel your passion. I understand how you feel, living in the South West I found this to be a huge problem when I first started learning calligraphy back in 2009, through in two young children and I almost gave up completely.

How can I learn calligraphy at home?

Luckily with the help of social media channels such as YouTube and Vimeo and other online resources such as Teachable and Skillshare (a creatives version of Lynda.com), many calligraphers now have expanded their teaching to online workshops.

This is absolutely fantastic news, a good calligrapher will list their supplies for you to use or your can purchase directly from them via their online shop or a calligraphy kit purchase. You can send a calligraphy kit as a gift to a loved one who is isolated and these kits will come with their own online learning - an absolutely great gifts (especially during these uncertain times).

All you really need is a device to access these videos such as an iPhone, iPad, laptop or computer and a good internet connection to stream the videos.

What can i expect from learning online? will I miss out from an in person workshop?

Yes there will be elements that you will miss from an in person workshop, I’m not going to lie to you about that, but realistically it really won’t be much. As mentioned above, anything that you feel unsure about during a workshop whether prerecorded or live can be addressed straight away with questions and support from your calligrapher. Most calligraphers will have already set up an online support network to help you with this and you can also connect with other beginners and stay in touch building up your own network of calligraphy friends. So like I said while you miss somethings not seeing a calligraphy tutor in person, there are other advantages that you will not get if you only attend an in person workshop - so really it’s all swings and roundabouts - your experience is down to yourself as a learner and the amount of effort you are willing to put in to get the results you want.

What you’ll learn from an online workshop will be exactly the same as if you were in attendance. Your calligrapher should show you how to hold your pen, how to write at the correct angle for the style of calligraphy you are studying. They will take you through warm up drills and basic strokes (important for muscle memory). Then you will be shown the uppercase and lowercase alphabet with instructions on how to carefully create each character (sometimes from a series of pen strokes). Afterwards, depending on the type of workshop you will then be show lettering connections and how to create wording. That would be a beginners workshop but there are also improvers workshops out there, the expectation from a tutor for an improvers workshop is that you should have a firm understanding of the basic strokes to be able to progress with their tuition.

Now how do I know about this? Well because I live in Plymouth, travelling to locations to learn from calligraphers I respect costs me quite a lot of money in ticket prices, travel and accommodation so believe me I know. Luckily lots of my favourites such as the European Pointed Pen Collection, David Grimes, Connie Chen and Jake Weidmann all offer an online calligraphy academy in which I have enrolled. I have learnt from calligrapher who I would never have the opportunity to meet in person and I have learnt from these online without any problem.

The best thing about learning online? You can replay back any footage over and over again in your own time, wearing your pyjamas at any time of time and in any location - honestly don’t let the fear of the unknown and a different way of learning put you off from finding out new ways to create something you love.

Want to catch up with my March posts? Check out www.instagram.com/wildseacalligraphy for the stories behind my business, why I do it, how and how long it takes me to get there.