September's calligraphy prompts are based upon returning to school. It may have been a while for some of us since we studied but that doesn't mean that we can't continue to grow. Use the prompts below to develop your calligraphy.
Week one (1st - 5th September)
This week I want you to think about how you want to develop your calligraphy. With school you work through a syllabus. I want you to write your own syllabus. What will you be learning over the course of September?
Let me provide some examples. If you're a beginner, you will want to get to grips with the basics and understand the fundamentals of modern calligraphy. Your syllabus might look like this:
Research tools of the trade
Learn the basic calligraphy strokes
Learn the calligraphy alphabet
Put the letters together and create a greetings card
If you're intermediate, you might want to focus more on how to develop your calligraphy style and your syllabus might look something like this:
Research calligraphy style and find 2 styles that I like
Learn how to create style 1
Learn how to create style 2
Create a longer piece of calligraphy incorporating these two styles
When creating your syllabus, I want you to have a project in mind at the end. Something that you can apply your learnings to at the end of the month. The best way to learn is by doing so it's important to ensure that you include a project to work on.
Week two (6th - 12th September)
Once you've created your syllabus, I want you to think about resources that can help you to learn the syllabus.
If you're a fan of Facebook for example, search for groups that focus on the element you want to improve on. For example, if you want to develop a copperplate style, you may want to search for a group within that niche. If you're a beginner, you may want to head over to the Calligraphy Gems' Facebook group which has compiled resources for beginners. Facebook groups have a great community aspect that can be helpful for when you need guidance from other calligraphers.
If you prefer Instagram, search for relevant hashtags and give them a follow so that over the next month you will see posts more regularly that will inspire or help you to develop. Have a look through the posts showing for that hashtag and also consider following a couple of accounts that have a style you admire or provide helpful tips.
Pinterest and YouTube are havens for helpful tutorials. These platforms are designed to inspire and provide helpful how-to's.
Of course, those are free options. You may want to purchase a resource that is structured in a way to help you learn in that specific area. For example, I offer a workbook that I specifically created for beginners so that they can learn the fundamentals of modern brush calligraphy.
Once you've found a resource that will help you work on completing your syllabus, get to work!
Week three (13th - 19th September)
Check in time. How are things going? Ideally you should pace yourself across the month so that you can really absorb what you've learnt. However, if you've stormed ahead with the learning (I do this sometimes too!), go back and see which parts you either didn't understand 100% or had a bit more difficulty with. If you can't suss things out by yourself, this could be a good time to reach out to the community.
Week four (20th - 26th September)
Assuming that you have paced yourself, this should be the week that you complete the final project so that you can take something away from your month of learning.
Week five (27th - 30th September)
This week I want you to showcase what you've learnt! Tag Calligraphy Gems on YouTube or share your work over in my Facebook group. If you haven't got one yet, setting an Instagram account up can be a great way to showcase your progress and connect with other calligraphers.
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Get started with modern calligraphy with brush pens and my workbook collection. If you're in the early stages of learning modern calligraphy, you may also want to join one of my upcoming calligraphy workshops.
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