Calligraphy Tutorial: basic rules for drawing letters

Learn these basic calligraphy tips, with Paola Vecco

Lettering is the art of drawing letters and to master it it is essential to know certain basic rules of calligraphy. Calligraphy is about writing with beautiful, artistic and correctly formed handwriting and knowing how to do it correctly will help make our lettering look incredible. This is because when we draw letters, we will try to imitate the natural stroke that a calligraphy tool can give us.

Paola Vecco (@paovec), graphic designer specialized in lettering and typographic design, teaches you in this tutorial some of the basic rules for drawing letters. Don't miss the video below!

4 basic rules for drawing letters

1. The ductus

One of the key points of calligraphy is the ductus, that is, the direction, number and sequence of strokes made to create a letter. In calligraphic guides, the ductus is generally indicated with letters and numbers. In this tutorial, Paola Vecco shows us an example of a calligraphic guide and what its characteristics are.

2. Ductus and calligraphic guide

We can see that the calligraphy guide reflects the angle of the pen that must be maintained, in this case 45º, and also the number of pen heights that our letters will have. The pen height tells us the height of the lowercase and uppercase letters, the ascenders and descenders, and also the number of strokes our letters will have.

For example, in the guide that Paola shows, it indicates that the pen height will be 5, so you have to draw 5 times the width of your pen and thus we will discover the height that our letter will have. The height is closely related to the size of the pen, so if you want to have a larger letter, your pen will also have to be a larger size.

3. Understand the calligraphic stroke

Before starting the exercise, you should know that it is not necessary to have a flat pen to do calligraphy, since with two pencils joined together you can achieve the same effect. The first thing you need to do is plot out the necessary boom heights, making sure you are at the correct angle. Next, follow the line indicated by the ductus.

4. Practice with the brush pen

The brush pen will ask us to work on the line more than the pen, since the latter naturally gives us the fine and thick lines. In the case of the brush pen, it will have to be defined.

The thickness will depend on the pressure we apply with the brush pen. An important rule is that every time we go down the line will be thick and every time we go up it will be thin. In any case, you choose if you want the result to be more or less contrasted.

Did you like this tutorial? If you want to learn the principles of lettering with Paola Vecco to apply them in the design of an attractive composition for a bar, restaurant or business, don't miss her online course 'Design and application of lettering on blackboard'.

You may also be interested in:

- 'Drawing and creative hand lettering for beginners', a course by Grace Frösén

-Basic materials to create lettering on blackboards

-7 online calligraphy courses to learn new styles

- 'Graffiti style lettering, a Snooze One course