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1) The document provides a summary and reflection of a book on calligraphy and a calligraphy workshop. It discusses the history and evolution of calligraphy from ancient alphabets to different writing styles developed in various regions over time. 2) It reflects on learning about Indian calligraphy and history, and explores different calligraphy tools from reed pens to brushes. Practicing helped the writer understand how using different parts of the arm impacts writing. 3) The workshop helped strengthen the writer's calligraphy basics and they enjoyed acquiring a new skill away from digital tools. Overall it was found to be an enjoyable and relaxing art form.

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Apurva Pathak
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108 views3 pages

A1

1) The document provides a summary and reflection of a book on calligraphy and a calligraphy workshop. It discusses the history and evolution of calligraphy from ancient alphabets to different writing styles developed in various regions over time. 2) It reflects on learning about Indian calligraphy and history, and explores different calligraphy tools from reed pens to brushes. Practicing helped the writer understand how using different parts of the arm impacts writing. 3) The workshop helped strengthen the writer's calligraphy basics and they enjoyed acquiring a new skill away from digital tools. Overall it was found to be an enjoyable and relaxing art form.

Uploaded by

Apurva Pathak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BOOK SUMMARY AND REFLECTION

I chose the book, ‘The art of calligraphy by David Harris’. I wanted to learn calligraphy because I
wanted to acquire a new skill. Calligraphy is not just beautiful handwriting, its an art form which
has multiple uses and applications.
The book starts with the introduction to calligraphy and how simple latin alphabets evolved
getting influenced by technology and social changes. It was the different tools, the nibs with
different cuts and angles with gave calligraphy its existence. The second chapter talks about
how it all started. The first alphabet evolved in Phoenicia in about 1200BC. This was adapted in
the 8th century by the Greeks whose letterforms were first borrowed by the Romans.
I also did some reading on how calligraphy and writing evolved in India as so many of are
ancient texts are much much older than 1200Bc. Surprisingly, In India, the oldest Brahmi
inscription on rocks is found to be of 1st century BC.

This Brahmi script was the origin of devnagiri, the Indian Calligraphy. ‘Dev’ means God, and
‘Nagari’ means city. Thus Devnagari means script from the city of Gods. Direction of writing
Devnagari is left to right in horizontal motion. Religious texts were the most frequent subjects for
calligraphy. In the 16th Century Saint Ramdas from Maharshtra one of the States of India wrote
many things about the beautiful handwriting process. He highlighted the fine nuances
calligraphy like posture, ways of holding the tool, treatment of surface, neatness, blackness of
the ink, etc.
Indian Calligraphists over history have worked with a wide range of materials ranging from clay
coins, stone, metal, cloth, leaves to paper. Exquisitely styled ink-pots were a special feature of
Indian Calligraphy. India has a rich heritage of Calligraphy in the form of documents and
monuments, and It still exists. I really wanted to explore more about Indian calligraphy but could
find no such book in the library and didn't want to rely only on the internet. I feel it was important
to read about Indian calligraphy and its history because I feel its important we know about our
culture and history before going forward to anything else.
Coming back to western, everything has evolved from roman writings. Gothic came around by
the end of the 12th century in Europe. This gothic script was different in every town and every
country having some distinct features. Some gothic scripts had great focus on the capitals,
some were more curvier and some had sharper ends in the alphabets.
Next, the book talks about different tools of calligraphy. The oldest being a reed pen. It
describes the entire process with steps of making a reed pen.
The reed pen was very similar to the pen holder we used, it had cuts very similar to the reed
pen.
Another tool older than the reed pen was the quill, which was made using swan, goose, turkey
feathers which are the softest and most flexible. It also talks about other tools like flat and
pointed brushes, nib holder for attaching multiple nibs, a fiber topped pen, which has a stiff thick
sketch pen like top and a flat cut on the top.
It introduces rustic capitals in the next chapter which uses an 85 degree angle and 45 for the
foot serifs and the diagonals. It covers many different writing styles and forms like Bastard
capitals, gothic capitals, texturas, early gothics, italucs, copperplate. I noticed that out of the
strokes of 5-6 alphabets all the other alphabets can be written by following consistency and
noticing the strokes and the serifs. It is a great book to learn different styles of calligraphy. All
you have to do is maintain an angle and be consistent.
This workshop was a great learning. I wanted to learn calligraphy because I was so bored of the
regular studio units and working on softwares all day, I wanted to acquire a new skill.
The workshop has really made my basics strong and after this I feel I can anytime refer to my
book and learn a new style anytime. I think for calligraphy the tool is the important. Calligraphy
is really not hard, its fun, you just have to learn how to control the tool and be patient. It is very
important to observe while we are practicing. I learnt new tricks just by practicing a lot. Like
when I was doing brush lettering, at first my strokes were shaky, and not consistent, I realised I
was using my wrist and my fingers , when I tried using my elbow, the strokes were perfect, and
it gave me more range. Another interesting thing I learnt during the workshop was, how we can
make different styled alphabets from one calligraphic style by rotating the alphabets, by
stretching the serifs, by taking curves and strokes from other alphabets and then following
consistency we can have a new style of our own set of alphabets . I loved making tools and
working with so many different tools. I have a few clay modelling tools which I am definitely
going to try writing with. I really like how the tool created different strokes at different angles and
rotations, that why loved working with the nib. The strokes were very clean and consistent, with
the brush , I was controlling the tool more. The warming up exercise on the first day really
helped me open my hand and understand how the tool works, it gave me a confidence to work. I
think the more free and confident we are with the tool, the better would be our strokes.
Calligraphy is very enjoyable, changing just the angle changes everything. Another advantage I
got from this course is it helped me improve my handwriting after the brush lettering workshop, it
was just like doing the cursive again like we did back in school, but more precisely. I really
enjoyed this workshop, it was a great experience to learn this beautiful form of art, and a new
skill. Unlike studios it was not burdening at all and I am happy I stayed away from my laptop for
two weeks, thanks Zenab for being so friendly and for making this workshop so much fun.

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