A FREE WORKBOOK BY

JOY KELLEY HOWJOYFUL

E B A S I C STO K ES
LEAR N A L L T H

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 A FREE WORKBOOK BY

JOY KELLEY HOWJOYFUL

Learning brush calligraphy can seem super intimidating! But it is all about practice and muscle memory, and
we need to train our eyes and hands to repeat movements and strokes that will later construct our letters.
Once we know how to build letters correctly, we can make words, and after that, we can learn about composi-
tion and flourishes—one step at a time.

I know the process might seem too long even to try, but don’t give up on me when we haven’t even started,
ok? To master brush calligraphy, all you need are the TWO P’s: Patience and Practice.

I created this free guide to help you understand the basics of brush calligraphy, whether you are using your
iPad or a brush pen and paper. Below you can find my recommendations for brush pens and paper.

SUPPLIES
Tombow Fudenosuke Smooth paper to print:
» howjoyful.com/tombowfude » howjoyful.com/hppaper

Pentel Touch Rhodia pad

» howjoyful.com/pentelfude » howjoyful.com/rhodia

Kuretake Fudebiyori Tracing paper

» howjoyful.com/kuretake » howjoyful.com/tracepaper

ANATOMY
When you are starting with brush calligraphy, there are some terms that you need to know to understand
better when other artists (and I in this guide) explain the motions. Knowing your reference lines (listed on the
left) are a must, so start there first! You can then slowly get familiar with the rest (I didn’t list all of them, just the
most important ones to get you started)

cross bar entry or lead

ascender
ascender swash bowl in stroke ear
line

x-height

base line

descender connector counter

descender
swash flourish angle
line

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 A FREE WORKBOOK BY

JOY KELLEY HOWJOYFUL

PRESSURE BASICS
These are thin lines (colored blue in this guide), to achieve a thin line,
UPSTROKE you have to glide your pen, applying very light pressure (just enough
for the tip to touch the paper), always holding your pen at a 45-degree
angle from your paper. Thin lines are usually the hardest to master, be-
cause you will have less contact with the paper, but don’t worry, because
it’s all about muscle memory, the more you practice your upstrokes, the
better and less shaky they will be (Also not drinking coffee before prac-
tice will help)

These are thick lines, (colored in hot pink in this guide), to achieve thick
DOWNSTROKE lines you need to apply full pressure to your pen so that most of the tip
of your brush touches the paper, always holding your pen at a 45-degree
angle from your paper. The problem most people have achieving thick
lines is that they think that brush pens can break if you put too much
pressure. BUT don’t worry about that! They are designed to handle that
pressure; you will damage your brush pen when you use porous copy
paper way more than any damage that can be caused by putting pres-
sure on it.

These are the spots where you start lifting or start applying pressure (marked with dots in this
TRANSITION guide) to go from a downstroke to an upstroke or vice versa. It’s essential to know where you
need to start with your transitions because if you start too late or too early, you might have
readability issues when you begin constructing letters.

UPSTROKE

BASIC STROKES TRANSITION

DOWSTROKE
loop
urve

urve
loop
stem
und c

und c
stem
e

re

urn

urn
re
comp erse
strok

oval

rturn
ound
rturn
ressu

curve

nding

oval
ressu
o
overt

overt

o
comp

rev

comp
ding

unde
unde
entry

full p

full p
desce

ascen

These are the foundation on which we will construct letters; it is essential to master how to make the pieces
before we put everything together in a letter or word. And the only way to learn them is by doing drills; this
repetitive motion will help us create muscle memory; this way, our hands, and eyes will get used to the move-
ments and transitions.

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 UPSTROKE
TRANSITION
DOWSTROKE

UPSTROKE or ENTRY STROKE

Glide our brush pen and in an upwards movement applying as mini-
mal pressure as possible so our pen will lightly touch the paper. From
baseline to the x-height.

DOWNSTROKE or FULL PRESSURE STROKE

Apply full pressure in our brush pen, always maintaining a 45-degree
angle in relation to our paper. Press as hard as you can and slide slow-
ly down; I’ve set up so you can practice long and short downstrokes.

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 4
 UPSTROKE
TRANSITION
DOWSTROKE

OVERTURN STROKE
Start where the single blue dot is placed, glide your pen in an upstroke and
on the top start transitioning to a think downstroke, once you reach the pink
section apply intense pressure maintaining a 45-degree angle.

UNDERTURN STROKE
Start where the single pink dot is placed, apply firm down-pressure on the
downstroke and right before you turn, start transitioning into a thin and light
line. For the upstroke glide the pen as soft and with very light pressure.

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 5
 UPSTROKE
TRANSITION
DOWSTROKE

COMPOUND CURVE
Start where the single blue dot is placed, use very light pressure
in an upwards motion and once on the top, start transitioning to
a full downstroke, as you reach the bottom start transitioning and
release the pressure and continue up with an upstroke.

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 6
 UPSTROKE
TRANSITION
DOWSTROKE

OVAL
Start where the single blue dot is placed, around the 2 o’clock position.
Glide your pen with very light pressure and begin slowly going coun-
terclockwise, once you pass the waistline begin applying full pressure
on s downward movement and around halfway between the waistline
and baseline start transitioning so that when you hit the baseline, you
already have a thin line, continue upwards with very light pressure until
you close the oval.

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 7
 UPSTROKE
TRANSITION
DOWSTROKE

DESCENDING LOOP
Start where the single pink dot is placed, we go download with a full
pressure stroke until right before we hit the descender line, where we
transition and lift the pen while going clockwise in a circular motion to
come back to the baseline.

ASCENDING LOOP
Start where the single blue dot is placed, we start with an upward curved
thin counter-clockwise stroke, right after we approach the ascender line
we transition to a downstroke and we continue to the baseline.

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 8
 LET’S PRACTICE ALL OF THEM TOGETHER

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 9
 PRACTICE MAKES BETTER!

ascender
line

x-height

base line

descender
line angle

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PAGE 10