Customer Reviews

The Art of Calligraphy: A Practical Guide to the Skills and Techniques

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are so many books on calligraphy; it is extremely difficult to write one that will please everyone. This one will please you vastly if you are looking for a book full of well-laid-out, very clear ductus' pages, with minimal instructional material and beautiful color reproduction of historical examples.

This book is basically about directions for writing historical hands. The DK style of minimal text supported by captioned pictures makes for a lot of visual learning, but this does cut down on the scope of information included. The information is historically basic, then, and the instructional section quite minimal. If you need beginner's instruction for the first steps of calligraphy, you may not find the depth of information you desire here.

The real stregnth of the book is in its breakdown of historic hands. The step-by-step breakdown of each letter of each hand is most helpfully produed in color, allowing the areas of overlap to be clearly seen; this is much more definite in visually presenting the letterforms than the traditional method of providing black and white exemplers. Further, each hand is made with different calligraphy tools; markers, reeds, quills, dip pens, et cetera, allowing you to compare the look of each tool.

There is a very helpful appendix, providing each alphabet in the book in simple, er, "abc form;" a skilled calligrapher could open the book to this two page spead and have every hand presented in the book available for visual reference.

In all, a very, very useful book for those who are looking primarily for instructions for writing historic hands.

As with all Dorling Kindersley products the book is beautifully produced and laid out. However it does has some flaws. The style of the text is somewhat 'strained' and reads like a text book which doesn't not seem,in my mind to fit in with the usual user-friendly DK style. Secondly there appears to be a section of the book missing, in that the book leaps from a rather cursory look at what is required straight to the different styles, without discussing any basic techniquesof penmanship(penpersonship?) Further more I use the word 'cursory' since there is no mention of INK! How can a book about calligraphy not discuss types and colours of ink, gouache etc! I would suggest that the revised version of this 'practical guide' (sic) ought to consider this major oversight!

If you want only one book to learn about calligraphy, this is the one. Trained by a master calligrapher of the Queen's Court many years ago, I recommend this book very highly to anyone who wish to develop skill and proficency in this art.

While I didn't pursue this field career-wise, I found this book to be an excellent reference to reignite the skill I thought was lost.

F.Lee

This is the text that made me fall in love with calligraphy. The exemplars and facsimiles are beautiful, reason enough to own this book.

It is more historically than pedagogically oriented, and serious students will need more than this book to progress far in the art. Nevertheless, anyone contemplating the study of calligraphy can do no better than to begin here. The calligrapher David Harris is an artist of the highest caliber.

I recently took a calligraphy class, and my teacher used this book to teach the class.

I immediately bought it, even though I already own a "few" calligraphy books, but this is one I reference more than any other.

I particularly appreciate the history lesson of written script, as well as all of the samples of historical works throughout the book. I don't have this info in any of my other books.

Harris utilizes multiple colors to illustrate the order of the strokes. This is very useful in tandem with numbers and arrows to show how to form each letter.

25 letterform styles plus "cadels" are taught in this book.

The GLOSSARY in this book is fantastic. Any term you come up against, you can find it in this glossary. Saves a LOT of time instead of searching each page for the definition!

There is a reference table of all the letterforms in the book, which makes it easy to decide which hand you may want to utilize at any given time.

And to top it all off, there's a comprehensive bibliography. So, if you want to research anything on your own you have a great guide!

I REALLY wish this book was spiral-bound so it would lay flat without a lot of bending and creasing, but it is NOT spiral-bound. It is a regular paperback. However, once you do your creasing and bending and folding, the pages eventually stay open and flat. I have resorted to clipping my pages open with a binder clip because the book is still new.

Mr. Harris, if you are reading this review, PLEASE PRINT THIS BOOK WITH A SPIRAL BINDING!!!! Otherwise, 2 thumbs up!

David Harris's "The Art of Calligraphy" is one of my two must-have historical calligraphy books (the other is Mark Drogin's "Medieval Calligraphy"). While it's not comprehensive--one must turn to other books for information about inks, illumination, and so on--it provides a very nice overview of the evolution of calligraphic hands, from Rome to copperplate script. It's full-color, and includes historical background and images of historical texts. Charts of all the alphabets included and of their evolution are nice additions.

I appreciate that the hands are not modernized--while additional modern letters (such as W and K) are included, the historical letters are accurate. The use of transparent ink to show stroke overlap, and of stroke direction diagrams is very helpful. The directions for cutting quill and reed pens are fairly good.

The hands presented overlap considerably with Drogin; however, "The Art of Calligraphy" includes both French and English bastard hands, italic, and humanist, and goes into greater detail on the construction of cadels. For those interested in Renaissance hands, "The Art of Calligraphy" is a better choice.

Overall, I strongly recommend "The Art of Calligraphy" for calligraphers interested in historically accurate medieval and Renaissance hands. I found it easier to read and follow than Drogin (although I recommend having both). Beginners should probably supplement with a basic book on calligraphy.

My husband and I borrowed this book from a library and were so impressed with the beauty of the presentation and the quality of the text and content choices that we purchased this book through Amazon to have as a permanent reference and enjoyable browsing copy in our book collection.

Si eres principiante en caligrafía este es tú libro. Lo compré y pude practicar de inmediato tras su recepción. La descripción y guías para cada tipo de letra es espectacular !!!

If you are a begginer in calligraphy this is the book for you. I bought it and start practice just after reception. The description and guide for each script is just great !!!.

I bought this book for a calligraphy class. It was a great reference for how to form letters as I was writing. There is information about how a particular hand came into existance for each section of the book. There is a complete alphabet shown for each hand with detailed lines and numbers for each of the strokes used to create a letter or figure as well as the type of pen used. I found it very easy to follow the lines and numbers as I was writing.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning calligraphy.

The book met all of my expectations and more. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

The graphics are superb.