Customer Reviews

Calligraphic Lettering with Wide Pen and Brush: Third Edition

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This hard-back, spiral-bound work has a plethora of alphabets for the beginning adult scribe to learn. Many classic examples from art history, and adequate detail from the author are available to guide the willing penman. One who will devote time and self-discipline for serious practice will find this work an able guide to learning classic letter formations.

The lovely, hand-lettered text of this book distinguishes it even before you get to the wonderful, clear alphabet studies. Its spiral binding makes it very easy to refer to pages while working; and for some reason, other calligraphy texts haven't figured that out.
I do calligraphy as an amateur (literally, for the love of it) as well as for pay. I am not a teacher by profession; but whenever I teach a calligraphy class, this is my prime reference book.
Recently I thought I had lost my copy, and that is when I realized how much I depend on this book. It is The Best.
If you are going to own only one calligraphy guide, this is the one!

Ralph Douglass's Calligraphic Lettering provides a good resource for beginning or more advanced calligraphers. This is one of the first calligraphy books I used as a child some 20 years ago and was so glad to see it republished again recently.
The author offers several different calligraphic hands with a brief history for each. He also includes sections on design, proportion and a couple of pages on teaching children to write - a section I am now using to teach my children. The thing I like most about this book is that it emphasises the need to practise.