Customer Reviews

Learn Calligraphy: The Complete Book of Lettering and Design

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am learning calligraphy and have looked at a number of books on the subject. This book is almost perfect. She gives you so much more than alphabets: key exercises to do before you start the alphabets, typical beginner's problems (most of which I have experienced!), practice pages you can reproduce. Her sections on swashes and "accessorizing" Gothic capitals are also wonderful - what had always seemed highly mysterious to me turns out to be a matter of combining building blocks, creativity, and - who would have thought - a lot of fun.

One thing she does not do is to cover every hand imaginable. There are lots of books like that out there. Rather, she only covers a small number of hands, but covers them very thoroughly, with a special eye to us novices. For example, once I got the basic hands down, I found one of my main problems was spacing the letters. Nothing looks worse than inconsistent horizontal spacing. She gives good coverage to this important issue, for example suggesting that you step back and look at it from a distance. Try it - if you're a novice, you'll be surprised at how different (and maybe bad) it looks.

I also very much enjoy the samples of projects that she shows as examples of how to apply each hand. In this she highlights the talents of (I assume) her friends, and it adds to the book. Looking at alphabet after alphabet as is done in typical calligraphy books, you don't get a good feel for how you'd use each one, and variations you can apply. Her other book "Calligraphy Projects for Pleasure and Profit" (which I also have) gives you lots more along these lines, but the ones in this book are different and I find them just as valuable.

I even like the way she letters the whole book in her (what she admits is slightly idiosyncratic) italic hand. You want examples - there's a whole book-length example. I don't agree with the other reviewer that this detracts from the book. It's as if she does it because it's fun - an important thing to remember when you're doing the drudgery of straight lines or circles.

The only tiny drawback, if it is one, is that the book doesn't contain a lot that is good to know about techniques of setting up a drawing table, selling, etc. For that (as well as an excellent chapter on type design by Hermann Zapf himself), the book "Calligraphy and Illumination" provides more than you ever wanted to know. I don't think that book replaces this one, however. I find Margaret's explanations well worth the small amount this book costs, and she is much more complete. She'll even autograph it for you (see her web site for details).

This is a wonderful book that every calligraphy student should have. If you can only have one, this is it.

This is the book I use as a text for beginning calligraphy students at the local community college. All the text is handlettered and there are many examples of how to use calligraphy in everyday life. I've used Margaret Shepherd's books since the '70's, and this is the best one she's done for beginning to intermediate students. It is both instructive and inspiring.

I am the author of this book and just want to respond that I agree with the very critical reviewer who felt strongly that Copperplate should have been included. I wish so too. But it would need a whole other set of supplies and hand positions. Copperplate comes along much later, and is really outside the main core of the broad-pen historic hands. Maybe some day!
To respond to Gary Bisaqa's review, I agree and I have covered the business end of calligraphy as a free-lance job, in a whole other book, Calligraphy Projects for Pleasure and Profit.
I wrote this, like all my other books, because I wish I'd had such a book when I started out. Thank you to others who wrote in to say that it helped them start out too.

I simply LOVE this book: it's fun and easy and improves your lettering and calligraphy in an easy way. I practice calligraphy since 10 years, but still I found in this book some "shortcut" to make my works more accurate.
Great space for practicing, lots of alphabets shown, a nice way to introduce arguments ... a must have book for all calligraphers.

After many years, I restarted calligraphy again with this book. It is straight forward and easy to use. If you are thinking of learning calligraphy on your own, this is one of the books to have. It gives you practical guidance, not just alphabets.

I was really having a hard time picking out calligraphy how to books so i went to the book store. unfortunately they do not have a lot to choose from, at the second store i found a better selection and found Margaret Sheperd's books. Wow, great books and great way to learn, she has a funny side to her and this book is incredible, not only do you learn you have fun doing it. i also saw a few more books in her name. Unfortunately i didn't have very much time to look at them all and i cant wait to go back to see the rest. I am thinking of picking up all her books.

I think this is the best of the starter books. Very easy and a fun read too!

Cheryl

This book is excellent. When I received my book, I started to practice for 1 week and now my handwritting is pretty.

I purchased this book as a gift. However, as soon as I received the book, I when through it, briefly. I loved it! The book not only shows the way of writing beautiful letters, but it also shows how to use these writings in different patterns to make the material more attractive. It have several examples of Christmas related greetings and wishes, letters, postcard address writing, and a brief display of some alphabets belonging to different types of calligraphy used in materials related to calligraphy literature.
I will definitely suggest this book for calligraphy. It is worthy it!

I loved this book. I got it to learn Italic writing, and it did not disappoint! Her instructions are clear, and she took me through a step by step process to learning the alphabet, followed by a series of exercises on how to string various letters together. I found it to be a much better introduction to calligraphy than many of the other books I'd bought on the subject.

I recieved this item in record time, and I love the quality of it!! Thank you