Handletteringwithjules – Withjulespham

First things first, I am an amateur. This is not a professional tutorial.

If anyone has ever seen my handwriting then you’ve noticed it’s a mix of print + cursive. I love cursive. Mainly because I get to curl and loop my letters. So of course I’m in love with this beautiful trend of “calligraphy font” lettering that’s super popular right now. Fingers crossed that it’s here to stay.

With that said, this past year I learned how to use a calligraphy pen. Like legit with ink and all. My goal was to personally address all my wedding invitations. I proudly did it with this lovely copper ink on hunter green envelopes (more on that another time).

The awesome thing about learning how to use a calligraphy pen is you also learn which lines need to be thick and thin. Once you’re knowledgeable about this then it’ll open doors to so so many possibilities. I’m sharing a few of those possibilities every day this week with my Christmas-inspired gifts, but I thought some of y’all would first like to know how to achieve that modern calligraphy font.

It’s really simple. But it takes practice, practice, practice. The more you do than the better you’ll be off. To start, all you need are three things: Pencil, paper, and a sharpener.

I purposely used these simple to use (and find) supplies so you’d see how easy it is to start learning. Did it work? I really hope so.

Begin with the foundations, write all the letters in the alphabet in cursive. Start with lowercase. It’s easier and less intimidating. Your cursive style may be different from mine and that’s totally fine. Write what feels comfortable and natural to you.

Once your happy with your letters then it’s time to “connect” them.

Here comes the tricky part: Learning which lines need to be thicker. I learned by using a calligraphy pen, but I know y’all probably don’t have one laying around and it can be more difficult to learn right away. The best way I can explain this is that when you’re writing in a downward motion then that line will need to be thicker. To make it a little easier, I made red arrows of the lines that should be thicker. Hope it’s helpful.