So, you’ve learned how to use the tools & gotten started with a beginner alphabet, but what is the next step that will best help you improve your skills? The common desire is to jump right into words. Right? The fun stuff!
I get it, I did that too when I taught myself over 15 years ago.
But then I spent years wondering why it was taking so long for me to get “better.”
I had years of my calligraphy looking generally the same as the year before without much improvement. I saw what other calligraphers I looked up to were creating but didn’t know how to get their level!
I didn’t know how to get past the beginner stages of calligraphy.
I learned the hard way, but you don’t have to!
If you are looking to actually create consistent improvement with your calligraphy, instead of jumping right into words, it is best to focus your efforts on the following first:
1) letter consistency
2) letter connections & spacing
3) then moving on to options such as:
- additional alphabets
- flourishing
- envelope formatting
- & so much more than you can do with calligraphy!
Working on the letter consistency and various components of your individual letters, and ultimately in groups of letters, will help you develop a cohesive alphabet, rather than a random collection of letters with thick and thin lines that don’t really look like they go with one another.
Anyone who has practiced calligraphy for any amount of time will tell you the same thing: It is a LOT harder than it looks to create consistent looking calligraphy.
You might see a calligrapher you look up to (like I did!) and think “well I guess some people have the talent and some people don’t” and be tempted to give up on calligraphy entirely.
Don’t you dare do it!
I promise you, with the right teaching and practice, you can improve your skills, giving you a great hobby or even a thriving calligraphy business one day.
WOAH! Sound dramatic? It’s not. Calligraphy is a skill and when you nurture it the right way, you can see actual results that will give you the outcome you desire.
So, HOW do you actually get to the next level with your calligraphy education?
Ever since we started teaching calligraphy, our main focus has been getting NEW people to learn & love the craft. Now that we are more than 4 years into our teaching, we have thousands {yes, over 6,000 starter kits have shipped around the world and over 4,000 of you have joined us in person!} of you looking for the next step in your calligraphy education.
From countless conversations with you and knowing what worked to get me to the next level, we came up with the very next class after Calligraphy for Beginners Workshop and Starter Kit:
Introducing the Beyond Beginner Calligraphy In Person Workshop + Online Course!
Beyond Beginner Calligraphy is setup to provide you deeper instruction with consistency, connection, and flourishing, and includes two additional alphabet exemplars. All the things to push you out of the “Beginner” calligraphy category.
So..who would be ready for this workshop and online course?
Anyone with the basic understandings of how to use the tools of pointed pen, how to achieve the thick and thin lines, and how to form a beginner alphabet. Maybe you took a beginner workshop or purchased a starter kit? This class is designed so you can finish the beginner calligraphy workshop and take this class the next day..or next hour!
What’s included in the Beyond Beginner Workshop and the Online Course:
We want all of you to be able to take our in person workshop. This is honestly one of our favorite parts of our job. Meeting with you, chatting with you about all things calligraphy, business and well of course…your favorite new wine or donut shop 🙂
We have Beyond Beginner workshops coming up real soon:
Beyond Beginner Calligraphy In-Person Workshop includes:
- 2 hours of instruction with Laura Hooper & Alyssa Hooper
- 1 oblique pen holder
- 2 nibs
- 1 jar of black ink
- 1 instructional book
- 2 tracing pads (letter connections + a flourished alphabet)
- 1 keepsake Laura Hooper Calligraphy tote bag
- light refreshments
- BONUS! All workshop attendees will receive our beyond beginner online video course for continued practice at home
- DOUBLE BONUS: You get access to us for 2 hours where you can ask us anything you want about calligraphy, how to run a business, tips on client relationships…anything at all. We encourage you to come prepared with questions. These workshops are the only way you get to ask us these questions in person so we LOVE getting to share our candid knowledge with you and make new friends while we’re at it!
And while we would LOVE to come to every single city and meet EVERY single one of you. We physically just can’t. That is why we created our online courses for you to learn calligraphy from the comfort of your own home. This has been very important to us as it gets even more folks learning calligraphy and falling in love with the art. You will learn the same material that we teach in the workshop, just without access to us actually teaching you one on one.
Beyond Beginner Calligraphy Online Course includes:
- Workbook Set (physical product sent by USPS): Instructional book + two tracing pads. The instructional book includes information on letter consistency, letter connections, a collection of flourishes & two flourished alphabet exemplars. One tracing pad includes samples letter connections, and the other includes one of the flourished alphabets – every letter upper & lower case.
- Video: Details on letter consistency – focusing on the various components of your letters to make them consistent with one another, close ups of Laura demonstrating letter connections, close up footage of Laura demonstrating an entire flourished alphabet from A to Z, tips and demonstration on how to mix Inks
We’d love for you to join us whether in person or online.
We want to see you succeed and get better each day you get to practice calligraphy. BUT, this is no 21st century instant process. This is an analog hobby and one that will connect you with a time from the past. A time before cell phones, instagram and digital art. At the end of the day, calligraphy is a hobby that can help slow down time, connect your brain to your hand and allow for creative expression in a day and age where we really need it.
Have FUN! And hope to see you soon 🙂
To help guide you along in this process, get a free calligraphy calligraphy education checklist below so you know you’re on the right track with your calligraphy education.
Let us know in the comments if you have any questions at all!
Laura + Alyssa
