Recently, before the second semester ended, I bought myself a starter kit for calligraphy.

Starting Calligraphy From Scratch

By the way, the starter kit I got was bought from an online shop on Instagram, @thecraftcentral. You may try looking at their shop for items regarding calligraphy. There are other shops that you may know like: @pensgalore, @createcraftsph and many more.

Photo from Craft Central. I lost my copy!

Honestly, I was really excited about this new hobby that I am doing. Beforehand, I was really onto DIY / design stuff since posts from Pinterest, inspire me to recreate things in my room that need a lifting. My bookshelf is just a DIY bookshelf that I got from Pinterest. At first, I was a little skeptic since it might not work but I still gave it a try and it is still standing in my room housing my books (law-related, fiction and nonfiction).

The starter pack has:

• six (6) nibs
• two pen holders (one straight, one oblique)
• Walnut ink (50 ml)
• two jars of pearl pigments (3g each)
• one bottle of China ink
• two empty jars that could hold 30ml each
• Scribble manual
• Scribble pad
• Black scribble pad

Other than that I also bought (separate from the starter kit):

• Higgins Eternal ink (black)
• Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay Black India ink
• Pen cleaner
• Extra straight pen holder and oblique pen holder
• Extra nibs
• Liquid chalk pen

Since there is a scribble manual included, I began to read it. The content was really basic and easy to understand however, I was a bit disappointed since there were no details about calligraphy for lefties. I have been personally searching for guides or tutorials for lefties since I am too, a lefty. I have encountered articles that say calligraphy and lefties do not mesh well since the angle of the paper or orientation of how the pens are how the pens are held may cause some discrepancies with the work itself. However, I did not let it stop me. I tried and practiced really hard (even if there were still exams then) just to have my letters written well.

At first, it was really hard scribbling or writing without the blotches, drops and smudges but as soon you get the hang of it, then it’ll be easy as 1-2-3.

Throwback to one of my first scibbles without the ink blots, smudges and little tears. I still hope I can have some decent progress after school ends. #calligraphy @laurapappadacreative @kathleenprumo @theleftieadvantage Thank you for inspiring a fellow lefty! 😄

A photo posted by Kristine Redillas (@mariaisquixotic) on May 20, 2015 at 11:51pm PDT

Search for Leftie Calligraphers

This was the time that I was really searching on Instagram on people who are lefties that are using oblique pen holders for their calligraphy. I may call it a success in finding one posting about their experience but also it may be creepy to the owner since I may have browsed up to 57 weeks ago. But meh, it was posted there to help people like me so it is up to the people like to search really hard to be able to find and use the resources or bits of information that they have posted. By the way, credits to @theleftieadvantage for posting this and other pieces of advice on your social media account. I am really lucky to found a fellow lefty like you who have helped others may it be through workshops or your posts online. But honestly, her piece of advice was indeed helpful in my journey with calligraphy. Next up will be another work of mine a day before our final exams started.

Paper

The one on the left with the “Oh, Canson” caption is the page where I literally just scribbled whatever came into my mind. It was written on a 12×18 Canson acid-free watercolor pad. One of the best feelings ever other than passing and surviving my first year law school! Of course, there was freedom since it is a big pad where I could just vent out whatever I think of into a canvas that will not tear easily nor blotch ink. On the right is the scribble pad included in the starter kit I bought from The Craft Central. It has guidelines which made it easier during my first few days of doing calligraphy since writing freehand would have been a great mess since I do not know anything (like Jon Snow!) about calligraphy back then. It was really helpful as well since the paper (I guess) is acid-free because there were no blotches, smudges nor stains on the next page when I used it. The tricky one is the black pad since I did not have any white ink, mixing the pearl pigments was really tricky. But thanks to the liquid chalk pen, I was able to scribble my name on that black pad. Nevertheless, I still have to practice mixing the pearl pigments soon.

Freehand

Sooner or later, I will have more posts about my journey with calligraphy but for now, this shall do.

P.S. I’ll update this soon with the photos! 🙂