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Practicing Calligraphy with a Pencil

I took a calligraphy class several years ago and the instructor had us use a thick drawing pencil to become accustomed to writing the strokes before we actually used a pen nib and ink.  Whenever I want to practice calligraphy strokes and styles I'll take out a pencil and practice.

So.....sometimes when I'm a bit bored in a meeting, or if I want to pretend like I'm busy writing down important information, I'll practice my calligraphy with a pencil.  Capital letters always give me a hard time and I'm always tweaking each letter to best suit my writing so usually I'll practice those the most.  Here's a scan of one of my practice sheets:

copperplate calligraphy practice

If you've ever wanted to learn calligraphy, then I highly highly recommend starting with a pencil before jumping right into it with a pen nib and ink.  The pencil I used in the above image is a regular red colored pencil so I believe I colored in the thicker strokes.  But I really like the Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils because you can mimic the thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes of hib and ink calligraphy.  I love those pencils....I definitely need to buy more.
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