When we scroll down Facebook, we see a ton of videos. There are the animal ones, then there are the rubbish DIY ones, and then there are the artsy ones. The ones that involve oil pastels, acrylic pours, weird oil pastels and finally, the videos involving satisfying calligraphy.
Whilst we look at calligraphy videos with awe, but the consensus is that whilst satisfying is useless.
Today I will explore what calligraphy is and why the art form might not be so useless after all.
What is calligraphy?
Calligraphy is decorative handwriting and lettering. And is typically more elegant and stylised than cursive. On top of that, cursive is made to be written quickly and easy to read. In comparison, caligraphy uses deliberate and planned out strokes to create something and is more design-based.
What are the tools?
Because Calligraphy is handwriting based, all you need is some paper and a pen. However, many people who practice this recommend using brush markers for better flexibility to get the different parts of letters at the right thickness more quickly.
There are different methods to achieve various techniques. One of the typical ones I see involves using a brush pen, and on the lines that go down, you go thick, and then on the lines that go up are thin. Another way to look at this is that the top of a letter is wide, and the bottom is thin.
I know that sounds confusing written down. However, there are plenty of YouTube videos that can give you a visual demonstration- which is more helpful if I’m honest.
Benefits of Caligraphy
Now I can hear many people reading this say. ‘Yes, it looks lovely, and it sounds like a very fanciful and easy hobby, but what are the benefits?’
And trust me there are many benefits!
Fine motor skills
One of the main benefits of calligraphy is that it helps improve a person’s fine motor skills. How? Because you spend a lot of time moving your hand in fluid motions and creating fine details, which over time helps your muscles and joints move and grasp things much better than you already do.
Memory
Studies show that when we write something down, we are more likely to remember it. Because you’re writing a word down many times (mainly through practice) before getting it right, it helps you retain how to spell that word and then it helps improve other areas of your memory.
Relaxation
Like most hobbies and fun activities, calligraphy helps promote relaxation and makes you calm. This isn’t through random fumes in the pen or the ink. It isn’t because the paper releases endorphins. It’s not some arbitrary power from the supplies. It’s actually because breathing slows down as we put strokes onto the paper, enabling us to calm down. And as we calm down, we get lost in creating something, and it lets us focus on something else until the process is finished.
Calligraphy is inexpensive
There are plenty of artistic hobbies out there. Like I mentioned earlier, acrylic pour is popular or oil pastels. However, calligraphy, compared to those other hobbies, is much cheaper. For example, for oil pastels, you have to pay upwards of twenty quid for the decent ones and then if you do acrylic pouring, there are the pouring mediums and canvases.
In short, there’s a lot of equipment that is not cheap. Yet, calligraphy only requires a ballpoint pen/pencil and a piece of paper which we all have.
Plus, with calligraphy, you can learn different letter types and make logos, which you can put on your invitations and other things like that—saving you some money!
Out of all the hobbies out there, calligraphy is the most expensive and more accessible hobby available.
Calligraphy teaches essential skills.
Like all hobbies, we are all rubbish at it the first time we do it. Yet with some past times, we notice some improvement straight away like sport or sewing. Calligraphy doesn’t have instant gratification because you have to improve on a lot. Such as How much pressure to apply to your medium, get the right line thickness and make the writing look like a specific font.
Learning all this stuff takes a lot of practice daily for it to stick. It can be demotivating if you don’t see said improvement straight away. Sticking with it will give you an incredible feeling of accomplishment. You are practising it almost every day and not giving up. It teaches you important things like commitment, practice, and determination.
In the end, Calligraphy may look like a dumb skill. It can be beneficial and has a lot of benefits. And unlike other hobbies can bring you a form of monetisable income from creating logos for businesses to getting noticed on social media! Why not try it today?
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