How to practice calligraphy well
Practicing pen calligraphy well is generally easier than for adults for primary school students and some young people whose fonts have not yet been finalized. This is because they are easy to accept new fonts. Once they have the right guidance, choose the right font, the right method, and a perseverance attitude, good results can be achieved in a short period of time. For adults whose handwriting has been finalized, it is not so easy to practice pen calligraphy well. Because they did not pay attention to the quality of handwriting before, some ugly or even wrong writing methods have become bad habits and are difficult to correct. Now they want to practice calligraphy, but they often only tinker with the existing fonts and choose fonts that are similar to their own. In this way, the good ones are often not learned and the bad ones are not discarded, and the more they practice, the more ugly they become.
So how do you get these people to practice calligraphy well? My experience is: first of all, they must completely forget the previous fonts and start from scratch, starting from the most basic dots and dashes. Then practice the structure. For pen calligraphy, the most important issue is the structure. The quality of the structure directly affects the beauty of the calligraphy. Therefore, it is most important to write well in pen calligraphy. But now there is a very difficult problem to solve, that is, it is difficult to forget the previous fonts, and old habits are often brought into new fonts during the post writing process. To change this situation, the best way is to first choose block letters that are completely different from your previous fonts to copy. The purpose of practicing block script is to get it right. After practicing for a week or two or more, you can get it right. After the shape is corrected, you should also choose a cursive calligraphy copybook that is completely different from your original font and that you think is beautiful for copying. If the font is rigid before, choose a bold copybook; if the font is loose, choose a rigorous copybook; if the font is dull, choose a chic copybook; if the font is soft and smooth, choose a firm copybook; if the font is bloated, choose a delicate copybook... ...If you practice like this for two to three months, you can learn new fonts. We often encounter this problem in our studies. In the first few days, we make rapid progress, but after a while, we feel that our writing gets worse and worse. This is normal. At this time, you should stay calm and continue practicing. After a period of hard work, you will be able to get out of the predicament and get on track. The purpose of copying is to forget the previous words and remember the words on the copybook and apply them. After this, it is necessary to arrange the relationship between words and lines, which is the so-called layout. For people who generally just want to make their handwriting look better, but don't want to achieve anything in this area, being able to do the above is enough. This is the experience I gained during my studies. I have also introduced these experiences to others, and the results have been good.
If you want to achieve something in the art of pen calligraphy, it cannot be achieved overnight. Not only must we learn from the brush strokes, structure, composition, charm, etc. of brush calligraphy, but we must also give full play to the inherent characteristics of the fountain pen. Only in this way can the art of pen calligraphy flourish and have strong and permanent vitality. Otherwise, pen calligraphy can only be a vassal of brush calligraphy, unable to develop and innovate, and it will not have strong and permanent vitality.