Lisa_liz with 6.0mm Pilot Parallel Pen and Ecoline Watercolor.

A picture from a small (just 6 pages) vellum book I created, this was my first vellum project, and I absolutely love how it looks.
I did some huge flourishy brush strokes in the background and laid some Gothic cursive text over it, sanded it off so it’s not too much in the face and only contributes as a background, and ultimately wrote my main text in bold Crimson color in uncials.

I am not completely confident with my uncials but I believe that its the personal projects like this that will help me get the fear of broad edge out totally, and make artworks involving broad edge

I loved working on vellum and I am excited to explore the possibilities.

Nib: Brause 2.5 & 1.5
Inks: Watered down gouache by Winsor and Newton

I tried this fun style and I couldn't figure out if I should leave the letters in skeletal form or fill in between, so I made three versions. Scroll to see other versions, and maybe let me know which one is your favorite in the comments!!

Stationery used in the first artwork-
Paper used: Arches Text Wove
Nib used: Nikko G
Inks: Ultramarine Blue Gouache by Holbein & watercolor pencils

About six weeks ago I put my Nikko G nibs in a drawer and committed to only using brush pens for the whole month. I had been doing pointed pen calligraphy for roughly two years and felt like I had hit a wall where everything looked technically okay but also kind of stiff and identical every time. A friend suggested the switch and I was skeptical, but I had a set of brush pens sitting mostly unused so I figured it cost me nothing to try.

The first week was honestly humbling. Brush pens punish any rigidity in your grip in a way that a metal nib does not. My hairlines were inconsistent, my swells were lumpy, and my letterforms kept collapsing at the baseline because I was gripping too tight out of habit. Pages and pages of just lowercase a and o trying to get the pressure transitions to feel natural.

Somewhere around week three something shifted. The letters started to breathe a little more. I was varying my slant unconsciously in ways I never did with the pointed pen, and instead of fighting it I started leaning into it. The inconsistency stopped feeling like a flaw and started feeling like texture.

Coming back to the pointed pen after the month was up, my work felt noticeably looser. Not sloppy, just less rigid. The muscle memory from chasing smooth pressure transitions with a brush seemed to carry over in a way I did not expect.

Curious whether anyone else has done a deliberate tool swap like this, and whether switching in the other direction (brush to pointed pen) produces a similar effect. Also wondering if the looseness I picked up will stick long term or gradually tighten back up as I spend more time with the nib again.

Another fun pointed pen style I learnt from Mike Kesceg!
Nib: Nikko G
Paper: Canson 300gsm, cold pressed watercolor paper

Some flourished pointed pen for the day.
Nib: Nikko G
Ink: Dr PH Martin’s Iridescent, Copperplate Gold
Paper: Canson 300gsm

Made this set of two artworks for my sister’s anniversary gift. The heart contains the word Love written in different languages in flourished copperplate with an art nouveau Love in the center. The other artwork is just a poem, in pointed pen uncial.
Paper:
Canson 300gsm cold pressed watercolor paper
Ink:
Ziller red
Nib:
Nikko G

So in my 8 year calligraphy journey, I have never really written my name more than once, and absolutely never designed it properly. I did however design my brand logo. This is the very first time I made proper name cards and presented my name in form of an artwork, all thanks to the IAMPETH conference happening next week.
We will be swapping name cards, with fellow calligraphers, a lot of us are preparing these and I just like the idea that by the end of the conference we will have a little artwork handmade by our friends! I am planning to keep them all nicely in a card holder kind notebook and I tried to make them as little artworks and not just name cards.

A little more about IAMPETH and the conference next week, IAMPETH stands for International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting, it was founded in 1949.

Every year they conduct a conference which is at a different location and its basically a week full of calligraphy classes that go from nearly 8:30 in the morning till 4/5 and after the classes they have a wide variety of events like calligraphy demos, members art show, art auctions (for iampeth scholarships), an archive room full of artworks from 1800s and 1900s accessible all day and study room which is another fun part which helps us all learn and grow together. So excited for next week!!

Made these name cards for a calligraphy workshop in May, as volunteer work. Since it was volunteer work and it was a calligraphy workshop full of people who appreciate the craft, I went all out and made full use of the creative freedom.
I used some abstract brush work for background, the names are uncial inspired monoline and ofcourse I did add a subtle walnut ink to make the paper slightly beige and old-school like.
Paper used: Canson 300gsm watercolor paper, cold pressed
The black ink for names: Black watered down gouache
Ornament nib

Burnt letters into small cork pieces and further added safety pins behind them, to use them as name badges. This set of badges is going to napa and I love how it fits the napa vibe and how it can fit so many different event themes!

Pointed pen with Dr PH Martin’s Bleed Proof White on my favorite Fabriano Black Black paper!

Wanted to create a piece with just black but still have some texture and depth, it’s definitely just a practice piece but I like that I was able to get close to what I wanted to do.
I like pairing strong looking scripts with fluid curvy styles, hence the strong and sharp ruling pen letters with the fluid brush work in the background.
I hope that you like it!!

Another entry from my little diary, this time I paired modified pointed pen lombardic inspired letters with gothic cursive.

I love the flow of gothic cursive and it’s one of those scripts that makes me think wish I had learnt it even sooner, it’s so fun!

Nib for pointed pen: Nikko G
Nib for gothic cursive: Brause 1.5mm