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CALLIGRAPHY CAROLINGIAN STYLE

Whether you’re just starting out in calligraphy or you already have some pen-and-ink experience, and you want to add another style to your repertoire, this course is perfect for you.

If you’re new to calligraphy and are wondering if it’s for you, the answer is “yes”, if you fall into one of these categories:

  • You’re looking for a way to spend a little “ME” time to take a break from your busy daily routine. I always say that calligraphy is a sort of “yoga for the soul.”
  • You want to create a little beauty in your life, that you can share with others or keep for yourself
  • You have an important event coming up (like a wedding or a birthday…), and you want to make great hand-written invitations, place-cards or envelopes
  • You want to improve hand-eye coordination, observational skills, neuroplasticity. you can teach an “old” dog new tricks.

The Carolingian style of calligraphy is one that isn’t “scary”, as the letterforms are similar to those that we read and write every day. There’s a good reason for that, as you’ll find out in the section that talks of the historical aspect.

Completing this course will help you:

Who is the course for?

This course is intended for calligraphers of all levels. Simply, we suggest that you complete the free “Introductory” course before doing this one.

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Twenty-one video lessons make up this course. Numerous PDF’s are included for you to print and to use for practice. 

Class projects include

  • Greeting cards
  • A text written within a spiral

You will see me using a 3 mm Brause oblique nib throughout the lessons. Any fluid ink will do the trick (just stay away from thicker inks that don’t flow as easily from pen to paper). For the card project, we will use a watercolour palette as ink!

We owe the Carolingian style of calligraphy in part to the Emperor Charlemagne (B. 742-D. 814).

Alcuin’s primary task was to create a script that would be easy for preachers to read and for scribes to copy.

 In the Renaissance, Italian printers used the Carolingian script as a model for their type styles.

There are no Carolingian majuscules (or capital letters).

First come the introductory videos, with some history, technical information and general insight about the class. Next, we will study each letter, one group at a time. There are PDF’s for you to print and to practise on. Following that, you will write a pangram (a sentence that contains each letter of the alphabet at least once). The course finishes with two projects for you to do.

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