Foundational
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Overview
This is a complete course that will take you from A to Z (quite literally) in learning and mastering this fundamental style of calligraphy. To quote a master (Edward Johnston), once you learn a round-hand (like this one), mastering other scripts, be they straight or sloping, will be relatively easy!
But, let’s not put the cart before the horse. We’ll study the Foundational Hand, letter by letter. The alphabet is broken down into groups and the letters are presented out-of-(alphabetical)-order. The idea is to study similar letters together. After a brief introduction and some must-have technical information, you’ll do some warm-up exercises before going on to learn each of the 26 letters of our alphabet, first in lowercase, then in uppercase. And, so that you’ll be able to address an envelope or write a phone number in Foundational Hand, we’ll also learn how to write numbers in this style of calligraphy.
The course doesn’t end there, though. You’ll have samplers to work through and a pangramme to practise writing. After that, two short and simple projects are illustrated, to give you an idea as to how to use your newly acquired skills.
Grab your pen and let’s get started!
Completing this course will help you:
- Use a parallel pen or reed pen for traditional Foundational Hand calligraphy
- Write both Lowercase & Uppercase letters, numbers
- Make simple greeting cards written in calligraphy
Who is the course for?
Calligraphers of all levels who wish to learn or perfect their calligraphic skills will enjoy this class. There are no special requirements to take this course.
would you like to learn more?
Keep reading!
Twenty video lessons – 1 ¼ hours of presentation
Our two class projects include a simple birthday card and a “Gift Certificate” envelope.
The course was designed for a 3.8 mm parallel pen or a 4 mm reed pen. A 4 mm oblique nib could also be used.
- The “founder” of this hand was Edward Johnston, a reknown British calligrapher.
- His book, “Writing & Illuminating & Lettering”, published in 1908, is still looked to as a reference in our domain.
- Johnston has often been credited with the revival of modern-day calligraphy.
Over the twenty lessons, we will:
- learn a little about Edward Johnston
- have a look at the technical information concerning this alphabet
- study the lower case letters, group by group, then do the same with the uppercase letters
- write a pangram (a sentence containing all 26 letters of the alphabet)
- practise writing numbers in Foundational style
- do two projects (a card and a Gift Certificate envelope)
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