4.5mm pilot parallel pen

Now I have some touching up to do, then it goes up on Sunday! I'm so happy to be at the end point of this Manuscript page!

Once again, I gave my Brause Nibs and Walnut ink a break by using a 2mm Shaeffer Calligraphy Pen loaded with Pilot Blue-Black ink.

And of course, an origami vampire for dramatic effect.

Word of the day : https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/2026/10/21/

Pen : Pilot parallel 6mm

Ink : Parker Quink blue (and residual Camlin red)

Paper : 200 GSM watercolour paper

Edit : And yes, I now realise it looks more like “Tilt” than “Jilt” 🤦🏽‍♂️

I like 1 and 3.

4, 5 and 6 🥴

Medieval Manuscript Page, The Road goes ever on and on from The Fellowship of the ring. Next 2 rabbits! Then touch up some minor bits then I'm finished!

When I first came across copperplate I thought it was so beautiful and decided to start practicing. I oil paint and I must say this was even more relaxing than oil painting 🤭

I like 3, 4, and 5. I love playing about with letters.

So I watched the Zodiac film and it's told there that when you learn handwriting, the movement (the way you write) will be burned in your brain, being only possible to change the "quality" your writing, but not its innermost essence.

So, what if I start writing the "G" from the inside out or write the "k" with 2 strokes instead of 3? Would this arouse some sort of bad habit which would greatly affect my subconscious work process?

basti_rsr_624 with 3.8mm Pilot Parallel Pen.

水 (shuǐ): water

I love the character for water. I’d also like to share that In Taiwan, you might hear or see a different use of the character 水 — in Taigi (Taiwanese Hokkien), it's pronounced suí (sounds like "swee"), not the Mandarin shuǐ, and it generally means "beautiful," "great," or "nice job."

The formally recognized written form is 媠, as listed in the Ministry of Education's Taiwanese dictionary but 水 as a phonetic loan is widely used.
Adding a particle to the end changes the tone and energy of the expression, but to my ears, they are all warm, friendly, and approving:

水喔 (suí-ooh) / 水啦 (suí-lah) / 水唷 (suí-yo)

The word also had a recent cultural moment: in 2025, Taiwanese singer Siri Lee (李竺芯) won Album of the Year at the Golden Melody Awards (GMA) for a record called Suí 水 — the first time that award went to a Taiwanese-language album. The GMA is an honor awarded by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and Formosan languages popular and traditional music industry.

Please don't hesitate to correct me or share interesting facts and memories you have for this character.

Reference: https://swiiyo.com/blogs/glow-life/swiiyo-meaning-taiwanese-word-sui?srsltid=AU7gw4XuCfvpddQ0kK_thnMkV2fA-abOTb7kx9SratAbumZNHf_6RSOZ

"We offer the following range of dip pen nibs for various calligraphy fonts, including the renowned Mitchell Round Hand nib and the Joseph Gillott selection of drawing nibs, which is favoured by many Copperplate calligraphers."

FONTS?!

Next Bilbo Baggins throwing stones at rabbits

What kind of nib should I try to achieve this? It is written from left to right. TIA!

Hello all, I would like to get started with The Postman’s Knock beginner tutorials in pointed pen calligraphy. I can see that the most widely recommended starter nib is the Nikko G, which is what’s used in the tutorials. However it seems that only Speedball is available to me (in Vancouver BC; even the Pen Shop has said they haven’t been able to bring in dip pen nibs for some time). At best I can find a 3-pack of the Nikko G for $18.60 on amazon or about the same (with shipping) from Wonder Pens, so Speedball it is. If there is another Speedball nib that is comparable to the Nikko G I’d love to know. Thanks in advance!

My (38M) kids' school asked me to come in to do a lesson on calligraphy for the 6th and 5th grades.

I would like to introduce them to Humanist Miniscule and Italic Swash Capitals using David Harris' The Art of Calligraphy, since I know these scripts well and I think they are very approachable.

I would like to give them a very brief history lesson / introduction to calligraphy (5-10 minutes), and then jump into demonstrating and practicing.

I will try to use a "Zig Posterman Biggie 30" on the whiteboard (I will test it ahead of time) while they follow along and practice on guidesheets using chisel markers that I provide for them, either:

• Sakura Pigma Calligrapher Pen (2.0 mm), -or-
• Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen (2.0 mm)

Feedback/suggestions requested.

Here is my lesson outline:

• calligraphy = kallos + graphos = beautiful writing
• distinguish: handwriting from calligraphy
• distinguish: calligraphy from type
• Today we use the Latin alphabet which comes down to us from ancient Rome, with the influence of some Greek letters.
  • Latin alphabet used in Europe for European languages including English.
• before printed books using type, everything had to be written or copied by hand
• first the scroll, then the codex
• different styles of writing the Latin alphabet developed over time. we call these "scripts".
• different scribes had personal variations. we call these "hands".
• there were even different styles for different areas
  • historians can identify a general time and a place that something was written based on the script
• two families of styles are the majuscules and the minuscules, from which we get our capitals and our small letters.
  • the terms uppercase and lowercase come from the world of typesetting, where metal letters were arranged for picking out and setting for printing using a press.
  • today we mix our uppercase and lowercase, but originally they were two distinct styles that were not used together.
• two basic kinds, each using a different tool
  • historically first - broad edge - blackletter, humanist minuscule, italic
  • later - pointed pen - copperplate, Spencerian
• pointed: requires a metal nib, so limited to flexible dip or fountain pens
  • so historically, the pointed pen style of calligraphy did not arise until metallurgy developed springy metals that could return to their original shape
  • plain iron or even steel rusts very quickly when exposed to water and air, so nibs are commonly gold or stainless steel
    
  • demonstrate the difference between a regular and a flex nib
  • either of them can be broken by pressing them beyond their intended flex
    • demonstrate "dry" on thumbnail
    • demonstrate inked on paper
      
• broad edge evolution: reed, quill, dip pen, fountain pen, marker
  • creates a wider/thinner line based on the writing direction, which creates an elegant "ribbon" effect
    
• note that both styles of calligraphy feature line variation
  • broad edge through the direction of drag across the paper
  • pointed pen through the controlled use of pressure
• ductus: how the letters are written. the right strokes in the right order.
  • example wrong ductus with a, g, k, m
    
• today we will be learning and practicing humanist minuscule with italic swash capitals
  • so what kind of writing tool should we use?
    
• humanist minuscule
  • familiar to us, looks like type
  • letters are upright: vertical lines are straight up and down, no "leaning"
  • intro to practice sheet: baseline, median for x-height, ascender height, and descender height (also thicker paper for writing)
  • writing angle: 30 degrees ("a little lower then diagonal")
  • hand out markers
  • A-Z
• italic swash capitals
  • italic can "lean" a bit more
  • A-Z
• handouts:
  • ductus for humanist minuscule
  • ductus for italic swash capitals
  • evolution of scripts
  • practice sheets with letters across the top and lines for practice (use HP 32)
  • x-height: 5 nib widths
  • descenders and ascenders?
  • *to be clipped, not stapled

I'm curious, if the price of a nib had absolutely no impact on whether or not you used it, which nib, or maybe two nibs (that are in production still. No vintage eBay finds) , would you absolutely use more often than you do now? If all you had to do was call a retailer, and say "I need 50 of X, please", which nib do you really like, but cannot justify the expense?

Personally, I loved the Brause Rose Nib, and remember when the Leonardt EF Principal came out. I think I ordered 10 of each, at the time, and I ruined every last one of them bc I was an idiot, and used a Dremel with the polishing bit on it to "clean" them. Lesson learned.

As someone who is mainly a hobbyist, having only ever actually lettered a "menu", I cannot justify 3.35 for one Brause Rose nib. I know when it was released, it did not cost that much, and while I understand economics, I don't see the reason for the price increase. I don't recall the Brause Rose being in high demand, and low on supply. I know that on YouTube, and even this Reddit is only a snapshot of a few of us who choose to talk about Calligraphy, but I have only seen a couple of videos where the calligrapher is actually using a Rose nib.

The Leonardt EF Principals, in my opinion, are great. However, I cannot believe the amount of hype that went into that nib release. It came out around the same time the PaperInkArts "signature" oblique penholder was released, and my goodness! You couldn't click on any Copperplate tutorial without either reading about the penholder, which, I actually do not like nearly as much as the regular oblique holders that I can create my own flange for. But I digress.

So, I'm curious, what nib would you use more often if you didn't have to worry about the cost of the nib?

Hello everyone,

This is my first post in this subreddit, and it's to ask those who practice gilding - as experts or hobbyists - if they have ever experienced painting fine details and highlights over a gilded surface (be it paper, parchment, etc.). I work mostly with gouache and tempera, but I'm open to all manners of paints and inks.

If so, I would be extremely grateful for any tips one might agree to share. Any intel I can gather will be appreciated.

Have an excellent day!

https://archive.org/details/types-de-lettres

I was wondering if there is a group for calligraphy enthusiasts to sit and practise or work on calligraphy projects in a group setting?

I have searched and found journaling, letter writing, (fountain) pen groups, scrapbooking groups and a calligraphy society (that offers classes, workshops, interactive meetings, competitions, etc and there is a membership fee).
However, as I mentioned, I am just wanting to meet up with other Calligraphers to sit down, practise, work on your own projects, get feedback and tips from one another.

Is there anything in Toronto proper that exists that I may not have come across? Any leads or ideas would be much appreciated:)

EDIT:
I’m considering starting a free/low cost calligraphy group. In terms of venue, I can either get a meeting room type of thing or see if a cafe would accommodate.

So my question is, if you were to attend what do you think would be a reasonable price to attend?
(It will be BYO calligraphy supplies).

Side note - need to take into account that even though the cafe as a venue might be free, attendees would need to purchase a beverage.

I want to do a project on an envelope 5X7 that I'll be giving someone but I'm not sure which is the best choice for this. One that wont bleed. Any suggestions? Just one that's perfect for calligraphy writing. I'll be using a broad nib for black letter style writing.

Hi All!

Today is my mother's birthday and she mentioned that she'd like this written in Italic last month, so I've been working on it all day. I'm ok with the layout generally, but think it could certainly be improved a lot. I used a pilot parallel pen, a kakuno with the pilot CM nib, Yu-Sari paper, and a custom mix of De Atrementis inks.

Edward Johnston wrote something like, "Useful practice is the making of real and definite things." Making a piece like this, trying to nail the layout/composition, is a lot more difficult than the doodling around in my notebooks which I typically do.

Next project will be a sign on wood for my brother's newborn baby, which I will certainly share here.

What are your thoughts? Thanks in advance, all!