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Gothic Alphabet -- Step by Step These Gothic alphabet tutorial
pages are my online effort to give you a one-to-one lesson in how
to write a particular form of Gothic lettering.
Note: I don't teach the letters in alphabetical order. It's
easier and quicker to start with the simpler forms and move on to
the more complicated. That way, you are always building on what
you've already mastered.
This page starts you off with: i l n u c e. The second page
covers: m w r t h b f k o q p v. After that, the third page shows
you the rest: d g z x j y a s.
And on another page are sample capital gothic letters A-Z.
You might also enjoy looking through this page on how to make
your own Gothic greetings card using similar lettering and some
decorative doodling.
There are loads of illustrations of how to write a Gothic
alphabet step by step in the lessons themselves. But to start with,
here's a rough idea of what this form of Gothic looks like:
The above is not a particularly good or beautiful example, but
it gives you an idea.
If you do the whole tutorial thoroughly, there are at least a
couple of hours fun to be had out of it. By the end, you should, I
hope, know more about writing Gothic than when you started.
Lets roll up our sleeves ...
Gothic 'littera textualis quadrata'
The particular style of Gothic alphabet Ive laid out here is a
formal hand that would have been used for copying the main text (ie
not translations or footnotes) of high-quality books in Latin
between 1200 and 1500. Its Sunday title is littera textualis
quadrata. The littera textualis means its letters for the main text
(ie high-grade formal writing)-- and quadrata refers to the square,
regular, four-sided look of it. This is the second-highest grade of
Gothic alphabet from the period. (Even more prestigious was
textualis prescissa or sine pedibus.)
In case you want to know, its pronounced LIT-era
tex-choo-WAH-lis kwod-RAH-tuh.
You will need ...
First, set up your workspace and materials comfortably. Check
that you have:
1. A clear desk-space (preferably on a sloping writing-desk, or
a desk-easel. You could use a board propped against a dictionary.)
2. Fair quality paper (preferably lightly ruled).
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3. Broad-nibbed pen and ink. 4. Tissues or cloth, and water if
you like, for wiping ink off the nib, fingers, etc.
Strictly, you should be lined up squarely in front of the desk
with all your materials in easy reach, feet flat on the floor, back
straight and shoulders relaxed. And, of course, this page in clear
sight. Im going to assume youve made yourself comfortable :-)
Gothic alphabet easy measurements
The wider your nib, the taller and larger your letters must be.
You should write your Gothic alphabet at a size which is in
proportion to the thickness of your nib so that it shows a pleasing
balance of black and white space. Rule your top line accordingly,
or just estimate and stick to it as well as you can.
Gothic alphabets can vary in density and spacing. A standard,
fairly open version is written around 4.5 nib-widths high for the
x-height (the height of the regular small letters such as x, e, c,
a, o.) Allow another 2-2.5 nib-widths above the x-height and below
the base-line for ascenders or descenders on letters such as b, h,
g, p. There are a couple of letters -- d and t -- that are in
between 4.5 and 7 nib-widths high.
Here's an illustration of what 4 nib-widths looks like if your
nib is very thick (your own nibwidths and, therefore, your Gothic
alphabet may well be smaller or larger):
Alternatively, if you have good eyesight and a very small ruler,
you can measure your nibs width in tenths of a millimeter and
simply multiply by 4.5 and 7. (Joke.)
Once youre happy that you know roughly how tall the letters of
your Gothic alphabet should be, its best to start with the two
simplest: i and l.
(Aside: heres how Ive laid out these tutorial pictures:
The top line of the illustration, going from left to right, is
where I show -- separately, in sequence -- each mark you need to be
able to make in order to form a particular letter of this Gothic
alphabet.
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Then, underneath, in the bottom line of the illustration, youll
see how the letter progresses as a whole when you add the different
marks together. The final letterform is outlined in a gold
box.)
So make sure youre holding your pen relaxedly, at 45 degrees,
and let's begin:
You will notice (I hope!) that a Gothic letter i is made up
essentially of three marks: a symmetrical lozenge at the top, a
short vertical (a minim) and another symmetrical lozenge at the
bottom, which has an optional small upwards tick on it if its the
final letter in a word.
(The thin diagonal slash as a dot above the i is not always
found in the medieval originals but is very useful indeed for
making Gothic script more legible.)
The Gothic letter l is exactly the same, but the first lozenge
starts about 7 nib-widths up and the descending vertical is of
course longer (and more prone to wobble).
Watch out for muscular tension and poor posture. It will make
your letters stiff and clumsy. Relax your arm, straighten your
back, loosen your grip (no white knuckles please), keep the nib
light upon the page and try to move your whole hand and wrist to
form the letters. (HANDwriting, not finger-writing.)
Its best to do each letter a few times, trying to improve it a
little each time.
There are not many practice words containing only the letters i
and l but, still, I recommend that you write out the following. Try
to keep the letters regular:
li ill illi lili
Okay. Enough lilili? On to the next Gothic letters: n and u.
These are basically formed of two is joined together and the join
is an exciting diagonal line!
Feeling excited? ;-D
The trick with n and u (and, later, m and w) is to make sure
that the joining diagonals at the top (n) or bottom (u) are only a
tiny bit longer than the lozenge you start the i with. The diagonal
shoulder should create just enough white space inside the letter to
balance the black between 1.5 and 2 nibwidths worth of white space,
thats all.
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Yes, it really does take six separate pen-strokes to form this
sort of Gothic letter n. (Wait till you try m.) That is why, among
Gothic alphabets, textualis quadrata was used for high-quality
copying, not for scrawling shopping lists. But it gets quicker with
practice. And there really is no way to create the elaborate look
of a Gothic alphabet other than by labouring a little.
Labour a little more over these practice words. If you line up
your lozenges nicely, they will look terrific:
nun lull nil null inn lulu
All right. Now, a pair of less complex Gothic letters these are
only two pen-movements each. You must change direction cleanly
partway through each stroke to create a new straight line no
curves.
And there is a little trick to these two letters: at the top
left of each, you will join up the pointed ends of your lines to
form a straight diagonal edge, two nib-widths wide. Again, its
easier to show you than to explain:
You see? You start the first vertical a little below what will
be the final height of the letter. Make sure your nib is angled at
45 degrees. Then draw straight downwards. Before you get to the
bottom, angle diagonally right, still drawing downwards. At the
bottom of the letter, change nib direction to move diagonally right
and upwards to make a short, thin tail.
Then take the nib off the paper, and reposition it at the top of
the letter again so that the nibs left corner just touches the
vertical lines top right corner. Keep the pen angle at a constant
45 degrees. Draw a slightly down-sloping bar across to the right.
The 45-degree corners of the lines have meanwhile mysteriously met
up to create a tidy, squared-off c or e. Neat, eh?
Youll use the same trick to form other Gothic letters later on.
But meanwhile, here are some more interesting words to practise
with:
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ecu ice eel nice clue lice cull uncle icicle
Icicle is such a lovely-looking word that its well worth writing
it out again for the sheer pleasure of watching it form. (Take that
as a hint if you like!)
This lesson continues in Part 2 with a longer section of the
alphabet: m w r t h b f k o q p v. Click the link below to carry
on. (Or have a cup of tea first. You've earned it.)
Gothic Letters Step by Step -- Part 2 Welcome to Part 2 of this
online Gothic letters tutorial!
Note: remember, the letters here aren't presented in
alphabetical order. By moving from the simpler to the more
complicated, you learn them as easily and efficiently as
possible.
Were going to carry on with m and w before getting on to some of
the more complex Gothic forms. Hope youre feeling happy with your
progress so far.
So, back to the grindstone! Here is 'm' to start with:
Nine pen-strokes! I know! Nevertheless, it looks great when its
done with care. But straightaway, before youve even got your breath
back, here's 'w':
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As you can see, 'w' is very similar to 'm' but the joins are at
the bottom and perhaps its a little less hard work.
Amazing words are now pennable by you in authentic Gothic
calligraphy. For instance:
me we mum win new mewl well clime mince wince eminence
minimum
If you get minimum neatly formed and evenly spaced, it will look
like a very attractive black picket-fence. And if you turn it
upside down, it will look almost exactly the same. Thats textualis
quadrata for you! One of the reasons Gothic alphabets gave way to
roundhand is that sometimes they were hard on the eyesight.
Next, well do t and two forms of Gothic r. R comes in two
varieties because its a letter that ordinarily carries its bulk on
the left and opens out to the right with a lot of white space. This
means that when it follows a bulky, rounded letter with a solid
right-hand vertical, such as o, b, d, p or y, the combination of
both letters looks crowded in the middle and irritatingly empty on
the right.
So, a different form of 'r' is used, more like the front half of
a majuscule (capital) version. It fills the space better. For
example, have a look at the white spaces in these words:
(Basically, the alternative form of r looks more balanced after
a rounded letter. I say rounded in quotation marks because there
are no rounded letters as such in this variety of Gothic lettering;
it would be more accurate to say, letters that would usually be
rounded.)
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So, at last, after all that, here is actually how to pen these
forms of r. Oh, and t, too, of course! --
Note that the Gothic letter t is not 7 nib-widths tall. It is
shorter than l but taller than i, e, n, etc. Start it about 5.5
nib-widths above the baseline, so that the first short, thin
diagonal reaches down to just above the ruled line that marks the
top of the x-height. Then, angle cleanly down into a vertical,
leaving a blunt corner where you changed direction. Make sure your
pen is still at 45 degrees. Then place your nib (45 degrees!) to
the left of that new vertical, so that the nibs right-hand corner
is just barely touching the outward corner of the angle, and draw a
short bar straight across. The two oblique line-ends formed
naturally by the nib should have joined at the top left of the t to
create a smooth, diagonal edge.
(You might want to read that again and look at the example. Its
like the trick for e and c, but youve swapped the order you draw
the lines in and youre working on the lower, left-hand corner of
the vertical line, not the slightly higher right-hand corner.)
I know, I go on a lot how about some practice of your Gothic
letters so far?
tut rut tree writ curt mutt trice writer enteric trimmer
recliner
(You may be wondering what to do if the bar of the t interferes
with the lozenge at the top of the minim on the following letter.
Thats about ligatures (letter-joins) and for Gothic letters its a
whole new lesson in itself.)
So, r you happy with your fine English t? Then lets move on to
the next two:
These Gothic letters need little explanation. The h is basically
an l joined to the second half of an n. The b is just a little more
elaborate: its most of an l combined with the bottom stroke of a u
and the top half of an n. That makes it
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sound more complicated than it really is. My point is that you
already know how to form all the elements needed for these two
Gothic letters.
So after a couple of trials you can get straight into the
practice words:
hub bib the web batch cheer whittle hubbub brunch inhibit
nibbler humbler churchmen
At this point, Id recommend that you practise writing the many
times. As its one of the most common words in the English language
and as it contains one short letter, one tall letter and one in
between and as its balance (or lack of it) can make or break any
piece of calligraphy you produce its worth learning to write it
well.
Here are some examples:
Notice how on the better-looking examples the verticals are all
carefully spaced. The cross-bar on the t barely touches the h. The
e should be placed carefully too not so close to the h as to crowd
the word, and not so far away as to look orphaned.
The next two Gothic letters are formed with slightly more detail
again:
(Yes, I have noticed that I mis-labelled the 'k' as an 'h'. It
will be changed soon. Soonish.)
The letter f is a full-height letter but, like c and e, you
start about a nib-width below its full height so that you have
space to add the stroke at the top and create a clean diagonal edge
at the top left of the letter. The cross-bar should be quite short
and should sit fairly high.
On the Gothic letter k the main interest is to place the bow
high enough to leave room for a foot that doesnt collide with the
lozenge at the bottom of the first vertical, but also which doesnt
stretch too far out to the right. The distance between the first
vertical and the foot of the k where it touches the bottom line
should be barely larger than the distance between the first
vertical and the outside edge of the bow at its furthest point.
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If that sounds too pernickety, simply ignore it and have a go at
the following:
if kill funk brink skiffle bicker Fokker muffler wrinkle chicken
bumfluff
When you are writing two fs together, its a good idea to shorten
the top diagonal stroke a little on the first one, to make more
room for the second.
The next two Gothic letters are about the skill of judging
spaces. In fact, o is only made of two strokes, but each stroke
changes direction twice within 90 degrees and must be formed with
the correct proportions so that both strokes fit together perfectly
to make the final letter.
As you can see below, q is formed very similarly, but the final
stroke continues downwards below the line and terminates in a short
serif. (You could also finish it with a lozenge, as on all the
other letters, but I rather enjoy this one defiant flash of variety
within the otherwise very uniform Gothic letters of this particular
alphabet.)
Its well worth practising o until you are very satisfied that
you can draw both halves exactly and make them match up at the
corners without much overlap. The Gothic letter o is surprisingly
delicate for such a square form, and its delicacy resides almost
entirely in the precision and fineness of its diagonals as formed
by the point-to-point technique.
The o also opens up a whole new caboodle of vocabulary (look how
many os are to be found in those few words alone!)
quo look toque quorum quench clique rococo emoticon roquefort
unbroken coquette luminous
But you still cant mind your ps and qs as we havent done p yet.
So I guess thats my q to move on to the next Gothic letters in this
sequence:
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You can already see that p is pretty much like a b with a
longer, flat crossbar. And v is very like a u but make sure it has
a very, very slight, graceful outwards bow if you want it to be
clearly distinguishable from u.
viper pump verve prove pelvic hover whippet fervent peopled
revolver peppermint
Well, that is pretty much the end of the regular Gothic letters
formed on the basis of the l or the c. The remaining few letters
are formed using moves that you will recognize from your work so
far, in combination with some new squiggles and changes of
angle.
You will find them all in the third and final part of this
Gothic letters tutorial.
Your Gothic calligraphy skills will already have improved
through experience if you have worked through the first two pages.
Its time to move on to the elaborate, fiddly, final letters in this
tutorial!
Lets start with d and g:
In fact, although these two letters may look like quite
difficult Gothic calligraphy, both of them are much simpler than
youd think. You only take your pen off the page once for d, and g
is made of far fewer strokes than youd imagine.
The important thing for you to bear in mind when forming both
these letters is PROPORTION. If one element is too short or too
long, it will throw out the whole shape of the letter. Aim for
compactness, precision and symmetry.
If it doesnt come right the first few times, dont imagine that
you wont be able to do it. Shrug and have another go. Gothic
calligraphy really does get simpler and better-looking the more
often its done. After a while your hand seems to make the right
moves almost automatically and you realize that all the elements in
a letter were designed to fit together. You just have to get them
the right size in relation to each other.
When youre reasonably satisfied please note I only said
reasonably try out the following:
dig god dough muddling gouged gripped dogged gilded grudging
peddling giggled
Notice that its not always easy to get two ds or two gs to sit
happily next to each other. With Gothic gs especially, if you find
that the second example is getting crowded out below the line, make
sure that the descending portion of the first g doesnt stretch too
far out to the right. The main factor in forming both letters
happily is proportion and spacing. And practice. (Did I say that
already?)
Now, here are two exotically zany Gothic calligraphy letters to
take your mind off those doggone ds and gs:
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Strangely enough, z is one of the simplest Gothic letters to
write so long as you keep it simple. Try not to make its
horizontals too long and wiggly; its quite a plain letter.
By contrast, x is fiddlier to form. For this and a few other
Gothic calligraphic forms, you need (ideally) to produce fine lines
at different angles.
To do this, rotate the pen lightly and slightly anticlockwise
with your fingers so as to lift the right-hand corner of the nib
off the page. Then you can use the left-hand corner of the nib to
draw out a thin line of ink (a hairline) extending from your
letter.
If this is too tricky for the moment, make your x plainer by
using just a simple diagonal; its just as authentic that way.
With z and x you can now write the following to practise your
spacing:
hex zip exit minx pixel quizzed pizzle mixture boxed
exertion
On now to j and y. They are similar in that they both have tails
that go below the line, and they are both quite modern letters
which were not generally seen much in historical Gothic
calligraphy.
The simpler of the two is j. However, y is not difficult once
you have seen how the two pieces fit together. Traditionally, y
carries a dot over it; you can leave it out if you prefer.
As you can see, the letter y is another example of Gothic
calligraphy which is easier to form if you can draw its tail with a
hairline. While youre drawing the nib downwards and round, twist it
gently a little so that the right-hand corner comes off the page,
and carry on drawing the tail of the y with just the left-hand
corner.
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If that doesnt work, draw the same slightly squiggly tail but
with all of the nib-end held against the page as normal, for a
thick-and-thin effect. (Leave off the final lozenge or it will look
too heavy.) Some people prefer that form of y anyway!
joy yoyo hajj yolk jolly day-job jaybird justify rejigged
yellowy jejunum
You may have been wondering what has happened to two of the
commonest letters in the alphabet. They have not been forgotten.
Here are the Gothic letters a and s to finish the sequence:
Form a in two sections which are then joined by the final loop.
If you can, turn the nib to draw this final looping stroke as a
hairline with the left-hand corner, dragging a little ink with it
from where you positioned the nib first at the top of the letter.
If you cant manage that yet, just draw a loop round with the pen
nib held level on the page as normal.
The secret with s, as with most Gothic calligraphy, is not to
draw any of the lines too long. It can take a little practice to
fit together the two first sections so that they just touch at
their corners in the centre and still leave enough room top and
bottom for the next strokes. As with c and e, start the first
downward stroke a little below the final height of the letter. The
diagonal joining line is more or less optional, depending on your
taste.
General tip Try to form Gothic calligraphy using lines which
just barely touch, rather than which overlap each other. This gives
it a more angular and elegant appearance, saves time and makes best
use of your pen.
(Remember, the scribes of the thirteenth century did not evolve
this script solely to make life difficult for themselves. They had
a reason for developing each letterform, and they wanted to be able
to produce texts quite efficiently. Supposing your letters
sometimes dont fit together right or their feet wander about on the
base-lines the primary cause is just lack of repetition and
familiarity.)
Now that the whole of this Gothic alphabet is an open book to
you, the following sequences will be a cinch:
as baa-lamb sassy sisters lassos aardvark sesame straight
pyjamas jealously abracadabra razzmatazz sesquipedalian pandemonium
assassinations exaggeratedly circumnavigation
antidisestablishmentarianism floccinaucinihilipilification
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Maybe youd prefer to try out an old favourite:
the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Or -- now that you know it all -- you could even write this:
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abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
You will soon be able to find out about capital Gothic letters
(majuscules) elsewhere on the site. Meanwhile, you might like to
find out how to draw some versals to use as decorated initials.
Then youre all set to write out deep dark Gothic poetry, create a
certificate of vampirehood or even compose your own sonnet and then
present it in Gothic script with a decorated border.
Congratulations on making it all the way to the end! I do hope
you will use your Gothic calligraphy skills to create an outrageous
effect somewhere.
Decorated Letters Creating decorated letters is not only a
useful skill to employ in making your illuminated texts, greetings
cards, scrapbooking and gifts. It's also a great pleasure whether
as a calligrapher, a graphic artist, or just a human being looking
to have some fun.
It's not calligraphy, as such. But the ability to decorate a
letter or set of letters is certainly one of the core calligraphy
skills.
One important thing to remember is that the foundation of all
successful decorated letters is a clear letter-form to begin with,
so that the reader can pay attention to the decoration in, on or
surrounding it. (Gothic, as in the example above, is a slight
exception in having quite ornamental letters to start with, but
then gothic letters are not usually expected to be very
legible!)
The general rule is that any flourishes added to the letter
itself should not detract from its legibility if it is also going
to be decorated.
Which calligraphy alphabet to use? Decorated letters are often
Roman capitals, uncials, versals, or somewhat less commonly Celtic
(insular half-uncial) or gothic capital letters. Popular and
effective forms of decoration include:
colour, whether in the letter or its surrounds or both patterns
of flowers and/or foliage ornamental or geometric lines in or
around the letter some kind of illustration inside the letter-form
('historiation') shine or sparkle in the form of gold, silver,
glitter, pearlescent colour etc. ('illumination') varied texture
glued-on beads, fabric, paper etc
Many of these can be combined. Below, you can see a step-by-step
breakdown of some of these decorative techniques used to create the
'Happy Birthday' above.
So, next time you're planning to write out a poem, a name-card
or a birthday greeting, imagine something more than the utilitarian
black squiggles that we usually read. Set letters free with art and
fancy.
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Easy decorated letters: a gothic example
This is a built-up decorating method I used at a local medieval
fair recently. In return for their name in gothic decorated letters
on 'parchment' paper, visitors were asked to make a donation to the
event charity (the local town museum). They could donate as much or
as little as they pleased. But I did say that the more silver coins
crossed my palm, the more flourishes and ornament would be added to
their name!
Here, I've used the text 'Happy Birthday'. Feel free to print or
copy any part of the sequence for your own (non-commercial)
use.
The first step is to decide where to place the decorated letters
on the page in this case, H and B. Remember, these letters will
grab most of your reader's attention and carry most of the visual
weight of the page, so they need to be balanced.
I judged by eye, based on how long the words would stretch
across the page, and drew rough pencil boxes by hand to show their
location. In this example, I wanted 'Birthday' to stretch well
beyond 'Happy'.
Then, write any text which is not going to be decorated in this
case, 'appy' and 'irthday'. It's important to get the plain text
written first. That way, you know how much space you have for the
decorated letters and also exactly where that space is.
The first decorative technique I've used is to change the colour
of the initial letter. I'm using the traditional vermilion of the
European Middle Ages (here, mixed from cadmium red, cadmium orange
and a little ochre).
For a not-too-ornate decorated letter, this can be enough in
itself. In fact, red lettering for decoration and emphasis has
always been a very popular technique with its own fancy name:
rubrication. (It's the origin of the 'red-top' on tabloid
newspapers, as well as 'red-letter' days on calendars.)
Notice that I've left the letters slightly incomplete. That's
because there's plenty of room on the page for some flourishes, a
feature of many fancy letters and therefore something to consider
for your decorated letters too so long as they don't make them too
hard to read.
(Because 'Happy Birthday' is such an easy phrase to recognise, I
can get away with a bit more fancy-schmancy stuff than if it were a
more difficult text.) So, flourish away!
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You might notice I've used two nibs: the broad-edged nib which I
had used to write the letters with, and a thin, flexible,
copperplate nib for finer flourishes and lines.
Next, in imitation of the great old illuminated manuscripts, and
also because it's very easy to do, I've painted a coloured area
around each letter. This 'gold' square is actually just mixed up
from ochre, a little cadmium orange, cadmium yellow and a touch of
warm sepia. It gives the right weight and colour, but of course
real gold leaf or even shell gold would look far more reflective
and dramatic.
Notice how the gold-coloured square really focuses attention on
the initial letter and holds it in place on the page. The white
line left all around the letter helps make it crisper and easier to
read. If the yellow were painted right up to the red, the letter
would appear to sink into the background.
Next: ornamental line. Page decorators in the Middle Ages were
keen on a kind of scallop pattern which turns up in various forms
in different illuminated letters and borders. I've created one here
which looks like a row of little clubs from a deck of cards: it's
relatively easy to draw quickly and if you get it slightly wrong
here and there it doesn't much affect the overall look and feel of
your decorated letters.
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Here's a close-up so you can see that it's all pretty rough and
ready.
(In case you're interested, the colour is ultramarine blue
gouache let down with a little viridian green, lamp-black and white
so it's not too glaringly blue. In a medieval manuscript it would
have been either the fabled lapis-lazuli or else azurite.)
So far, so good and when I was writing gothic names for
passers-by, quite a few were content with just that much
decoration. But as you're still with me (I'm impressed!) how about
we add some foliage and flowers just to see what it looks like? Oh
and, while we're at it, a little more weight of colour around the
initials?
Again, I've stuck to a typical fourteenth-century design for
these decorated letters, with stylised ivy leaves in unrealistic
but pleasingly bright colours, and little 'gold' burrs emphasised
with sepia.
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The outlining in a traditional gothic manuscript would more
usually be a heavy black, but sepia gives a warmer, softer effect.
Tip: draw the main branches and the leaves first, and then join
them up with leaf-stems drawn in afterwards. This helps get
everything well placed and proportioned.
Lastly, since the decoration on these letters has now in fact
gone rather over-the-top, the whole design needs some steadying
influence. A heavy outline around the whole lot will help keep it
in one place, as it were (see the design at the top of this page).
I used the same nib I used to write the text, with a few doubled
lines for extra weight.
It may not be great calligraphic art, but it was fun to doodle,
it would make its recipient happy, and it at least illustrates the
basic principles for creating fancy decorated letters!
Of course, there are hundreds of other ways to create decorated
letters. I hope the ideas above will inspire you to use colour,
line and illustration in a variety of ways to bring your own
alphabet to life.
Make your own card 1: Gothic doodle Turn off those stressful cat
videos, relax, and make your own card for the next hour or so
instead? It's a calligraphic no-brainer!
(Here's a superb cat for you anyway, by Siyah Kalem,
15th-century Turkic genius:)
Let's assume that today, like me and the cat, you dont want to
try to get everything perfect to make your own card. You just want
to have fun.
-
And what if you make a mistake, create an effect you don't like,
or the card doesn't turn out how you wanted? No problem. This time,
it's not about 'practice makes perfect', but just the pleasure of
doodling with whatever you've got.
(As the master of calligraphy, Edward Johnston, would tell you:
sometimes the best way to practise calligraphy skills is not to
futz about writing more alphabets but to make a finished piece.
Now.)
Make your own card: tools & materials
First, gather enough tools and materials, but not too many.
In or around the desk Ive quickly found the following:
1. mixing palette, newly washed, yay! 2. wooden ruler (if you're
wondering, I tried to sandpaper off the markings to make it
acceptable for a medieval fair) 3. printer paper, for scrap 4.
artist's colours red, yellow, blue and white are all youll really
need for this exercise I've selected ultramarine blue (a
medieval-looking colour), vermilion (ditto), titanium white
(good coverage) and ochre (useful for gold effects) 5. a
rectangular scrap of heavy, cream, watercolour card (400gsm I
think) left over from a commission last Christmas 6. a 4H pencil 7.
a size 1 sable spotter (a useful size of brush) or any good
fine-pointed small round paintbrush 8. two rather horrible-looking
bent-nibbed quill pens I cut more than a year ago one wide, one
narrow they might work,
they might not use your pens of choice 9. (not shown) a slanted
board to work on, cup of rinse-water, eraser, audio entertainment,
and insouciant attitude
You may not have just the same materials from which to make your
own card, and the ones Ive found are not necessarily ideal for
example, my piece of card scrap is too small to fold but its all
about improvisation. 'Start where you are, use what you have, do
what you can,' and all that.
Ruling up and laying out
Usually, to make your own card or indeed any calligraphic piece,
you would select a text, experiment with preliminary sketches and
layouts, practise the writing of final piece, practise more on the
type of paper that will be used, and then choose the final paper
size and rule up according to the nature of the text to be written.
And even then you might end up doing the final piece two or three
or four times.
Personally, I have no idea what Im going to write, and no
intention of spending time trying to choose a 'good' quotation (let
alone all the practice). So why not just start ruling up the
easiest way possible?
-
My ruler is a nice width compared with my piece of card: Im
simply going to lay one edge of the ruler along the card, draw
along its other edge round all four sides, and then my writing
space will be whatever ends up in the middle.
So rule up however you like. Hope you found a nice simple
solution.
As for mine, you can't see the lines in the above picture, but
you can work it out from the ruler width. I reckon I can get a bare
two writing lines out of the rectangular space that's left in the
middle lets say a slightly wider line on top, a slightly smaller
one underneath, and a spacer line in between (for ascenders and
descenders).
However many lines you've got, make sure your pen is roughly a
width that will produce legible words inside them.
While we're ruling up, what do you think to an illuminated
initial on this home-made card? It would be fun, they're easy, and
it will give some impact to the text. I fancy a versal B because of
the nice curly bits in the middle.
So now Im going to lay out a square for that to sit in.
Whatever letter you're starting with, pencil the square in
lightly, flush with the top writing line, leaving some space around
it for decoration later. Versals and Roman majuscules are good
choices for initials.
(A note on this make-your-own-card exercise, and on design and
calligraphy in general. I find its much easier to make something
decorative which involves fiddling around and adding details than
it is to execute a really good, simple, rigorous design straight
off. Doodling around in a Gothic style will allow for lots of
decoration and addition of new layers, and so it's actually lazier
than, for example, working to get three lines of spare, elegant,
undecorated, jet-black italic just right.)
Make your own card, make your own ink
-
Now we need ink. Home-made greetings card => home-made ink.
Or at least home-mixed. With the particular blue, red and yellow
Ive got I can mix a reasonable dark brown/black, testing on the
scrap as I go.
Too brown means add more blue; too purple, add more ochre; and
then it's nearly black. If you're following along here, your colour
will vary according to what kind of blue, red and yellow youre
working with. But, diluted to the consistency of thin cream, any
dark brown or grey watercolour paint will function as ink.
(This making of black from primary colours is about
complementaries and subtractive colour mixing. If you're
interested, check out Michael Wilcox' excellent Blue and Yellow
Don't Make Green.)
And as there are only two lines to work with on this card, I
think Ill do the top line in a nice broken red, to add contrast and
emphasis on the first words of whatever it is I'm going to write.
(If you'd rather stick to just black text, skip the next two
photos.)
The vermilion straight out of the tube is almost eye-wateringly
bright. To take the edge off, I mess it up with a dab of ochre
yellow and some of the black ink Ive already mixed:
Mix it up ... still too bright ... add more 'black' ...
There. The bottom scribble below shows the final colour I've
decided on. Not too brown, but not too glaringly vivid, either.
-
Prepping the pen
Now, on to prepare for the writing. (Perhaps my text should be
'Make your own card', to be meta. Except I've started with a 'B'
now and 'Bake your own card' takes silliness too far.)
I have no idea whether these ancient quills will still work
As it turns out my broad-cut quill does need trimming, and even
after trimming is warped and not easy to use. Observe the horrible
gap at the slit, and the remains of the inks of yesteryear. Please
note (a) your nibs shouldnt look this messy and (b) you do not need
to make your own pen in order to make your own card use whatever
calligraphy pen you have to hand that suits you :-)
However, if you are using a quill pen to make your own card, now
is the time to check whether it's good to fit the writing space
youve got, and trim to size if desired.
Into the trimmed quill, I poke a small piece of bent foil I
searched out just now in a drawer (probably cut from a drinks can
ages ago) to act as an ink reservoir so the flow is steadier. You
can see the foil loop lying against the nib-slit. You could turn it
round so the unfolded end is sitting on the slit, too.
SIDE-NOTE for dip-nib users
Its usually easier to fill a quill or dip-nib using an old
brush, rather than dipping into a pot. This is especially true when
using small quantities of ink, as with colour mixed from a
tube.
How to do it: wet the brush thoroughly with the ink, so it's
well loaded with colour. Then gently brush it over the side of the
nib till you have a decent-sized drop of colour sitting between
reservoir and slit. Park the loading brush somewhere close to
-
hand, but not with the wet end poking out towards you (or you
will end up with painted elbows) or lying on your desk (or you'll
find the ink migrates onto fingers, other tools, etc and quite
likely onto the finished piece).
Always test the nib and ink flow on scrap before you go back to
writing on your final piece.
Did I mention to always test the nib on scrap paper, before you
start writing and in between refills? This is the one great piece
of time-and-labour-saving advice.
This broad nib Im using is sulky. One side of it has distinctly
bent away from the other (badly cured, age, poor original cut,
uneven slit, whatever), so getting the ink flow to start is
challenging. Priming the tip by dipping into some ink helps, and
then putting slightly more pressure on the right than on the left.
It's not ideal, and the test strokes are messy, but hey.
As I keep saying, the aim of this make your own card session is
to have fun with whats available right now, not to try to perfect
everything.
Writing out the text
I've decided. I'm going to write Blingety blingblingbling on my
hand-made greetings card. Because why not? Blingety starts with
B.
(You can sketch the letters in with a hard pencil to check
theyll fit, as I have below. It's a bit of a cheat, and you have to
watch out because the pencil lines aren't the same thickness as the
pen lines. It's better and more professional to use the pen to do a
test run of the whole text on the scrap paper, so you can predict
how long each word will be. But we are feeling lazy, remember?)
So 'lingety' goes straight on, in red, with a curl on the 'y' to
fill the line ... which looks like an unintended comma from a
distance. Oh well. Then, for my next line, it's necessary to clean
the red off both the quill and reservoir, and transfer a few drops
of the mixed-black ink to the pen with the brush to write
'blingblingbling'. Which I start too large, and have to cram in
towards the end. Meh.
So how are you doing over there? Here, after both batches of
writing are done, is my home-made card in progress.
-
Let it be noted, this is not good Gothic. What's wrong with
it?
incorrect proportions uneven spacing too much sway on many of
the downstrokes uncertain verticals which dont line up well ragged
edges to the strokes
Why? First, because I havent practised for a while and nor have
I warmed up. Second, I didnt do a test run of the design on scrap
paper to get the spacing sorted out. Third, the nib size isnt quite
right for this line height my own fault. Fourth (not making
excuses, but) this quill is genuinely difficult to write with.
Fifth, I failed to note that the watercolour paper is textured,
which means the nib end doesnt meet the paper exactly that in
combination with the sulky quill and the uncertain hand has
resulted in the ragged edges.
Yeah.
Yours is probably going to be much better than mine.
Who cares? Mines legible just about. And I'm having fun.
Onwards!
Flourishes ... and all that jazz
Remember the other quill? Have you got a fine pen there,
too?
So far it hasn't been used. So I've decided to load it with red
ink and draw some flourishes above the writing. (Even for this
super-casual make your own card exercise, I dont fancy trying to
draw flourishes with that other nib.)
The flourish is partly for fun, partly to balance the visual
space, and partly to see whether I can distract the viewers eye
from the poor quality of the Gothic lettering. The thin lines dont
look quite right (no pic, sorry), so I doubled some of them up in
the places where a broader nib would have given a broad line.
And wow, does it look messy now
-
O.K.! Not the intended effect! But let's not throw it away
instead, how about filling the lines in with the paintbrush and
pretending it was done with the broad nib after all?
Haha!
SIDE-NOTE on authenticity
Before my conscientious visitors write in and tell me that
authentic medieval Gothic writing shouldnt have flourishes like
that: yes, you are right. I did it because I'm doodling a greetings
card, not stickling for medieval authenticity. (If there are
'sticklers', surely 'to stickle' is a verb?)
If you want to make your own card look true to period, its best
to work from a model, rather than making it up as you go along like
I am doing here. Of course, if you want to make your own card in
exactly the same manner that a medieval scribe actually would have
made it, then I believe you should shamelessly copy about a third
of it, do another third by memory of some fancy manuscript you saw
somewhere, and otherwise, absolutely, make it up as you go along
;-)
Thinking about decoration, gilding, etc
Around now, it would be useful to make some decisions about
decoration of the initial letter. I think something simple, like
gold. So I'll get some ochre onto the palette, for outlining. And
I'd like to start filling in that initial 'B' with the colour its
finally going to be, so we get an overall impression of weight. A
mid-dark blue ... Ill need a dab of the ultramarine and some
white.
-
(Most medieval illuminated letters are not one plain colour, and
often the way to make them stand out and to make expensive coloured
pigments go further was to mix the basic colour with cheaper white
to create subtly modelled 3-D effects or highly patterned
textures.)
How do you want to decorate your initial letter?
So in the picture below I've now outlined the area to be gold
I've selected a square area that doesn't interrupt the flourishes,
and maintains a little distance from the 'l' of 'Blingety', so that
the gold doesn't swallow that first letter. Usually, of course,
gold is put on before decoration like flourishes. Not today.
If you'd prefer some other form of decoration instead of gold
round the initial letter, now's the time to decide what kind, how
much room it should take up, and whether it's going to have a hard
outline or needs to be pencilled in as lots of twiddly flowers and
leaves, for example.
Now for the basic colour on the initial B. For the moment Im
just going to go with half dark blue to get a feel for how it will
look. My blue painted curls don't follow the pencilled curls,
because I changed my mind about what would look better. And on
impulse I'm adding some protruding stalks for later
leafy-and/or-floral-decor, thus:
-
How's yours? I'm sitting here genuinely feeling very curious
about what your decorated calligraphic Gothic doodle home-made card
might look like right now.
Fake 'gilding', and decoration cont.
Frankly, my dear, I simply cannot be bothered today with
real-gold gilding on this make-your-own-card, so Im mixing up some
gold colours here out of the ochre, red, black, and blue.
You thought we were going to do real gilding? Apologies. But
painting fake gilding using ochre or raw sienna is a lot of fun
too.
By the way, how do you feel about adding some gold balls to the
initial B? Gold balls are good. And we might as well begin to get
the pale blue onto the B; and I'm suddenly in the mood to add
little fourteenth-century-looking ivy leaflets as decoration,
too:
-
So now for the fake gilding. If you're doing some other kind of
decoration, skip the next three pictures. If you're hanging in
there with me, just start by painting roughly diagonal stripes
using plain, dilute, transparent ochre watercolour, like the
picture on the right
and then fill in some darker colour in between; I've added small
quantities of the previously mixed black ink to the ochre to make
browns, a little red to make orangey yellows, and even smaller
quantities of blue to make a dull greenish colour.
Blend the dark to the mid-tones, and blend the mid-tones with
water onto the plain paper to make a very pale, transparent ochre,
almost white. Plain ochre gives a lovely glowing gold when it's
dilute, but if you lay it on thickly, it turns khaki.
If you put too much paint on and its looking too muddy or heavy,
you can take some back off again in selected patches by cleaning
and wetting the same brush and gently stroking it over the surface
of the paint to loosen the particles of pigment before pressing
with a folded corner of kitchen towel or other absorbent paper.
-
And finally, you should end up with something that, if you
squint a bit, looks like a painted 'gold' background for the
initial 'B'.
I hope you are having as much fun as I am as you make your own
card!
Meanwhile, while you weren't looking, I took the opportunity to
paint some dark blue onto those little leaflets on my card, and
started to fill in the floral design in the middle with
details.
So I'm going to fill in the gold dots now, using some more crude
trompe-loeil technique dragged out of a secondary-school art class
on how to shade a sphere.
Once you've got the design in the middle of your initial
sketched in, it's also a good time to think about filling in a
coloured background. On my card, I've used the dark red left over
from writing the first line which both harmonises with the -lingety
and saves mixing up any more colours.
SIDE-NOTE: trompe-loeil
Theres a whole art of painting trompe-loeil (French for
deceive-the-eye) to give an impression on the page of gold leaf and
precious or semi-precious stones, realistic flowers, insects, small
objects etc which is hugely enjoyable. Try searching for gold sheet
in Google Images and study the colours and effects. Most of what we
think of as gold is a quality of reflectivity, while the actual
colours involved can range from brown and yellow to orange and
green. Its how those colours are linked, shaded and textured from
darker to lighter that makes people think gold.
As a quick dirty fix to make your own card look as though it has
a gilded initial: paint slightly uneven lines of fake reflection on
a rough diagonal (basically, imitating a cheesy Photoshop effect).
The diagonal doesnt have to be 45 degrees, but just some angle so
the eye registers it as a quality of naturally uneven light in the
environment rather than something thats suspiciously exactly lined
up with the verticals and horizontals of the page.
-
Finishing touches to make your card fancier
Now to add lots of twiddly-fiddly, possibly unnecessary, but
highly enjoyable detail!
Since I don't know what you're doing exactly with the initial
letter on your home-made card, it's hard to offer help or guidance
at this point. I used dark on light and light on dark to make the
'B' more elaborate, and white dotting down the middle to give the
whole letter some sparkle, and added some outlining, and here's
what I ended up with:
Your gilding will need outlining, too, if you've used it. If you
want that slightly crude, cheap-Book-of-Hours feel, all gold should
be outlined in fairly heavy black.
The little leafy flowery bits inside the letter have been filled
with light blue, and crisped up with thin painted outlines, and are
fine.
In a fourteenth-century idiom, the leaflets have a single white
line down their dark side for an impression of central veining, and
the gold blobs have a white dab of highlight and radiating lines in
black around them. (I used my thin quill to draw these fat black
lines, and the brush to do the finer lining round the leaves and
the B where it touches the gold.)
Final verdict: my B has lost some of its nice contrast between
light and dark. It could have been left as it was, but in my heart
I just wanted lots of ornament. And I quite like the density and
decor now.
How's yours? :-)
Make your own card: result!
So there you have it: something less than two hours lazy,
pleasurable activity, from assembly of materials to erasure of
pencil lines, including breaks for tea, phone calls, and taking the
photos for this page. Here's the whole card:
-
It's not a calligraphic masterpiece. However, it was fast and
easy to produce, I had fun, and didn't worry once about whether I
was getting things 'right' or not.
Just think, I could have watched a film in that time (or
approximately sixty cat videos) but this way I have exerted myself
painlessly and ended up with a nice little something to gift, sell,
or keep. I think I'll put it up on Etsy. You never know :-) And the
next one will be even better!
Hope you've enjoyed yourself, too.
To make your own card even more pleasant to produce, use your
ears as you work. Audio-books and podcasts are excellent
accompaniments to doodling, and if theyre useful or interesting
then you get two things done at once. You may find that difficult
music becomes easier to get into while working creatively.
Hands-free phone calls allow you to catch up at leisure with
friends and family. Or if you work from home, you could shed some
illumination on a boring conference call :-)
Happy home-made greetings-card doodling!
-
Demystifying Gothic Lettering
April 13, 2009 by wolfgangcat
11 Votes
Gothic lettering sometimes referred to as Blackletter is often a
favorite of beginner calligraphers as it lends a sense of formality
to a work. There are many variations of Gothic lettering in
manuscripts textura, prescissa, quadrata, rotunda, etc. generally
characterized by dense, vertical strokes and a variety of built-up
serifs.
Historical Gothic styles are usually replaced with less
mechanical, more lively variations (e.g. Compressed or Gothicized
Italic) in contemporary calligraphy although understanding the
structure and construction is a good starting point to developing
variations. A beautiful example of a contemporary variation of the
Fraktur style by Denis Brown can be seen at the QuillSkill website
the style is so fluid and dynamic the letters almost dance off the
page!
A well-executed Gothic can be elegant and beautiful; a poorly
lettered Gothic is obvious and distracting as it is much less
forgiving than other styles such as Italic or Uncial.
Gothic can be very easy if you apply a few basic concepts:
consistency straight, vertical strokes awareness of negative
space
In this demonstration, well use a very simplified variation of a
Gothic style to practice the pen strokes and develop an
understanding of consistency and negative space.
What you need:
calligraphy pen dip pen and ink, calligraphy fountain pen or
calligraphy marker graph paper or guideline sheet (refer to
Stroking the Rules post to create your own sheet for your pen nib
size) scrap paper
Tip: A pen nib size of about 2mm 3mm is easier to work with when
practicing Gothic letters as it can be difficult to see serifs and
counter spaces with very small nib sizes. A stiffer nib such as a
Brause nib might also be easier to work with than a flexible
nib.
Pen Nib Widths and Pen Angle
Gothic is a very dense, compressed style and this can be
achieved with a pen angle of about 40 and pen nib widths of 4 for
the x-height and 2 for the ascenders and descenders.
-
Pen Nib Widths and Pen Angle
Tip: If you are having problems with the serifs, increase the
x-height to 5 pen nib widths to give yourself a little more serif
construction space.
Basic Strokes
Well first practice a few basic strokes and then use the those
strokes to construct letters.
Basic Gothic Strokes
Stroke 1:
A simple straight stroke try a row (about 3 to 5 at a time)
keeping the distance between each stroke even with about a pen
stroke of space between them.
Row of First Pen Stroke
Stroke 2 Serif Stroke at Bottom:
Start a little below the waist line (about a pen nib width),
draw the straight stroke and pull the stroke to the right one pen
nib width before the baseline for a serif stroke.
Stroke 3 Serif Stroke at Top:
Start at the waist line, pull the stroke one pen nib width to
the right (serif stroke) and without lifting the pen continue to
about one pen nib width above the baseline.
Stroke 4 Serif Stroke at Top and Bottom:
Start at the waist line with a serif stroke (Stroke 3), continue
a straight stroke and finish with serif at the bottom (Stroke
2).
Note: Serif strokes in Gothic lettering are usually built up
with the pen and vary depending on the letter style. The simplified
serifs in this demonstration can also be built up by adding the
serif strokes as separate pen strokes.
-
Building Letters
With these few basic strokes, we now have enough to almost build
an entire alphabet with a just few exceptions. Letters such as the
a, k, s, x and z will be discussed in the Special Letters
section.
Note: The examples were lettered using a 3mm Brause nib with an
x-height of 5 pen nib widths and 2 pen nib widths for the ascenders
and descenders.
Letters i and l
As you might have noticed, we have already written two letters
with Basic Stroke 4 the letter i, and if we extend the stroke to an
ascender, the letter l. The dots over the i and j are a hairline
stroke with the pen angle at 40 or 45.
Letters i and l
Letter o
Next, well build a letter o using Strokes 2 and 3. This will
establish the counter (negative space) for similar letters and also
help with letter spacing.
Letter o and Counter Shape
Note the parallelogram shape of the counter space and try to
maintain this shape as you practice the letters. Common problems
with Gothic lettering can often be identified and corrected by
looking at the counters and negative space.
Common Construction Problems and Counter Spaces
In the above example of common construction problems, compare
the counter spaces of each problem to the shape of the counter
space in the exemplar letter o. It is quite easy to see the
problems if we look at the counter spaces and not just the pen
strokes.
Practice a few rows of the letter o until you are comfortable
with the serif construction and looking at the counter space.
-
Letters n, m, u
Well use Stroke 4 to construct the letters n, m and u.
Letters n, m and u with Stroke 4
With these letters and the letter i, well write out the word
minimum to check the serif contruction, strokes and negative
space.
minimum
This is also a good example of how Gothic can be difficult to
read!
Grab two pieces of scrap paper, and place one covering the
serifs at the top and one covering the bottom serifs. You should
see a row of fairly straight lines with even spacing (negative
space) between the strokes.
mimimum with Covered Serifs
Letter h
The letters l and i (Stroke 4) remember to watch the lines,
counter space and keep the serifs short with longer vertical
strokes.
-
Letter h
Letters v and w using Strokes 4 and 3.
Letters v and w
Letter b using Strokes 4 (or the l stroke) and Stroke 3.
Letter b
Letters c, e and r starting with Stroke 2 and adding a serif
stroke. Note the hairline extension of Stroke 2 at the bottom of
the c and e stroke, and at the end of the second r stroke.
Letters c, e and r
Letters g, j and p extend Stroke 3 to descender length. The g
and j add serif strokes for the tails. The p stroke adds a bit of a
hairline at the bottom and the horizontal stroke (#3) is
straight.
Letters g, j and p
Letters y and q with y a combination of Stroke 4 and the j
stroke. Note the hairline stroke at the end of the q.
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Letters y and q
Letters t, f and d. The t and f crossbars are under the waist
line. The second stroke of the d starts above the waist line and
continues as the second stroke of the letter o.
Letters t, f and d
Special Letters
Letters a, k, x and z are constructed with modified variations
of the basic strokes.
Letter a the first a is a very simple variation using Strokes 2
and 4. The Gothic a is constructed by using Stroke 4, then adding a
shortened version of Stroke 2. The thin line creating the bowl is
done by using the edge of pen to draw the line beginning inside the
top serif to the top of Stroke 2.
Simple a and Gothic a
Letters k and s. Notice the top half of the letters are above
the center of the x-height.
Letters k and s
Letters x and z. There are many variations of the x and z these
are simple constructions to fit with the rest of the letter
style.
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Letters x and z
Now lets try putting it all together in a quote by Richard
Torregrossa:
Quote by Richard Torregrossa in Gothic Lettering
The quote has more generous spacing between the words than is
usually found in manuscripts to help with legibility.
Gothic lettering can be quite complex with compressed
proportions and letter spacing, changes in pen angles, and built-up
serif construction. This simplified variation of a Gothic style is
helpful as a starting point to become aware of how lettering is
constructed by focusing on negative space and minimal serifs.
Once you are comfortable with basic construction techniques,
look at images of Gothic lettering in manuscripts or at the British
Library Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts (enter 1300 or
1400 in the search box to see a variety and range of Gothic
styles), or try combining Gothic lettering with a Simple Painted
Initial.
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Lundicalli Blackletter
-
With its historical and cultural formal connotations,
blackletter is a very interesting graphic land to explore. It
offers a lot of experimentations. This article will try to give
some keys to play with blackletter and calligraphy through four
exercises. Basics in the first, exaggerate its modularity faculties
in the second, modify its height in a third time and find a way to
simplify uppercase structure at the end.
Basics
1 The angle of your nib is 45. 2 It is important to keep the
angle (45) when you trace your strokes. 3 You need to trace 3
strokes, dont hesitate to stop and raise your nib between each
stroke (and breath). 4 It is better to take your time & trace
slowly to be more sensitive, ALWAYS from the top to the bottom and
from the left to the right. 5 It could be a good very exercise to
keep the same rhythm (1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3). 6 It could be great to
have same counter shapes between strokes! Here its not very good
but some mistakes in calligraphy can be charming
-
Modularity
From the first exercise, you can observe the modularity of
blackletters. You can see in the series above all letters
emerge.
-
1 With these two strokes, you can try to do almost
everything.
2 This exercise try to demonstrate the blackletter modularity.
With only 4 modules you can obtain every letters. Only rotation is
available to keep the angle and the ductus of the writing.
Modify
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1- Play with different ways to start and finish your strokes
& define the stylistic of your blackletter. 2- Play with the
height of your letters. Blackletters are easy to stretch.
Example:
-
Here is a proposition of a less historical blackletter
uppercases with their strokes order.
Gothic Alphabet -- Step by StepGothic 'littera textualis
quadrata'You will need ...Gothic alphabet easy measurements
This lesson continues in Part 2 with a longer section of the
alphabet: m w r t h b f k o q p v. Click the link below to carry
on. (Or have a cup of tea first. You've earned it.)Gothic Letters
Step by Step -- Part 2Decorated LettersEasy decorated letters: a
gothic example
Make your own card 1: Gothic doodleMake your own card: tools
& materialsRuling up and laying outMake your own card, make
your own inkPrepping the penWriting out the textFlourishes ... and
all that jazzThinking about decoration, gilding, etcFake 'gilding',
and decoration cont.Finishing touches to make your card fancierMake
your own card: result!
Demystifying Gothic Lettering
Lundicalli Blackletter