Calligraphy is the art of beautiful handwriting. Wedding invitations, diplomas, inscriptions and other formal manuscripts often use calligraphy for its artistic and elegant lines. A good place to start when learning this beautiful art is with capital letters. Here you'll learn form capital letters H-P.
Instructions
Letter H
1. Start with a compound curve. Place your calligraphy pen at the top of the line and create a shallow "s" form.
2. Move to the right side of the letter and make a lower-case "l." Start slightly lower than the left side of the letter and curve down at the bottom. End by looping out into a small tail.
3. Finish the letter by looping down from the top of the right side of the H to the right. Create a small loop, then pass through the two sides, connecting the H in the middle. Continue the line, swooping down to the left. If you prefer the look, you can add an exaggerated "v" form to the left of the letter.
4. Start to the left and create two small connected curves; curve up a short way, then curve down the same distance, then curve back up, ending as the "v" form meets the top left of your H.
Letter I
5. Begin with a compound curve just as you did with letter H.
6. Move to the top of the compound curve, and place your pen slightly further up and to the right of your first line.
7. Swoop your pen downward in a "c" motion, cutting about halfway through the compound curve. Pass through the first curve, and end with your a small tail curving upward.
Letter J
8. Create a long, slender compound curve. You want to come down quite a bit further than a traditional compound curve, and make it slightly less wide.
9. Starting at the bottom of the curve, continue the line out to the left and connect it back to the lower half of the curve to make a stem loop.
10. Finish the letter the same way we finished letter I: from the top of the compound curve, swoop downward in a "c" motion, cutting through the curve and ending to the right in a small tail.
Letter K
11. Begin with the compound curve. For the forward portion of the K, start slightly higher than the first curve. Swoop down, curving in to meet the back portion of the K slightly below the halfway point.
12. Meet the curve, then make a slight curve upward, then dip back down and end in a small upward tail.
13. Finish the back end as you did with the letter H, with an accentuated "v." Start a small distance from the top of the back portion of the letter. Make a small curve up, then down the same distance. End by curving back up to the top of the first compound curve.
Letter L
14. Begin with the standard compound curve, but continue the end of the stroke out longer to the bottom left.
15. Take the end of the compound curve in a very small loop and continue the line out to the right. Curve the line up slightly.
16. Finish the L by coming from the top of the letter down and to the left, creating a backward "c." Pass through the compound curve and curve up to the right.
Letter M
17.Start with a compound curve, only start your pen at the bottom. From the top of the line, continue downward in a very shallow curve.
18. Make a shallow curve in the center, almost as narrow as a "v" shape. Continue the line all the way to the top of the form.
19. Come back down in the exact same pattern, only end with a short upward tail.
Letters N and O
20. Create your first hairline stroke in a subtle upward curve.
21. Turn your paper so it's horizontal to your chest; normally you'd write at a slant, but for this step, you want to turn your paper.
22. Make a compound curve that ends just shy of 12:00 at the bottom of the stroke, vertically; it will be a tight curve.
23. Finish with a very light hairline curve, starting at the bottom of the compound curve and ending to the top-right side of the form.
24. Draw letter O by starting at the top and create a large oval shape, ending where you began. This letter is fairly basic.
Letter P
25. Create a compound curve.
26
Bring your pen behind the left side of the curve, slightly below the top of the form. Loop the line around, down and to the left. Continue the line all the way up, in a circular fashion, meeting the compound curve at the top.
27
Continue the line around, passing through the original curve and looping downward. End on the right side of the curve, about halfway down.
