Historical Hands

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In keeping with our commitment to calligraphy education, the Gentle Penman is pleased to announce a new series of short workshops, which will serve as an introduction to a selection of styles of traditional calligraphy over the past 2000 years.

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The workshops will focus on broad-edged pen hands (scripts) with an emphasis on the basics: pen angle, letter proportions and "family groups" in order that students can build on these fundamentals to develop an understanding of our craft.  These workshops will be relatively short, two 2-hour sessions for each hand, emphasizing basic skills rather than design and layout. Our purpose is to create a foundation for further study.​

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With the exception of the first workshop, The Foundational Hand, we will offer these workshops in historical sequence.  The next workshop will be Roman Capitals (see below); subsequent workshops will include Uncial, Carolingian, Gothic, etc.  Students are welcome to sign up for individual workshops or take advantage of the full series of Historical Hands.

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Italic Minuscules

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Italic calligraphy, or Chancery Cursive, is the ever-popular "handwriting of the Renaissance."  Many students are introduced to the basics of calligraphy when they take their first Italic class.  This workshop, Part 8 of our ongoing Historical Hands series, offers a short but detailed review of the Italic minuscule alphabet.  Although some experience with the broad-edged pen is essential -- since the limitations of time won't allow for an introduction to the tools -- we will work slowly and in detail to provide those unfamiliar with Italic with the foundations of the script.  More experienced students will find a thorough review of the hand and an opportunity to improve and fine-tune their Italic skills.

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An opportunity to study and review Italic capitals, both Swash Capitals and Simple Capitals will be the next two workshops in our Historical Hands program.  The dates will be announced later in the year.