Day 17: Learning to Trust My Hand | Underturn Strokes

I do see progress being made. Last week doing the Underturn, I could barely hold the shape. This week, I can but there's still some challenges with this stroke. When I do Downstroke into the curve, I'm okay but when I get to the upstroke, I can still see my hand shaking. As I was doing the practice drill today, I actually recorded my hand shaking, which was wild to see. The shakiness has gotten better, and Becca, the instructor said, "Beginners struggle with this for a time, but as we practice more and get better, it will go away." 

This reminded me that learning a new skill is physical as well as mental. My hand is still building the muscle memory it needs, and that's something that only comes with time and practice. I do. I practice twice a day for 30 minutes. Once in the morning and once in the evening, usually on my lunch break at work, which is also 30 minutes.  

I do see progress being made. Last week doing the Underturn, I could barely hold the shape. This week, I can but there's still some challenges with this stroke. When I do Downstroke into the curve, I'm okay but when I get to the upstroke, I can still see my hand shaking. As I was doing the practice drill today, I actually recorded my hand shaking, which was wild to see. The shakiness has gotten better, and Becca, the instructor said, "Beginners struggle with this for a time, but as we practice more and get better, it will go away." 

This reminded me that learning a new skill is physical as well as mental. My hand is still building the muscle memory it needs, and that's something that only comes with time and practice. I do. I practice twice a day for 30 minutes. Once in the morning and once in the evening, usually on my lunch break at work, which is also 30 minutes.  

I uploaded the video. You can see it below. I'm going to keep practicing. Keep showing up every day and documenting this journey. Because rarely get to see how the majority of calligraphers began, just the ending. There are videos galore from experienced calligraphers saying, "If I started learning calligraphy right now, this is what I would do." That's great, I love watching those videos, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of their old practice sheets. Show more of the journey before they got to where they are.  

This is what I learned today. Some strokes take patience; some take repetition but do not let a challenging practice session convince you that you cannot learn calligraphy. Keep going. You will get there.