Days 1-7: Reflections From Today’s Practice Corner

I’m just going to jump right into what I’ve learned so far from my first week learning calligraphy.

Increased practice time. I started with 15 minutes and by day two, I bumped it up to 30 minutes a day. Then increased my practice from one time to two times a day for thirty minutes. By the end of my first week, I bumped it up to one hour practice sessions twice a day. The reason I bumped it up twice a day because, I’m really enjoying practice and sometimes, I get so engrossed that I go past the thirty minutes. If I get tired, I will stop.   

Chose My Brush Pen: After alternating on and off all week with soft tip pen and a hard tip pen, I chose the (blue) hard tip pen. I was able to control the flow of ink better.    

Patience and Be Gentle: This first week has been a series of highs and lows. Some strokes were easier for me to do and others such as The Oval, Compound Curve and Ascending Loop, I was almost in tears because they were so difficult for me. I’m not a failure because I didn’t master the stroke the first time. I did a lot of self-soothing and reminding myself, I’m a novice. This is the first time and first week of me learning and practicing.     

Put the Cap Back on Pen When Done: This should be a no brainer but I forgot to. On Day 3, I was doing the Underturn Stroke that evening. I was really tired from the evening practice. I thought I had placed the cap back on the hard tip brush pen and didn’t. When I woke up the next morning and start Day 4, the Compound Stroke, it had dried out considerably. It was all caught on video. I even uploaded to Instagram. See here. I uploaded it to for transparency and honesty. The good, the bad and the dried out. 😂   

Even though my practice sheets aren't perfect, I can already see small improvements. I'm excited to see what week two has in store.