Calligraphy or Alien Language? 👽 Learning the Letter “r”

According to my instructor, Becca, the letter "r" is hard. Many beginning calligraphers have great difficulty performing this letter. For me, I thought it was pretty easy. I can understand. It think it's the downstroke into the modified underturn stroke that throws them off.  

It’s just looking at the strokes on the practice sheets to build the letter “r” kind of looks like alien letters that you see in the movies. Now, this may be me and my over active imagination but back to the blog post.

This is why learning foundational strokes is important. If you can't write the basic strokes, minuscules will have you frustrated, disappointed, and disillusioned. There's a strong chance you will give up. I can attest to this.  

I've uploaded my video so you can watch my struggles with the ovals. They looked like black eyes and shaped like avocados. Even coming into minuscules, I was still struggling with ovals. They were passable but I had to do better. I understood why my instructor had us doing foundational strokes for a full month. You cannot skip the basics. There is no (excuse my language) no-half assing in calligraphy.  

If learning calligraphy matters to you, treat it like it matters. Make the time. Do the drills. Work through the ugly rows. Celebrate the good ones. Then come back and do it again. I have faith and believe in you. Let's do this together.