Faux Calligraphy Tutorial – Numbers and Symbols: A easy-to-follow tutorial to begin creating beautiful letters, aka, doing calligraphy without the need of any fancy tools or previous knowledge. Plus get access to a FREE calligraphy worksheet so you can start practicing right away!
It’s the last day of 2018, and I wanted to finish it with a blog post and a freebie to complete this Faux Calligraphy Tutorial Series. In this series, I show you how to create calligraphy without the need for any fancy tools. This blog post is part 3: numbers and symbols.
Here are the previous posts on this Faux Calligraphy Tutorial series:
- Faux Calligraphy Tutorial: Lowercase letters (includes a free practice sheet)
- Faux Calligraphy Tutorial: Uppercase letters (it also has a free practice sheet)
- 3 Reasons Why You Should Learn Faux Calligraphy First (it doesn’t include a free practice sheet, but it’s a good read)
If you have any other requests to add to this series or any other calligraphy technique you’d like to learn, let me know in the comments below!
FAUX CALLIGRAPHY TUTORIAL – NUMBERS AND SYMBOLS
Today, I’m sharing how to do numbers and symbols using Faux calligraphy.
These are the tools you’ll need:
- a writing tool
- a writing surface.
- Optional (but highly suggested): a Faux Calligraphy – Numbers & Symbols Practice worksheet. I have a free practice sheet you can access from my resource library. To access the Free Calligraphy Worksheet, fill out the form end of this blog post. If you already have the password to my resource library, then enter it here and download the free practice sheet.
Once you have the tools above, follow the steps below to create start creating faux calligraphy!
For this tutorial, I chose to demonstrate the “ampersand” because to me it’s challenging to draw, so it was an opportunity to practice.
Now, let’s get to the steps:
Step 1: Write the number or symbol
Using the pen of your choice, start by writing the number or symbol.
Step 2: Draw outlines to the downstrokes*
*But, what is a downstroke? A downstroke in calligraphy is when you move your pen downward. The way you determine the downstrokes is by paying attention to how you run the pen as you are making the letters. Every time you move the pen downward, that’s a downstroke.
Step 3: Fill in the outlines!
In this step, you can get creative with your Faux Calligraphy. You can either fill in the outlines with the same pen you’re using or with different colors, lines, dots or even leave them blank. It’s entirely up to you!
That’s it! Those are the three easy steps you need to follow to create Faux Calligraphy.
Below is the finished product: numbers 0-9, symbols, and six different ways to do ampersands.
As you’ve seen in the previous posts on these series, you’ll need to follow the same steps to make faux calligraphy.
The key is to create muscle memory through continuous practice. Every time you practice, pay attention to your work. Make sure you reflect on it and check the parts you could do better, so the next time you practice again, you work on improving your skill.
If you’d like to learn how to do faux calligraphy with lower case letters, check this blog post. And in this blog post, I share the upper case letters tutorial.
Want to take your Faux calligraphy skills to the next level? then keep reading…
READY TO START LEARNING EVERYTHING ABOUT CALLIGRAPHY USING A REGULAR PEN?
After receiving a lot of requests, I created a step-by-step guide to help you learn calligraphy with a regular pen.
This guide has everything you need to learn Fauxligraphy the right way!
But what’s Fauxligraphy? Just another fancy, made up name for doing calligraphy with a regular pen, which is also known as lettering.
If you want to learn calligraphy using brush pens or pointed pens, then the next step in your calligraphy journey is to get the right tools you need to get started.
Here, I share everything you need to get started with pointed pen calligraphy. In this other blog post, I go over the best calligraphy brush pens to get started with brush pen calligraphy.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful and you start creating calligraphy today!
I’d love to see what you create and how you use your Faux Calligraphy Practice Worksheet. Use the hashtag #vd_tutorials and tag me on @VialDesigns (on Instagram) so I can see your work.
Get access to the FREE calligraphy practice sheets mentioned in this blog post by filling out the form below.