Calligraphic Drawing

As a dabbler myself, I have often admired people who have the artistry and patience to create pictures out of calligraphy strokes or writing. I just didn't have the artistry or patience to figure out how it's done. Luckily, Schin Loong demystifies the process from ground up in this book on Calligraphic Drawing.

The book starts with the basics, such as types of nibs, nib holders, ink and paper ... y'know, just in case you're an utter beginner. Even when you're not, the sections on troubleshooting and basic stuff are a useful reference. If not, just skip ahead to the point of the book.

I own a good number of the items listed and I practice the fine art of calligraphy. However, my skill level impresses mostly myself and non-practitioners, and my flourishes end up looking like I squiggled it on blindfolded. I'm looking forward to upping my game.

The drills were useful, and the section on flourishes made me face my lack of creative improvisation. I followed the exercises almost exactly, except when there were too many small lines, which I improvised to the best of my ability. Arriving at the first exercises with involved pigeons, I quickly found that I suck at visualising animals... or at least, I'm gonna need to practice at the speed of not reviewing a manual with a growing list of approved requests in my NetGalley shelf. My pigeon looked like someone stepped on it.

Fine. Skipped ahead to Lettering and Cartouches. This proved more immediately relevant to me, as a bulk of my skill revolve around lettering. Cartouches, which has nothing to do with touching a car, are those fancy things you see in ornamental calligraphy banners or scrolls.

Loong starts you off with basic lines, before adding more and more lines, and suddenly, you're looking at a fancy ornamental thingy of your own. Mine had lines bristling in every direction, but I could see my potential if I actually put some more hours into it.

And then, we're back to more animals. If I ever get around to half-assing or three-quarter-assing these, it'll impress myself and a maybe a few mediocre calligraphers.

All in all, useful reference to have on your shelf. I hope to get back to it when I'm more free and see if make that pigeon fly.

ARC courtesy of Quarto Publishing Group ??? Rockport Publishing and NetGalley.