Create Your Own Calligraphy Resource

Several years ago I started a calligraphy journal to collect ideas that appealed to me. (You can see samples from that journal at Calligraphy Ideas Journal.)

Several posts back I mentioned a website I had discovered with loads of old manuscripts. After checking out a few of them I decided this was way too good to just look at, so I started creating my own resource from that. Any manuscript that had lettering or ideas that I liked, I made copies of those letters or ideas. I don't mean printing off copies - I mean I drew out the letters for myself.

I've checked out nearly one hundred of the manuscripts so far and it has been a pleasure. The ideas just keep amazing and delighting me. I found myself wondering what those scribes might have thought if someone had told them that hundreds of years later thousands of people from all over the world would be looking at and admiring their work. Makes you wonder if some of ours may show up years down the road too. Who knows?

I also now have a great resource for lettering ideas and styles in a binder where I can quickly flip through to find ideas for any projects I might be working on. That's a lot easier than trying to remember which one of the hundreds of manuscripts a particular letter idea might have come from.
Here's one project I did for a client recently where the capital letter at the beginning of the quote was one I designed from letters I had found in one of the manuscripts.

There's also something about copying out these letter forms that gets it into your brain. You begin to have a whole new series of lettering styles to choose from - as well ideas you can use to develop your own alphabets.

I'd really encourage you to start your own calligraphy journals or resource binders. It can be a pleasure for yourself to see what you can do, and chances are others will enjoy seeing that too.

Evelyn