Shortcut on Calligraphy

Hello again!

Well, this ended surprisingly early.

On my route to becoming a highly passionate calligraphista, I forgot one important detail : My left hand! Gothic lettering does not support people like me: Lefties. I can manage fountain pens almost worryfree (after some practice). But writing Gothic lettering with a nib that needs to be pulled from left to right in an exact angle of 40°? No way!

What to do? Become right handed in my mid 40's?
Learn a language that moves from right to left?

I opted for the third option and returned to the playground where passionate hobbyists like write with flexible nibs, no education or training needed.

"Tintenfaxi" was the breaking point where I quit Gothic lettering. (I thought the term Tintenfaxi is familiar in German, but I could not find a single entry online. Seems I was wrong! Tintifax it is - a character from  the Kasperl stage).

pictured above:
1st row: this was all I could write after an evening with the calligraphy nib, blame it on the left hand writing.
2nd row: writing with a flexible nib and black ink ("Pilot" = not the profession but the name of a Japanese Company which sells phantastic inks)
3rd row: Happyness comes with the flexible nib and black Pilot ink.
4th & 5th row: exploring the variations this flexbile nib offers

New adventures to come. Without lessons. Yes, all those lessons in the Calligraphy book did chase me off.

A simple flexible nib alreasy creates awsome results. All I have to do is: Write! The ink flows and so do my thoughts, which I bring to paper.

Black ink and a flexible nibs work as a phantastic trigger for writing/painting/drawing illustrations. I am surprised writing with a pen has not become a trend yet, with all those adorable illustrations surrounding us these days in magazine, on shop windows and online. My guess would be, that as soon as the ongoing hype "Colouring books for adults, mandalas etc" passes, illustrating will become really popular.

After all the excitement I chose to relax tonight and dedicated the evening to ... Christmas cards. No experiments. Simple watercolour.

Watercolour LOVE -  in capital letters.

Oh, I almost forgot: Yes, I did return the calligraphy-book. I bough envelopes instead. It's time to finally ship some cards.
Have a good night!
Paula