About Calligraphy Tools

What's Included in a calligraphy workstation?

Here is a list of calligraphy tools to help you successfully produce the best calligraphy you can.

These tips are not for East Asian calligraphy, you will find their techniques a bit more to the bottom of the page.

About the Drawing Board

A good drawing board is usually of a2 size. The sizes available can go up to a1 size.

The bigger the drawing board the more advantage you have at creating work. This is because it doesn’t limit the size of work being produced, which could vary from very small to quite big.

Some drawing boards come with a built in light box but if you do not have a light box drawing board don’t worry, good lighting will do. To get good lighting you can place your desk at a window as the natural light is great and/or use a desk lamp.

It is vital to have as much good lighting as possible, as this can help improve your work, and if not can severely damage it, not to mention straining your eyes. Follow these calligraphy instructions when choosing a calligraphy right board.

About the Chair

A comfortable adjustable chair is good. It doesn’t have to be the latest or fanciest design.

If you are comfortable with your chair and your back is secured straight when seating, then that’s good enough. You might be sitting for a while on some occasions, so it’s good to consider that. It might seem like a minor problem at the moment but taking precautions would prevent the cause of future back strains and aches.

When sitting down at your calligraphy workspace, you should have good space to be able to place your feet side by side normally on the floor.

Crossing legs, leaning forward and twisting your side and/or legs aren’t good seating positions and should be avoided. This is where your adjustable boards come in handy. The adjustable board’s raises up your work at perfect angle, which eliminates the need to have awkward seating positions.

About the Materials

Here are the different calligraphy tools and equipment used. You don’t need to get all of them, just familiarize yourself with the different types out there. Some calligraphy instructions of brief description and how there used are at the side of each tool listed.

If you are left handed, you will have to get special left-handed calligraphy tools click here for some information regarding left handed calligraphy.

Nibs

The ‘Mitchell round hand’ nibs come in 6 sizes normally all included within a pack. The sizes rang 0-6, with the lowest number nib being the broadest. Left handed people should use Left-Oblique nibs.

Reservoirs

Comes with assembling pens which include nib and pen holder. The small reservoir simply clips on the back of the nib.

Fountain Calligraphy Pen

Fountain pen reservoirs store large amounts of inks without having the trouble of keep dipping the pen into ink like traditional calligraphy pens. That’s the reason there good for beginners. They also come in a range of nib sizes.

Sharpening Stone

Keeps pen nibs nice and sharp with sharpening stones.

Paint Brush

A very small paintbrush is good as it helps when loading ink or paint into the pen.

Coit Pens

Coit pens are nib with splits in them. The nibs on these are bigger than the other nib pens and are specifically used for larger letters, borders and decorations.

Automatic Pens

Broad nib pen with reservoir in-between nibs.

Pen Holder

The pen holder holds the pen nibs. This is more of an accessory than any of those must have calligraphy tools.

Carpenter Pencil

A carpenters pencil has a broad rectangular shaped tip.

Two Pencils

A technique used is tapping two pencils tape together to resemble calligraphy style chisel tip. This is used when starting to practicing calligraphy.

Felt Tip Pens

You can get many pens and markers with chisel chips these days. Good for practising calligraphy as it’s quick and doesn’t involve extra inks etc. Calligraphy tools on a budget for you.

Bamboo and Reed Pens

This traditional tool is a classic. Its made by carving the shape of a calligraphy pen and including nibs, from dry bamboo stalks.

Quill

Another Natural classic calligraphy tool. Good quills are normally made out of Ostrich, Indian feathers. Similar to bamboo and reed pens, they are also carved and crafted. Quills are considered to be exotic calligraphy tools.

Paper

Many calligraphers use different papers for there personal liking. It is good for you to test a few different papers types to see which one works best for you. But majority of calligraphers generally use parchment paper. The surfaces of your paper shouldn’t be:

• too rough
• too Slippery
• Too textured
• Too greasy

East Asian Calligraphy Workstation

East Asian calligraphy materials, equipment and seating are not the same as the Islamic and Western ways.

Drawing Boards

They do not need an adjustable drawing board as there paper is flat on the surface. There traditional equipments include:

Paper Weights

Used to weigh down the paper on the surface. These come in different shapes and sizes

Desk Pads

The pad usually includes a grid to place behind paper in the pad as a guide. The pads are usually made of felt.

Ink and Ink Sacks

Traditional inking equipment, ink-sack is a block of dried in which they create the liquid ink from. They prefer to make there own as it is of higher quality and last longer than many other inks.

Ink Stone

The East Asians value the ink-stone and they use it to transform the solid ink-sack into ready to use liquid ink.

Brush

The main classic, traditional took used and appreciated the most in Asian calligraphy. The hairs of the brush are made from a variety of different animals as well as the body of the brush.

East Asian calligraphers, nowadays use brushes in there work. But majority of East Asian calligraphy work is produced by these traditional materials and tools.