Historical Hands

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In keeping with our commitment to calligraphy education, the Gentle Penman is pleased to announce a new series of short workshops, which will serve as an introduction to a selection of styles of traditional calligraphy over the past 2000 years.

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The workshops will focus on broad-edged pen hands (scripts) with an emphasis on the basics: pen angle, letter proportions and "family groups" in order that students can build on these fundamentals to develop an understanding of our craft.  These workshops will be relatively short, two 2-hour sessions for each hand, emphasizing basic skills rather than design and layout. Our purpose is to create a foundation for further study.​

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With the exception of the first workshop, The Foundational Hand, we will offer these workshops in historical sequence.  The next workshop will be Roman Capitals (see below); subsequent workshops will include Uncial, Carolingian, Gothic, etc.  Students are welcome to sign up for individual workshops or take advantage of the full series of Historical Hands.

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Swash Capitals

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Italic minuscules can be harmoniously combined with a number of different capital letter alphabets. Perhaps the most popular of these are the Swash Capitals, so named because of the decorative strokes at the top of many of these letters.  The Swash Capitals are a delightful contrast to the relatively simple minuscule letters, adding a lively touch to our calligraphy. Although this workshop is an introduction to these capitals, it is recommended that students have some familiarity with the broad-edged pen.  Knowledge of the Italic minuscules is helpful but not required.  For more advanced students, this will be an in-depth review of these wonderful Renaissance forms.