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MODERN CALLIGRAPHY SUPPLIES
Brush Calligraphy Tools For Beginners
At the beginning, you really need a few things. To practice drills, letters and numbers, I highly recommend Rhodia dotted pad, it's really smooth and the ink doesn't bleed on it. You can start practicing with Tombow Fudenosuke. These small tip brush pens come with soft and hard tips. I recommend starting with a hard tip and as you practicing you can easily switch to soft tip. If you wanna experiment with colors and metallics, Pentel Sign Pen and KuretakeFudebiyori would satisfy you.
Pointed Pen Calligraphy Tools
Learning modern calligraphy with brush pen will make your muscle memory stronger and it will make the transition to pointed pen easier. First things first, you'll need a pen holder. Good pen holders are around $80-$200 but you don't need to purchase something expensive when you first started. I would say, go with affordable pens, see if you're really interested and committed to learning, then you can upgrade it. I started pointed pen calligraphy with Moblique pen holder. It's affordable and does the work. If you are in States, you can get Moblique pens from Paper & Ink Arts or Jet Pens. You can still continue to use Rhodia Pads and tracing paper for practicing.
You'll also need nibs to use a pointed pen. Starting with Nikko G is great idea for beginners. When you started to get the idea, you can get Brause Steno - also called Blue Pumpkin- nibs. They're my favorite!
Unpopular opinion but I think Dr.Ph Martin Iridescent Copper Plate Gold ink is great for starters! It's really smooth and the color is mesmerizing. Black ink is a little bit tricky, so I highly recommend using Gum Arabic to make the ink a little bit thicker so it'll be easy to write. If you use 1 tablespoon ink, you can add 1/4 gum arabic. Dr.PH Martin's Bleedproof White Ink perfect to use on colored paper. It has a very thick form and there is different ways to dilute it. First, start mixing ink with a brush or wood sticks, whatever you have. You can put a little bit ink to a small bottle and add a little bit water until it becomes liquidy but not watery! This is one way to do but my go-to technique is, having a glass of water next to ink, dipping nib to ink and then dipping it to a little bit water and then start to write.
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Before going to write on your precious paper with waterproof inks, you can totally do sketches and use a pencil. Even more experienced callligraphers are still sketching before they complete their work. And a good eraser is a must-have. Tombow Mono Sand-Rubber is one of the best because you can even remove small ink droppings with the sand side. Tip: You have to wait until ink is dried, try to scrape off with nib and then use the eraser and be gentle.