Christmas Calligraphy

This year I decided to make calligraphy gifts for some of our friends. I tried to match the calligraphy styles to the personalities of the people who would be receiving the gifts. The finished calligraphies are dramatically different, yet each is beautiful in its own way.

The following calligraphy is different in style from any that I've done before. I was aiming for a more flowing, free form look that didn't conform too closely to rigid space and rules. The friends who are going to receive this one have delightfully spontaneous personalities. Plus she is a dance teacher, and I thought it would be appropriate to try to capture a sense of freedom and motion.

I started by making a pencil sketch, and then I bulked it up by using a felt-tipped pen, adding bold, black color and additional details. At first I felt like less of an artist because I wasn't using my special, snobby calligraphy pens. After thinking about it for a while and observing the finished project, though, I was happy (and a bit relieved) to know that I can be just as artistic with a felt-tipped pen after all.

This next calligraphy was for the friends whose Christmas photos I showed off in my previous post.

She grew up in California and is especially fond of the sea. They also seem like like rich colors and textures. As I mulled over what to do for them, I decided to do a verse that included the sea, and I found the perfect paper to mount the finished calligraphy on in my collection: a teal-blue and brown old-worldish map, rich in color and detail (click on the photo to see a larger, more detailed version). I was delighted with how it turned out and so were they.