1 Basic Lettering

In this section we will learn how to write basic upper and lowercase letters. These letters are presented in order of increasing complexity, with more complex letters at the end. For this section, you will need to know that letters start at the baseline, and that a letter's strokes will either curve concave-up, concave-down, or follow the main slant. "Concave" means the stroke curves inwards, like the interior of a circle or sphere. In some cases, this curvature is up (towards the top of the page), and in other cases this curvature is down (towards the bottom of the page). Pay careful attention in the first few lessons and you'll develop an eye for concave-up and concave-down strokes!

General advice for 1 Basic Lettering:

• I'd recommend using a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm lead. Some of the loops and tails in certain letters are pretty small, so a mechanical pencil (which puts down thinner lines) is preferred.
• I would not recommend using a pen. We'll get to pens later.
• To get consistent italic letters you will need to significantly angle the paper. In my case, the paper is almost at a right angle to my chest. Experiment with various angles until you can comfortably write in italics.

2 Sentences and Phrases

3 Capital Variations

4 Flexible Nibs