What Are The Different Calligraphy Styles & Types
As a beginner, I remember never understanding that there is actually a lot of different types and styles of calligraphy out there. I thought that you just have to do specific things and it is calligraphy.
So now you may ask what are the different calligraphy styles and what are the types of calligraphy.
In this article, I am going to be showing you exactly what are all of these things.
This is just the quick and short answer, to those of you who are in a hurry…
When talking about traditional calligraphy there are three main types of calligraphy from all over the world (Western, Arabic, and Oriental). While in modern calligraphy there is hand lettering, pointed pen calligraphy, brush lettering, etc. Then when talking about calligraphy styles everyone has there own style of lettering depending on how you draw your letters and where you come from.
Now for the rest of the post, I am going to go more in-depth of what I have explained above.
Here is a summary of what you are going to be learning about today:
- Difference Between Styles and Types
- Different Types of Calligraphy
- Finding Your Lettering Style
Difference Between Styles and Types
So what is the difference between calligraphy styles and the different types of calligraphy?
Let us quickly just go over what a lettering style is…
LETTERING STYLE
A lettering style is essentially is how someone develops there own style of calligraphy. This term is mostly used in modern calligraphy since traditional calligraphy is more strict on how your format your letters.
For example, after someone learns the basics of calligraphy they can start breaking the “rules” and try to come up with their own unique lettering style.
So a calligrapher can draw the letter A in so many different ways because they each have their own developed lettering style.
A lot of people also ask how can I have my own unique lettering style? Which is something that I am going to be talking about later.
DIFFERENCES
Now the types of calligraphy are just categories of lettering that depend on the types of pens that you use and the language that you are writing in.
Which also includes the part of the world you come from. So a lettering style depends on the person, while a type of calligraphy is the actual category of lettering that they are drawing in.
Different Types of Calligraphy
Now let us talk about the exact different types of lettering and calligraphy that there is out there.
There are two main categories of calligraphy which are modern calligraphy and traditional calligraphy.
Now there are even more subcategories of these different types of calligraphy.
Let us go through these subcategories:
TRADITIONAL CALLIGRAPHY
Like I have explained above there are three subcategories which are Western, Oriental, Arabic.
A subcategory of Western can then be Italic Calligraphy. Western calligraphy uses an Alphabet that is commonly used in the US (also known as the Latin Alphabet.
Then we have oriental calligraphy which is from Asia. Which a category of this can be Chinese calligraphy. As you can tell this type of calligraphy uses characters.
Lastly, we have Arabic calligraphy. As you can tell by now traditional calligraphy is made up of the different types of writing from all around the world. For Arabic calligraphy, I found that they use the Abjad alphabet.
MODERN CALLIGRAPHY
In my opinion, modern calligraphy is just another subcategory of Western calligraphy. You might have also heard modern calligraphy as lettering or hand lettering.
Note: I will be using these terms interchangeably for the rest of the article.
Lettering is again mostly used with the Latin Alphabet.
Hand lettering has it’s different categories by the different pens that you are using.
For example, if you are using a brush pen you are doing brush lettering. If you are using a dip pen you are doing pointed pen calligraphy.
So on and so forth.
Honestly, hand lettering can be done with any type of writing utensil. It is called modern calligraphy since it breaks the rules of always have to use a dip pen and also having to form your letters in a specific way.
If you are wanting to learn the different utensils or types of modern calligraphy you can check out my article all about it here.
As you can tell hand lettering can mean many different things. It doesn’t always need to use a dip pen nor does it always have to follow the form of traditional calligraphy.
But there is another thing that we have to take into consideration…
FONTS
In hand lettering is just the art of drawing beautiful letters even if you are using the calligraphy format or not, this is where fonts come into play.
For example, a hand lettering artists may know how to write Sans Serif, Serif, Block Lettering, and etc.
All of this can be used in lettering as just a simple add on or even may be part of your style.
But we shouldn’t confuse our fonts with our calligraphy. If you are wondering more about this topic I have a tutorial distinguishing what is a font and what is calligraphy.
Finding Your Own Lettering Style
One of the questions calligraphers have is how can I find my own unique lettering style?
This is just going to be a brief short tutorial, don’t worry I am going to be doing a full tutorial on this soon.
When looking for your own lettering style before anything you should know all of the basics of calligraphy. You should learn the rules before you break them.
Mastering the basics of calligraphy is going to give you a great base to work with before you start creating your own style.
First…
Go through all of your letters like you regularly would and see if there is a habit that you notice through your letters. Do your ovals have something similar.
Do you do huge ascending loops or small descending loops? Look at other calligraphers and see how your hand lettering is different from theirs.
Second…
If for some reason you can’t find any differences try to make your own differences. So instead of doing thin upstrokes try some that are thicker. Start experimenting through all of your letters and stay consistent.
If you do notice differences, you should still try what I said above. Another thing is to try to differentiate those differences even more, or the things that you thought were mistakes make them part of your style.
So that wiggly upstroke may turn into part of your style in some way.
Third…
Repeat.
Keep on practicing and even if you don’t go through this process, over time you will start having things that differentiate yourself from other calligraphers.
Final Thoughts
You have all just learned exactly what are the types of calligraphy and the different styles of hand lettering there are. I remember being a beginner and always being so confused about what all of these different types of calligraphy are, and kinda still am.
Lettering is filled with so many different categories, subcategories, and so much more. Don’t feel that it is bad if you are feeling overwhelmed when starting out.
If you have any more questions about this topic please feel free to comment!!!