What Are The Basic Calligraphy Strokes

In traditional and modern calligraphy there is something important that you must learn before you even start drawing out your letters. That is the basic calligraphy strokes. These strokes are something that all calligraphers learn from the very beginning and something that you should learn too.

The eight basic strokes are:

• Upstroke
• Downstroke
• Compound Curve
• Oval
• Ascending Loop
• Descending Loop
• Overturn 
• Underturn

These strokes are important because they help form almost all of the lowercase letters in the Latin alphabet.

For the rest of the article, I am going to be going more in-depth into each basic stroke so that you can start learning calligraphy the right way.

Here is a quick summary of what you are going to be learning about today:

• What are these and Why are these strokes important?
• How to Draw these calligraphy strokes (demonstrated)
• How To Use These Calligraphy Strokes
• Final Thoughts

What Are These and Why Are These Important

So now that you know what these basic strokes are you may be wondering: Why Do I Need To Learn These Anyway?

In my opinion, the basic strokes are the most important thing that you must know when learning hand lettering and any type of calligraphy. These basic strokes are going to help you draw and form your letters correctly.

A lot of the time I see beginners who think that calligraphy is just cursive with line variation, this is not true. That is why we have the basic strokes. The basic strokes give you a specific form of creating letters.

If you are wanting to learn more about the difference between cursive and calligraphy you can check out my article here.

Usually, you can tell if a calligrapher is using these basic strokes are not. Learning the basic strokes will also make it easier in the long run. If you learn the basic strokes from the beginning you won’t have to break bad habits later on.

So instead of using cursive to help you learn calligraphy, you should be using the basic strokes. This also means that calligraphy is way different than the way you would form your regular handwriting.

How To Draw These Calligraphy Strokes (demonstrated)

First here is a quick video that I did about the calligraphy strokes, and showing you exactly how to do them.

UPSTROKE & DOWNSTROKE

One of the main rules in calligraphy is that upstrokes are thin and down strokes are thick, which also applies to this.

So whenever you are moving your pen upwards it is going to lead to a thin line. The way to achieve this is by putting very little pressure on your pen. While with a downstroke you are going to move downward with more pressure, leading to a thick line.

OVERTURN & UNDERTURN

A lot of people remind themselves of these strokes with a lowercase U. This just means that it is a combination of an upstroke and a downstroke.

For an overturn you are first going to move your pen up (light pressure) then you are going to move your pen down (more pressure). Leading for an upside-down U.

Now a underturn is just the opposite. You are first going to move your pen down (more pressure) then you are going to move your pen up (light pressure). Leading for something that can look like a U.

ASCENDING LOOP & DESCENDING LOOP 

These strokes are just long loops that can also remind you of a lower case L.

For an ascending loop, you are going to create a loop starting with a thin stroke then going thick.

For a descending loop, you are going to create a loop going down starting with a thick stroke then a thin stroke.

COMPOUND CURVE & OVAL

A compound curve is a combination of a underturn and an overturn. While an oval you are creating a lowercase O, which is also considered one of the hardest strokes in calligraphy.

For a compound curve, you are going to start with an overturn and then with an upstroke.

While with an oval you are essentially going to start with a downstroke and start moving up and connecting the stroke to create an oval.

How To Use Calligraphy Strokes

Now I am going to talk about how you can actually use these to for your letters. With these strokes, you can actually form almost every single letter in the lowercase alphabet.

Right now I am going to be giving you a couple of examples so that you can get started.

Let us start with the lowercase H…

With a lowercase H you are going to create an upstroke, then an ascending loop, and then a compound curve. That may sound a bit confusing so here is a picture.

Now let us move onto lowercase A.

With this letter you are going to create an upstroke, then an oval, and then a downstroke.

Then there is a lower case B,

With this letter, you can are going to start off with an upstroke, ascending loop, and finally an oval.

Final Thoughts

As you can see the basic strokes can be made into different combinations to create and form your different letters. Once you have mastered the basic strokes you can start breaking some of the rules and develop your own style. 

“learn the rules before you break them”

If you have any more questions about calligraphy and hand lettering feel free to comment.