I am not yet able to create a perfect calligraphy piece on the first attempt.
Many calligraphers can pick up a pen and their years of practice and learning have brought them to a place where they can just start writing and make a perfect piece the first time. I hope to be there one day.
In the meantime, I still have to make many versions of a quote before I can call it ‘done’. Often I will start with a pencil drawing straight from what I envision in my mind. That doesn’t always look good, so I pull out my eraser and make a few changes and tweaks. This can happen several times.
When I feel that it is getting close to what I want I will draw the piece in brush pen, so that I can make adjustments for the width of the pen lines.
Inevitably, once I see it done in pen I usually see a few more areas that could be better. Again, I could end up doing this a few more times. Sometimes I am happy at this point and let it rest.
But sometimes I look at this quote after a few weeks and see where I still need to make changes. When this happens I will bring the piece into my iPad as an image and then I can trace it and make adjustments from there.
Currently, this is where this piece resides. I am still unsettled on a few things, so I will work further on it.
But eventually, this quote will end up in my little Etsy shop!