Faux calligraphy with any pen
Faux calligraphy is hand lettering with an ordinary pen. Write the word in cursive, find every stroke where your pen moved down, draw a second line beside it on the inside, and fill the gap. The thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes look like real calligraphy.
- Trace the word
- Trace the light word
- Write it on your own
Printable practice sheets
Step by step
1. Write the word slowly in cursive, a little bigger and looser than usual.
2. Find the downstrokes: every part of a letter where your pen moved toward the bottom of the page.
3. Draw a second line next to each downstroke, on the inside of the letter, so the two lines touch at the top and bottom.
4. Fill in the space between the lines. Leave all the upstrokes and joins as single thin lines.
Common mistakes
Thickening an upstroke is the most common one; if your pen was moving up, leave it thin.
Making the added line too far away. The thick part should be about two or three times the thin line, not a block.