Step 1: Base lines.

Aka guidelines. Just do an unfilled rectangle and stack it on itself twice.

Step 2: Basic calligraphy

Choose your brush. Different brush shapes have different dynamics, and different dynamics will wield different results on paper.

Best experienced on actual paper, for digital programs cannot give you the exact right feel of drag when you try to do wrong strokes. Usually, if you write by hand on paper, and it's feeling effortless, then you're doing it right.

Cheat sheet for brush tips of different kinds:

Step 3: The execution

You might want to try asemic writing at first, or take inspiration from other writing systems that already exist. Know that it is nigh impossible to create something that never existed before, for your writing system will always bear similarity to at least a dozen others.

There are multiple methods of making scripts,

Engineered

You set up a goal and plan things up before setting up the canons. Usually used for featural scripts.

Post-asemic

Make an asemic array of symbols and assign them Latin equivalents.

Monogramic

Make a monogram - some complex symbol with lots of strokes - and break it into lesser shapes erasing some of the original strokes. Similar to the Combinatorics method. Example below:

Combinatoric

Make particles, combine in different ways. See below:

Natural evolution simulation

Following the pipeline "pictogram" -> "letter". As seen below:

Other useful tips:

Omniglot.com: go there and take a look at how many writing systems are there in the world. This site stores lots of conscripts as well, and you can submit yours if you want to!

r/neography is a huge subreddit that has everything about neography (aka the art of creating new writing systems).

Learn about what kinds of writing systems there are. Basically they are categorized by how much information a symbol carries. It could be one sound, a syllable, or whole words. Though there are nuances, explained on r/neography's wiki, by the way.

Practice. Doodle a lot. You will get the grip of it eventually.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. The middle is between M and N, as M is letter #13. If you include numerals, that's 36 symbols. If you include punctuation, that's about 48 symbols depending on how much punctuation you want.

I have a sideblog called @thecrazyneographist meant just for neography, and all the scripts posted there are free to use per request!

Obligatory disclaimer: 

🛑 Note that 1) the style(s) of writing depicted here are far from the only correct way(s) to write cursive. 2) I’m not claiming that this is the One True Method or anything like that, or that I am the One True Authority on cursive. 3) This series cannot cover everything and so info you feel is important may be left out. Info I feel is important will not be left out 🛑

Hullo! Mod Seraphtonin here 🌸

We’re back with the second installment of the “basic cursive” series- the lowercase b! 

Why is this post arriving so much later than that first “a” post? Well, that’s because Mod Seraph got busy and also because Mod Seraph Doesn’t Like The Letter b

Notes about accessibility: 

🌸 You’ll notice that some colours have been changed from the last time ‘round! I was informed that my initial colour choices were not colourblind-friendly! 

🌸 2 “b”s or not 2 “b”s, that is the question 😁 (oh come on, I had to make the joke) The second letter with the lowered opacity should help make things more colourblind-friendly

🌸 Colours used may continue to change - please feel free to let me know if you find it hard to make out some info!

The traditional “b”:

*Sighs* Yeah, this is the “b” I was taught. For readers who have only learnt print, this is probably hideous, because it looks so alien compared to the print b. But, this is the b I was taught and so I’ll be starting with it

(Other ways of writing “b” are comin’ up in future posts)

Why do I call it the “traditional” b? Well, mostly because it’s a “b” which was more common in ye olden days. I mainly see people using this style of “b” when they want the aesthetic of the older cursive script (ex: copperplate) while typographers aiming for a more modern appearance (ex: on instagram) have largely switched to “b”s that more closely resemble the print “b”. More on that “b” later 

However, I’m still a big believer in learning the basics before deviating from those, so I’ll teach this “b” before showing how it’s changed as cursive has become more modernised 

How to write: 

Oh we’re gettin’ fancy over here. Mod Seraph has discovered how to make gifs!

To write this, start at the “T” part of the first arrow and move your pen in the direction of the arrow until you get to the “>”. Repeat for 2, and then 3. You can choose whether to just pause between steps or lift your pen from the page altogether. It might be easier to do the latter if you’re just starting out, so you can eyeball the whole letter and make sure it still looks good

Again, the whole letter can be written in one brush stroke if you so desire. Just connect all 3 steps together in one long line. If you’re a beginner, I suggest not doing this until you’re a bit more comfortable with the letter. You’re more liable to get a wonky character if you try to speed through it 

A secret to a more proportioned letter:

This is me illustrating why it’s good to pause or lift your pen off the page, folks. In blue, you’ll see a “b” where I went straight from stroke 1 into stroke 2 without pausing or lifting my pen off the page. You’ll note that the top of the “b” looks a lot... skinnier, even though I start from around the same place

Now, I won’t say that certain ways of writing are wrong, because writing is very much made up and how one letter looks is kinda arbitrary so long as it’s visually different from the other letters... That being said, I like my letters to look proportional, and that blue “b”? It’s a little bottom-heavy. You’ll also note that the line beginning the letter, brush stroke 1, needs to be at a much steeper angle, to avoid having a letter that slants too much. This’ll be a running theme through letters such as “f”, “h”, “k”, “l”, etc, as they all have that loop at the top

Overall, I advocate for pausing after brush stroke 1 and deliberately entering into brush stroke 2 at a gentler angle, so your loop is bigger and so the top of the letter ends up more proportional compared to the bottom

See? Now your “🐝” 😉 looks a lot more stable!

Anchor points: 

As always, it’s good to keep “anchor points” in mind when writing your cursive. These are the parts of your letter which touch or come close to touching your guidelines. If you want your letter to be very neat and structured, make sure your anchor points all touch the guidelines. In order to add some character to your characters 😉, consider varying the anchor points! As always, cursive doesn’t have to be neat to be pretty! 

And, that’s all for now! Thanks for tuning in 😁

Calligraphy 101: Uppercase Letters

Alright beginning calligraphers! This is for those of you who know your basic strokes, you’ve practiced standard lowercase letters, and you’re ready to be creative and move on to uppercase letters!

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here’s a little tutorial on my fav font:

firstly, draw out the word that you are intending to write. be as creative as possible!! 

on the left sides of the downward strokes, add line(s) to thicken!! vary the thickness, as according to your preference!! i tend to do bout 2-3 strokes, but you can thicken them as much as you want!!

outline the word!! (this step is optional!!!)

add another dimension/ line on the left sides of the downward strokes to create depth/ 3-D effect!!

(this step is optional too!!) add stripes to create a darker undertone/ shadow effect!!