1-2-3 Calligraphy!: Letters and Projects for Beginners and Beyond

by Eleanor Winters

Kids everywhere will be grabbing their calligraphy pens, because this follow-up to the wildly successful Calligraphy for Kids offers them even more artful fun. Inside they'll find new alphabets--and new ways to render the alphabets they already know--as well as fresh techniques and projects. There's coverage of the basic rules of layout; a review of some of the fundamental skills; advice on changing the weight of italic letters and forming italic capitals; and an introduction to both Swing and Modern Gothic handwriting. With just a little practice, children can make eye-catching signs, design their own personal stationery, address colorful envelopes in elegant script, and create calligraphic pictures and other decorations to hang on the wall.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 2006

Reviews

[Electric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an informative book and shows you how to do the basics, what to do and what not to do. Some great ideas!

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I perused this book while searching for a book to start learning calligraphy. I found 1-2-3 Calligraphy! too childishly presented for my tastes. Perhaps I could have drawn such a conclusion from the title. The material presented stays fairly elementary, especially compared to other introductory texts, and placed emphasis on "jumping in and getting messy", in lieu of more directed practice. In line with this approach, the author presents few practice exercises to develop stroke familiarity and refrains from going in-depth on script details.

One positive note I do have to make, and which may benefit those comfortable with calligraphy, are the ideas for script variations. An beginning to intermediate calligrapher may find the variations inspiring. For the novice, such variations likely distract from learning the base scripts.

[HITWM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suuuuuper beginner friendly. Repetition really helps you remember the terminology. Fun to read and follow—felt like an exercise book!

Mainly read it for the final section of projects, but surprisingly my favourite section was the rest of the book on basic font details. The projects section was full of great tips (names of resource materials, brands, cheap printing, order to do write vs. cut, etc.) BUT the actual projects themselves were a bit typical and expected… would’ve liked more creative paper engineering projects that’d make unique custom gifts!

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I'm visual and not very good with directions I skimmed this one. It's a nice book to study along time. I'm not into the practicing side yet. I'm wrapping calligraphy around my brain first. It's sort of like writing, you think about it for a while and then it flows.
I wrote an address on an envelope without practicing and it just flowed.
Maybe I should do that with languages because they seem so hard to get flowing.

[Danilo Desgraves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Book for a Beginner

The author made calligraphy seem very feasible. I now understand that almost anyone can do it. Also, she used clear language that made sense. I am thinking about buying the paperback also. The author did a great job. There were no typos; therefore, the author had a good editor, or Eleanor was meticulous. I would recommend this book to anyone because it was a fun read, and it was fast. I finished the whole book in under 2hours. It deserved every star.