reaperwoman asked: Hello, I've been trying to get into calligraphy and your work is a great inspiration to me. I appreciate it even more now that I try to get similar effects, particularly in terms of ornamentation, and find it extremely difficult! Do you have any suggestions in terms of composition, technique, materials etc...? (I currently use a Lamy 1.5 Italic nib for calligraphy on Paper made for ink and I use various inks, mainly J. Herbin)

Getting composition and ornamentation to work is mostly trial and error. Try to make loose, gestural pencil strokes, and if a particular idea doesn’t look right, erase it and try something different. Sometimes it will take me several hours of sketching to get something to look balanced. You just need to be patient.

I sometimes use nibs, but I much prefer using a brush (Raphael 8404 #2 is my favourite at the moment.) I wouldn’t suggest using anything smaller than a #2.

Of course, the best advice is to experiment and find out what suits you best!