The first step to learning calligraphy is getting familiar with your tools and materials. In Part 1, Maybelle introduces you to the inks, pens, and papers you will need to get started and show you the proper way to hold the pen. After you work through a few warm-up exercises, we’ll move on to learning the uppercase alphabet. At the very end, Maybelle shares ideas for what to do with your pretty practice sheets once you’ve filled them up.

Now that you’ve had a chance to warm up with exercises and practice your uppercase letters, you’re ready to start putting some of these skills together. Part 2 introduces lowercase letters, and shows you how to smoothly connect your letters to form words. You’ll also learn how to write common words and phrases, which you’ll use to create beautiful personalized messages on notecards.

In Part 3, let’s switch things up by practicing with white ink on black paper. Since you won’t be able to use a guide sheet with black paper, this exercise helps you get comfortable with free-hand calligraphy and will loosen up your style. You’ll also learn how to write numerals and punctuation, which we’ll use together with letters to beautifully address an envelope.

Composition is a fundamental skill for creating professional-looking finished pieces. In Part 4, Maybelle teaches her technique for creating a beautiful layout, then shows you how to transfer your design to the paper you would like to use. This transfer technique is ideal for creating hangable artwork, frameable quotes and perfectly imperfect invitations. Maybelle also shares a fun technique for creating an illustration using calligraphy, where you entirely fill a shape with words.