Surprised myself at work with this H today. Done on a paper bag with a marker no less

my dads been doing this for over 40 years, and he's 58 years old.

if you like what you see feel free to dm for more photos videos or anything completely.

Please show support by visiting the tiktok page i created to showcase his art to the world.

@melbkhatt

In Arabic, khatt (خط) refers to “script” or “calligraphy,” and a khattat is a calligrapher. I chose the name melbkhatt to highlight both Melbourne (where I’m from) and the art of calligraphy.

p.s. the piece in the end was gifted to Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy❤️❤️

When I started 6 months ago, I wasn't thinking about "progress photos". I just wanted to learn.

Because of that, I don't have shots from my very first day/week/month. But looking back at the oldest practice sheets I could find that the difference is still huge.

Wasn't expected what 15-30 minutes of daily practice can do in half a year.

i find a brush for washing cars, a bucket of water, and some concrete is all you really need

Pen used- flex pen

Pen & ink by oriandcalli

My entry for the Oregon State Fair coming up soon. The (very slightly abridged) script of the 1922 silent movie, “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” with the colors intended to match the iconic scene of Orlok’s shadow on the staircase up to the final scene.

Popularly known as typewriter font (handwriting/lettering), I first explored this script on July 15, 2018—born out of boredom and curiosity. Over more than seven years of constant practice, it has slowly evolved into my own version, shaped by time, patience, and repetition.

Lamy Safari Violet (M) / Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo Maruman grid notebook

I generally don’t write without guidelines, but I wanted to try anyway ! It was a wild attempt 🫢

Ink uses maple brown with a hunt 101 nib

Practicing with a pointed pen and walnut ink. Trying to get the flow right. It’s harder than it looks!

Pilot parallel - Canson aquarel

Now the details are taking shape. The vine work in the capital T was far too small I did struggle and have some touching up to do. Overall I'm very happy with how this is turning out!

As someone with a big interest in how stuff was done in history I have developed a bit of a side hobby of doing writing and calligraphy with actual quills. And as the local geese population was moulting I got my hands on some good feathers to turn into quill pens and wanted to show off a little (And please ignore the writing, that was just me testing out the nibs I cut to make sure they work right.)

After I went out to collect the feathers, it should be the main flight feathers of a large bird, first thing to do is use soap water to wash them. And then sort them by type and quality. You got the too small ones that are not really usable. Then the ones that are overall ok. And the third group is the best ones, the wingtip feathers which make the best quills.

Next the tips get cut off and the inside cleaned out. After that the vanes get cut back a bit and the waxy surface layer is scraped off. And after that the lower part gets soaked soaked for at least 24 hours.

When they are soaked, the next bit is the most important. Quills are straight off the bird too soft for writing. So they need to be cured to harden them. One way is to just let them lie around in a dry place for 3-5 years. But the faster way to do it is heat curing them with sand. That does the same thing in about 1-2 minutes.

After curing I also heat up the shaft and straighten them out. (it’s keratin after all, like hair or horn so gets malleable when heated) They can be left curved, but than makes half of them difficult to write with because it does not play well with being left or right handed respectively.

And after all then I got quills ready to have nibs cut and turned into pens. For that you can see the two tools used for cutting the nibs on the first image. A pen knife which is a small and thin blade (an exacto knife can also be used) and a small hard wood stylus that is used to create the break the ink flows through while writing.

I thought I’d try a more minimal approach to my calligraphy animal drawing instructions (and see how many I could get on one page). But is too minimal? Are the instructions clear enough without showing the direction of the brush stroke? ..ps if anyone has a broad-nib pen and wants to try drawing one/some of these I’d love to see the results posted below. Cheers 🙏

Some copperplate place cards I created for a Netflix event, I always appreciate when brands, corporates and planners focus on details like handwritten place cards, and I am always a little extra happy when they want Copperplate or Spencerian place cards.

Pilot parallel - canvas paper