Modern Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Pointed Pen and Brush Pen Lettering

This is the second beginning calligraphy book that I have bought and it far surpasses the first one! Its a great book and worth the money!

I bought this book as well as Peggy Dean's brush lettering guide. While both are solid guide books to get you started, I personally preferred this book. Here are my thoughts:1. The biggest reason I prefer this book is that it has a clear, consistent styling guide. There are 3 main styles with lots of practice lines right in the book. I call them the "meat" of the book. Then Leslie shows you 10-20 additional styles for each letter without practice lines. In Peggy's book, she provides 10 ways to write each letter, but I had a hard time figuring out a consistent style. I.e. Should I practice the first style for all letters? Would that give me a consistent style for the alphabet? I didn't think it did, so I had to pick and choose myself in order to come up with a set that looked good together. Leslie's book is much more clear on that. I found that to be very valuable as a beginner.2. The printing is done very professionally, and the paper quality excellent. The print job on Peggy's book is blurry that it doesn't look professionally done. I'm guessing if you get the PDF version it would be less blurry; but then you lose the option to practice on brush lettering paper right in the book.I do like that Peggy's book has additional topics like floral line drawing, and little projects like banners...etc. But as I said, while both are great books, I prefer Leslie's book more.

I bought three of these books to work with kids. One of them was for me. I am a self-taught brush letterer and wanted to try my hands at following this book. I have to say, it's helped me quite a lot. It never hurts to try someone else's style and then use it to create your own. My kids enjoyed it, although their hands cramped after each working on each letter, but they are not used to writing cursive, let alone, brush lettering. It will take them some time to get the hang of it.As far as the book goes, it's an excellent looking tool for learning brush lettering. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn.

I've been getting into modern calligraphy and brush script recently, so I purchased lettering sheets on Etsy and other various sites, but they just show the letters. I wanted to go the next step and learn how to link them together, variations on the letters, and about flourishes and other possibilities to make my lettering my own. This book has it all. Wonderfully written, filled with helpful information that I hadn't even thought I needed - I just can't recommend it enough! I took the book apart and scanned it into my computer as a pdf so that I could print out the practice pages as many times as I wanted. I just love it!

I was looking for a Modern Calligraphy guide for some time but I thought that paying $30+ for downloads were I had to invest in paper and ink was too much. I have been following Leslie on her Instagram for a little while and really liked her lettering. When I saw her guide was on prime I immediately ordered. The pen that comes with the book works perfect for the sizing of the letters and the kind of paper. It has a brief explanation of different types of lettering materials and some tips for using pointed pens. It includes 3 official ways of writing each letter in lowercase and uppercase. It also has a section where there are even more variations of each letter (20+) to help you develop your own style. It also includes some common words to practice, a little bit about flourishing, and some tips for writing inside a circle shape. Overall, I think it's a very complete guide and a good deal for the price. -@katiyari

Like one of the other reviewers, I also have Peggy Dean's Calligraphy book, and have tried a ton of calligraphy books before eventually giving up for a while. There's a ton out there that either consist of 1) giving you a bunch if styles, far too many if we're being honest 2) having no option to trace or practice or 3) just provide one style and basically leave it at that.Not this book - it provides room to practice, 3 unique handwriting styles, and teaches the basics of pens, flourishes, etc. It's not necessarily the most in-depth when it comes to explaining, so I would 100% recommend having taken a calligraphy class on Skillshare for example before getting this book, but overall it is a great practice sheet for beginners, exactly what I was looking for.

I ordered a few calligraphy books and this is by far the best one if you want to focus on a more traditional calligraphy alphabet rather than learning lots of types of hand lettering. There is a practice page for each uppercase letter and another for each lowercase letter, plus a few pages to practice numbers. At the end there are pages that introduce other ways to add flair. The author recommends buy tracing paper as well so you can get even more practice out of this book.

I'm enjoying the guide so far. The styles of hand lettering offered are beautiful and it is easy to follow. My book was missing the pen, which was disappointing. In any event, I would still recommend the book.

Was expecting more information on how to write, but it’s more of a practice sheet with guides.And when I started getting into it, it was GREAT! So much better to practice then to try to understand the theory and the paper quality is nice, ink doesn’t bleed through to the other side, seems pretty smooth too :)

Very easy to follow beginner's instructional guide. Love the concept to follow along practising right in the guide! Spiral bound makes it a very functional book to use. Looking forward to learning my "ABC's" with style!

product as described

Loved it