receive FREE FEEDBACK ON YOUR CALLIGRAPHY
I love learning and one of the best ways to improve your work is to have a teacher look at it and provide feedback or critique.
For a limited time only, I am offering that service to you FOR FREE!
Note: Participating in this exercise means your email address will be saved into my email list. You can tell me either in advance or later if you would like to opt out of it.
About this service
What is it?
I am offering free constructive feedback on your calligraphy work, specifically your practice work.
Why should I do it?
In order to get better at calligraphy, we practice. But practicing on our own without studying what we just created isn’t really a productive and efficient way of learning. We could fill pages and pages of paper with ink and feel frustrated about how we seem to be getting nowhere.
Having fresh eyes to look at your work, analyze it and give insights will open your eyes and help you appreciate two equally important things:
what you’re on the right track with, and
what could be better improved.
You could then tuck these lessons in and apply them onto your next practice. This will give you more direction and will help you track your own progress.
Who can submit? Are we the right fit for each other?
If you are using a pointed nib and you are practicing traditional copperplate or engrossers’ script, then we might be the right fit! Read on to know more.
What topics can you give feedback on?
I am a big believer of getting the basics right because they give you a solid foundation for your calligraphy. These are the topics I feel capable of discussing with you.
Basic strokes and letter forms for minuscules (lowercase letters)
Basic strokes and letter forms for majuscules (uppercase letters)
Letter consistency
Letter connections
If you submit something that I don’t feel qualified for, I will do my best to redirect you to a different teacher or resource that might be able to help you better.
What topics will you not be providing feedback on?
It would be irresponsible of me to critique you for something I haven’t thoroughly studied and practiced, so I apologize for not including these topics at this time:
Flourishing
Numbers
Layout and composition
Modern calligraphy styles
I can, however, direct you towards teachers that I know of who can be considered experts at these topics. Feel free to message me and ask!
I don't know what to practice and where to start.
Here are a couple of ideas you can try in your practice:
Deconstructing the strokes of each letter (i.e. don’t draw the letters yet, draw the basic strokes that make up the letters)
Creating your own alphabet exemplar (A-Z and a-z or Aa-Zz)
Writing a pangram, your favorite quote or lyrics
I also have these resources that could help you jumpstart your practice:
How do I submit?
You basically send me an email describing what you did and you attach a photo and/or video of your work.
For more detail, the entire process is described in the next section.
What does the whole feedback process look like?
You practice whatever engrossers’ script topic you are working on (see what topics are included here) on a physical sheet of paper using pointed nib and ink.
When you’re done, you capture your work either by
Laying the paper flat on a surface and taking top-view photo (try not to take it at an angle), or
Scanning the paper (if you have an iPhone, you can use the document scanner from the Notes app).
You save the file as a photo (.jpg format).
Optional: if you think sending a video of how you write will help describe a problem you are experiencing, feel free to record one and send it to me.
You compose an email to maxiecalligraphy@gmail.com, with the subject “Calligraphy Feedback - <your name>”, and attach the photo you saved.
It would be helpful if you could write details about your work in the body of your email such as:
What were you aiming for in this practice session?
What did you like about the results you produced?
What didn’t you like about the results you produced?
This will help both of us in having direction and tracking your progress against your goals. Aside from that, I want to train and equip you not only in seeing what could be better, but also in appreciating the victories and progress you make on your script.
Send! And wait to hear back from me (see here for estimated turnaround time).
I will look at your photo, read what you wrote in your email, and analyze your work.
In my email reply, I will reattach the photo you submitted with notes or drawings on the photo themselves. I will explain my notes and drawings in written format on the body of the email. Click here for samples on how this could look like.
You read my email, take what you like* from my feedback, and apply that to your next practice session. You now have some points to use for your own self-critique next time! You can also reply back to me for follow up questions and clarifications.
Repeat as many times as you like, for as long as I am offering this free service!
*As with any calligraphy teacher, absorb what you like and the points you agree with, and take the rest with a grain of salt. There are a lot of aspects in calligraphy that are subjective to the calligrapher’s preference, but I won’t be the type of teacher who will impose my own preferences on you. Instead, I will give you suggestions and options that you may or may not necessarily agree with. And if you don’t agree with some or all of the review points, that’s totally okay! I ask you to also be critical of the feedback you receive not just from me but from anyone, and judge for yourself whether the suggestions make sense and feel right for you, before accepting or declining it.
When do I get it back?
As much as I’d love to do calligraphy all day, I have a full-time job and I do part-time studies. I do want to make sure I give you substantial feedback so please give me one week to get back to you.
If you don’t hear from me after the one-week mark, feel free to follow up!
If I get a lot of volume for a certain week, I will let you know via email if the turnaround time will be longer than expected.
Can I participate multiple times?
Yes!
We can do a back and forth on one particular topic that you are working on.
You can send me multiple practice sheets on different topics.
How long will you be offering this service for free?
The offer doesn’t have a definite end date for now. But! Don’t wait because I might decide to launch this service inside a paid program/course/workshop sometime soon.
Will your comments hurt (my feelings)?
This is a legitimate question that I think about when I myself am asking for feedback not just on calligraphy but on anything. You can ask my friends, I personally am sensitive to harsh criticism! I know how deflating critique can be so I will do my best to be objective and constructive in my feedback to you. I will point out what you’ve done well and what you could improve upon because I believe both points are equally important and both deserve to be celebrated.
In return, I ask you to separate yourself from the work that you created. That piece of paper is a result of how you were or what state you were in to execute calligraphy at a certain point in time and does not define your self-worth. The feedback I will give you is meant to help and encourage you with your learning process, not to derail your progress.
Why is it for free? What are you getting out of it?
I want to practice giving feedback in a constructive manner, not only to myself but to others. Analyzing a script trains my own calligraphy eye, too. This is good practice for me as a teacher!
My own calligraphy teachers have given me feedback that would’ve probably taken me ages or maybe even never to realize on my own. I found this really helpful because you can’t know what you don’t know. Aside from the act of paying it forward, I want to be like them.
The biggest bonus for me is that this is an excellent way for me to meet you, my fellow calligraphy enthusiasts! Let’s be calligra-friends! :)
Sample feedback
Here are some review points and feedback I’ve previously done (on my own work).
PRACTICE DATE: May 9, 2020 - lowercase letter p
What went well:
Most of the tops are flat and squared.
Most of the full pressure strokes are on the same slant.
The full pressure stroke has an even width from top to bottom.
The latter half has good rhythm on the strokes and better spacing than the first half.
What needs work:
The width of the full pressure stroke tends to be on the thick side and does not look like it matches the thickness of the compound curve.
I would suggest drawing the compound curve first and basing the swell of the full pressure stroke off of the thickest part of the compound curve, instead of the other way around.
The sides of the full pressure stroke are not all smooth and some show jaggedness.
This can be a style, but if you like the edges to be smoother, I would suggest being mindful of how the nib is placed on the paper. Make sure that the slit of the nib is on the same slant as the guidelines on the paper when it is being pulled down.
The compound curve needs more work. The shape of the swell is inconsistent. The top curve is not symmetrical to the bottom curve.
I suggest practicing it on its own so it can receive more attention. Aim to practice one characteristic at a time.
PRACTICE DATE: June 13, 2020 - uppercase letter P
What went well:
The slant of the entry oval is mostly consistent among the P’s.
There are some graceful capital stem shadings there, the best one is the last P on the first row.
Conscious effort is made to keep the swell of the ovals slightly thinner than that of the capital stem.
The first P has the best distancing between the strokes if you look at the space to the right and to the left of the capital stem.
What needs work:
Replicate the distancing made on the first P. Try not to overshoot the exiting stroke. Keep the slant the same by imagining that the exit stroke is part of an oval; an oval that is on the same slant as the entry oval.
On the fourth P in the first row, the swells of the capital stem and the exit curve are a bit awkward. Make the transitions from thin to thick more graceful by practicing even pressure control on both tines.
Watch where the dots on the capital stem is placed. They were roughly at the same height in the first row but they went significantly higher on the last few P’s.
I know these uppercase P’s were drawn in a different sitting than the previous lowercase p’s, but let’s say they were. Make sure that the thickness of the shades are similar for both uppercase and lowercase letters. In this case, I wouldn’t say this set of uppercase P’s would go well with the previous set of lowercase p’s because the uppercase ones have thinner shading.
PRACTICE DATE: June 10, 2018 - lowercase letters that are based on the oval (s, o, r, c, e)
What went well:
Thickness of the swells are consistent with each other.
Most of the ovals are similar in width.
The curvature of the entry and exit strokes are consistent for the majority of the letters.
What needs work:
Some of the letters are off slant. I would suggest moving the paper as you write so that your hand stays in the same comfortable spot and can maintain the same slant.
The second r is noticeably wider than the first r. Practice this letter on its own.
The dots on the tops of s and r should be the same. Practice keeping the size the same for these two.
The space that the first s occupies is smaller than that of the other two s’s and that of the letter c. Ideally, the curved part of the s should look similar to your c when it’s turned upside down.
I have more questions, how can I reach you?
You can reach me in three ways!
Email me at maxiecalligraphy@gmail.com (preferred method for detailed Q&A).
DM me on Instagram @maxiecalligraphy (best method for short/quick questions).
Go to my Contact page and fill out a contact form.
If you want to take it further and get live demonstration and tutorial from me, you can book a private lesson. I’d love to be able to practice together with you! Aside from showing you how I write, I’ll be able to watch how you execute your strokes and give you immediate feedback.
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