Watch the above video and other videos of me doing letter drills on Instagram! My handle is @Inkerellcards or you can search for #inkerellaabcs for the videos of calligraphy letters I did for the #handletteredabcs challenge!
Have At Least a Few Models
I'll admit, when I first started, all I wanted was to have my writing look "JUST LIKE _____'S" I wasn't even thinking of developing my own style because I was sure that I wouldn't be satisfied with a style that I created on my own.
I started off really wanting to write like Molly Suber Thorpe because she's amazing and her writing is gorgeous. Plus, her book was the first one that I had bought and read to learn about modern calligraphy! So when I first started writing, I used the examples in her book as a model for how to write my letters. The words that I wrote looked really different from hers even though I used her letters as models for what I wanted mine to look like. Eventually, I started to tweak elements of my writing to fit in other elements. Some of the elements were things that came about from playing around with different styles and other elements were from other calligraphers on IG (e.g., "I love the way he writes his s", "her e's look so stylish").
Over time, I realized that there was a gradual shift from wanting it to look like someone else's writing, to wanting it to look unique to my writing style.
Continue to Evolve
My calligraphy style now is actually different from what it was a few months ago! It's important to keep learning and growing and shifting. I fully expect my writing style to change again--it might not be as dramatic as it was when I first started but as I'm learning and being inspired by fellow calligraphers, I don't expect to stay where I am stylistically.