My self-imposed 28 day challenges have the purpose of working on a particular skill – either improving a skill I already have or exploring a new skill entirely. For January 2021, I chose calligraphy.

I practiced traditional calligraphy (ink and nibs!) while I was in high school and college. I even was hired a few times to hand address invitations for weddings and events. That was many, many years ago. This time around I used Procreate on my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.

I follow a number of calligraphers and handletters on Instagram as well as the tag #calligraphy and am constantly inspired by their amazing talent. Check out: Letters by Maddie, Molly Suber Thorpe, Jimbo Bernaus, Stefan Kunz, to name a few.

I was able to do 23 calligraphy pieces in the 28 days (I promised myself that I wouldn’t be too hard on myself if I didn’t get all 28 days done). I really felt like I hit a style groove towards the end when I started to get into texture and dimension.

Click on any of the images below to see the full piece.