E is for effortless, easy and elegant.
That’s how calligraphy looks.
Just as a ballerina makes elegant leaps look effortless, calligraphers also make graceful strokes and sweeping flourishes look easy. Behind the scenes is a series of intentional decisions about strokes, contrast and slant. Today we’re pulling back the curtain to show you all of the letter E’s secrets.
This tutorial will teach you how to write the letter E in 6 different calligraphy styles. Use our free printable worksheets below to follow along!
Click to view other letters of the alphabet (new links added as tutorials are released): a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.
The lowercase letter E is written using 3 basic calligraphy strokes:
Practice using our free basic calligraphy strokes worksheet – enter your details below and we’ll send the printable PDF to your inbox!
The letters a, b, c and d are all relatively straightforward to write. The letter e is the first tricky letter with unique strokes. Here’s how to avoid the biggest mistakes that we see beginners make:
See the entire alphabet critiqued here.
The capital letter E can be written in traditional and modern calligraphy styles. It’s made up of 3 strokes when following traditional scripts and 4 strokes in many modern styles.
A traditional capital E follows oval shapes, while modern styles can be more angular. There’s a lot of room for interpretation with the capital E, which you’ll see more examples of below.
Learn more in our capital letters guide.
Learn how to write the letter E in 6 popular lettering styles: faux calligraphy, Copperplate, Spencerian, brush lettering, monoline and flourishes. Which style is your favorite for writing the letter E? We’d love to hear in the comments!
When writing the letter E in the Copperplate style with a pointed pen, be mindful not to have too much ink on your nib. The letter E has two small small loops where an overloaded nib becomes a problem:
If you start writing these delicate elements with too much ink on your nib, the white space will shrink or disappear altogether into an ink blob on your paper.
Learn the whole Copperplate alphabet letter by letter here.
Brush lettering is often more playful and organic than Copperplate, but the letter E’s simplicity and number of strokes minimizes the number of stylistic opportunities when compared to other letters. For example, the lowercase letter E can’t really be written in the bounce lettering style because it only touches the baseline once. It serves as an anchor point for a word.
You can however see the modern interpretation when you look at the rounder letterforms and the entrance stroke.
Learn more about brush lettering here.
Look closely at the angle of the capital monoline E and you’ll notice that in this example, it’s more upright than the other styles. It doesn’t have to adhere to a specific slants like Copperplate or Spencerian, as long as you are consistent throughout the word.
The lowercase monoline E is a simple letter, but pay attention to where the entrance stroke connects to the half-oval. Remember to lift your pen and not write in one continuous stroke or connect it too low. These are two of the most common mistakes that we see beginners make.
Compare the below faux calligraphy E with the monoline above. See how the letterforms are the same, just with the shade added on the downstrokes? We left the space on our faux calligraphy empty so that you can see exactly how to build on the monoline letterforms with a shade line.
For an added touch, you can go back and erase the overlapping area (the beginning of the e-shape stroke overlapping with the downstroke). This will give your E a hollow look that you can leave empty, color in or fill with a design.
Get free faux calligraphy printables in our free Faux Real Calligraphy course.
When it comes to the capital letter E, the biggest difference between the Spencerian script and Copperplate example is the shade. The Copperplate E has shades everywhere there is a downstroke, while the Spencerian E has only one shade on the bottom C-shape.
On the lowercase E, notice that it looks less like calligraphy and more like cursive. The Spencerian script was designed to be more practical and faster than Copperplate, which results in fewer pen lifts in the lowercase E.
Learn more here in our Spencerian script.
Unlike the other examples of the letter E in this tutorial, the flourished letter E focuses less on the letter itself and more on the white space surrounding it. The flourished exit stroke of the lowercase letter is a great example of this. When you flourish the letter E, you have to be careful to lift the flourish away from the core letterform enough or it risks looking like a second letter and not like an embellishment on this one.
The Loveleigh Loops flourishing method teaches flourishes in C and S shapes. Looking at the flourished letter E, you can observe both of these shapes.
Learn the Loveleigh Loops flourishing method here in our free course.
The letter E is not the most versatile letter of the calligraphy alphabet: the lowercase letter is made of only one main stroke, and the small loop can’t be embellished without compromising legibility. However there are still many ways calligraphers can add style and variation to the letter E.
Common variations of the lowercase letter E include the entrance and exit strokes. The capital letter E can be flourished at the start or end of the letter. Variations in shade and angularity also add a personal touch to how the letter E is written.
The lowercase letter E is a relatively simple, clean letterform. The capital E, however, has more room for variation… but each variation adds complexity! The capital E is based on different ovals sitting at different angles, and the more flourishes that you add, the more you need to test the placement, overlap and angles. Swipe through some of our practice pages below to see how the letter E looks when drafting.
These practice pages were written live on a call with our Calligraphy Together community 💕
There are many ways to interpret the letter E in calligraphy. Here are 3 examples from our talented community members.
The first colorful alphabet was submitted by the talented Zumra Zarook. Traditionally the exit stroke of the letter E is written with a light upstroke, but the shade on the exit stroke produces a signature style in this alphabet.
The second example is by the talented Colleen Brant in a Blackletter style. If you look at the letter E, you’ll notice how these flourished Fraktur capitals show a beautiful mix of rounded elements with straight, razor-thin hairlines. This is a beautiful balancing act.
The final example is a hand lettering alphabet submitted by the talent Cristin April Frey. The modular nature of this E contrasts really well against the curves of the other two styles. An E written with straight lines is simpler to write, but the added geometric look of these letters adds a layer of depth and complexity that really elevates the letter.
Click here to see all 60 examples of the alphabet from our talented community members.
We hope that this tutorial helped you practice the letter E in calligraphy. If you enjoyed this tutorial, we would love to welcome you into our Calligraphy Together community. You can get dedicated worksheets and video courses for every style shown here (and more!).
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