7 Calligraphy Practice Prompts To Try Today
Have you ever found yourself with some free time, a great pen, a blank page... and NOTHING to write?
That's the worst feeling - being stuck. And it can make your hand lettering practice feel frustrating instead of fun.
So we've compiled some ideas to help get you UN-stuck next time you're ready to roll.
Before we dive into the calligraphy and hand lettering prompts (plus some free practice sheets), let's quickly go over how to get the most from them!
Pin it for later! ↓
Table of Contents
Tips For Your Lettering Practice
As much as we love the fundamentals, we know that doing the same thing every single day gets boring. And you need to enjoy your practice or else you'll end up picking up your pen less and less often and your lettering skills will stagnate.
Practice is a balancing act: trying to find the sweet spot between repetition (vital for success!) and stepping out of your comfort zone while still having fun.
This is one of the reasons why we decided to put together this list of prompts. Here are a few things to experiment with while working through these daily prompts:
Lettering styles: Trying all the different scripts is a large part of what makes calligraphy such a fun hobby. Why not try writing in a different hand lettering style than the one you're used to?
Style elements: Are you working on Copperplate? Then why not make a few letters bounce? Tweaking your chosen style of lettering is a great way to discover new ideas and break with the repetitive nature of daily practice.
Lettering practice shouldn't feel like a chore. Include some variety and who knows what creative things you will discover!
Have you ever tried ribbon hand lettering? Who knew your own handwriting could be so fun! Click for a tutorial on this style.
7 Easy Practice Prompts
Let’s start growing those lettering skills! Grab a piece of paper, any writing utensil and get started with the first prompt: song lyrics.
1. Song lyrics
Got a line from a song stuck in your head? Letter it! You can pick just a few words, or a whole verse like this one
Many calligraphy artists have created beautiful works of art based on a lyric. Visit Pinterest or Instagram and be inspired to create your own lettering art.
2. Pangrams
Did you know that the phrase Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes is an excellent prompt to practice your calligraphy alphabet? This is because it contains every letter of the alphabet.
A phrase like this is known as a pangram. Since you can work on all the letters in a calligraphy alphabet, we love using them for our lettering practice.
Having trouble coming up with your own? Fear not, we have a link to our favorites right here!
3. Make a Gift
Holidays and birthdays are a great time to make gifts for loved ones. Even a few words can add a personal to a bouquet of flowers or a bag of goodies. Pick your friend's favorite quote or find a phrase that describes them, and create something special.
Bonus: If you have a Cricut, you'll find endless ideas by browsing Cricut projects on Pinterest.
Speaking of which, we share 5x a week on Pinterest! Follow along to see our new lettering posts:
You may also like: How To Write Happy Birthday In Calligraphy
4. Quotes
Inspirational quotes, movie quotes, book quotes... they all provide a way to show your personality while also challenging you to think about the layout, since many quotes can be fairly long.
Scroll through some ideas here!
5. Tools
Sometimes when we're using a new tool, we just write the name of the tool or color. Simple and literal, but fun!
You may also like: How To Use Brush Pens
6. One word, multiple styles
Pick a word to write. Just look around the room and see what catches your eye. Then, try writing it in as many different styles as you can think of. Here's an example of the word May written in 8 different lettering styles:
A simple word can look so beautiful!
Here are some different style ideas you can choose from (click each for a tutorial!):
If these are too advanced for you currently, don’t get discouraged. Focus on logging practice sessions and you’ll watch your hand lettering skills take off before your very eyes.
This is faux calligrpahy, a style of hand lettering
7. Participate In A Lettering Challenge!
We sometimes host lettering challenges in our free Facebook Community. Please join us! Just click here and request to join, or search for "Loveleigh Loops Calligraphy Community" on Facebook. Don't forget to tag us!
Here's an example of one of our word-of-the-day themes:
You may also like: Learn About World Calligraphy Day
Bonus: Loveleigh Loops Prompt Generator
The above hand lettering challenge only has 7 ideas, but you can have an infinite number of lettering prompts from our ideas generator!
Our lettering challenge generator randomly gives prompts for:
What to write
Which type of calligraphy pen
Color scheme
Lettering techniques and styles
Bonus accents
It's a source of (literal) endless ideas. Just a little gift from us to you to say happy lettering!
You may just have a BREAKTHROUGH experimenting with the prompt generator!
Free Practice Sheets
Practice is more fun (and more effective!) with practice sheets. Here are some fun ones to try:
The basic calligraphy strokes for brush pens
"Thank You" written in calligraphy 3 ways
For iPad: "You Are Magical" flourished quote
Browse ALL of our free practice sheets in our free practice sheet library.
Next Steps
We hope these prompts have inspired you to create some interesting calligraphy art. Lettering practice is supposed to be a fun way to work on your progress and we believe there's no better way to do so than through some of the ideas provided here.
Now that we've laid out some exciting daily prompts, we can't wait to see what you come up with. Don't forget to tag us when you decide to post your work!
Happy lettering!
Jillian & Jordan
Ready to learn more? Take our free online calligraphy course!
Our most popular class gives you worksheets and step-by-step videos to teach even the newest letterer how to do calligraphy. You can get started TODAY with a regular pen and paper. No fancy tools needed. Start today.
You may also like: