How to Write the Letter ‘b’ in Calligraphy

Welcome to the second post and video in our series! This is a deep dive into the specifics of creating each letterform in calligraphy, where I spend 10-15 minutes on one letter only, teaching you everything you ever wanted to know about that little guy! For an introduction to this series, and a list of supplies you’ll need, please visit the first post at this link. 

In the video below, I’ll walk you through lettering a ‘b’ step by step. This is a great letter to practice creating alternates with (that means different “styles” of the letter). It also incorporates two new strokes that we haven’t seen yet (in the letter a) so we’ll learn a few more skills in this video. As we progress through this series, you’ll notice that we encounter novel strokes less frequently – that’s why it’s so important to get these basics down!

Some takeaway tips:

• Make your first stroke slant slightly to the right.
• Your second stroke should have a loop that almost touches the first stroke.
• Don’t make your second loop too far away from your stem, or you risk having your ‘b’ look like an ‘h.’
• Make sure to extend your connector stroke at the end of your letter.
• A great way to create alternates is to change the size of loops in a letter.
• You can also remove loops to create alternates.

In the comments, I’d love to hear what you love, what you don’t love, and what you’d like to see more of in these videos! I really want this to be a great resource for those of us who may not be able to fit an all day calligraphy workshop into our daily lives.

At the end of this series, I’m estimating there will be nine total hours of letterform instruction video footage – that’s the equivalent of a full day of classes!

So let me know what would make this series even more beneficial for you!