Italic Calligraphy: From Learning the Fundamentals to Dancing with Your Pen

By Kathie McIlvride

Italic Calligraphy is a practical, joyful guide to this foundational calligraphy style, which was originally developed during the Renaissance. Popular among lettering artists, Italic is a great entry point for people learning how to get into the artform. The book is divided into three sections with plenty of exercises and detailed how-to instruction.

Section One is all about establishing the basics: learning strokes, understanding spacing, familiarizing yourself with the tools and learning how to create your own practice sheets based on your preferred nibwidth. By the end of this section you will have learned all the letters of the alphabet (both lowercase and uppercase) as well as numbers and punctation. Section Two teaches additional skills to add character and style to your Italic foundation, such as flourishes, pen manipulation and much more. It also instructs on two offshoot styles of Italic: snub-nosed Italic, taught by calligrapher Carl Rohrs, and cursive Italic. Section Three breaks down the boundaries of traditional calligraphy, guiding readers on gestural strokes, composition and different tools and how they can all come together to create something interesting and unique.

Each section features discussions about tools and materials, enlightening sidebars and fun projects that incorporate the new calligraphy skills you've learned.

The book is fully illustrated with Kathie's beautiful calligraphy featured throughout. Her charming and comical illustration style accompany and enhance the clear instructions, making this a both fun and indispensable reference on your journey with Italic calligraphy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 022810596X
• ISBN13: 9780228105961
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Length: 192 Pages