How to Write in Italic Calligraphy - Lowercase Alphabet

You need three things: a 3mm Sakura Pigma Calligrapher pen, Sakura's free 3mm italic lining guide, and a sheet of smooth practice paper for warm-up strokes. The Pigma Calligrapher has a chisel-shaped nib that gives italic its thick down-strokes and thin upstrokes automatically - you do not have to dip ink or adjust pressure.

Print the lining guide directly onto your practice paper or slip it under a blank sheet of tracing paper. The guide ruling already matches the 3mm nib, so the x-height, ascender, and descender lines are all spaced correctly. Lay everything flat on a hard surface (a clipboard works) so the paper does not bow under the pen.

Before you write a single letter, hold the pen at a consistent 35-degree angle and keep it there. That single angle is what makes italic look like italic. The base of a lowercase letter is 5 nib widths tall - stack the flat edge of your pen five times if you want to see exactly what x-height means at this size.

Joanne sorts the 26 lowercase letters into four shape families. Straight letters (i, l, t, f, j) are mostly vertical down-strokes. Branching letters (n, m, h, b, p, k, r, then u and y) all start with a curve that branches out from the stem. Elliptical letters (a, d, g, q and o, c, e) are built around an oval bowl. Diagonal letters (s, v, w, x, z) lean across the line. Work one family at a time and the alphabet stops feeling like 26 random shapes.

Start the i one nib width down from the top line. Curve up briefly to touch the top, then come straight down at the same slant the whole way, and end with a tiny curve out at the bottom. The dot on the i sits directly above the stem at the same thickness as the stroke - not a teardrop and not a circle.

The l is the same stroke as the i, just longer - it climbs into the ascender space. The t starts about 6 nib widths tall with a rounder bottom hook than the l, then add a flat crossbar where the x-height line sits. The f is essentially a long l with a crossbar. The j drops below the baseline with a thin tail that curls left. Write each one five or six times in a row before moving on.

The branching letters are the heart of italic. Start the n on a thin upstroke, curve at the top, come straight down at the slant, and let the stroke push past the baseline a touch. Then go back up the stem and branch out into the second leg with the same curve. The gracefulness comes from that branched curve - if it looks like a sharp angle you are turning too quickly.

An m is two n shapes side by side; if you do it right, the gap between the down-strokes is exactly the same. The h, b, p, and k all branch off an l-style stem in the same way. The r branches higher than the n so its short tail keeps the rhythmic spacing between letters consistent. Practice n and m first - those two are the trickiest, and once you nail them the rest of the group is easy.

The u is an upside-down n. Branch down from the top, curve at the bottom, then come straight back up to the top for the second leg. The thin upstroke, branched curve, and even down-strokes are all the same moves you used on n - just inverted.

The y combines the u with the j tail. Write a u, then drop a thin downstroke below the baseline from the right leg and finish it the way you ended j - with a thin curl back to the left. These two letters bridge into the elliptical group because both rely on the same smooth branched curve.

The elliptical letters are built around an oval bowl. For the a, push the pen slightly to the left to start, then sweep around into a rounded oval, and come back down with a vertical stem. The d is the same bowl with an l-shaped stem sitting on top of it. The g overlaps the bowl with a descender tail. The q ends with a thin curl to the right like an inverted j.

The o, c, and e are pure ovals. Joanne's trick: start lower than you think you need to, so you have room to come back up and over the top and overlap the join. Touching fingertip to fingertip is hard; pressing palm to palm is easy and stronger. Same principle with letters - overlap the strokes rather than just kissing them together.

The diagonal family has the trickiest letter of the lot - the s. Work small so you have room to add the top curl and the bottom curl on either side of the diagonal middle stroke. A big s tends to look top-heavy.

For v, w, and x, steepen the angle of your left-leaning down-strokes a touch and flatten the right-leaning ones, so the visual weight stays balanced across the letter. The z is a flat top, a steep diagonal down, and a flat bottom. That is the entire lowercase italic alphabet. Write each letter ten times in a row, then start chaining them into short three- and four-letter words - calm, knit, fish - and you will see the family-based approach pay off fast.