Reviving a Lost Art: A Review of Written By Hand, by Erica Tighe

If you spend any amount of time on Instagram or Pinterest, examples of beautiful hand-lettering abound.  Erica Tighe is a talented artist/hand-letterer, and she wrote a newly released book called Written By Hand.  According to the subtitle, the book contains “Techniques & Tips to Make Your Everyday Handwriting More Beautiful”, and I found that it delivers just that.

The book starts with an interesting general overview about handwriting.  In this tech-age, handwriting needs to be practiced and appreciated more than ever!

There are several practice pages where you can write directly in the book.  The pages are nice and thick so your pen will not bleed through.

The author goes through step-by-step in teaching each letter, both upper and lower case, as well as numerals, for three types of fonts: Sans Serif, Bold Serif, and Script.

I always thought of my handwriting as “pretty good”, but I never really learned how to do calligraphy.  This book has a chapter dedicated to faux calligraphy–no calligraphy pen necessary!  I had read before that it is all about the downstroke line, but practicing with this book made it clearer to me.

Here is a chalkboard sign I made for my daughter’s upcoming birthday.  I still need to practice more, but I like it!

Here is another chalkboard sign where I tried to incorporate some of the techniques in the book.

I like how the author encourages the reader to get playful and creative with your handwriting.  The point is not to attempt to exactly replicate someone else’s handwriting, but to develop your own unique style.  Written By Hand is a wonderful tool that is full of inspiring ideas as well as fundamental basics.