Behind the Scenes - How I Lay out a Poem for Calligraphy
Everything (almost!) you need to know to create your own calligraphy poem artwork. Here we go...
Step 1 - Read the Poem
😂 I am not trying to be funny here! Take some time before you begin and give some thought to how you can convey the feeling behind or meaning of the poem through your calligraphy. Remember you are creating a piece of art. In the example below, the poem is about a house in the Caribbean and the watery blue ink captures some of the local colour.
In this well-known Aldous Huxley quote the word 'lightly' is repeated many times. To add visual interest to this piece of wall art, the word was written in a way that conveyed its meaning, in this case, a looser script that seems to gently float on the paper.
Step 2 - Create a Line Template for Your Lettering
You will need to create a very precise template to ensure your lettering fits perfectly. I won't lie. This part of the process can be fiddly and takes some trial and error to get just right.
To get a sense of the size of my lettering, I start by writing out the longest line of the poem on scrap paper. If the poem has very long lines, then the lettering will naturally have to be smaller in order to fit. I don't want to 'break' a line if I don't have to. If the lines are short, then the lettering can sometimes be larger (but not if there are a lot of lines to squeeze in vertically, of course.) Don't forget to include your desired left and right margins when writing out this line.
Next, I consider the:
top margin - including space for title and author
bottom margin - don't forget to leave adequate space at the bottom of the page. Your poem will look nicer for it.
Having completed these steps, I now know how much space I have for the actual poem as well the approximate size my lettering can be. At this stage, I go to my favourite website for creating free calligraphy guide lines: https://www.blocklayer.com/writing-guide-paper. Here I can input all the variables I need to create a template that works for my particular layout. Experiment with x-height, ascender and descender height and the space between lines to get something that fits nicely. Don't forget to account for space between verses, if applicable.
If you end up with a poem that is a tight squeeze, your ascender and descender areas may overlap. Not to worry! In the few instances where your ascenders and descenders 'collide' you can deal with them artfully like this:
How to deal with ascender and descender spaces that overlap.
Step 3 - Write Your Poem in Pencil
Using your template, write the poem out in pencil. Make sure you are writing at the same size as your calligraphy will be - this may not be handwriting size! I usually do this using a light box (sometimes called a light table or pad - an indispensable tool that can be purchased fairly inexpensively) with my template and a sheet of thin marker paper on top. Something like this:
Step 4 - Centre Your Poem
The next step involves a little crafting.
First - draw a centre line down your template
Second - Cut each line of the poem into a strip. This way you can fold each line in half which marks the exact centre of the line.
Third - Stick down each line of the poem on the template with clear tape, making sure to line up the fold (the centre) with the centre line of the poem. Something like this:
Fold in poem line is lined up with centre of template.
Result! Perfectly centred poem to copy over. No mistakes, no off-centre lines! Below is part of the template from the original poem about the house in the Caribbean. I have also highlighted the places where my ascenders and descenders may cross over. This gives me a little heads up to be extra careful when writing out those parts. 💡
Step 5- Write out the Final Version
Last step! 😅 Writing out the poem. Now that you have a perfectly centred version of your poem sketched out, with no mistakes and any tricky areas highlighted, you can be confident in writing out your poem in calligraphy.
So that's it - how I put together a calligraphy poem. Other calligraphers may use techniques such as writing it out in pencil (lightly!) and then erasing (which works well if you don't have a light table) or else using a typed (vs. written out version of the lettering to copy over) but this is what I have put together over the years that seems to work best for me. I hope you now have the knowledge and confidence to approach your own calligraphy poem. They make wonderful and unique gifts for anniversaries, birthdays, house warmings, etc. As always, I would love to see what you create. Please tag #CrouchEndCalligraphy on Instagram to share.