Learn Calligraphy Today Part 2: Calligraphy Supplies

Here on the blog I am getting back to the basics of learning calligraphy with a new series. These posts are meant to help you quickly get started to learn calligraphy. If you missed part 1 check it out here, it will help you figure out whether to start out with brush pens or dip pens. Now on to part 2 and calligraphy supplies!

The Best Beginner Calligraphy Supplies

There are so many supplies out there to use for modern calligraphy. I have done plenty of posts about them too. So for today’s post I am going to share my top favorite supplies for brush pen calligraphy and dip pen calligraphy. These may not be everyone’s favorite pens but I think they are great for newbies especially since I started with them and I still use them.

When you start practicing calligraphy you really only need a few basic supplies to really get started. If you picked brush pen calligraphy that would be just the pen and the paper. And if you want to try dip pen calligraphy that would include the pen, nib, ink, and paper. Either way you don’t need a lot to start.

Brush Pen Calligraphy: Tombow Fudenosuke

I have slowly been trying all the brush pens I can over the years but there is one pen that I go back to over and over again. So much so that I keep a supply of the pen in stock at home at all times. I also use this pen when I host beginner brush pen calligraphy workshops. The Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen is seriously the best. The Tombow Fudenosuke comes in 2 styles, a hard tip and a soft tip. However the soft tip is still pretty hard compared to other soft tip pens. That means both are fun to use and experiment with!

And if you do want a little bit of color with your brush pen calligraphy, they now have some color sets! Check out the colors here and the neons here.

Dip Pen Calligraphy: Pen Holder, Nibs, & Ink

Next up if you want to try out dip pen calligraphy these are the beginner supplies I would recommend:

Budget Pen Holder: Speedball Pen Holder Oblique for righties and Regular for lefties
Splurge Pen Holder: Moblique 2-in-1 Pen Holder
Black Ink: Ziller Glossy Black
Color Ink: Any Ziller color
Most Popular Newbie Nib: Nikko G
My Favorite Nib: Blue Pumpkin

Learn more about all the nibs I’ve tried right here.

Paper: HP Premium 32lb

This laser jet HP paper is pretty well know in the calligraphy world as the standard for practicing calligraphy. I use it for all my worksheets that I print for practicing. Even though it’s a laser jet paper I still use it on my ink jet printer and it works fine. This paper is recommended by many because first off it’s pretty cheap for a lot of sheets and it’s super smooth so the pen glides over it perfectly. I use it for both dip pen and brush pen which makes it a win-win!

Calligraphy Supplies Recap

If you are following this series you should already know whether you are starting with brush pen or dip pen. And now you have a super simple list of what supplies to pick up so you can get started asap! Here’s a quick recap of the beginner calligraphy supplies you need.