Beautiful handwriting sample for a student. Copybooks of past centuries ... Is the Tsarevich's handwriting beautiful?

Have you met with old copybooks of the 19th century? Having plunged into the stingy topic of calligraphy and the search for old copybooks for training hands and handwriting, we found this Russian spelling already in 1887 ! It was compiled according to the instructions of the school council at the Holy Synod.

“Here it is! Starinaaaa ... "- you say. But look at the spelling of letters, it is no different from calligraphy, which was taught back in Soviet times, when even for 1 blot the teacher gave a mark of 4.

On the site "International exhibition of calligraphy" such a recipe was provided by the Russian State Library, for which we are very grateful. There would be more such materials - there is something to compare with more than one generation of children with the handwriting "chicken paw".

- Tutorial. Guide to self-study writing "Beautiful English". Notebook 8(Russian language) DOWNLOAD ARCHIVE

- Tutorial. Guide to self-study writing "Beautiful English". Notebook 7(Russian language) DOWNLOAD ARCHIVE

An amazing and valuable collection from which theory can be applied in modern learning. On the exhibition website you will read about the history of calligraphy, get acquainted with existing books not only on writing, but also on Japanese and Chinese calligraphy. It would be great to use this knowledge in art schools.

And you can also tell the kids at school about other fonts, for example, about the Carolingian minuscule, Romanesque, unicial and early Gothic. Perhaps they will become very curious, and they will want to make their handwriting the most beautiful!

And you can arrange a children's exhibition of beautiful handwriting, or create a calligraphy club at the school and arrange exhibitions, inviting famous calligraphers to exchange experiences. How do you like this idea? Children will be able to write an invitation to the guest themselves! And then create a writing history book for your class.

Since we are more interested in the topic of beautiful writing, we can introduce children to samples of the handwriting of Rasputin Grigory, Razin Stepan, Emperor Nicholas II, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Empress Catherine II, Tsar Peter I. What do kids think about handwriting? Is it beautiful, is the slope of the letters correct, which letter turned out to be the most beautiful, and so on. Let the children become teachers a little! It would be interesting to hear the reasoning of the children.



It may seem that writing skills are completely unsuitable in today's society. Less and less often, the pen ends up in our hands, because the necessary information can be found on the Internet or photographed on a mobile phone camera. However, beautiful handwriting is still admired.

If you think that the formed style of writing can no longer be changed, then you will be surprised how plastic a person can be. A few weeks and even days of training - and you will notice the result. By learning how to write beautifully, you can make adjustments to your handwriting. What are the advantages? The signature will be the same on all documents, you will be able to fill out postcards for relatives and friends, and you can easily sort out your own notes.

Are you ready to learn the secret of the right letter?

How to learn to write beautifully in calligraphic handwriting?

Calligraphy is ancient art of beautiful writing. You have definitely heard about the Chinese school, where people learn to write hieroglyphs correctly for years. Of course, such a science requires not only time, but also strength. The Cyrillic school has also existed for many centuries, but you do not need to spend your entire life studying the smallest aspects of writing. If you want to know how to learn to write beautifully, then be prepared for constant training. Practice in this case is much more important than theory.

You have already come across the principles of calligraphy, although you may not have realized it. Recipe, which are used in elementary grades, is a real example of simplified Cyrillic calligraphy. Of course, ornate letters, which take several minutes to draw correctly, will not be useful to either children or adults in ordinary life. But such a “simple” option will help achieve even handwriting.

You can purchase prescriptions at an office supply store and then start exercising.

You always need to start with one more thing familiar from school years - hand gymnastics. Remember the nursery rhyme “We wrote, we wrote, our fingers were tired…”? This is the kind of “exercises” that you need to arrange before each workout.

First, circular movements with the brush, then flexion-extension of the fingers. After that, stretching the brush and clenching into fists. Such gymnastics will significantly simplify your task and prepare your hands for the upcoming load.

Pay attention also to workplace preparation. In an uncomfortable position, you will not be able to concentrate on writing.

The desk should be free of other items (stacks of books, laptop, tea and coffee mugs), it should have sheets of paper, copybooks and a few pens. Sit in a chair with a back or in an office chair with your back straight. Remember that the elbows must be on the table, if they "hang in the air", then you have taken the wrong position. The distance between your eyes and a sheet of paper should be at least 30 centimeters. If you can't see well, use glasses, but don't slouch and keep your back straight.

How to learn to write beautifully with a pen?

Do not try to immediately sit down at the copybook and "mint" letters. It is best to break them down into individual elements: curls, curves, complex transitions. See what patterns you're having trouble writing with. It is this approach that will bring quick positive results. Having learned how to display all the complex elements, do not go to the letters, but try to increase the speed. A fast pace makes the task more difficult, but allows you to bring the movements to automatism.

Only after that you can start working with prescriptions. Start with the first letter and slowly remove all the elements, trying to get closer to the original. Make sure not only that the letters look like the pattern, but also that they are located inside the line.

Pay attention to:

  • letter size;
  • maintaining the same slope;
  • word endings (they often “slide” or “bully” when writing quickly);
  • even spaces between words;
  • punctuation marks and numbers (you should also learn how to write them correctly).

There is no secret in how to learn to write beautifully with a pen. All you need is patience, perseverance and the desire to change your handwriting. And yet we advise you to use handles of different shapes in the process of training. You will notice that they are insignificant, but they all affect the final result. Remember the shape that allows you to write beautifully and quickly, try to use only such pens.

How to learn to write beautifully in 5 minutes?

Perfect handwriting is a painstaking work that requires time and effort. If you want to know how to learn to write beautifully in 5 minutes, then the answer will disappoint you. Daily workouts should last at least 15-20 minutes, otherwise all your efforts will be in vain.

How to learn to write beautifully with your left hand?

Why would a person who can write with his right hand learn to write with his left? There are many answers to this question. First of all, such exercises are useful for the brain, because they develop the second hemisphere. Another “plus” is the second working hand, such a skill will come in handy in the future. In addition, many find this process interesting, developing willpower, as well as creative skills. It is possible that you can draw much better with your left hand than with your right.

How to learn to write beautifully with your left hand? Take a standard position at the table: a straight back, the distance to a sheet of paper is 30 centimeters. Place the sheet with the left corner up. This will make it much easier for you to type the letters.

Start writing in capital letters trying to make them as simple and understandable as possible. Take your time and don't get carried away with calligraphy. Your task at this stage is teach the left hand to the handle and regular physical activity. Be prepared for the fact that your fingers will quickly get tired, and the pen will slip out of your hands. These sensations will pass through a few workouts. Take small breaks every ten minutes.

Once your hands get used to the load, start working with prescriptions. Remember that your goal is not speed, but the maximum resemblance to the original. If the constant repetition of letters seems too boring for you, then try working with simple text. It is best to keep it in front of your eyes, and not invent it.

Increase the rate of writing is possible only after you learn how to print all the letters of the alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks with your left hand. This work will take a lot of time, but the result will certainly surprise you.

Writing, beautifully displaying letters, is a real art, to which our ancestors attached great importance. Today it's time to find out what calligraphy is, why was it so important before, but today it has lost its relevance? Do people of the 21st century have the opportunity to learn how to write with restraint and elegance? Where and how can this be done? Let's figure it out!

What is calligraphy: definition

The word "calligraphy" passed into the Russian language from Greek, where it, in turn, was composed of constituent elements, namely "callos" - "beauty" and "grafo" - "to write". In other words, this concept describes an ancient branch of art, the essence of which lies in beautiful and clear writing on paper. Today, most people are familiar with a different definition, and the question: "What is calligraphy?" evokes in them associations with beautiful and fast writing. This is a side branch called applied or everyday calligraphy.

Calligraphy as an academic discipline

A similar aesthetic design of handwritten text took place not only in the field of applied graphics, but also in schools as an academic discipline, where children were offered copybooks for calligraphy and its basic foundations were taught: the same size of letters, the uniformity of the inclination and arrangement of letters, the similar size of spaces, the general clarity and legibility of both words and punctuation marks. Calligraphy was called calligraphy in elementary grades. It required discipline, perseverance, concentration of attention and, for example, in the USSR it was the only school subject inherited from the times of pre-revolutionary Russia.

The history of the development of calligraphy is connected with two points: firstly, it is the evolution of the font, writing tools (bird, metal, reed pen, brush) and sheet materials (papyrus, silk, parchment, paper), and, secondly, stylistic changes in calligraphy as a separate art form and human activity.

What was calligraphy originally intended for?

From time immemorial, beautiful handwriting has performed the following main functions:

  1. Easier reading.
  2. Message to the letter of emotional imagery, graphic expressiveness.

For calligraphy, the first point has always been characterized by clarity of outlines and details, allowing a person to read at a distance, while the second - expressive cursive cursive or patterned decorative design. The latter was especially highly valued in China and other Far Eastern Asian countries, where calligraphy was seen as the art of conveying behind a simple graphic sign a whole palette of emotional and symbolic meanings and meanings, the essence of the word, thoughts and feelings of the writer.

Calligraphy in Western Europe: Origins

"What is calligraphy?" - a question that can be considered clarified. However, it should be noted that calligraphy is not a universal phenomenon for all territories. The key unifying element for the historical development of calligraphy in different countries is its evolution in the general mainstream of the fine arts. However, along with this, beautiful writing "by hand" has changed over time, depending on the stylistic influence prevailing in a particular era. Firstly, the degree and frequency of a particular direction in the two states could be different, and, secondly, traditions, motifs, and symbols characteristic of a particular locality also played a significant role. That is why today the world knows several unique calligraphic schools at once.

Calligraphy in Europe developed from Greco-Roman writing, the classical canons of which, developed in antiquity, are used even today. The first alphabets of the Greeks and Romans appeared as early as the 3rd millennium BC. The Etruscan alphabet was the forerunner of Latin. Initially, the letter used exclusively capital letters; lowercase appeared later, during the reign of the imperial Carolingian dynasty in Europe. To a lesser extent, the Cyrillic alphabet had an effect on the Western European art of beautiful handwriting.

The period of active development of European writing

Calligraphy in Western European territories began to develop most actively with the spread of Christianity, because there was a need to copy the Bible and other texts on religious subjects, their harmonious design. Therefore, calligraphy lessons were taught to the clergy, as evidenced by the many surviving monuments of medieval calligraphy. The art of calligraphy peaked in the 7th-9th centuries, when monks in Scotland and Ireland created illustrated Gospels - unique medieval masterpieces. They were handwritten books richly decorated with colorful ornaments and miniatures. In Rus', such calligraphy, which was also taught among monks and ministers of the church, acquired the name "front manuscript".

In addition to the above, in the 11th century, a Gothic script also appeared, on the basis of which a type called “pseudo-Gothic” was created. The main branches of such calligraphy included:

  • fractura - sharp writing with broken edges and outlines;
  • the texture is just sharp writing;
  • rotunda - a transitional type of writing from Gothic to antiqua, or a typographic font with characteristic serifs;
  • schwabacher, or bastard - broken writing with rounded outlines of some specific letters;
  • current - gothic italics; at the beginning of the 20th century, the Sütterlin type was approved as the traditional Gothic cursive.

Based on the Cyrillic alphabet in Western Europe, a characteristic pseudo-Slavic font was also created. From the 15th century, the leading role in the tradition of European calligraphy passed to artists, copyists and engravers, after which, with the invention of printing by John Gutenberg in the same century, the role of calligraphy sharply decreased.

Calligraphy in East Asia

Calligraphy developed in its own way in Korea, Japan and China, as well as in Muslim states. Translated from Chinese and Korean, the concept is translated as "the way of writing" and is a sophisticated form of painting. For the art of handwriting, not pens for calligraphy, not pens, but brushes for writing and ink were traditionally used here. Famous masters of Chinese calligraphy include Xuanzong (VIII century), Wang Xi-Zhi (IV century), Mi Fei. In the list of the largest Islamic calligraphers, the first are Ibn Mukla (X century), who specialized in the Naskhi font, a native of Central Asia, Mir Ali Tabrizi (XIV century), who painted materials in the unique Nastalik script, and others.

It should be noted that in the states of Islam, calligraphy had a particularly inseparable connection with religion. Thus, calligraphic inscriptions were widely used to decorate mosques and in the census of the Koran. In the Arab countries, with the help of graphics (here called "hutut" or "hatt"), the manifestation of desacralized Beauty was affirmed, pervading every corner of folk culture. The Arabs developed their own system of 6 calligraphic handwritings, each of which was used in certain circumstances. Their names:

  • naskh;
  • suls;
  • muhaqqaq;
  • rayhani;
  • tauki;
  • hand.

By the way, the characteristic features of Arabic calligraphy include the inadmissibility of depicting animals, people or Allah, because, according to religious dogmas, worshiping God through a picture likens a person to an unbeliever. For the same reason, no other creature is allowed to be depicted. However, if calligraphic images are created separately, but eventually combined into a single element, then in this case the rules do not prohibit this.

Traditional calligrapher set

The minimum set for learning the art of beautiful writing includes calligraphy pens, ink and paper. In addition, a pen with a paste of the desired color, gouache, watercolor, ink, charcoal, pastel, spray paint (if we are talking about a modern branch of calligraphy - graffiti) and much more can be used as the main writing instrument. It is interesting that before the use of feathers, people managed with sticks, thanks to which they squeezed out signs on clay, or simply carved inscriptions on stones, because the imprinting of signs on relatively hard surfaces has been common for a long time: this includes writing on wax or birch bark. The first (reed) feathers during the Middle Ages were replaced by bird feathers, mainly goose feathers. Then they became composite, and in the XVIII century gave way to steel. It becomes obvious that there is no canonical calligrapher's tool, because in different periods scribes used different auxiliary means.

Calligraphy for beginners: about age and methods

Currently, calligraphy is perceived more as a kind of aesthetic phenomenon. However, it has not lost its practical significance either; Thus, today the art of beautiful handwriting is the basis for the development of typesetting computer fonts. Calligraphy for beginners today is quite accessible both for self-study and for practicing with a teacher. Many programs exist for the assimilation of material by schoolchildren, because children at an early age are much easier to relearn than adults. Teachers and project curators offer parents to order calligraphy lessons.

A real-time attendance and presence system is usually practiced, however, classes can also take place in the form of distance online courses. In the latter case, they include methodological recommendations for adults and offer calligraphy recipes so that parents can correct and put the correct handwriting for their child at home. The same features apply to adult education programs.

After ornamental exercises, you can proceed to the execution of the antiqua font with a pen.

Try to write it big.
It is not recommended to write letters in alphabetical order for exercises, this is methodologically incorrect. When performing exercises, letters are grouped according to the similarity of styles. Common elements of similar letters are continuously repeated until their spelling is learned.

We start the exercise with the letters of the 1st group, consisting only of vertical and horizontal strokes - G, E, H, etc. Then we write the letters of the 2nd group, consisting of vertical, horizontal and oblique lines - A, F, I, etc. They are followed by letters of the 3rd group, in which straight strokes are connected with round ones - B, C, H, etc. In the 4th group we write round letters - Z, O, C, etc. After capital letters, you can start writing lowercase, also distributed them into the indicated groups.

Font made with a wide-nib pen. The arrows show the direction of strokes, the numbers show their sequence.

For letters marked with an asterisk, see the illustration below.

Improved stroke rhythm in letters written with a broad nib. Above - letters written according to the logic of a wide-nib pen (without turning the pen). Bottom - (recommended for advanced level) writing letters with pen rotation when writing left-handed diagonal elements.

By learning how to write the same letters and flawlessly straight lines, you can move on to writing words and whole sentences. For a variety of compositional solutions, it is necessary to write letters of both large and small sizes; alternate between prose and poetry. As, for example, in the work of Lubomir Kratky.

Lubomir Kratky.
Extrait du "Petit Prince", de Saint-Exupery.
1987, 50x40 cm.
Paper, paints, calico brush.

Pen Exercises (Part II)

Studying fonts and performance techniques, you can resort to the copying method. They copy both historical handwriting and the best works of modern masters, rewriting them with a wide-nib pen. It is not necessary to follow the original size.

The exercises below will help you learn how to write cursive. Accuracy and perseverance are required from you, and you yourself will not notice how everything starts to work out.

Pay attention to the fact that the text, with inexperienced execution, usually turns out to be sparse at first, then it becomes denser, and in the end it can thin out again under the influence of the fatigue of the writer. This phenomenon most often occurs with long texts and makes the overall picture of the font uneven. In order for the font density to remain the same, it is recommended to pre-mark the text with a pencil, and for control, write a few test phrases on paper. It may happen that by gradually increasing the pressure on the pen, the text at the end of the letter will be darker than at the beginning. Check the first line from time to time to determine if the original proportions and rhythm of the letters, as well as the slope of the pen, are being followed.

Exercises and samples for learning cursive with related letters.

Many beginners move too quickly from the initial exercises to writing complex letters. Such haste leads to slovenliness of writing, violation of stylistic unity in the signs of one alphabet. Exercises should be done carefully and methodically, despite the fact that the stroke due to the slow movement of the pen is uneven. Speed, if it is appropriate to talk about it when executing a font, comes later, as if by itself, along with the stability of the hand.

Gunther Junge.
Font variation.

Pen Exercises (Part III)

Only after a long training, when the well-known font styles are fully mastered, can one gradually move on to developing an individual handwriting, or rather, it develops itself in the process of exercises. This can be compared to the transition from student handwriting to adult handwriting. By individual handwriting is meant not only an alphabet created by the writer himself, but also (for the most part) an individual transformation of some known style without fundamental change.

Exercises and samples for learning italic type with related and unrelated letters.

Very often, when finishing a font, they try to give all letters or their most characteristic elements a uniform character, to subordinate them to a “single style”, regardless of the features of this font and the specifics of its style. In italics, this manifests itself, for example, in attempts to connect all letters to each other by all means in one way, although it is known that some letters are well connected by the upper connecting stroke, others are worse, and others cannot be connected at all in this way. This danger must be taken into account by the beginner, remembering that the unity of style is a relative concept that requires action.

It is very strictly necessary to ensure that vertical strokes (in oblique font - oblique) are parallel, otherwise the letters seem to stagger and the font loses its rhythm.

Exercises and samples for learning italic type with unrelated letters.

Various techniques for making cuts.

The design and proportions of letters must not be allowed to suffer through the use of a pen with a too wide or too thin tip.

A closely compressed font is more decorative than normal but less readable, so it should be used with care. The same applies to a font with too narrow line spacing.

Oldrich Menhart.
Samples of execution of some lowercase letters.

I would like to note once again that skills in the technique of working with a wide-nib pen are acquired, of course, in the process of direct execution of the font.

Pen Exercises (Part IV)

The round nib is one of the simplest tools for writing type. The end of the pen has a disk-shaped line of the same width regardless of the direction of the pen movement. Round-ended feathers are made in widths from 0.5 to 5 mm.

In the process of writing, the entire disc-shaped surface of the pen should evenly adhere to the paper. If this requirement is not met, the line will be uneven, of unequal width. A round-nib pen, like a wide-nib pen, should not be directed end first, i.e. bottom to top and right to left.

Ornamental exercises in the technique of a round-pointed pen.

Grotesque, executed with a round-pointed pen. The arrows show the direction of strokes, the numbers show their sequence.

The round-pointed pen is mainly used by amateur type designers when making signs, announcements, etc. It is also used in the execution of a standard font in technical drawings. A round-tipped pen helps the student to acquire elementary skills and disciplines the hand and eye, but it is almost unsuitable for making a full-fledged, highly artistic type. A processional artist uses a round-nib pen less often than a wide-nib one, and mostly as an aid in drawing type (for example, sans-serif). Sometimes the line of the round pen or the ends of the letters are finished with a drawing pen or a watercolor brush.

Zhikharev's handwritten typeface.
Typographic font.
Artist I.S. Zhikharev.
Moscow, 1955.

Such a font is easy to reproduce with a round-tip pen, finishing the elements of the letters with a thin pen.

Recipe- special albums and manuals for training the correct spelling of letters and preparing the hand of a preschooler for writing. If earlier we, parents, knew copybooks only at school (these were notebooks in which first-graders learned to write letters accurately), now you can find special prescriptions for kids and preschoolers. Recipes for children: shapes, numbers, letters teach kids to write beautifully and train their hand.

There are recipes that are designed for a certain age of the child. On the shelves of shops you can find recipes for children 3-4 or 5-6 years old.

In this article, I have prepared for you sets of prescriptions that you can download and print for free. You can save the pictures you want and give your child a new copybook every day.

Recipes for kids

Do you think that prescriptions are only for preparing for school? This is not entirely true. Small children can outline or dot simple pictures or large letters. These are recipes for kids. There is almost no text in such copybooks, because the child cannot yet read. But they are very large, and the pictures are funny. Why not invite the kid to circle the cheerful cockerel by dots or color the duckling.


Children 4-5 years old can be offered to play with - these are also peculiar recipes. In such prescriptions you will not find numbers or letters, they are still difficult for the baby. But tasks for logic or accuracy of movements will be required. By tracing figures, drawing curves and even lines, the child masters a pen or pencil, learns to press and draw without tearing off the paper.

Among the prescriptions for kids, a special group of prescriptions can be distinguished - this hatching. They are drawings that need to be filled in with straight or dotted lines, depending on the task.

Recipes for children 5-6 years old

For children 5-6 years old, prescriptions will be with more complex tasks. They include printed and written letters, as well as sticks, hooks and other parts from which written letters are built. But the dotted lines in these prescriptions are preserved. On them, the child circles the letters, learns to draw a line evenly and without interruption. It is better to trace the letters in the copybook with a good pen, because when working with a pencil, the child can press the pencil too hard, and this will tire the hand.

Using such prescriptions, the child will not only get acquainted with the letters of the Russian alphabet, but will also become better at remembering them, and will also learn how they are written in writing. Also in prescriptions for preschoolers, numbers are often found. A preschooler learns numbers and counting.

Prescriptions for children 5-6 years old can be divided into:

  • spelling ALPHABET,
  • spelling NUMBERS.

Recipes for schoolchildren

In order for a child to learn to write beautifully, and his handwriting to be preserved and not deteriorated, you need to do a lot. At school, teachers do not attach much importance to the correct position of the hand while writing and handwriting. But parents can try to work with the child themselves with the help of special recipes for schoolchildren.

Calligraphic writing is a good skill that every child can develop. Download and print copybooks and practice writing beautiful letters with a student. AT

Note that there are no pictures or shading in these recipes. Basically, these recipes are aimed at training good beautiful handwriting.

During classes, pay attention to how the student holds the pen, how he draws lines. Make sure that the child writes letters without tearing off the paper. Do not scold the child if he immediately fails to write beautiful letters. Make sure that the child begins to write the letter from the right point, and not the way he likes. For example, they begin to write the capital letter P from the bottom up. Follow this. Now in many copybooks there are even arrows and dots - landmarks for children. Show them these arrows, explain what they are for.

I hope the copybook will help your child learn to write beautifully and correctly!


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