A Simple Copperplate Manual

This manual includes 35 instructional pages covering lowercase letters and capitals, joining and spacing, numerals, weight variations, flourishing and design ideas. It also has 15 pages of gallery pieces. The A4-size pages are printed with vegetable inks on 150gsm silk coated recycled paper with 300gsm covers. It is wire bound so that it will open flat on your table or drawing board.

I decided to write this manual because many people wanted to obtain the hand-out sheets I give to students who attend my copperplate workshops. I took the contents of these, adapted them and added new examples. The style shown employs the swelling line where strokes start fine, swell to a thickness in the middle before returning to a slender finish. Much copperplate is not like this, favouring thick or squared off starts and endings to letters. I learned the swelling line style from the late French calligrapher, Jean Larcher, and have continued to practice this technique because I prefer it visually and think it is the most elegant way of making copperplate letters. Copperplate should, above all, be elegant!