Ruling Pen Calligraphy: Create your own pen and get started!

1. Class Introduction: Hey, everyone. My name is Sarah, and I'm a Toronto based letter and designer. Today. I'm going to share my knowledge of the ruling pen with you. Maybe you just gotta ruling pen and don't know where to start. Or maybe you've seen this style calligraphy before and you really like to try it yourself. Either way, I'm gonna share some techniques and how you can actually make your own pen so that you can get started right away. Luling pen contains ink in a slot between two metal jaws. Letter taper to appoint a ruling pen is a drawing instrument used with ink or drawing fluids. It was originally used with technical drawings and engineering and cartography. But today you can see it in expressive lettering and calligraphy. In this class, I'm gonna show you a few different ruling pens. Some techniques I've learned different inks you can use and how different surfaces and papers can change the look and feel. I'll also show you how to create your own cola pen, how to maintain your pens as well as some inspo and recommendations 2. Inspo: If you want to get some inspiration from some really great calligraphers, just hop on Google and do an image search. I'd suggest checking out Friederich Poppel. Um, I believe he was the first person to use the ruling pen. You can see from this example here. It's, um, really expressive and unique. Another good one is Rachel Yellow up and actually attended one of her workshops. Um, she does a lot of really beautiful, expressive artistic work. She also is really great with the pointed nip in. So she's a really great clicker for overall. And then there's Warner Schneider. He also has some really great, expressive, really well done work. You can also check out Brodie Newman Sh wander. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing any of these names. Um, he has a really great ruling pen work, and he has a pen that he's made with the company as well, which will show you at the end So all of these air, really great places to grab inspiration from. I also have a pin dress board. If you go Teoh pin dress dot com slash stereotypes. Um, I have a bunch of lettering boards, but I also have a ruling pen board that specifically has ruling pen inspiration. So if you're wanted, if you're thinking of practicing and you just want something as an idea just to get your hand going, um, I have a lot of really great examples and a few articles linked in that board as well. 3. Ruling Pen Overview: so to get started, I'm going to just show you a quick overview of ruling pen. There are a lot of different ruling pens. I have a few here in my hands. I'm going to quickly show you the different strokes, and then I'll go into detail with each ruling pen and show you more of its style and technique. First, I have the lettering ruling pen. This one is made by dreaming dogs. It's the number three and then I have another ruling pen and got this from John Neal Books . It has a wider nib. Um, is it has a really nice wooden hat handle, and then I have something called the automatic pen. This is used for more of the factor Gothic style. But I'm gonna show you it as a ruling pen. And then they have this traditional ruling pen, which is generally made for, like, draftsman and creating straight lines. So it's kind of more the original. Then we have a couple full depends. One is handmade. And then when I purchased, and it's quite a lot stiffer. So ruling pens usually have, um, like the two points the two sides of metal and they're held together with this screw. And, um, the ink is held in between those two pieces of metal, and by closing it, you are able toe hold more of the Incan. If you just leave a hairline of space at the end, this is probably too much of a space. A Z. You could see this pen has the same thing. You just want a very small, empty space at the top. Um, and then this. These pens don't have that. They already have, like, a place to hold the ink in between the Nibs. So the income using is this Windsor Newton calligraphy ink in blue. And I'm just using this dip holder because the top of the holder is big enough for that large ruling pen I have. This doesn't fit in that calligraphy ink bottle, so it comes in really handy. You know, make sure the link to these in the course resources materials so you can see here. Once I dipped the ink, the ink sits in between the two plates of metal where that hairline is, Um and I'm just gonna go through the strokes and show you so this pen will get you really nice dick strokes, but it will also get you some pre thin hairline strokes. I find this pen also gives you really good, expressive strokes. Um, it has a lot of the jagged edges, and it can provide a lot of splatters as well, which are the best parts about ruling pens. So this next one is the more traditional ruling pun that you could find in geometry sets. Mine is kind of a cheaper one, but if you can find the Olds original German, a geometry sets, then it'll probably work better than mine. And you can get really thick strokes with ease as well, because it has such ah, wide, broad edge. But then you can get the thinnest strokes with this pen, because that is what it's made for for getting those really straight hairline strokes. So this third pen is probably my favorite. It is the Dreaming Dogs. Ah, little lie panel believe it's called, and this one will also get you some really great rough edges and some splatters as well. It won't get you the widest strokes, but it's still get to you pretty wide strokes and then also some pretty thin strokes and you can see already that there's tons of slaughter coming from this pen. It is really expressive. And, um, you can get some really cool effects using dispensary here. So now I'm showing you the automatic pen, which is similar to the parallel pen and not actually a ruling pen. Normally, you would use it for this style of black letter calligraphy. But I'm going to show you that you can use it as a ruling pen. Ah has really huge amounts waters, if you are using it a little more aggressively, as you can see how spotters all of my fingers. But it's something you could use if you already own it. So next we have folded pens. I really love folded pens. That's how I first got into ruling pen calligraphy. Um, this one right here is purchased. It is a lot stiffer. Um, and you, Congar, get a lot of a variety of strokes again with this pen, because it has quite a wide edge. So if you put it on its widest edge, you're going to get a very thick stroke. And then as you bring up the angle of the pen, you'll get thinner and thinner strokes, Um, and it also does provide some of the rough edges. I would say it's like the medium in the spectrum of that kind of expressive calligraphy, So not as much as those other two pens I showed you, but it still will get you that look, and this is a handmade full depend. It's made from a Coke can, which I'll show you later. This one has a bit of a different shape. I have two examples. Listen, has a really huge edge along the side, so you can see I got a massively thick stroke. It also has a little piece of tape on it, which I will explain later. This is the other one I made, which I prefer a little bit more. It has more of a curved shape around the edge, doesn't get as thick strokes, but it's a little more expressive as faras, the roughness of the strokes I find the pop can version of the folded pen does get you more of the splats rather than thes stiffer like purchased perfect one. So just to go over the strokes, um, we have the traditional drafting pen. This y depend and then the parallel pen. And we also have the dreaming dogs number three pen. And then I have the two full depend examples at the bottom. There are way more ruling friends in this out there, but currently this is what I have. So this is what I'm going to show you. And I think it gives you a good idea of what's out there. Add to this. I'm just gonna show you what the's pens can actually dio. So I have the word or name Kevin spelled out here and I did this with the drafting pen. As you can see, it does some really nice clean lines. It does really nice dicks and thins. Um, this one is really great for credit cursive writing. This is an example of using a whole bunch different pens for the letter K. Um, on the far right. Skinny one is with the drafting pen again. You get really nice skinny lines. Ah, this one was done with that fatter pen and then the other one was the ruling or the full depend. And I believe that one was the drafting Ben as well. And this is just another style of lettering that I've done with the drafting pen just to show you some contrast. And this is using white ink, which I'll get into later. But this was done with the dreaming dogs. Number three pen. Um, so you can see that I have some different stroke weights here. It starts with somethin strokes and then six strokes. And there's tons of water and tons of roughness. I find the waiting really makes it kind of even more so than normal. And here's an example of the wider kind of diamond shape in. So both those pens are really great for more expressive letters that are a little rough around the edges. Um, with a bit of splatter. And again, this is the number three Penn, and I'm just showing you again the difference between the strokes you can see on that E I r . Really thick stroke. It just really depends on how you hold it and your speed, etcetera. So I'll show that to you in this tutorial as well 4. Pen Technique: Okay, So I'm gonna go straight into technique so that when I'm showing you the pens in more detail, you have an idea already of what I'm doing with, um So first I'm gonna show you Ah, surface. So right now, I have a pad of paper, and this will make the surface quite a bit softer because there's paper underneath. So the service definitely has an effect on how the ink will show up. So I'm just making sure that it's closed nice and tight at the top. But there's still room for the ink. And when you dip your pen, just get as much and gets possible, so it's ready to go. So I'm just going to use the letter A and show you how it looks. Um, turning on how holding the pen. So this is just holding the pen normally on kind of like a 45 degree angle. And then this is holding the pen kind of more straight up and down, you'll get a thinner stroked Erica's less of the nib is actually touching the paper, and this last example is holding the pen with my finger on the top, which kind of makes the nib very flat against the paper, so it's kind of like a 10 degree angle, and as you can see, it has more contact with the surface of the pen than the other two examples. The speed at which you write will also have an effect on the roughness and the spotters of the pen. If you're going to go a little bit slower, you're gonna have a cleaner in CLO. Although if you move the pen really quickly, you'll get some splatters so you could see on that down stroke. I got a bit more splatter. Also find when you're going down as opposed to up. I get more spotters that way, too. Here's an example of where I'm going a lot slower, and as you can see, I get barely any rough edges and no spotters at all. This is an example where I have sped up the same letter and the same strokes, and you can see the difference between the two. There's more rough edges on the strokes, and then you also see a bit of splatter coming from the ink as well. So I'm gonna show you the difference between writing on a pad of paper and writing on a hard surface. Um, so obviously, this is on a pad of paper, and I did the strokes fairly quick so you'll see some of the jagged edges. And now I'm going to use the same pen and do the same strokes. But on a hardwood surface, I'm just kind of covering area with paper because it does splatter all over the place. So just trying to keep my area clean so you can already see the difference between the two different surfaces. The pad of paper is a lot smoother, and there is some jagged edges, but it's just overall are cleaner. On the hard surface, there's a way more jagged edges. You also noticed that the ink is darker, and I think it's just because since the services hard, you're gonna get more surface touching the pen, and that way, more ink being distributed. Also, the direction of your stroke can have an effect on the ink. Sometimes pushing up with the pen can cause more splatter than pulling down here. I'm just moving camera to show you how far this ink spot actually went, which is why I put paper around my service. And here's an example of going down. But again, um, it also depends on how hard you're pushing down on the pen. But overall, I do find going up causes more reaction with the ink spotting. So another way to affect how your pen and ink create any roughness is your paper. So I've been using mostly marker paper, which is very, very smooth and doesn't bleed very much. But this is also an example. This is illustration paper. It has definitely a texture, and it's heavy, like card stock. So this will also create more roughness, more texture, more splatter as well. You can see like those jagged edges are kind of like we're the pen jumps a bit on the textured paper, and you already see all the ink flying around. Eso creates a pretty cool effect. Definitely try a bunch different papers. See what you like the best. I tend to like writing on this heavy card stock texture paper better, but, um, I usually stick with the marker paper because it is a little more inexpensive for when I'm practicing. So this is an example of doing the same lettering on the marker paper, so you can already see that the ink looks different. It's smoother and there's less platter. And it's, um, just overall has a different look, but I'll show you them side by side, and I'll give you a little bit of a close up on both, um, so you can get a better idea of what the different types of paper will dio. So this is the smooth marker paper up close. You can see it's a little bit, uh, incurs a bit smoother. It's also a bit lighter compared to this, which is the textured paper. It's darker around the edges. It has a lot more splatter and definitely a lot more texture. 5. Ruling Pen Types in Detail: Okay, so we're gonna get right into the pence. This 1st 1 I'm showing you is from John Neal Books. It has a wooden handle and then a metal nib. I think it's press. It's really stuff really hard metal. And it has the two plates with the screw, so you can loosen it to open it wider, which is great when you need to clean it, and then you will tighten it until it's pretty close together, just like a hairline like that. And then that will hold the ink in while you're writing. So I'm just gonna make sure I get a lot of ink in the when I dip it into the in colder. I don't have as much ink in there is a normally what? That's kind of why I'm pushing it back and forth, says what it would look like with the pink inside. I'm just gonna do some letters, not in any order of the alphabet, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. So usually do need Teoh re ink after each letter. So that second letter definitely needed more inked up than I had on the new. So with this letter D I'm just showing you the different stroke weights. I started with a slightly thinner down stroke. And then, just to give you an idea, I did a very thin stroke across and then a slightly thicker stroke down. So it's pretty cool, because you can really change up the letter a lot. I know I'm showing it on a hard surface. The one I just did was on the pad of paper, and again you'll see that it's darker and more rigid, so those were all quick strokes. But you can also do something slower and get a really thick line like this one. Okay, so now I'm moving on to the Dreaming Dogs pen, and it's kind of a similar style, but it definitely has a different shape of nib. So it's going Teoh get a different shape of letter. So as you can see, I just moved my hand over to get more surface of the pen, and it's good idea to play with your up and down strokes and your the technique of holding the pen just to get more variety in your letters, I'd say that this is not like traditional calligraphy, where you have to be precise about which strokes are up or down. You can kind of mix that up just to get different looks a different feels, which is what I really love about this type of calligraphy. Um, you can pretty much do whatever you want. I mean, it just still wanted to look good. She can see up close how this pen looks. I love this pen a lot. I love the thinner lines, and I love that. It gets a lot of rough edges. So I'm just quickly comparing with last pen with this pen with the different strokes thes air all from the previous pen of the diamond shape nib. And then I'm just kind of going against them with the pen amusing now de more 45 degree angle and then went down to, like, the flat 10 degree angle just to get some waters with figure strokes and then some with dinner. Okay, so now we're gonna try the folded pens. Um, I have these two here and again. This is the when I purchased where it has kind of just a regular calligraphy pen holder. And then, um, the nib is put in that holder that you would normally have We appointed nib in the metal is very, very stiff, so you can be pretty aggressive with us and it's not going to bend or warp, Whereas this is Thedc Oula pen. And I made this one by hand using a wooden dowel for the handle. And then I just, um, I taped it with masking tape and used a Coke can to create the nib. It's definitely a lot softer, so you can damage it easily if you bend it too much. Um, but you can easily make a new one because they're really cheap, and I'm gonna show you how to make those at the end of the tutorial. I love this example, which you can see has a different shape. Us. You can cut out like different nib sizes and shapes, and they're all going to give you a different look, depending on which neb you use. This one has a piece of tape on the side, which helps keep the ink, and but it also means that you don't get to use the service where the table is. It's just the service above the piece of tape that you'll be able to use. So I would tell you to try this and see if you like it. It's totally a personal opinion. I kind of prefer it without. So I'm going to just draw some letters with the stiff, nib folded pen that I bought from John your books just to give you an idea of how it works . Don't be afraid to go in and correct things of your work. Thes pens are very unpredictable, so sometimes you do need to go in and fill a little space that got skipped. You'll see me do this every once in a while, throat the tutorial, and sometimes it's just necessary. While I go along, I tend to have just like a wet or damp tissue with me because I'm using different pens. I'll just like dab it in there because I don't want to put it to the side while it's full of ink. So it's a good thing to have. So I'm going to use the pop can pen now to show you the difference between the handmade one versus the purchase one. So my first letter is not that great. I was trying to use the technique where I put my hand over the pen to get more surface area . But I generally like that technique more with the 1st £2 I showed you in this tutorial. When it comes to pop can pen, I prefer to hold it like a normal pen. I feel like that gets the best letters and the best technique, and I think this is mostly because this pen is more fragile, so I don't put too much pressure on it. The park campaign is definitely one of my favorites. It's so easy to make. It's so inexpensive. But I still really like the way that it creates letters. And as you can see, you still get a lot of range between the six and thins and you still get a lot of expressive strokes. So I'm going to do a time lapse of writing out the full alphabet with the pop can pen, because I figure most people who are just starting were probably used pop can pen before any others, so I just want to spend a little bit more time on this pen than the others. Um, I heard he messed up the D at this point, but I try and go back and fix it later. - Okay , so we've got thes two pens left. First, I'm going to show you this drafting pen, which was originally used for creating straight lines. Like I said before, it's definitely better to have a better quality of these type of pens because they will just create more beautiful letters. Um, so if you can find an old school geometry set with one of these inside, that is the best way to do that. So you can see with this close up that I'm getting a really nice that client going down. And I made it a bit thinner as I went, and then I finished it off with a really thin lines using the tip of the pen. I didn't have enough ink for the down stroke on this A. So I just don't do put more ink on it. But I really like the contrast with the really thick down stroke of the A, and then the more rounded part is still very thin. You can also just like hold it straight up and down to get some really nice clean letter forms. I'm just showing you an example of an F held it a little bit closer just to get some variety on other strokes. So the other pen I have here is the automatic Ben, which again is similar to the parallel pen. Normally, I would use it to create letters like this s which I really love. I think it's very beautiful style of calligraphy. But to show you that you can use this pen in a different way in the parallel pens you can also use with modified Nibs. Um, just put it more on the side, either writing it like you would with a normal pen or closer to the page, like I did here for the A and B again, If you are a little more aggressive with it, you're gonna get, like, a lot of splatter. 6. All About Ink!: so I'm going to jump into inks. I'm gonna show you what I've been using through this tutorial and what I use on a normal basis. Normally, I use the Windsor and Newton calligraphy ink in black. I used blue in this tutorial. It's a little bit thicker. It's more opaque. It's a really rich black, so I do really like this ink. It dries nicely. Um, I think it looks really nice on the different textures of paper. The other one you can use is equal line. This one is pretty popular with the style of pens, because is a little more water down, so it flows really nicely. It flows a little nicer than the Windsor and Newton. Um, Windsor Noon is a little bit more thick, but ah do like that one better. And the equal einen is dinner. So I also use the Windsor and Newton Inc in white, the 974 white. I use this one. I want black paper. There's lots of other white inks you can use. Um, like the Ph Martin's leave proof white. But I do at a little bit of water to this ink so that it flows nicer This is what it looks like on black paper. You can see like it's really opaque. It's really contrast ing against the black. So I'm gonna show you the Equal Line Inc just to give you an idea of how it works differently than think I've been using all along. Nice thing about this ink container is that it's big enough for this pen, so I just dipped right out of the bottle. So there's less waste, and, um, you'll see when I just do these practice strokes that I don't really need to load the pen up with much ink like I only had to load it up once to do a few strokes, whereas with the Windsor noon, I tend to have to reload the ink with every letter. So I'm just gonna switch from the hard surface to a pad of paper just to give you an idea of how the equal line ink works on different surfaces as well. You can see a big difference here. I'm writing. Ah, the word wet. I used the letter W on the hurt service, and it definitely has a different look, and it's kind of more exaggerated now that the ink is, ah, lot dinner. So here's a close up. The top is the word wet spelled equal line ink on a pad of paper. You can tell that it's definitely wetter, Inc because there is a little bit of buckling with the paper, which didn't happen with the Windsor and Newton. And the second word is done on heart service, and you can see it's a little rougher than when on patted paper. So I also have equine in red, and I'm just going to show you that using thief folded pen on art service I really love this color is so bright and saturated, and it just flows really nicely with the folded pen I find with the folded pen that sometimes I prefer a thinner Inc out of all the pens. I feel like this ink suits this pen really, really well, okay, so this is just a fun little technique that I want to show you. I'm going to use the equal line in red on. I'm also using this Schreier a tint probably spell it said that wrong. Ah, but it's in like a very deep purple, so I'm just using the red to create ink splatters on my paper. First, I use depend that had been using the purple before, so it wasn't a true red. So I swapped over to a new clean pen and just started splashing some of the red ink across the page. So I'm gonna use the purple ink as my main color and, um, gonna right over top of the red ink so that it kind of blends together increased a cool effect. So I grabbed my larger nip n the diamond shaped one, and I'm going to write Stay weird. The first letter s was a little hard to write because I couldn't actually rest my hand on the paper because of the ink spotters. So it was a little awkward, but I eventually got used to it. - So here's a close up. You can see where the red ink got caught with the pen, and it just kind of blended him the purple ink. Kind of like a cool tight, I kind of effect. Um, so it's kind of a neat thing to try. Just Teoh experiment with different ink colors and, you know, break away from just black. So now we're moving on to my favorite, which is like paper with the whiting. I have this black black no pad from Fabry. You know that I got in Montreal all It's a very heavy card stock, and I'm using the Windsor and Newton Inc in white. I'm gonna add a little bit to my in colder so that I can add a few drops of water just to thin it out so it flows a nicer in the pen. But you want to be careful because you still want it to be opaque. So I added three drops here, which I think was too much. I think it was good with two, um and then he just stirred it up with my pen. I'm just gonna do some tests strokes to see if I have got the right consistency and I dont like in person. This was not opaque enough for me. I'm trying to show it to you now, but it's, um, hard to tell in the camera it looks opaque, but in person it wasn't so. I decided to add a little bit more ink and overcompensate or compensate for the water I had added earlier. So now I have my second set of strokes and they're way better. You can also tell there's like, a lot of spotter, which is kind of what happens with the white ink on black paper. So I'm gonna write out the word quest, and maybe we'll get an idea why I really love the white ink on black paper so much so you'll see a kind of move things around. I moved the way I was holding the pen so I could get a different with of stroke because I like to keep all of the letters kind of more inconsistent to get a variety and a little bit of uniqueness to the word. So this down stroke didn't exactly go. I wanted it. Thio was a little slow, so didn't go totally straight. I liked the one going across a lot better, and I kind of messed up the s. So I want to give this word another shot, so I'll just do that again for you right now. So I'm gonna write out my name Sarah. And with the this word, I wanted to kind of show you with the A's that when I had done in eight with a down stroke , it wasn't quite looking right. So I did something that was kind of counterintuitive and went up with my down stroke of the A, And it is a little weird to do, but it had a really cool effect. I also kind of just planned out where I wanted to go. As you saw with my hand moving, I knew that I wanted and near the S. So I started from the bottom and then moved towards that area. - So here's a close up of the beautiful white ink on black paper in all of its platter glory, uh, stumbling. One of my favorites. 7. DIY Cola Pen: Okay, so now I'm gonna show you how to make a pop can pen. There are a few things you'll need for sure a pop can Any kind will dio and, uh, one that's cleaned out and dried. So it's not sticky and gross anymore on the inside. You also want to be very careful. Consider wearing gloves, because when you cut it, it's going to be very sharp. You also need something for the handle of the pen. I use a wooden dowel, and it's an example of a pen I have used before. It's a little bit damaged now and not very usable. Once this happens, it's kind of like it's gone, so it's best to just repurpose it and give it a second life. So I'm gonna just use this, would endow from this pen and make a new pen. But if you don't have a wooden dowel, you can use a pencil instead. And just make sure that you have the pointed tip where you're going to be using the Popkin nib. You also need some masking tape are some duct tape and, ah, hole punch is great toe. Have it's not necessary, but I do think it is helpful. Um, and a nice And this is er so first, I'm gonna just stab a whole again. Be very careful, and I'm gonna use my scissors to just cut around the whole pop can. This is kind of awkward and a little hard to do, but just go slowly and you'll get there eventually. And then I'm gonna cut out an area from the pop can. And I'm not going to use the nutritional label because it's not the most attractive. So I'm going to use the red like Coca Cola branded part. And I'm just gonna cut out a rectangle you can use the whole pop can and create, like, I don't know, maybe seven or eight Nibs. But I'm just going to show you an example where I'm gonna cut out three. So you want to print out the template that I'll have linked in the courses course materials , and then you're just gonna cut those out of the template? There's three different sizes. I like the small size, the best and the medium size. So this is just an example of what the small size will look like when it's folded on to your pencil and the big size is really big. Um, again, I have it cut at a very curved angle. So there's many different ways you could cut it to attach it to the pop can. You can just hold it in place with your finger, or you can grab some washi tape, for example, and then just tape it on there. So it's a little bit more secure going to use a black Sharpie so that I can see the outline . If you don't want toe like make the black outline show on the right side, you just turn it over and put the outline on the wrong side. But I don't really care, because these air just for myself. So I'm just gonna use up as much of the coke can that I actually cut out. Um, in just a nephi y f y high. If you don't want to make these yourself, actually do sell these in my Etsy store so you can grab, um, one of those from there if you don't feel like making it. So here is where I'm going to put my whole bunch. It just kind of reinforces that angle, because if you cut with a scissors, you might get a little nick or a little cut where the two angles meat. So this kind of just allows you, Teoh. Avoid that. And then it's not going to rip easily when you're using it. And, um, here I obviously put the other one to close. I should have cut them out and then put the whole bunch. But you live and you learn. So now it's all cut out and I'm going to grab. Ah, I don't know. Maybe, like a three or four inch long piece, maybe six and a long piece of masking tape Gonna lay it down flat on a table and just kind of place my nib close to the edge. You can see where it stops is kind of like right where the hole punch, Marcus. And then it's best if you kind of lay it so that the nib hangs off the edge of the table. That way, when you roll it, the nib will be in basically in the error instead of hitting the table. And you want to be your pencil or your dowel, um, a little bit up into the nib just to give it some stability, but not too high because you want to still be able to fold the pop can around the nib. And then you just want Teoh. Pull the tape over really tight because you need the metal to shape with the pencil, and I look a little bit weird when I'm trying to roll it here. But that's just because I'm trying to get a straight as possible and also as tight as possible. So just take your time and make sure that it's not loose at all. Also have this sped up a little bit, so took me a little bit longer. And then once it's secure, I just take it off the table and then roll up the rest because at this point it's definitely in there, and you want to gently start folding the pen in half. You don't want to press too hard along the seam. You just right now, you just kind of want to shape it, and then once it's folded, you'll want to create the nib shape. So I'm going to do a more rounded shape and I'm just going to show you it's gonna go from there. Two down there. I'm just drawing it freehand. But you can look at the template. There's some examples, and then you just want to cut that shape out. You can even try it after just to make sure that it's the rate shape. And if you feel like it's it's not, then, you know, keep cutting it or start over again. So I'm using this scoring tool that I got from my cricket just to reinforce that fold again . This is not required, but I do feel like it gives it just a little bit more structure. So the last thing we're gonna dio is light the nev on fire. So you just want to grab a cup of water and then either a lighter in some matches. And this is going Teoh also just stiffen up the metal of the nip. So just later, match or use a lighter and just kind of like singe the prop campaign and then dip it right away into some cold water. All right, so that's pretty much it. You could add a little bit of tape, as I described earlier. You just want a small piece, and then you just put it around like the bottom two middle area. This kind of helps you keep more ink in the nib, but it does restrict the surface area, so it's totally optional. It's good to try, however, is not really my favorite. So I'm gonna take that off, and now I'm going to show you an example of using this pun. I realized after I make this man is a very sharp kind of intense curve at the top. So this one is gives lots of splatters, which you'll see in a second. Also, I just pointed out that there's a little bit too much space at the top, and it wasn't totally like street together. So I'm just squeezing the top of the nib, and now you'll see that it's closed a lot nicer. So a down stroke there was really spotty. I kind of used the bottom part of the pen to go up, and then I used the very top of the pen to come down, which is why you have the difference in the smooth versus ah, more expressive strokes. So that's it. You have a pen and you can try a new styles of calligraphy with it, and I'd love to see it so still up. I'm gonna show you how to clean your pen 8. Maintenance: So, like I said earlier, I keep this tissue beside me just to dab my pans on. So they don't sit there and dry up with ink because it will get harder. It will be harder to clean, but when it's time to clean my pens, either put them under a top with running water where I dip them in a jar. So I totally loosened up the pen. So the two plates of metal or far apart, and I'm just making sure I get it really wet, and then I'm just wiping the ink off of the metal. It should come off pretty easily, and I just make sure I get it out from under in between the screws because that will just start to collect and then gunk up. So when do you have the outside clean? You'll want to make sure the inside is clean as well, so you can just grab a piece of paper and just like put it in between the two plates and then you can close it so that when you pull it out, it drags against the plates. Have it a bit too tight right now, so I'm just loosening it and you can kind of see there's some of the ink left over there with my pop can pens. I a. Just dip it in water up until where the masking tape is. I don't want the wood to get what and then I just drag it on some paper towel. Usually this is enough. If you want to get really picky, there might be some ink left in there so you can just get it wet again and then use a paper towel to just sort of, like, fit it in there and then just kind of drag it up and down so that it cleans a bit of that left over ink. So and this is the same as the first pun, basically. But this one is a little easier gets a little bit wider. So for this one, I'm just going to put the paper towel inside and instead of paper and then just clean out the ink from the inside. That way, the most important thing you want to remember is that when they're done being clean, do you want to make sure you have them put aside to dry properly because you don't want any of the metal to rust. You want them totally dry before you put them away in your pen holder? What? Not So the automatic pen I'm actually gonna clean using, like, a little piece of kind of like plastic that came with my parallel pen because it is quite closed tightly. So I just slide that inside and then continuously just wipe off whatever is in there until it's totally gone. If you don't have, like, one of these little papers you can use, um, something else that's thinner. You just kind of wanted to. You couldn't really put paper in between this pen because they the metal so close together . So just something that won't rip or tear. 9. Wrap Up: So that concludes today's tutorial. Thank you so much for watching I have a PdF attached to this course. That kind of does a little wrap up of what you saw today. It shows you different examples of all the pens that I went through. And then it also has the attached template for creating your own cola pen, which I got from another website online. And that, plus some other resources, are listed in the back and where you can shop for Penn. So make sure to tag me with your work on instagram at stereotypes because I'd love to see it.