From Meeting Notes #2: Calligraphic Strokes
“You have a meeting to go to.”
“I do? When did that happen?”
“It’s been on the calendar for two months….”
So, who looks at calendars anyway? Oh well. Got a couple of pencils. Got a piece of flat graphite. Got some paper. I’ll manage. 
You do not need a calligraphy pen to obtain calligraphic effects. A flat piece of graphite will do. If you forgot to bring that to the meeting or the doctor’s appointment, then a pencil will do. You just draw short, 45 degree strokes over and over again as illustrated:
Calligriphic birds from the letter “F”.
A watercolor series featuring stylized cranes started out as the letter “F” which morphed into a crane. The lettering was done with fine lead technical pencil as in the example above. After imaging the crane from the “F”, and working the rest of the composition out, I transferred the pattern to stretched water color paper and did 3 paintings from it.
From the letter “F”
My prized piece of graphite is a stick that is about
3/4 inches, (19 mm) wide, 1/2 inch (13 mm) thick, and 6 inches (150 mm) long. It quite hard. I believe it’s intended use was for electric motor brushes. My 1st thought when I found it was “Does this make a mark?” Yes! And quite an awesome mark! It writes and draws smooth as silk. The flower to the left was done with the wide flat, edge of the graphite. It was transferred to watercolor paper. The final two paintings are the result of this process. I think the flower was from a doctor’s appointment. The rabbit, I do not remember, but it was a fruitful meeting.
Cottontail, Horny Toad, & Lizard
aleonmiler 