These foundational strokes will set you up to create all of the lowercase letters in brush calligraphy. Get to know the strokes in your mind before you pen them. Practicing these strokes individually will help you create consistent letterforms.
Downstroke
The full-pressure stroke is a fully shaded downstroke with a square top and bottom. It is found in all letters. It should extend along the slant angle from the first ascender to the first descender. You can always practice this stroke at longer or shorter lengths as well.
Overturn
Place the tip of your brush pen nib at the baseline. With no pressure, draw a curved line up and to the right toward the header line. Make sure the straight portion of the hairline is parallel to the slant angle. Once you are at the header line, you can either lift or continue the curve over and down, gradually applying more pressure. Release the nib to snap the tines together, creating a square bottom.
Underturn
The underturn is the reverse of the overturn. Place your brush tip on the header line and draw a dash to create a square top. Make sure the stroke is parallel to the 55-degree slant angle and that the pressure is even. Pull down to create a shade, and as you near the baseline, slowly release pressure and form a curve that comes to a point at the baseline.
Compound Curve
The compound curve is a combination of overturn and underturn. Draw a curved line up, then apply pressure, pull the shade down toward the baseline, and finally let the left tine meet the right at the bottom to close the shape. There should be an equal distance between the overturn and underturn.
Oval
The oval shape is important because it is the basis for many of the shapes in the brush lettering. It is found in the letters a, c, d, e, g, o, and q. Begin the top of the shade at the header line. The shaded portion of this shape can be thought of as half of a coffee bean. At the bottom of the shade, at the baseline, draw a hairline up, out, and back over to meet the top of the shade at the header line. You can see the similarities in the bottom of the oval to an underturn and the top of the oval to an overturn.
Ascending Loop
The ascending loop is found in the letters b, f, h, k, and 1. Draw an upstroke and direct the upstroke toward the left and down along the main slant angle to form the beginning of a loop. Start to apply pressure on the brush tip, then pull a full-pressure stroke down, being sure to square the bottom of this stroke. Note that this stroke does not come to a square bottom when applied to the lowercase b and l, but rather ends like an underturn. The top portion of the ascending stem loop should be all hairline.
Descending Loop
The descending loop is simply the opposite of the ascending loop. Draw a full-pressure stroke down along the slant angle and start to release pressure. The curve of the loop, as in the ascending loop, should all be an upstroke. Draw the upstroke back up, stopping once you reach the shade. When you are drawing letters such as g, j, and q, you do not want to pull ink through, so lift and then draw the exiting upstroke on the other side of the shade.
