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Have you ever wondered what’s the best posture for doing calligraphy? 

In this post, I’m going to share my top five posture tips for you!

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Rather watch than read? No problem! You can watch and listen in real-time by clicking the video below!  (I hiiiighly recommend watching this one, so you can see my posture in real-time!)

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Let’s Get Started!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m not really a traditionalist (AT ALL) when it comes to the rules of calligraphy.

I knooooow the rules, but I tend to just break them and do what works for me and what I’ve seen work really well for my students in practice.

So when it comes to posture, I tell my students to do whatever feels comfortable for you. Experiment until you find the perfect posture where nothing feels weird and everything’s comfortable – do what works for you.

With that said, I know a lot of beginners want to understand posture before they even start, and they don’t really know what to experiment with. So I’m here to give you my five tips that are pretty tried and true for all calligraphers.

Tip #1: Adjust the height of your desk and your chair 

You want to be sitting at a height where if you bend your elbow and sit up straight, your elbow should be just grazing the edge of the table. If your elbow is banging or if it’s nowhere near the table, you should adjust either the height of your chair or maybe even the height of your table itself.

Tip #2: Make sure you’re sitting towards the middle or the front of your chair – not leaning back or slouching

This might seem obvious but, I catch students leaning back and slouching all the time in my classes! It’s a habit you just need to break. Sit up straight, and don’t be leaning on the back of your chair!

Tip #3: Face your desk straight on – don’t turn your body

If you prefer to write with your paper at an angle, angle the paper itself – don’t angle your body in relation to your desk. You should always face straight on.

Tip #4: Move your paper as you work.

If you look at the photos, you’ll notice how when I write at the top of my sheet, my arm is comfortably extended in front of me, but it’s not too far away from my body. When I start to move towards the bottom of my paper, my arm starts to get closer to my body, and my shoulder is starting to tense up. Instead of letting that happen, notice where your hand is the most comfortable and then keep it there! Move your paper up and down as you need to instead of moving your arm.

Tip #5: Always keep your opposite hand on the table as well

You want this hand to be able to help distribute your weight, so you’re not putting unnecessary pressure on your actual writing hand. Your writing hand should be loose and light on the table.  If you have weight leaning on your hands at all, try to keep it on your non-writing hand.

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And That’s A Wrap!

I hope you find those five calligraphy posture tips helpful! If you stick to those, you should be pretty good. 

Again if anything feels painful, something’s wrong. You need to take some time to assess to figure out what it is that you’re doing in your posture while you’re writing that might be hurting you. This is going to be different for everyone, so experiment!

If you start with these five tips that I just gave you, you should be pretty set.

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Looking for more calligraphy basics?

Here you go!

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And finally, your dad joke…

I’m not exactly sure what’s wrong with my posture…
…but I have a hunch.