It’s time to improve your brush calligraphy!
Today, I wanted to share with you guys the three most common mistakes I see in brush calligraphy.
Prefer to watch than read? Feel free to skip right to the video and see these mistakes in real time!
Supplies Used
- Rhodia Grid Pad Paper (it’s just a really good, high-quality paper).
- Tombow Dual Brush Pen

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Now, let’s get to the 3 common calligraphy brush pen problems.
Pesky Brush Pen Problem #1
The Tip Flip (I’m not really sure why I’m calling it that, but let’s just go with it 😅). What I mean though, is that your pen sort of flips over itself.

The Mistake: The tip flip happens when you hold your pen too vertical.
The Easy Fix: Simply adjust the angle of the pen to a 45-degree angle.
Tip flip who?!
Pesky Brush Pen Problem #2
This is what I lovingly call “the soggy bottom.” ❤

The Mistake: The soggy bottom happens when you don’t let the pressure off off your pen early enough in your oval’s downstroke (on the left side).
The Easy Fix: Simply let the pressure off of your pen about halfway/three quarters of the way down the left side of your oval.
No more soggy bottoms!
Pesky Brush Pen Problem #3
The Gap Top. No, I’m not talking about your basic top from The Gap store ?. I’m talking about the little gap you get at the top of your strokes.

The Mistake: The reason this happens is because you are going waaaay too fast, transitioning strokes too quickly. I most often notice this specifically with a Tombow Fudenosuke (the smaller black pen).
The Easy Fix: Sllllllooooooow down! Keep the same speed the whole way through the oval.
So to recap on the top brush pen calligraphy mistakes…

Now if you want to keep rolling with improving your brush calligraphy, make sure you also check out this video, where I go over The 4 Most Common Mistakes I See Beginners Making in Brush Calligraphy.
I also have a problem with the beauty line. I can not seem to get my beauty line to thicken up
And. Narrow up to give that beautiful line look. Just do not have that precision on control of
Widening and narrowing like it should. Thanks, Bo