Exploring Chinese Calligraphy with Fountain Pens: Share Your Experiences!

[2ouvenir]

Greetings fellow fountain pen enthusiasts!

 

I'm starting this thread to connect with others who share this interest and to learn more about your experiences with Chinese calligraphy using fountain pens. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or just dipping your nib into this art form, I'd love to hear from you!

 

Here are a few prompts to get the conversation going:

 

• How did you first become interested in Chinese calligraphy?
• Do you actively practice Chinese calligraphy with your fountain pens? If so, what pens and inks do you prefer?
• What challenges have you encountered when adapting Chinese calligraphy techniques to fountain pen writing?
• Are there any particular resources, books, or online tutorials that have helped you improve your skills?
• Do you have any favorite Chinese calligraphy styles or scripts that you enjoy writing the most?

 

Feel free to share tips, tricks, favorite tools, or simply your thoughts and experiences. Let's explore the world of Chinese calligraphy together and celebrate the beauty of writing with fountain pens!

 

Personally, I just use a regular Japanese fine for all my Chinese "calligraphy" (some might argue you can only do Chinese calligraphy with an ink brush, I differ) and any fountain pen friendly paper with a light grid layout. The ink should be legible, i.e. not too light. A tip I have is to do reverse writing (if your fountain pen allows) for characters that are extremely complex like 鬢 to get all the details within the confines of your grid, if you decide to have all your characters have the "same size" and equally spaced apart.

 

Before, I go, some inspiration: 

 

 

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

 

Warm regards,

 

2ouvenir

[Uantchern]

Hi - I just started to learn Chinese, I love fountain pens and like Chinese calligraphy so I combined all the 3 together.  The challenge I face is the type of paper to avoid feathering and the nib because Chinese characters have very fine strokes and subtleties.  The Pilot FA 912 flex nib is a good choice. I’m also trying the Pelikan OBB nib on a Toledo. 

[2ouvenir]

Hi @Uantchern. Welcome to the forum!

 

I post regularly on the thread 中文字學. I'm also learning Chinese and love Chinese calligraphy and fountain pens, so yes I am also combining the three ☺️.

 

Regarding what stationery I use, I find that most fountain pen friendly paper is good enough but I tend to use somewhat dry-flowing pens. If anything, I have less writing experience issues with writing Chinese than any other script because of the short strokes.

 

The writing instruments I use to write Chinese:

• Pilot Prera F
• Sailor ProColor 500 MF
• Platinum Preppy EF
• LAMY Safari 1.1 
• Mechanical pencil
• Ballpoint pen
• Kuretake no.50 brush

The inks I use are Pilot Black, Platinum Carbon Black and various dye inks from Sailor/Pilot in the fountain pens. Sailor Kiwaguro in the brush. 

 

The papers I use are Stalogy, Tomoe River (various variants of TR), and sometimes Rhodia and various papers from MUJI. 

 

I rarely run into any feathering issues, as you can see below, written with Pilot Prera F with Pilot Black ink on Stalogy paper.

 

 

I've never used a flex or nib broader than a MF (unless you count the LAMY 1.1, but the lines they produce in Chinese characters are quite thin, at least the way I write, somewhat akin to MF). Any broader, I'd prefer to use a brush and the Kuretake brush also never caused me any feathering or bleeding issues because it is also somewhat "dry" (even though it flows well).

 

If you prefer to use a broad fountain pen, my recommendation is Tomoe River or Rhodia (notepad paper). They also sell paper taster packs, a bundle of different papers for you to try. With a broader pen, you might also want to write your characters bigger and not cramp them in a space that you would for a finer nib. 

[A Smug Dill]

Welcome to FPN, @Uantchern.

 

16 hours ago, Uantchern said:

The Pilot FA 912 flex nib is a good choice.

 

Interesting. What specifically do you like about using it to write in Chinese, or otherwise what makes it a good choice? For me personally, the Pilot Custom's size 10, 14K gold FA nib is one of the nibs I like least for writing hanzi in kaishu script. I find it awfully frustrating that the tines splay too easily under almost no pressure, but the nib has fairly poor or slow ‘snap-back’ after spreading, so it's exceedingly difficult to execute pen strokes such as the diǎn (點) with a gradual increase in line width from the starting point, or the nà (捺) that should narrow rapidly to end in a sharp point. I find it a lot easier to use a ‘regular’ Japanese F or MF nib to produce ‘line variation’ that conforms to how kaishu written with a brush looks conventionally.