The easy accessibility of calligraphers on YouTube is lovingly bringing back the almost lost form of writing
Inpreet Kaur, 26, in her home in Nainital. The young artist says that calligraphy has become the art form for a personal touch; (right) Chetna Morkhade, is calligrapher whose YouTube channel has been seeing a lot of growth, as more and more people want to learn the art. Pic/Satej Shinde
Chetna K Morkhade holds a very elaborate calligraphy pen (an oblique pen and nib, we’re informed) a few inches above the paper and twirls it in the air a couple of times before bringing it down to gently make contact with the paper and deftly, in elegant flourishes, produces the most wonderfully shaped letters we have ever seen on paper.
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The 32-year-old has a Masters degree in Commerce, but was always more inclined towards art. This led her to a course in Graphic Designing almost immediately after graduation more than a decade ago and after dabbling a bit in that discipline, she found her way to the art of decorative lettering.
“It wasn’t something I was looking to get into exclusively, but I just fell in love with the way words—that we take for granted—are of great and under-appreciated beauty,” she tells us at our Bandra office. She’s on her way to shoot for her YouTube channel, mewithapencil that she started with college friend Nilofer Sajida Rehman in 2019.
Anju Shetty
Calligraphy, believed to have originated in ancient China, flourishes on YouTube and practitioners such as Morkhade not only make it more accessible but demystify it as well.
“Our channel is more of a passion project,” she says, “maybe in the US, calligraphers make $600 a month, but in India, the returns are low—$100 at best in a month you have to put out amazing content, frequently.”
On August 16, YouTube published a blog about working with artists such as Portuguese calligrapher Xesta to re-create their logo in the forgotten, Latin alphabet lettering style Fraktur as well as an English hand-lettered version.
Anju Shetty, a fitness trainer, has been following Morkhade’s work for a few years and wanted to learn pointed-pen calligraphy. “I have been dabbling in it for four years, learning through online tutorials,” says the Malabar Hill resident, “but finally in February this year, I got in touch with her for a one-on-one class. I have always been practicing some kind of art for 40 years and wanted to learn as much as I can about this one as I really find it extremely interesting.”
The art form has been an eternal crowd-puller for its refreshing mindfulness. “People often get addicted to calligraphy as it becomes their form of meditation,” says Morkhade, “It helps improve focus, and the whole ritual of sitting down, readying your pen, filling the ink, and finally writing is therapeutic. It helps you sort your thoughts and take on the day.” She recommends at least 20 minutes of practice to help keep the hand steady.
The building blocks of the lettering art are eight strokes—the entry, underturn, overturn, compound curve, oval, reverse oval, ascending loop and descending loop. Inpreet Kaur, a 26-year-old calligrapher who started her business from her hometown in Haldwani, Nainital used to be a corporate slave. “I used to study calligraphy via videos,” she tells us over the phone, “and back in 2016, I started doing it seriously. In 2020, I did a few courses abroad and launched my business that I run out of both Haldwani and Delhi.”
She feels the art form has picked up more in India in the past five to seven years due to technology. “People want to learn it as a hobby,” she says, “and it is also growing as a legitimate business as customers recognise value in customisation—party and wedding, and Thank You cards. Many of my students are themselves running classes or businesses. Some people still love to write letters to friends and want to work on their writing to show people that they are valued and loved.”
In Chinese culture, which is considered the birthplace of the art, calligraphy takes on the role of the body meeting the soul on paper. Another perspective is the calligrapher’s emotion and thought expressed in hidden beauty, poetry and harmony.
Now who doesn’t like a little beauty in the everyday?
$100
What Calligraphy YouTubers might earn in a good month in India
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