Press Release
On the occasion of ‘International Literacy Day’, Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) began its online learning classes ‘Beejakshara’. On the first day of the programme, viewers learned the intricate ‘Art of Calligraphy’ in English and Hindi script by calligraphy artist, Mr. Harishankar Balothia. The session introduced how to use various instruments of calligraphy to create beautiful script and the basic theoretical knowledge of calligraphy. This included how to use the different pens, the holding pressure to apply for creating certain scripts as well as the angle and speed. The programme was organized by the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Rajasthan in collaboration with JKK and the Arabian and Persian Research Institute, Tonk.
The session began with a revision of the teachings of the earlier conducted online learning class during the ‘Online Learning Children’s Festival’. The artist demonstrated how to write lowercase and uppercase letters in Roman script. He said that calligraphy means beautiful scripture using special instruments. He explained the concept of demarking space (1 box), mapping the centre spot and using a variety of strokes to form letters. Letters can be structured in this square space using vertical, horizontal and curved strokes. Vertical strokes move from up to down and horizontal strokes move from left to right, he said.
During the demonstration, he also explained the concept of writing between two lines, ascenders and descenders as well as which angles to write in. Throwing light on Edward Johnston’s technique of calligraphy, he said that the pen that one will use to write with, the same pen should be used to mark the ascender, descender, body and character height. He also demonstrated how to write numericals.
He artist went on to demonstrate Devanagari script letters, pen holding techniques, pen pressure to be applied as well as the direction of movement. Explaining the material to be used during calligraphy, he said that simple ink in blue, red, green or black colours should work perfectly for writing beautiful script. If one wants to make ink they will have to prepare it using Kajal, Gond and water, mixed together very well. Calligraphy pens and Chisel pens are readily available in the market and one can use those pens to write a variety of scripts making sure to hold the pens at the right angles, he said.
