The Secret to Fake Calligraphy (and galaxy lettering)

When I learned this secret to fake calligraphy, it made all the difference. Fauxligraphy can help you get the hang of thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes which can be really tricky as a hand lettering beginner! I’m not a beginner anymore, but I still love fauxligraphy! You can use any pen and any surface. This is how you do chalk lettering or lettering on wood as well. I’m also going to show you how to use fake calligraphy to create beautiful galaxy lettering.

For a video tutorial, see this video for how it’s done with a galaxy lettering demo:

Before I even had a brush pen, I made everything with my Pilot G-2 pen. People started noticing me on Instagram. They would ask what brush pen I was using. I felt like I needed to keep it a secret because I wasn’t actually that talented, I didn’t know how to use a brush pen! I was doing fake calligraphy. Then I realized that fauxligraphy is a real thing that everyone uses, not just beginners.

If you’d like to use Faux Calligraphy to do Galaxy Lettering, check out my course!

The Secret to Fake Calligraphy

If you ever want to use a paint pen or chalk pen, you are going to need to know this skill since they don’t come in brushes. Also, it’s really fun and you don’t have to worry about transitioning from thick to thin strokes! Here’s the secret to fake calligraphy:

1. Write a word in cursive with a pen or pencil.
2. Thicken each downstroke by drawing a line and filling it in.

That’s it! It may take a few times to get the hang of where the downstrokes are. If you have to go back over it with your pen, that might help as you watch wherever your pen is going down. In my video above, I share how to do galaxy lettering with this technique.

This is such a great way to start learning your style because you can play around with the letters and words without worrying about how to use a brush pen. Once you start using a brush pen, you can still do fake calligraphy to make your brush lettering stand out. I show you that in my tutorial Faux Calligraphy With Brush Pens.

I created a hand lettering workbook for fauxligraphy practice to help you get the hang of it. It’s a fun, cute script style and it includes the lowercase alphabet, uppercase alphabet, days of the week, months of the year, and numbers. So it’s really practical since anyone will need to write those words at some point! This will be especially helpful for a bullet journal or planner. The best part is that you can print it out on any paper and use any pen. You don’t have to invest in brush pens to start!