Hey guys! Icy here, one of the Design Team members!

Keeping a bullet journal is one of the most important ways for me to maintain a balance between my responsibilities and maintain creative wellness. My most favorite thing about bullet journaling is that I can do whatever I want in a way that works for me! Aside from using it as a journal and planner to keep track of the things I need to do, I also like to think of it as a creative bullet journal where I can express myself creatively. I absolutely love adding creative elements like illustrations and calligraphy!

I normally use pointed pen or brush pens whenever I do calligraphy, but in this blog post, I will show you how to write the days of the week in calligraphy without a brush or pointed pen which is called faux calligraphy.

What materials do I need?

Did you know that you can do calligraphy with just a regular pen? 

For faux calligraphy, I mostly use fineliners or paint pens, but feel free to use felt tip pens, colored pens, or markers if you wish! If you don’t have any of those, any pen or pencil you have at home will do! 

As shown on the images below, I will be using Acrylograph Pens from the Primary Selection, the pink Acrylograph from the Tropical Selection, and my Morning Glory A5 160 GSM Dot Grid Notebook.

You can make your faux calligraphy as colorful as you want by using different colored pens like I did. Sometimes I have a hard time picking just one or two colors that I end up using an entire range of colors! But if you’re feeling a bit monochromatic, feel free to use one or two colors. 

Personally, I like going with a color theme every month, that way I get to play around with different palettes and color combinations for my faux calligraphy. Right now I’m feeling very colorful so you’ll see me use the colors of the rainbow.

How do I do calligraphy with a regular pen?

Like I mentioned earlier, calligraphy is usually done with either a pointed pen or a brush pen. But it can definitely be done with just a regular pen, and this kind of calligraphy is called faux calligraphy. 

Calligraphy is basically made up of thin and thick strokes, and instead of focusing on the actual word or letter, we focus on the fundamental elements called the basic strokes.

I won’t really go into all the technicalities of calligraphy on this blog post but if this is something that you are interested in, I have a playlist on my YouTube channel on how to do calligraphy with a regular pen. I talk about the fundamentals of calligraphy, the basic strokes and how to properly construct letters. You can check out the playlist here.

Alternatively, Kate, one of the amazing Design Team members has also published a blog post on how to do faux calligraphy. You can check out her blog here for additional reference.

What are the ways I can add calligraphy to my Bullet Journal spreads?

I love using faux calligraphy for headings so that they stand out. You can use this for things in your bullet journal like to do lists, goals, ideas, and brain dump. I would also usually write months of the year and days of the week in faux calligraphy. 

Sometimes I like writing the full word for the days of the week:

Sometimes I like writing just the first three letters of the days of the week:

I think it all depends on how much space you have or want to use, and what kind of weekly spread layout you have in mind. But it’s great to play around with the two ways you can add faux calligraphy to your bullet journal! Also, feel free to mix them up!

As mentioned earlier, I like to get creative by using pens of different colors! The Archer & Olive Acrylograph pens come in a range of color selections which can be used for your bullet journal calligraphy!

How do I do calligraphy?

When doing calligraphy, the letters of the alphabet are actually composed of the basic strokes. Feel free to watch the video below for a demonstration on how to do the days of the week in calligraphy:

Demonstrations for the full words and abbreviated words are in the video, feel free to try both and see which one you like best for your current weekly spread.

I have also included a printable for you to practice! 

Whenever I do faux calligraphy on my dot grid notebook, I use three horizontal lines of dots as a guide for my letters. To begin, I like using a pencil to draft out the words and then use my acrylograph pens to finalize it all. Make sure the ink dries completely before erasing the pencil marks underneath to prevent smudging!

As I have mentioned earlier, calligraphy is made up of thin and thick strokes. With faux calligraphy, I usually start off with writing the “outline” (or skeleton) of the word and then I add another layer of ink to specific parts of the word to add the thick strokes.

Feel free to print and practice as much as you can until you feel confident to write the days of the week in faux calligraphy on your bullet journal!

Share your work!

How did you go?

Let us know how you went by tagging us on Instagram @archerandolive and @archerandolive.community, as well as using the hashtags #archerandolive and #aoshare! Looking forward to seeing your work!