The oval letters: a, c, d, g, o, q
Okay. Thirteen lessons in, and today we're finally building actual letters out of that oval you practiced last time.
This is a good day. This is the day it starts looking like the alphabet instead of a page of shapes.
Here's the thing about lowercase letters — most of them are built out of a small number of forms you already know. The oval is one of the big ones. Six letters share it almost exactly: a, c, d, g, o, q. If your oval's solid, all six of these get a lot easier at once. If your oval's still a little lopsided, that's fine, we're going to work through it live.
Start with o — it's the whole shape, no additions
The letter o is just your oval. Full stop. Thin on the way up the left side, thick coming down the right, thin again finishing the bottom. Do ten of these before you touch anything else today. Not because you don't know how — because your hand needs to feel it in a row, at a consistent size, before it can hold that shape while you add pieces to it.
Watch your entry point. Most people start their o at the top like a clock at twelve. I'd rather you start at about two o'clock, thin stroke going up and over to the left, then swing down heavy. It keeps the thin-thick switch in the right place without you having to think about it mid-stroke.
c and o are the same letter with a bite taken out
Draw your oval, then just... stop before you close it. Leave a gap at the top right, like something took a bite out of your o. That's your c. Same pressure pattern, same thin-up-thick-down. The only new decision is where the opening goes and how big. Too small a gap and it reads like a broken o. Too big and it looks like a backwards check mark. Somewhere in the middle.
d and g take the oval and add a stem
d is your oval plus a straight stroke up on the right side, above the bowl, coming back down through it. Draw the oval first, small pause, then the stem. Don't try to do it in one unbroken motion yet — lift your pen if you need to. Getting the joint clean matters more than getting it fast.
g is the oval plus a descender that drops below the line and curves back, kind of like a fishhook. This is the one where people get nervous because now you've got the oval and a loop and they have to connect smoothly. Slow down here especially. I'd rather see you do three careful g's than ten rushed ones that all look like a's with a tail slapped on.
a and q are the trickier cousins
a in this style is usually a smaller, tighter oval with a short stem on the right, no ball at the top like a double-story print a. It's close cousins with d, just shrunk down and the stem's shorter.
q is your g's descender but the bowl sits differently and the tail is usually straighter, sometimes with a little flag at the bottom depending on the style you're copying. Honestly, q shows up so rarely in real words that I wouldn't spend more than a few minutes on it today. Get the others solid first.
A quick opinion, because it matters here
I'll say again what I've said before: pressure is the whole thing. Every one of these six letters is the same thin-up, thick-down pattern wearing a different outfit. If you're staring at a wobbly g wondering what shape is wrong, stop looking at the shape and look at where you pressed. Nine times out of ten that's the actual problem, not your hand-eye coordination.
A word about your pen, and about lending it out
Real quick, because it'll save you a headache. If you're sharing pens today — and in a room like this you will be — check the nib before you start your row. A bent tip will drag and skip and you'll think it's you.
This is a good spot to tell you about my daughter Nicole. She was fifteen, needed a nice pen for a school poster, and I let her borrow my good one. She handed it back and didn't say a word about it. Next stroke I made, I could feel something was off — the line wasn't laying down even. Bent nib. She never told me. I didn't say anything for two days, which, looking back, was its own kind of ridiculous, and then I finally brought it up and we both laughed about it. Now I ask, straight up, every single time: "did you press hard with this?" Save yourself the two days of silent treatment I put myself through. Just ask.
Practical notes for home practice
- Do these in order: o, then c, then d, then g, then a, then q. Each one builds on skill from the last.
- Use guideline paper if you've got it. Consistent size matters more than you'd think for these to look like a family of letters instead of six random shapes.
- If your g's tail keeps looking pinched, you're probably tightening up out of nerves. Ease off and let the curve be a little bigger than feels natural. It'll look right on the page even if it feels wrong in your hand.
- Distilled water in your brush pen's water dish if you're in hard water country, which — most of us here are. Regular tap will leave mineral spots on your brush over time and it's an annoying thing to troubleshoot later.
Before next time
Get through the full set once, then do another full pass focusing only on the letters that gave you trouble. You'll probably know exactly which one or two those are before you even finish the page.