Calligraphy Class in London

[amytheorangutan]

Anyone here can recommend a good calligraphy class in London? I’m following youtube instructions at the moment to practice basic strokes but I feel like I’m most likely not doing it right and don’t want to accumulate bad habit because I have no one to give me feedback and fix my hand position or brush movements etc. Probably won’t be able to go to a class until next year due to Covid but would love some recommendations. Preferably where the class size is not too big because I actually want to learn and not just go to random once off workshop with 20 people and 1 teacher who’d only have 2 minutes to spend on one student. 

[Shelley]

As you are looking in London, why not try SOAS, they have a large Chinese department, maybe they do some evening classes or similar.

https://www.soas.ac.uk/

[the madman]

Hi

 

These are nice people, try them.

 

https://www.ccc.org.uk/music-arts-and-craft-classess/

 

I think it’s on line at moment but when we are back to more normal it’s just off Leicester Square. 
 

 

regards.

[amytheorangutan]

Thanks guys! @Shelley I looked at SOAS website but couldn’t find any info about calligraphy class. I might try to contact their mandarin short courses admin to see if they have something like that. 
 

@the madman are you one of their students? How’s the class conducted? How many people are normally in the class? I just looked at the website, the fee is very reasonable. 

[the madman]

I am not a student so no idea how many people etc. I did help out there before retiring and still see them for New year as help with the organisation of the Chinese New Year celebrations in london.
 

the CCC ( Chinese comunity centre ) is a charity so all the fees go to running the centre, doing outreach ,legal services, Heath services etc for the elderly chinese in Westminster and london as a whole. Contact them they are usually very helpful. 
 

regards.

 

 

[amytheorangutan]

On 11/16/2020 at 5:56 PM, the madman said:

These are nice people, try them.

 

https://www.ccc.org.uk/music-arts-and-craft-classess/

 

I think it’s on line at moment but when we are back to more normal it’s just off Leicester Square.

Thanks for pointing this out to me. I actually gave this ago last year up to January this year. I find it really good. The class was around 6-12 people. I really like the teacher, she knows a lot about Chinese famous calligraphy works and poems and she brings one example every class and gives us a little bit of intro into each work and the calligrapher behind it. The class is 10 quid each for 1.5 hours which I think is very reasonable. I attended 10 classes and while I really liked it and plan to go again at some point in the future I find the class pace is quite fast for beginner.

 

I didn't have much time to practice during the week and still had problems doing basic strokes but the class was moving forward without me, which part of it is my own fault for not practicing enough but I got really frustrated not being able to do basic strokes properly. So... I have moved to another class now with a Japanese teacher and start from scratch. The class is considerably slower, the first 2 classes we just learned how to properly hold the brush and did horizontal strokes. While it might sound really slow or boring for some people I actually find it more beneficial to me. The class size is similar and it's also 10 quid per class for 1.5 hours but unfortunately they only admit students who also do Qigong or Taiji through them. I think once I can sort out my strokes properly and become more confident, I will do the class at the Chinese Centre again as I really enjoyed the cultural and language aspect of it.