Beginner's Guide to the Pilot Parallel Pen

Calligraphy is one of those rare arts where a single tool can change the outcome completely, and today we're looking at one of those tools, the Pilot Parallel Pen. Known for sharp lines, a smooth flow and mesmerising colour blends, this thing is a powerhouse and a personal favourite. If you've been following along on our social channels for a while, you'd recognise it immediately. So, what makes the Parallel Pen different? Well, it's all in the nib. Instead of a traditional calligraphy nib, it uses two metal plates which sit parallel to each other. This unique design gives razor-sharp lines, consistent ink flow and the ability to blend colours directly on the nib. This all combined makes it incredibly versatile, and it's also available in a range of nib sizes. With it, you can create expressive, modern calligraphy and fine lines using the edge of the nib, traditional italics, which better suited with the smaller nib sizes, or bold, blackletter or gothic scripts, and flourishing, which is my favourite part. You can pretty much write in whichever direction you'd like with this pen. So, when you open the box, you'll find the pen body, cap and the nib section, two ink cartridges, usually black and red, a cleaning plate, a cleaning bowl and an instruction leaflet which shows the autonomy of the pen, and also a few scripts to get started with. Everything you need to get started with straight away, other than the paper. To put the pen together to start writing, it's really simple. It's a fountain pen design. You just unscrew the grip section, push the cartridge firmly into place. The widest end of the cartridge is the part you insert. Make sure the cartridge is secure and let the ink saturate the nib, usually 10 to 30 seconds, and don't panic if the ink doesn't start flowing straight away. That's really common with fountain pens. If the ink isn't flowing, it's usually a simple fix. First of all, make sure the cartridge is fully seated and clipped into place, and if it is, gently squeeze the cartridge to help prime the feed. Sometimes the ink just needs a little bit of help getting through the feed and out of the nib. If the pen is older, use the cleaning plate to clean the nib of old ink and paper fibres which can get stuck in the middle of the plates. You can also use the bulb cleaner to flush out dried ink, simply filling the bulb with water, inserting it into the pen as you would a cartridge, and then squeezing the bulb to flush the water and any old ink out. Also, make sure you use a good, smooth quality paper. These pens put down a lot of ink, so if you have a really bad quality or thin paper, you're going to see bleed through and feathering which is going to ruin the effect completely. We like to use our own calligraphy paper here which is 90 gsm and holds the ink really well, and if you are going to start mixing inks, then we recommend a watercolour paper around 300 gsm which is really thick but that will show off the inks much better and also stop any bleed through or feathering. So first of all, just a few points before we start writing. When you're holding the parallel pen, you want to make sure you keep the angle of the pen consistent to your page. If you keep moving it around or you move the angle of the paper, then you're going to see inconsistent lines and that's where the writing will start to look wobbly. Also, make space on your desk. Your elbow should be on your desk. You don't want to be up here having to control all this arm and elbow with your hand which is also controlling your pen. You want the desk to be taking the weight of your elbow so that your hand is just concentrating on the pen, and also go slowly. This definitely isn't something to do quickly. Take your time to get to know the pen, what strokes work, which strokes don't. Have a little bit of fun. Okay, so let's get writing. There are a few warm-up strokes which I like to do and we're going to have a look at those today. There are lots of things you can do with this pen but you really need to understand how to use it first to get simple strokes in order to put them all together to make something more dramatic. So with the Pilot Parallel Pen, you get a really wide range of strokes as well as some basic strokes. With this pen, we can make a diamond. I mostly use this as a serif. It's the most simple mark the pen can make. Hold the nib at an angle on the page and simply drag the nib down slightly. There's also a simple straight horizontal and vertical line. Keeping the full nib parallel on the page and just dragging it to your right, horizontal, or pulling down for a vertical line. Hairlines or fine lines are achieved by changing the angle of the nib. Instead of the full nib touching the page, turn it on its edge. Blending both the wide lines and the hairlines, you can add a little flick at the entry and exit points, twisting the nib slightly to get these hairlines. That little hairline flick acts as a simple flourish. The same can be done both horizontally and vertically. Also what I call a snake shape, which is really the horizontal or the vertical but more exaggerated shape. I often use this as a flourish or if I'm really exaggerating the lines in the letter shape. Using it instead of a straight line really adds some drama. Stay on the edge of the pen the longer to get the finer entry or exit line and then bring the pen down to use the full nib for the wider parts. And ovals are made from two simple crescent moon shapes joined together. One to the left and one to the right. Another flourish is the spike. Starting on the edge of the nib to get a fine line and then bringing the full width of the nib to the page to finish with a full line. All of these shapes form the backbone of most italic, gothic, or black letter scripts, which is really what this pen is made for. Practicing them and getting used to them is a great way to start forming more consistent letters. The more you practice the more you'll be able to control the pen. And remember it's practice for progress, not perfection. So once you're comfortable with the pen and how it moves to make different marks, start practicing alphabet fonts. Pilot provide a really handy guide with all their Pilot Parallel pens. It includes an italic, roman, and gothic script in both upper and lower cases. And of course you can find lots more online. So that's a brief introduction to the Pilot Parallel pen. Practice a little bit every day and you'll be amazed at how your lettering transforms. And we'd love to see what you make with the Pilot Parallel pen. So drop a picture in the comments or if you do have any questions let us know and we'll get back to you. If you enjoyed this tutorial and would like to see more don't forget to like and subscribe.