Before lockdown, early this year, I looked around for some online courses. I was hoping to improve my Calligraphy skills, and had played around with a few tutorials and worksheets, but wanted something a little more structured.
A few different courses came up, I didn’t want to spend major money, and I wanted something online that I could do in my own time, and Centre of Excellence ticked those boxes. The cost of the course at the time was £127, and consists of 10 modules about calligraphy. Around this time Coronavirus was a concern (although I wasn’t expecting a lockdown at this point…) and I was busy with work, so it remained a bookmark on my computer. When the lockdown hit and I was furloughed from my part time job, and my freelance work dried up overnight, I decided to get the course and go for it. Due to the lockdown it was reduced to £29 – a bargain!
I managed to get the first 3 modules down pretty quickly, then took a break as I did some other courses (more on that later) before coming back to this one, and finishing the other modules fairly quickly. I got all of my marks back by mid-July, so all in all it took me approx 3 months.
The website was easy to use, the course materials are available as module articles, and each module ends with an assessment which was easy to upload images, type answers or pick an answer. You can buy the course materials as a physical object and have them posted to you but I can work quite easily from a screen so I didn’t buy these. There were 10 modules, history, tools, types of calligraphy and how to start a business with your new skills.
Honestly… I found the course quite easy. The theoretical side of it all was quite interesting and went into a fair bit of detail with the history, but I made extensive notes on the first module which I barely looked at to answer the questions for the assessment. The instructions for actually drawing and writing were good, step by step with diagrams, and probably the best I’ve seen without a video. But there was one exemplar per calligraphy style, and having done more courses since, I found that each module covered the basics and not a lot else.
Had I been a complete beginner, this would have been a great start, however with some experience behind me, I found the course rather easy. I passed the course with a distinction, I managed 99%. The whole experience was easy to work my way through, useful as a springboard onto other courses, and at £29, very good value for money! I have since been working my way through Domestika courses based on specific calligraphic styles, and have just bought the “Postman’s Knock” Intermediate Calligraphy Course, both of which are much more detailed and based on specific styles – I will report back once they are all complete!