Brush Pen Lettering: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Learning Decorative Scripts (Grace Song) Review (2026)

What the workbook covers

Brush Pen Lettering is a 128-page paperback from Ulysses Press, written and illustrated by Grace Song, a Toronto-based hand-letterer and brush calligraphy teacher. It was built as one of the first books focused entirely on modern brush pens rather than dip nibs or pointed pens. The content moves through basic strokes, letterforms, and full alphabets before introducing decorative flourishes, banners, and layout ideas for finished pieces. Step-by-step instructions sit alongside color photographs and tips drawn from Song's own workshops, so the explanations read like a class rather than a dry reference. Because the book is organized as a progression, beginners are meant to work through it roughly in order rather than jumping to a single page for one technique, which suits people who want a guided course over a grab-bag of worksheets.

Structure and practice space

Each lesson pairs instructional pages with practice areas printed directly in the book, so a brush pen and this workbook are enough to get started without buying separate paper right away. That built-in space is also the book's main limitation. Because pages carry both instruction and practice lines, there is less room to repeat a stroke dozens of times the way a dedicated drill pad allows. Readers who want to master a single letterform through heavy repetition will likely fill the practice space quickly and need a separate pad of tracing or lettering paper to keep going. The book itself does not include extra blank sheets beyond what is printed, so treat it as a course to work through once and revisit with outside paper rather than a bottomless practice source.

Who this book suits

This workbook fits complete beginners who have a brush pen but no sense of stroke order, pressure control, or how decorative scripts differ from plain lettering. The lessons assume no prior calligraphy background and build from the ground up, which makes it a reasonable first purchase before more advanced style-specific books. It suits people who like structured learning with a clear start and end rather than open-ended inspiration books. Because the instruction is built around brush pens specifically, dip pen or pointed pen calligraphers will get less direct value from it, since the stroke mechanics and pen handling differ between the two tools. Anyone already comfortable with basic brush lettering and looking mainly for flourish ideas may find the early beginner sections less useful than the later decorative chapters.

How it compares with related titles

Grace Song also publishes a separate Brush Pen Lettering Practice Book, which is built specifically as a drill companion with measured guidelines and repeatable practice sheets rather than full lessons. Readers who like this workbook's teaching style often pick up that companion once they finish the instructional chapters, since it extends the same letterforms with more room to repeat them. Compared with other brush lettering workbooks on the market that lean more heavily on blank practice sheets with minimal instruction, this title leans further toward teaching technique first. That makes it a stronger choice for someone who wants to understand why a stroke looks a certain way, and a weaker choice for someone who already knows the basics and just wants more paper to fill.

Practical tips for using it

Work through the book in the order it is laid out rather than skipping to the decorative chapters, since later flourishes build on the basic stroke control taught earlier. Keep a stack of separate tracing or lettering paper nearby so the printed practice areas are not the only place to drill a stroke before moving on. A brush pen with a flexible tip, rather than a stiff felt tip, will make the pressure-based thick and thin strokes taught in the book easier to reproduce. Because the book is a paperback, it can lie reasonably flat when creased at the spine, which helps when tracing directly on a page. Pair the lessons with the author's practice book once the fundamentals feel comfortable, since it was designed to pick up where this workbook leaves off.

Frequently asked questions