First Calligraphy

As I mentioned in my last post, my love for arabic calligraphy began somewhere around freshmen or sophomore year of college, during winter break. In retrospect, I really wish I had written the date on this piece, lesson definitely learned.

 First I remember just making a border and layering it with designs and colors with a big space in the middle. I think I had somewhat of an idea of what I wanted to put into the middle when I began, but the idea kind of developed as I went along.

This is what I came up with. It's done entirely with acrylic paint on a 16x20 inch canvas

The calligraphy says:

  Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Raheem

Translation:

In the Name of Allah, most Beneficent, Most Merciful 

This is one of the most beautiful phrases, and is used at the start of almost every chapter in the Holy Qura'an. In the Muslim Tradition, Bismillah is also said before doing almost anything, including eating, driving, taking a test or exam. It's basically meant to invoke the name of God (Allah) before anything that you do. 

The Calligraphy design itself was not originally my own, but one that I found online and used in my painting. As this was my first calligraphy, I wasn't as familiar with how I could manipulate the arabic letters, etc. I know how to read arabic and so it was easy for me to notice how each letter was written artistically, and I slowly began to learn how to create my own calligraphies. I'm still not completely there yet, but with practice, I'm getting better.