Class Highlights of 2020
Behind the Scenes work for ‘Love of Letters’ Exhibition in Singapore 2019.
This year has been a whirlwind and we saw our in-person classes transitioning to online platforms. This could be our new norm but we are still teaching at nicnkotori studio rain or shine!
We have since revamped our Copperplate program class and the full program courses will be launched in January 2021.
For now, our introduction classes are already in full-swing so come join us for the last 2 months introduction classes for the year!
What Topics are we offering?
2- weeks Introduction to Pointed Pen Calligraphy
(Upon request only)
6-weeks Extension Copperplate Calligraphy Program
A peek into our Online Courses
Mirroring our successes from our in-studio courses, we are bringing our classes online so students from any part of the world can join us! But wait, what should you expect at our LIVE online classes?
PROGRESSIVE LEARNING WITH A VERY SMALL CLASS SIZE
All of the course modules has a course outline detailing all the topics and areas that will be covered in-class. All the course outline is provided in our class listings even before you sign up for it! So do check it out if you are keen to join. Every week, we approach the topics systemically. On top of that, with only 4 students per class, we get more time to review your assignments and your work during our sessions.
Clear writing demonstrations
No awkward camera angles!
We are using a document camera in class to show you a top-down view of our writing demonstration work. This is to ensure that all demonstrations are clear and projected on your screens. Students will be able to see very clearly how our tools work. See the demo on the right: A example of how we practice tine-manipulation work.
CLASS RECORDINGS
Our live online class will be recorded and students will be sent a private link to view our weekly classes online even after our class ends. Students will have access to the recordings up to 1 month post-course.
All our class audio recordings are also done using a good quality mic so the teaching audio and crisp and clear. You can also turn on auto-generated subtitles as you rewatch the videos.
All recorded class videos will also come with time stamps so you can quick jump to the relevant topics we discussed in class without having to comb through the full video on your own.
To be fair to all our paying students, sharing of videos with non-nicnkotori students is strictly prohibited.
After-session Review and Observations
For every session, PDF scans of the demonstration work done for our class will be uploaded on our classroom portal.
Also, I spend some time into creating after class review notes to record common mistakes. All the review notes get uploaded to our Google Classroom page so that students can look through the document over the weeks as they practice/work on their assignments. We try to touch on areas that you might miss out as a beginner so that the notes are still relevant to your study even after the course end. As such, our notes are customized to the group that is learning together for each course module.
Access to Google Classroom
All the course modules has its own google classroom page and each participating course student gets access to it during the duration of the course study. They also get access to the page for another 1 months post-course before we archive the classroom page.
All materials that we posted on our google classroom page are free for our course students to download for their own personal study.
See relevant reading materials and videos
I find it extremely important to keep ourselves up to date with theory knowledge. For our courses, I try to look for relevant videos and reference materials to show in-class. Links to each materials/downloadable pdf are also included in our google classroom page after each session.
Images and pdfs are all inclusive of citations and by the end of the course, a reference list PDF is uploaded to the google classroom page for our students to download so by the end of the 1-month period post-class, you still get to keep the reference list for future reading.
Course Schedule
I hope the above course highlights helped you understand what to expect from our courses. I know all that sounds extremely intense but that is the point. Some of us are looking at pursuing this art properly to complement the existing artistic skill they already have or as an added value skill for their own business. The courses are meant to teach you the foundations with the hopes that you leave the course knowing to critique your own work!
Below are the current course schedule available for the classes. Our new course dates for November weekend classes will be going live on the 21st Nov 2020 7PM (GMT +8)
See what our students have to say
“I really enjoy learning from Nichole. Her tone is very sweet & clear even won’t feel sleepy when she talking about the theory part! I’m a zero basic student and through the class, I saw big improvements in my calligraphy writings and knowledge in 5 hours together. If my friends who are interested to attend calligraphy classes, I will strongly recommend them attend Nichole’s classes.”
“I joined Nichole for a private one-on-one introduction to pointed pen calligraphy weeknight class at her home studio. Nichole is someone that teaches you the basics but never in an uninteresting manner. She knows how to relate the forms akin to day-to-day objects. That helped me visualize shapes quickly. She also chose not to overwhelm me with too many difficult terminologies in the first class to give me time to process more important concepts. Instead, she uses colours on the guidesheets to communicate where she wanted me to aim for when I write. By the time we moved into our second session in Week 2, I am ready to learn the proper terms as I am finally more comfortable with my tools.
I have always thought after 5 hours of class, I would still have chicken scratch writing but I was pleasantly surprised with my progress after we redid parts of my week 1 assignment in-class under her guidance. I was able to string words, write names, sentences and we completed a mock envelope addressing artwork. If I were to do this on my own, it would probably take months or possibly years to figure things out!!
Her course fees are slightly costly compared to the other classes I was searching online but I went with it because a friend of mine was her student and she had only good things to say about Nichole’s class. After attending her class myself, I finally understood the real value. It is not a class which you attend, hear her lecture and be done with it. She walks with you every step in your practice to help you improve. The best feeling was knowing that after 2-weeks I could write words, names of my friends and family PROPERLY, and also be equipped with knowledge to differentiate what is good or mediocre in my own writing. That was so valuable!
I have already booked her for the 6-weeks extension class to study the script in much greater detail! Really excited to begin class soon! :)”
“Nichole’s curriculum and style of teaching is different from many teachers as she took the time to analyse letter forms from master penmen and impart the knowledge to students in easily understood methodology and using her signature grid and unit spacing. It’s easy to write for some than to teach - but for Nichole, she’s great in both skills and I’ve been following her for a few years already and each lesson has further stretched what I thought I already knew about calligraphy.”