I thought that, as an extension to another recent thread, it might be interesting to see handwriting development from pre-fountain pen interest to the present day and see the effect, if any, that the transition has had.
Here's my history, such as it is. I can find no record of my handwriting before 1960, which I regret. However, I feel that there has been quite a change over the past 48 years, - hopefully for the better. So......why not dust off those old diaries / journals and give us a look at your past? You nerver know, we may all learn something new about the wonderful world of handwriting.

These four examples of my early writing were done over a period of years when I was involved in family research. They were written (1) to (4) during the period 1960 - 1980.

(1) is from my notebook, written fairly fast. It is legible, but not very attractive - more printing than writing, I think. Although it's sloped, it's not italic in construction. I remember that it took me a long time to lose the e written with a centre stroke.



(2) is OK but a bit quirky - I'm not sure if I like this or not ; perhaps a bit too spiky.



(3) is similar to (2) but perhaps a bit more disciplined. The nib is too broad for this size of lettering, but otherwise, I quite like this. Incidentally, I have no recollection of ever having written like this!



(4) I've now moved to italic - not all that different from the way I write today, which seems strange to me, considering the practice I've had since then! I see that all the minuscule letters e have closed up as, once again, the nib is too broad for this size of writing.



(5) Is up to date - written half an hour ago!

Beautiful! I am entirely and totally envious. Would you share with us the pen and nib used?

Ken,

As always, very interesting, informative and illustrative (alliteration not intended).

The nib is a .07 cursive italic from Richard Binder fitted to a Pelikan M200

The earlier examples were written with Osmiroid pens.

It's fascinating to see the development in your script over the years, Caliken. May we all reach such an exemplary script in the end! I've certainly a long road ahead...

thats really useful to see......... I hope to one day be able to show something similar!

Wow, they're all quite nice, actually. I guess it shows that anyone who wants to attain something worthy should not be afraid to walk a long road.

BTW, I notice that at some point you changed the minuscule "d" from one with a reverse ascender to one that slants the same way as the others. Was this for any reason in particular? Just wondering.

Again, thanks much for posting.

Doug

Thank you all for your interest and comments.

Doug :
I was sorting out some old papers yesterday, which had nothing to do with hand lettering, when I came across these bits and pieces and I thought it might be a good idea for a topic.

I have no memory of the reverse ascender "d" - why I did it and why I stopped doing it. It's just too long ago.
It's a weird feeling, when you remember the content but don't recognize your own handwriting!

Well, quirky or not, I like #2--it looks like writing with great character!

Ann

I agree with Italicist - very cool to see the difference over time. And like Joe, total envy here.

I was lucky to discover the FPN-Forum last winter, and since then I've been practicing and experimenting with my handwriting...

Here are some samples of how my handwriting looked like one year ago:

This was written very slowly


This was written very fast


I didn't liked it at all and wanted to do something about it... so I searched the web for handwriting samples and discovered the FPN forum!

First I discovered the copperplate writing samples and the flex nibs, and after few weeks/months, this was the result:


This sample was written with a dip pen


I spent months and months working on my Copperplate, and it looked much better than my earlier hand, but it wasn't very practical for everyday handwriting
and I could not write very fast, and I needed to write very fast while taking notes in the university... so I tried to look for something "faster" and the answer
was "ITALIC SCRIPT"... and so I tried to learn to write italic and caliken's writing samples and videos have been very usefull in the beginning but I noticed very fast that it was not the right thing for me, I needed to develop some kind of my own style instead of just trying to copy someones handwriting... and I experimented a lot with italic nibs, and here are some samples:



This allready looks slightly different


And there were many many steps forward since then and 3-4 weeks ago I finally had reached
something that I could call my handwriting right now, and here are the latest samples:

This is from 4 weeks ago


The next 3 pictures vere made few minutes ago






I prefer writing with stub/italic nibs rather than with standard F/M/B nibs... but because fine stubs are really rare and I dont't have the money to send my pens
to Mr. Nibmeister I find it very easy to grind my own stubs/italics out of any standard nib...

I can write very very fast now and it still looks great (for me) and I don't feel the need to make it any better then it is right now... or what are you saying!?!
Is everything readable in those last pictures... I know, the writings are not in english, but the letters are the same, hehe... it's maybe a bit too broad but I also have some finer stubs!

THERE ARE 10 PICTURES IN THIS POST, YOU HAVE TO WAIT SOME SECONDS FOR ALL PICTURES TO APPEAR!

The last three pictures (of the same piece of lettering) are IMO the most impressive. This is powerful, individual. italic and your time spent studying has really paid off! Thanks for posting.

sk2yshine,

What blue inks are you using in the very last photo as well as the photo of your writing sample that was done with a dip pen?

I particularly like the shading that is evident in the lettering from the last photo.


Thanks,

Moravia

You both have beautiful handwriting, mine is pretty horrid so I won't post anything.

Its very nice... I also hope that my handwriting will be like urs... I also want to get some italic nibs to practice... How do you guys practice it?

uhm, the dip pen sample was done with pelikan turquoise.. if it's too light you can make it more "bluer" with few drops of standard-blue! It was a VERY flexy nib, so it puts alot more ink on the paper than most fountain pens, maybe thats why the sample looks different from other pelikan turquoise samples on the board...

and the last pics... hmm, I don't know exactly, because I allways mix a lot of my inks together... but I'm allmost sure it's Private Reserve American Blue (quite the same blue like DC supershow blue, a true blue without any violet parts) mixed with just a little bit of turqouise ink (probably waterman south sea, but other turquoise inks would do the same)


CALVIN82: "Can you tell me what dip pen are you using? And for the Lamy nib, how you turn it into Italic nib? If I get the Lamy 1.1mm italic nib, will it same with urs?"

the dip pen that I used for the copperplate sample was a D. Leonard EF Principal nib, pretty much the best nib for that kind of writing, together with some Gillot nibs... I think it was the Gillot 303... I forgot their names, because I started with dip pens and then switched to fountain pens...

the italic nib on my LAMY actually was a standard F nib (as you can see in the second last picture)! I cut the tip of the nib away and used some grinding paper to make the fine italic nib... well, it's not so fine, but it's still much finer than the 1,1 LAMY italic... the standard 1,1 lamy is more a STUB nib than ITALIC, it's not very sharp on the edges and it's almost too broad for everyday handwriting, so I grinded my own Lamy ITALIC... but you'll have to practice a little bit with some old nibs and grinding paper until you get some really good results!

I hope that was quite understandable, my english suckz! hehe...

My handwriting is terrible, although much improved when using a FP, can such beautiful results as shown be achieved through using a standard M FP nib?

Kind regards
NIGEL

Great stuff; Thank you both for sharing.

Beautiful! Thanks to both for sharing your talent.