Composite Of Lettering Styles

[caliken]

I recently produced this composite of lettering styles as a means of establishing the exact

requirements of clients.

Few of these styles are of my own creation. Most are classic styles or have come from established

sources. All, I believe are attractive in their own way, and all have been written with easily-available

pointed or broad edged nibs in dip or fountain pens.

 

I’m posting this composite here, as I believe that they may be of interest to beginners, showing the

range of possibilities with pointed and edged nibs. Some of these one-liners are extracts from work

which I’ve already posted on this forum, but I’ve lost track of which ones. Also, there appears to be a

hole in my Photobucket as some of my earlier posts seem to have disappeared. If any of these

extracts are of particular interest, I am happy to post or re-post the complete item, here on this thread :

just quote the line of text, below.

 

caliken

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/StylesComposite801.jpg

Edited January 4, 2013 by caliken

[schin]

Beautiful! I hope you don't mind it is now my desktop wallpaper. Is the Madarasz script derived from Spencerian or Copperplate?

[Chrissy]

I love line numbers 2 & 8 and would love to see the full range of lower and upper case letters so that I could try to write like this.

 

How do I get them?

[HDoug]

Iʻve just pinned this topic! Thank you caliken!

 

Doug

[caliken]

I love line numbers 2 & 8 and would love to see the full range of lower and upper case letters so that I could try to write like this.

 

How do I get them?

Chrissy,

 

I'm afraid that they're just my own variations on established scripts. I don't remember writing out the whole alphabet in either case : just the two pieces here -

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/foralongtime600.jpg

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/notforverylong.jpg

Edited January 3, 2013 by caliken

[Hetty]

Beautiful, Caliken. I particularly like lines 1, 2, 5, and 8 and the script of Louis Madarasz.

 

Hetty

[caliken]

Beautiful! I hope you don't mind it is now my desktop wallpaper. Is the Madarasz script derived from Spencerian or Copperplate?

I'm delighted that you want to use my post as desktop wallpaper.

 

The Madarasz hand was his variation of Roundhand which has strong Spencerian overtones. He called it "Madarasz Script". If you search for "The Madarasz Book" on the IAMPETH site you'll find several examples of this hand.

 

Ken

[caliken]

I've just pinned this topic! Thank you caliken!

 

Doug

Thanks, Doug. I appreciate the compliment.

 

Ken

[caliken]

Beautiful, Caliken. I particularly like lines 1, 2, 5, and 8 and the script of Louis Madarasz.

 

Hetty

Thanks for your interest, Hetty.

 

caliken

[Italicist]

Your composite is a calligraphic tour de force, Caliken -- beautiful and inspiring, as your work always is.

 

Best wishes,

Italicist

[thang1thang2]

 

The Madarasz hand was his variation of Roundhand which has strong Spencerian overtones. He called it "Madarasz Script". If you search for "The Madarasz Book" on the IAMPETH site you'll find several examples of this hand.

 

Ken

 

Why do you say that the Madarasz script is Roundhand with spencerian overtones? I always considered it (personally) as a heavily shaded (in the roundhand style) spencerian script. The reason for that being that the Capitals take more from the Roundhand side (being more simple and without a certain type of spencerian flourish in them) the lower case is almost entirely spencerian from what I can see. Differing only in the spacing between the letters. The r, for example, looks very spencerian. And the shading on the ascenders of the d and t are very classically spencerian. The way the a is started with a line from the baseline is the third type of stroke in the spencerian script and doesn't appear at all in roundhand.

 

In short, in my (highly) unprofessional opinion, the majority of the script (the lower case letters) seem very predominately spencerian, with a roundhand-esque style of shading and the same spacing as roundhand. And, while the capitals are more roundhand than not; in the forms that deviate majorly (such as S ) they seem to lean, even then, towards the spencerian form.

 

It's my all time favorite script, by the way, and it's the one I dream of being able to write. If I could learn nothing else but the madarasz script I would die a happy man. Ahhh, but so difficult. At least it's something to aspire to.

[caliken]

thang1thang2,

 

In "An Elegant Hand" this script is entitled "Ornate Roundhand" and in "The Madarasz Book" he calls it "Madarasz Script" and refers to it in his introductory text as "Roundhand". I can find no reference to the description "Spencerian" in either text.

 

However, I have to say that I don't necessarily disagree with your analysis. I, personally, see it as a 50/50 marriage of styles and whether it's considered to be Spencerian/Roundhand or Roundhand/Spencerian, it's certainly beautiful and original.

 

Ken

Edited January 4, 2013 by caliken

[caliken]

Your composite is a calligraphic tour de force, Caliken -- beautiful and inspiring, as your work always is.

 

Best wishes,

Italicist

Thanks, Italicist. Your comments are appreciated, as ever.

 

Ken

Edited January 4, 2013 by caliken

[Chrissy]

Thank you Caliken, I will at least be able to have a try.

[thang1thang2]

In "An Elegant Hand" this script is entitled "Ornate Roundhand" and in "The Madarasz Book" he calls it "Madarasz Script" and refers to it in his introductory text as "Roundhand". I can find no reference to the description "Spencerian" in either text.

 

Well. If the man himself called it Roundhand and didn't even mention Spencerian then who am I to disagree with him? Hah. I think he probably knows what he's talking about and that I don't need to add any input to his thoughts...

 

Thanks for the enlightenment! I might have to see if I can find those books. What's annoying is many of these books aren't found in libraries which means I would have to buy them all to view them. And, of course, a poor student can't afford to be dropping hundreds of dollars on books. Oh well... I'll get them someday.

[caliken]

In "An Elegant Hand" this script is entitled "Ornate Roundhand" and in "The Madarasz Book" he calls it "Madarasz Script" and refers to it in his introductory text as "Roundhand". I can find no reference to the description "Spencerian" in either text.

 

Well. If the man himself called it Roundhand and didn't even mention Spencerian then who am I to disagree with him? Hah. I think he probably knows what he's talking about and that I don't need to add any input to his thoughts...

 

Thanks for the enlightenment! I might have to see if I can find those books. What's annoying is many of these books aren't found in libraries which means I would have to buy them all to view them. And, of course, a poor student can't afford to be dropping hundreds of dollars on books. Oh well... I'll get them someday.

 

"An Elegant Hand" is by William E Henning and contains a section on Madarasz.

 

"The Secret of the Skill of Madarasz" (The Madarasz Book) is 85 pages long and is available free, on the IAMPETH website. There is a section (pages 69 - 80) on the "Madarasz Script" with detailed instructions and great examples. BTW he also calls this style "Insurance Policy Writing"

 

Ken

Edited January 4, 2013 by caliken

[thang1thang2]

http://www.iampeth.com/ADOBE_PDFs/Madarasz%20Book.pdf

 

For anyone wondering, this is the book that Ken mentioned (the second one, that is). Thanks very much for the secondary name of the script! I might have to do a little research on it. However I think I'm not likely to find much on "insurance policy writing" that actually pertains to calligraphy...

[mboschm]

Great job Ken!

 

By the way, nº 8 looks to me very much like civil service script.

[Anne-Sophie]

Caliken what is number 11, the one which starts with "useful" and stops with "maturity"?

 

I might have gotten the number wrong hence the use of the head and tail words of the phrase.

 

Is that hand suitable for round nibs (everyday writing)?

 

Thank you so much for that beautiful list!

Edited January 31, 2013 by Anne-Sophie

[caliken]

Caliken what is number 11, the one which starts with "useful" and stops with "maturity"?

 

I might have gotten the number wrong hence the use of the head and tail words of the phrase.

 

Is that hand suitable for round nibs (everyday writing)?

 

Thank you so much for that beautiful list!

Number 11 is English Roundhand, more commonly known as Copperplate. The full basic alphabet and a written example, are shown in the pinned "Depository" topic. Because of the shading, it's a bit slow for everyday use but could be written monoline.

 

I hoped that this helps.

 

Ken