Proper Pen Hold For A Chisel Edged Italic Pen?

[ac12]

I'd personally like to see him doing some far less formal and quicker, but legible, right handed italic from him. Sadly, all I can find is his formal calligraphy videos, which, as I said before, offer little in the ways of clues about how to write italic - and here is the KEY word - quickly.

 

 

Gentlemen, I feel I have to be clear here despite all your good intentions and attempts to prevent me wasting my own time: I am not looking to write calligraphy I'm looking for a legible hand that can be written moderately quickly, in a manner suited to exams, with my UNDAMAGED RIGHT HAND.

 

 

Time out !!!

 

You are getting sidetracked.

 

Since you goal is not to write calligraphy but to write reasonably quickly and legibly.

Forget the edge pen, and instead use a gel pen, felt tip,or pencil to practice and write with.

 

What you want is the letter form, not the pen effects of an edge pen.

 

Because using an edge pen will SLOW you down, rather than speed you up. All this talk of the edge pen is just getting in your way.

Italic looks nice with an edge pen, but does not have to be written with an edge pen. The same letter form can be written with a pencil.

 

Also realize that there is no "magic bullet" that will give you tremendously fast legible writing.

 

Prior to learning about italic, my response would be to "learn how to print FAST."

Print being the basic block printing that my generation learned in grade school. Or similar to the type style that is used in the forum. Nothing fancy, just clear and simple.

Edited October 6, 2014 by ac12

[Bronze]

Alexande, my grip is pretty much the same as in the Ken Fraser photo you linked to. This was something that came naturally to me, just the way I ended up writing. Feels comfortable and relaxed.

 

As I mentioned I believe that writing legible italic rapidly is mostly a matter of practice. You will need to put in some work to get there. I agree with ac12 "that there is no "magic bullet" that will give you tremendously fast legible writing".

 

Personally I don't think that an edged nib slows you down a whole lot, if you have become familiar with it and the nib isn't too sharp. Something like a stub is pretty ideal for fast writing in my experience. It could be that your lettering set may be a bit sharp, although the typical italic nibs out there really aren't all that sharp. If it's the right tool for an exam situation for someone starting out with italic I don't know. You could always test if you have better luck with a round point.

 

I do agree though that you should be able to write the italic forms without an edged nib, either with a round point, ballpoint or pencil etc.

 

Whenever I have an exam that is written on paper (my university is gradually moving over to computers these days) I am not allowed to use a fountain pen and so I use a ballpoint. I still write in italic, but I typically simplify the ascenders and descenders and write with fewer pen lifts. Basically a stripped down monoline italic. The point is to make it legible and fast, not to do calligraphy. I don't worry about the occasional inaccuracies etc.

 

I save my "nice" writing (or rather my attempt at nice writing) for when I'm at home, and there's no rush.

 

[HDoug]

It's almost inevitable that there will be diverging opinions on this, but mine is that it is possible to write quickly with an edged nib. I almost always write with an edged nib. Every now and then I'll write with a round (monoline) nib and it's like eating candy, much easier. But in terms of speed, no quicker. If it's about easy, round nib is easier. If it's about quick, edged nib is as quick.

 

Doug

 

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