Jump to content

Do You Need To Lift Your Wrist Off The Paper?


Jhet

Recommended Posts

I've been doing calligraphy for about a year now and ever since I've always had this frustration about my very tremorous hands. I've been trying to implant lifting my wrist off of the paper when I do my capitals and big flourishes but it's always so shaky that I just need to carry the stroke all the way without lifting...

 

So I have a question, is it really important to lift the wrist off of the paper? And if the answer is no, I would still like advice from people who also suffer from very tremorous hands of how you manage to control your stroke and how you train your hand to be smooth...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 3
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Jhet

    2

  • ac12

    1

  • Rednaxela

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

One of the reasons to lift your wrist is to better be able to glide across the paper with your whole hand.

 

There are many penmanship drills that can't seem to be done any other way. You freeze your hand and your fingers and let your arm do the work, with all mustles as relaxed as possible. When I do this myself, I seem to loose control a little, but I guess that's a matter of training. The strokes themselves end up looking cleaner than when I would draw them slowly and carefully.

 

This short video shows the idea.

 

 

Does he lift his wrist? In my view not overly so, but just enough to make the movements he is showing.

 

Not sure if this helps. I don't have very tremorous hands myself. However relaxing seems for me to be the key to cleaner lines. And, as I am discovering currently, body position. Bending from the hip, straight back and shoulders, not leaning on the writing arm etc.

~ Alexander

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Couple ideas:

1 - Put a piece of paper under your wrist. The idea is your hand will stick to the piece of paper, and the piece of paper would slide on your writing paper.

2 - Lift your wrist by pushing down on your last 2 fingers, so that the weight of your hand is supported by the last 2 fingers, and gliding on the finger nails of those last 2 fingers.

 

Another thing is the speed of your strokes. I was taught and found that if my stroke is too slow, my hand will wobble, and I will have a wobbly line. I was taught that a stroke needs to be done at a certain minimum speed to make it a clean stroke. So, you may have to speed up the stroke. But remember that I said 'stroke,' not the entire letter or word. A letter is made up of multiple strokes, and you can pause between strokes.

Edited by ac12

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have read all your replies and I have to try all of these out! I'll practice this straight for a week and come back for the results! Thank you to the both of you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26625
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...