Which Getty & Dubay Book For Everyday Italic Use?

[DanielCoffey]

I would appreciate some opinions from those of you who have looked at the four Getty & Dubay Italic books as to which one(s) would be more useful for an adult wanting to learn cursive italic for everyday writing rather than 1formal italic edged nib calligraphy.

 

Given the following...

 

1. Write Now: The Getty-Dubay Program for Handwriting Success
2. Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series (K–6 & Instruction Manual)
3. Italic Letters: Calligraphy & Handwriting
4. Getty-Dubay Italic Calligraphy: for School & Home

 

...which would you say emphasised everyday cursive italic over formal calligraphy? Which would contain worksheets suited to point nibs rather than requiring edged nibs?

 

Hopefully I can make a buying decision based on your advice as the books are hard to get in the UK in clean condition at what I would consider a fair price.

 

Cheers.

[Torrilin]

Italic letters is an overall manual. The entire book is written by hand showing every variety of italic possible. So cursive italic is included and its explained within the context of the range of variations. Its presented as a script that will naturally develop as you practice for speed. It also covers a version with no serifs, conventional serifs, a half dozen or so serif styles from simple to very flourishing and a wide range of alternative letterforms and ligatures. Its a thick fat book intended as a workbook. I used it as a guide and went through the materials presented around 3-4 times, covering no serifs, a couple serif styles and cursive italic.

 

I should perhaps note the book suggests its a good idea to go through the whole thing once in pencil or other monoline tool and once edged if you like edged.

 

I havent used the others, and many forum users have been pleased with their results using the other books. But they are written from a less historical perspective and meant to fit better into a classroom setting. For me that is a negative. For many posters here its a positive.

 

For a cheaper and more widely available option Noble and Mehigan have a book called Calligraphy for Beginners that covers a range of styles. Theres no explicit italic cursive but its got decent historical background and covers a broader range of hands.

[dms525]

I have only seen the books you list as numbers 1. and 4. The first is a book for general handwriting improvement. The fourth emphasizes italic but covers more than that hand. However, it does not cover cursive italic, if by that you mean writing italic with joined letters. The included worksheets don't care what type of writing instrument you are using.

 

You can write any version of italic script with a round nib, pencil or any other instrument, including chalk. However, it is both easier to learn good italic letter forms and to write an attractive italic hand using an edged pen. (Note that I said "easier." You can do so with other tools, but why make it harder for yourself?)

 

I would also argue that there is a time-tested best way to develop a nice, everyday, personal cursive italic hand. That is by starting with formal italic. Learning good letter forms and letter spacing. Then learning joins. We find that, once good italic letter forms have been learned and incorporated into motor memory, joined/cursive italic emerges almost without effort, as writing speed increases. The effort required is to learn the letter forms and spacing. There is no shortcut to conscientious, critical practice.

 

The problem with any workbook for learning handwriting is that the exemplars are static, and writing is inherently dynamic. Fortunately, with the internet - youtube dot com in particular - we have videos of letters and words being written in real time. If you are serious about learning and using italic handwriting, I heartedly recommend you go to youtube dot com and find the series of instructional videos made by Lloyd Reynolds. They are meant to be viewed while using his own workbooks which follow the same lesson sequence. Reynolds' workbooks are out of print but still available at reasonable cost through Amazon. A new edition is being readied for publication, by the way.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[DanielCoffey]

I ordered a copy of Write Now and also Italic Letters direct from the AllPort website in the US for shipment over here to the UK. The staff over there were very keen to help, quoting the postage ($33 from US to EU for two books) and then sending a PayPal invoice.

 

They mailed the books the day the payment went through so I now have my own brand new copies of the books in immaculate condition and for less than the gougers in Amazon Marketplace wanted for them, even after the postage charge.

 

I am actually considering separating the books into loose pages since they are glue-bound. They are not A4 so they won't fit into A4 pockets without trimming but I can keep them together with a clip when not in use. This would allow me to have the pages completely flat and put a piece of thin Bank Paper or Layout Paper on the top for the practice without marking the original pages. I can then repeat exercises as often as I want without running out of material.

 

Have any of you done that with your own writing work books?

[corgicoupe]

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[Carrau]

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