Improving My Handwriting By Learning Calligraphy - A Dyslexic's Point Of View

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I never thought I would set out to learn calligraphy. With dyslexia so bad I'm nearly dysgraphic (can't write by hand), I have trouble writing without relying heavily on electronic aids. I always imagined calligraphy something restricted to those demi-gods of words and art. They make beautiful pictures out of words so that mear mortals like me can sit and look at them with reverence and despair at our own lack of innate talent.

 

And I do rely heavily on technology to write. It took a long time to find a spellcheck programme that didn't take one look at my words, decide that this is not a known human language and shut off for the rest of the week. My handwriting is so bad that I've started signing my name with an X - and even then getting it wrong.

 

That's the big problem that started it there. My signature.

 

I have a strange combination - the innate inability to write and a case of hypergraphia (the compulsion to write). The drive to write is so intense at times that it overwhelms me and even though I know my brain isn't good at it, I write anyway. I even wrote a book (albeit, mostly on the typewriter) and with help, I edited the book and with more help, I pre-sold enough of the book to pay for printing. I'm still in shock about this.

 

The problem is, people now want signed copies of said book. No one told me I was going to have to sign things!

 

Oh no. I don't want to.

 

But apparently, it's expected. So I need to learn a new skill - a skill I wish I had learned in school but they were too busy imagining they could teach me how to spell (not that I spell my name the same way each time, but that's part of my charm I suppose).

 

After looking at different options for learning handwriting as an adult and becoming discouraged (there were tears - yeh, people with my background get pretty emotional about this sort of thing), I decided that I liked pointed pen calligraphy. I didn't know that there were different types, so I chose the Spencerian set because it had workbooks and a review said I could use my fountain pen to practice. When I break up the letters into individual parts and shapes, I can see how they are supposed to be drawn. I'm using the part of my brain that draws (an underdeveloped but somewhat functional area of my brain) so I can create a path to writing letters through that region instead of through the regular writing part of my brain. I know, it doesn't make much sense if you are good at writing, but maybe some of you understand. It's like driving to work. The direct rout has construction and slow traffic. Things get through but they take hours and sometimes mangled. So I'm taking a different road to get to where I need to go - a long, twisting, upanddown hill road.

 

Now I know more about it, I love it. I can't wait to learn the philosophy of this script. That was also an attractive factor.

 

I imagine that learning this script will teach my hand the muscle memory needed to write legibly. Typewriters aren't as portable as pen and paper, although they do have their place.

 

• I want to make a signature I'm not embarrassed to have viewed in public
• I want handwriting I can read
• More importantly, I want fast handwriting I can read
• If possible, I want handwriting other people can read
• I want to learn the fine motor skills required to write well
• I want to learn some shading because that makes it easier for me to read

I doubt I'll master Spencerian script entirely, especially because I can't stand some of the letters like the small "p", small "c" and some of the capital letters. But I hope I can learn enough from this style to come up with a handwriting that fits my needs. And maybe I'll like it and start learning copperplate.

 

Thinking more about learning Spencerian script, I almost bought a bunch of penholders and nibs and dip-pen ink last night. But then I realise this doesn't fit my need. I can't sign books with a dip pen. A fountain pen is weird enough. I can't see using a dip pen as super-portable or fast enough to write the next book. So I'm sticking with my regular fountain pen and seeking out an affordable flex pen that I can use for signatures.

 

I don't know if this is the right path, but it seems to be working. I'm finding I'm enjoying practicing my caligraphy which I never thought was possible.

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I'm not sure why I wrote all that. I suppose I wanted to clarify for myself what my goals are for learning calligraphy.

Just ignore it if it's boring.

[Cast]

You can certainly sign with a dip pen. It would be awesome! See this old thread for a portable dip pen setup: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/307022-a-portable-dip-pen-workstation/

 

You wouldn’t have to have all that on the table. Just a pen and ink. If you were worried about spilling the ink, you could set the bottle in a bowl of dry rice or get one of the wood blocks in the picture.

[hoody1942]

Good luck. I hope this works for you.

[Incongruent]

You might also want to make sure the paper of the book is compatible with the ink and nib combination you'll use. If you plan on using a flex pen, this'll be even more of an issue. Also, without contorting the hand, changing the writing angle, or potentially damaging the nib, writing heavily shaded Spencerian with straight nib is difficult if not impossible.

 

As for getting fast handwriting, Spencerian might not be the best way to go. It is possible to write fast, especially with the proper arm movements, but some letters (the capitals in particular) are rather complicated. I've taken letterforms from Palmer as well (and changed some, like the lowercase p) for my cursive. You might want to look into that as well for practicality.

 

Spencerian signatures are fairly slow as well for modern standards. In monoline, mine takes around 15 seconds to do comfortably and with shading, probably a few more seconds. I don't know if you're signing in person or in bulk, but if speed is a major factor, Spencerian might not be the best option.

 

I didn't understand the point "I want to learn some shading because that makes it easier for me to read" (though granted, I'm not too great at reading), so if you could clarify, I'd be able to provide a long winded and most likely unhelpful response.

 

Spencerian has drawbacks, but I hope not to discourage you from learning it. It's enjoyable to write and for long writing periods, it's less tiring. As calligraphy, it looks nice too.

If you've done practice, I (and others) could give some feedback too.

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I didn't understand the point "I want to learn some shading because that makes it easier for me to read" (though granted, I'm not too great at reading), so if you could clarify, I'd be able to provide a long winded and most likely unhelpful response.

 

This BBC article explains it well for me. When reading the letters move and sometimes it's hard to tell which way up they need to be. b, p, h, 4, 'lo', 'ol', and 'cl' are all interchangeable in regular font. It's even worse in handwriting and cursive handwriting.

 

from the article,

 

 

Due to the way their brains process visual information, they will often subconsciously switch, rotate and mirror letters, making it harder to recognise the characters.

It is thought that their brains start treating two-dimensional letters as three-dimensional objects that can be freely manipulated

...

One key change was to make the letters bottom heavy, so they are bolder at the base than at the top.

The way the dyslexia font works for me is to anchor the letter in place. The thicker sections give the letter a gravity that says that it goes this way up and doesn't need to shuffle around. Looking at different ways people write, I noticed that copperplate was the easiest for me to read.

I'm not going to be writing in calligraphy (especially not with the shading) for my everyday script. But I figure learning this will 1) help my hand learn the motion needed to make the letters and 2) help my brain see the letters as they are supposed to be. It's about hacking my brain. Practising a broken skill isn't doing the trick, so I'm going the long way around to learn a totally alien skill in the hopes that what I learn there will transfer to my handwriting. This kind of thing usually works for my brain - but my brain isn't normal, so it's hard to describe.

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

This video shows a bit about how changes to the typeface make it easier to read. Pointed pen calligraphy uses a lot of these techniques.

 

[WirsPlm]

Have you thought about italic nibs, they can have the same thick/thin effect which helps make the letters more discernable but they're easier to find and write with, for example the vintage Sheaffer NoNonsense calligraphy pens can be found on eBay for not much moneyand have good nibs and are easy to hold and write with, the B nib is a nice balance of being flat enough and large enough to clearly make a difference but also smooth writing and not so large that it's impossible to use quickly. I have not had a great experience with the current production version and I think the modern pen body is not as easy to write with.

 

If you're concerned about setup and mess I think I remember that some people have managed to put dip pen nibs into their fountain pens and created calligraphy that way, perhaps that's something that would be more portable than an inkwell but would still enable copperplate writing?

Edited January 9, 2019 by WirsPlm

[Incongruent]

I have used a dip pen nib in a noodlers Konrad. It works well enough for regular flex use, and being worn, flexes quite easily, but for normal writing, other pens are better.

The issue is the slant of the nib is not ideal, so you'd have to learn the script again for the writing angle it forces you into.

 

I dont know how you could easily weight the bottoms of letters (maintaining decent writing speed), but you might be able to get a similar effect with a slanted desk, a wet nib, and a watery ink (so the ink pools and gets darker at the bottom of letters though I have no idea whether that would actually happen).

 

If you plan on using italics/stubs, there is a script called italic meant to be written quickly and with italic nibs that, which, if you have not looked at it yet, is worth considering.

 

Are slanted scripts (like spencerian and copperplate) easier or harder to read compared to vertical scripts?

Edited January 10, 2019 by Incongruent

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I love the picture. That's beautiful. The splatters add a certain element of wabi-sabi to the whole page.

 

I haven't gotten far enough into the script yet to learn the shading. I like the idea of it, but it does look like it won't be practical for everyday scribbles. But it might be good if I have to write a letter or to use in the capital letter when (still hoping this could be an 'if') I have to sign my name.

 

The idea is learning the shading will help my brain associate the shading with the letters. Eventually, I'll take what I learned and develop my own style. It will probably be without shading as I really like my current fountain pens.

 

I'm also nervous about buying a dip pen as the nibs are confusing and intimidating to someone completely new to this. But that's something for another thread.

 

 

When I was finishing high school, I ended up re-teaching myself handwriting from a font I found in a book. It was a complete overhaul of my handwriting because I was frustrated that I wasn't legible enough to pass the exams. It was quite an interesting experience. I spent about a year practising by copying out the same letters over and over again, then during the next year, I took what I learned and it adapted to my natural writing rhythm. The font I used was something of a serif (we were taught a very simplified sans serif printing font in school and upright cursive with the letters all the same size) with very slight flourishes and an 'a' that looks like one a typewriter would write. Looking back at it now, it was a big help to learn that the individual letters were individuals. The reason I could read that font was because the flourishes made the individual letters distinct which helped me learn to spell better. But it is SLOW! My instinct is to keep the pen on the page as much as possible. It was basically what I'm doing now. Learning a fancy font/calligraphy discover a new everyday writing style.

 

I didn't expect to enjoy the calligraphy aspect so much. Once I've learned this one script, I think I'll learn some more. It's funny, but the action of moving my pen in repetitive fluid motions like the ones in the exercise book has hypnotized me.

 

 

Yes, slanted scripts are easier for me to read. It's best if the slant is the same angle (which I'm having a devil of a time managing but will soon have a printer so I can print out some guide sheets) as this reduces the amount of flipping on the vertical axis the letters do in my head.

[AAAndrew]

I so enjoyed reading your post. I completely agree even though I don't have dyslexia, I had terrible hand writing until I actually studied pointed pen calligraphy a few years ago. (I found Dr. Vittolo's free iBook for iPad's amazingly useful)

 

I've never had the discipline or time to practice enough to be a calligrapher, but thanks the readily available materials in the traveling kit I described in post linked to above, I play around with my materials all the time. This repetition, using the basic strokes and letterform breakdown of Dr. Vittolo's book, I've been able to create a decent everyday script.

 

 

 

 

My question is if those words above are easier for you to read, or are these below easier?

 

 

 

 

 

I suspect what might work for you would be something like the Esterbrook Falcon, which is a good, general pen with enough flex to make good modulation of line, but not so much to make it difficult to "drive."

 

I do recommend the Dinky Dip with wooden holder I use, especially for a table where people might bump into it, like at a coffee shop, or a book signing. (I love the picture of signing your book with a dip pen. That's so great)

 

Good luck, and keep "drawing" those letters. Oh, and don't be afraid to develop your own letter forms. If you don't like the "p" then change it. There are no official, letter police with actual power to do anything but complain.

 

Andrew

[Shevock]

Wow, that looks great Andrew! I was told I had dyslexia when I was young, which is what brought me to this thread. It was good to read, and the Ted talk was interesting. I began with the Spencerian copybooks because they're online free, but now I'm wondering if a calligraphy type hand might work better. I guess I'll work on both and see what ends up working for me.

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

Beautiful work Andrew!

 

The second one is easier for me to read.

 

I found some dip pens at the local art shop so I bought some various size pointed nibs, a straight holder and an oblique one. I don't know if I got the right kind of nibs but they were pointy and some of them had numbers like 101 on them. I also bought some dip pen ink in case my fountain pen ink doesn't work. I haven't had the courage to try it yet.

 

But I have been experimenting with my new Noodler's Ahab pen. I'm on my second fill of ink and, while it is fun to fiddle, I'm approaching fatigued at trying to get it to write. I'm not frustrated or annoyed yet, but I would like to get it somewhere between zero ink flow and dripping out the bottom of the feed. However steep this learning curve, it is a very interesting pen and in the few moments when I got it to work, I learned a lot about why people use the oblique holder. I would have to change my grip entirely (not a bad thing to think about) to get the shading at the right part of the letter.

 

I'm still working my way through the workbooks. I reached small case 'c' yesterday and was very disappointed with how it looks. It doesn't look anything like the letter C I'm used to reading. I'm going to skip it for now and maybe there's a better looking 'c' I can learn from another script?

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I know this is probably obvious to everyone else, but even after over a month of practising these letters, I suddenly realized that some of the Spencerian letters are different heights. The 'r' and 's' are taller than the round letters. Some of the pointy letters "t" and "h" are different too.

 

This is actually really exciting because I can see now why I was drawn to this style.

[Inky.Fingers]

Dear OP...I was were you were three years ago. This is two cents and no more...

 

Spencerian is based on natural ovals and the slant. Look at worksheet on right going lefty. Do this exercise everyday, every morning and every evening before you start your lesson of the day from whatever manual you use. In one month, you will develope the skill set for Spencerian monoline (aka Business Hand)