thusly Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Hi everyone, I started writing with computers back when I was still in high school, and havingcontinued in the field afterwards, found very little use for paper and pen. In turn,I've forgotten almost entirely how to handwrite, and my printing is atrocious. I setabout improving all of this at the beginning of this month, and thought that othersmight benefit from seeing my progress as I work through. http://i.imgur.com/hh18s.jpg I'll start by providing an overview of the book I am using, Fred Eager's The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting: Cursive & Calligraphic. Looking into reviews for this book is actually how I first discovered FPN. A number have recommended it within these forums, and yet more elsewhere. I bought a used copy off of AbeBooks.com. It is a workbook, in that you are expected to write within the book itself. As it is no longer in print, however, the last thing I want to do is mark mine up. So I have instead been scanning the pages, stripping out the instructive text, and printing off copies to trace. Here's an example of what the exercises in the book look like: http://i.imgur.com/Pmu3o.png(Note that the beginning exercises have you work with a felt marker, not an italic nibbed pen, hence the lack of line variation in this sample.) The author teaches both calligraphic and cursive modes of Italic writing, believing thatthrough a combined knowledge of the two, the student will have a better understandingof writing as a whole, and will further be able to use aspects of both in their ownunique, derived hand. Samples at the beginning show you the two styles you will be taught. The Calligraphic Mode of Italic Handwriting: http://i.imgur.com/rvJal.png The Cursive Mode of Italic Handwriting: http://i.imgur.com/2rd4C.png I do not expect to have a perfect, beautiful hand by the time I am finished this book,but instead wish for it to provide me with fundamental knowledge and techniques which I can use to continue improving after its completion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 The pen. It was after I opened the book above, and checked its list of materials, that I became interested in obtaining a fountain pen. Having already been on FPN due to reviews of the book, this is where I returned to see what consensus indicated to be a good, cheap starter fountain pen. http://i.imgur.com/sl3Ee.jpg I opted for a Lamy Safari in charcoal black. I ordered it with a broad nib due entirely tomy own ignorance. My knowledge of FPs was not unlike that of the people many FPN usersfind to be rather bothersome (if the thread about worst comments said to an FP owner are any indication), which is in thinking that they are inextricably tied to calligraphy. Essentially, I assumed that all nibs are italics (please put away the pitchforks), and ordered a broad thinking that it meant a broad italic nib, which is what the book requested. I realized my mistake a remarkably short amount time afterward, via an exquisitely minimal amount of research. The order was already en route, so there was little I could do. http://i.imgur.com/UPkw2.jpg Oh, and along with the pen, I ordered the converter, and a 30ml bottle of J. Herbin's PerleNoire ink. I decided that I would use the broad nib with the blue cartridge the pen comes with during the felt marker exercises, and then switch to the converter and use the black ink when I purchase and receive the right nib. On the subject of the ideal ink colour when learning a script, I went with a black, reasoningthat it will provide the best contrast between itself and the paper, allowing me to betterview my mistakes. While reading Writing & Illuminating & Lettering by Edward Johnstonlast night, I came across a thought-affirming and wonderfully written paragraph: "Jet black is the normal hue; it will also test thequality of the writing; it shows up all the faults; pale or tinted inks rather conceal the faults, andlend a false appearance of excellence." -Edward Johnston The last thing I'd like to portray is a false appearance of excellence. Black it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Are you ready for this? I sure hope so. Brace yourself. Below this paragraph you will find asample I wrote to the author of the book, as advised by him, before I began any other reading or practicing whatsoever. In other words, were you to receive a note from me at any point before this month, it would look roughly like this: http://i.imgur.com/W9K6d.jpg(Sept. 2) Now, that is me writing "at speed", but what a monstrous thing it is. To give you some sense ofhow little I remembered of the proper procedures for writing, there are many letters that I wouldform differently each time I wrote them, depending on what came before them and where my pen was.The lowercase letter 'l', for example, would sometimes be written by starting at the baseline.Sometimes an 'e' was two strokes, other times, just one. And so on. The only place to go is up, yes? http://i.imgur.com/AgpKv.jpg(Sept. 2) This is the same day, working through some of the first exercises in the book. As mentioned above,you start off with a felt pen while paying attention to other aspects of writing. The first 30 or so pages are all done in felt, and help you to understand the benefits of maintaining a consistentx-height, slant, inter- and intra- word spacing, and so on, while also teaching you the proper wayto form each letter, how the letter forms relate to ovals and boxes, etc. http://i.imgur.com/06b8N.jpg(Sept. 5) A few days later, and I was already making progress. You'll have to pardon the sometimes sillyword choices or phrases that I've written in these first few samples, I wasn't initially planningon scanning and making public these photos of my progress; it was very much either just streamof consciousness, or wanting to try out a specific letter combination. (And I hadn't learnedall of the lowercase letters yet, so word choice was somewhat constricted.) You can see at the top I wrote "no ruler". This was exciting to me because with my old chickenscratch, I could not maintain anything even close to resembling a straight line without a guide.My words would veer down, or up, and maybe get bigger or smaller in the process. Being able towrite even a single word and have it look relatively straight was already so far ahead of whereI was, and all it really took was slowing down. A recurring theme, that. Slow down. http://i.imgur.com/IPiw2.jpg(Sept. 10) It would be a day or two before this that I looked into fountain pens, and ordered the broad-nibbed Lamy Safari, with the ink and converter. Comparing that writing to only 8 days prior, I felt good.Sure the x-height varies and the slant is inconsistent and I used a gel pen and... , but it's legible. http://i.imgur.com/kZQHY.jpg(Sept 15.) Lamy Safari arrived, of course with the non-italic broad nib, so I tried using it with the guidesheet that is meant for a felt pen. No, that's definitely not a 4-5 nib widths tall x-height, butit helped me to get used to the smoothness of the FP. (Again please note I was not planning on scanning these and posting them online.) On the fourth line up from the bottom, you'll see I wrote "pointed at shoulder". What I haven'tdiscussed yet, that I was also going through these first two weeks, was numerous adjustments inhow I write. Grip & Posture My pen grip was the first change, as the book covered the proper grip, and I realized that I havebeen holding pens wrong my entire life. Death grip? Better! Death grip, with my middle finger kepton the shaft right below my pointer finger. It was a super death grip. Thankfully, it was not thatdifficult to give up. After about three days, I no longer even had to remind myself of the proper grip,my fingers just assumed it automatically when gripping the pen. Then I came across this thread, here on FPN:Orientation Of Writing Arm And Paper Lots of great discussion and links to external sources, but damned if I didn't realize I was stilldoing things wrong because of it all. This next change was much more difficult, mostly because ofsome conflicting information, and some confusion. When writing, I would put weight on my right arm. Specifically, the weight would be handled by theedge of my right palm, causing it to stick to the paper and preventing anything even remotely resembling flow. All of this I now knew I had to fix, but how best to position myself? I read through the section on it in a book linked from the above thread, called Practical Penmanship. I somehow mis-read one section and thought that my entire right arm needed to be off the table. Youcan imagine the results. After a re-read and some Google searches, I found something that works wellfor me. My right palm lightly touches the desk, and my hand glides on the nails of my pinky and ringfingers. I keep my left foot a little bit forward, as well as the left side of my body. This ensuresthat I put my weight on my left arm beside the work, and not on my right arm, allowing it to flowmore freely. I do still slouch a bit, but this is something I can slowly improve with practice, andI fear the height of my desk relative to my chair may primarily be responsible. I then started to teach myself how to write with my arm and shoulder muscles instead of my finger muscles, only to realize that the large-scale felt work I'd been doing had already been forcing this upon me. If you want to be able to match the strokes he makes, at the same size and slant, you haveto involve your arm and shoulder. There were of course still a number of days spent adjusting to this all. In a way it was kind ofdisheartening, as the forms I was drawing were looking like I was back at square one, but Icaught up with myself quickly enough and am all the better for it. It seemed better to get thisall sorted out when I'd just begun, rather than months down the line when I'd formed habits. Oh, the images I'm posting are just randomly pulled from a stack. I printed off numerous copies ofeach page from the book to practice with, along with a bunch of guide sheet pages. Up until thispoint, the 15th of September, I have probably around 50 practice sheets. http://i.imgur.com/35OeP.jpg(Sept. 26.) Life got in the way, and I spent almost a week and a half without practicing. I got back down to it,working through the final felt-oriented pages, as my italic nib was now on the way. The felt I wasusing started to die as I finished that last page, which is why the line thickness is varying so much. While browsing FPN mostly at random I came across someone discussing Lamy's italic nibs, who mentioned that the 1.5mm nib laid down a line roughly 1.1mm thick. I was able to save myself some time and moneybecause of him, ordering the 1.5mm nib instead of the 1.9mm; I measured the thickness of the guidesfound later in the book, where it turned to using a fountain pen, and they were 1.1mm exactly. If I had ordered the 1.9mm, I would have had a nib that was much too thick for the guides in the book. So, thanks, random FPN member! http://i.imgur.com/OI5uI.jpg(Sept. 27.) Some miscellaneous practice while waiting on the nib, and having completed the felt section. I havea rather hard time with f's, for some reason. The back-stroke is usually not long enough, and I alwaysend up giving the stem too much of a slant. You can also see that my slant as a whole straightens forthe second half of the page, where I lack the slant guide. http://i.imgur.com/8EycI.jpg(Sept. 29.) I am currently also learning French, and figure the two should make for a good combination -- I willgain practice with writing by answering the review questions on paper, instead of on my computer. Thiswas me in fairly bad circumstances, and trying to write a bit faster. I wrote on a stack of paper inside of a binder, in a cramped area. For all of that, I am happy with it compared to my writing a month prior. http://i.imgur.com/oMJSf.jpg (Sept. 29.) The italic nib came, so I switched everything over. Removed the cartridge, added the converter, flushed the pen with the old broad nib in it, then switched nibs and inked up with the J. HerbinPerle Noire. This is just me toying with the pen and trying to maintain the right angle. Haven't yet started anyof the book's lessons designed for fountain pens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Whew! Goodbye past tense, I am all caught up. I'm not sure whether anyone will care to read my experiences as I go, but I thought I'd put this together all the same, as it's helpful even just to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonSzanto Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Whew! Goodbye past tense, I am all caught up. I'm not sure whether anyone will care to read my experiences as I go, but I thought I'd put this together all the same, as it's helpful even just to me.Perish the thought - already, your posts are both enlightening and inspiring. TBH, I did the same thing, and got the Eager book on ABE about 2 months ago. Unfortunately, life intruded, so I don't have the time to dedicate at the moment. That said, however, *please* continue to post your progress, it will be fun to follow and give incentive to dive in when the time frees up. And congratulations - you are already making great strides! "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."~ Benjamin Franklin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Whew! Goodbye past tense, I am all caught up. I'm not sure whether anyone will care to read my experiences as I go, but I thought I'd put this together all the same, as it's helpful even just to me.Perish the thought - already, your posts are both enlightening and inspiring. TBH, I did the same thing, and got the Eager book on ABE about 2 months ago. Unfortunately, life intruded, so I don't have the time to dedicate at the moment. That said, however, *please* continue to post your progress, it will be fun to follow and give incentive to dive in when the time frees up. And congratulations - you are already making great strides! Thanks for the kind words, I'll be sure to continue. I'm glad my own words will be useful to more than just myself. Life does have a knack for getting in the way of things, but if you find time to begin, I would love to see how someone else fares following the same instructions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beak Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Great stuff. You seem to have made fantastic progress, and this will be an inspiration to many. Well done! Sincerely, beak. God does not work in mysterious ways – he works in ways that are indistinguishable from his non-existence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted October 1, 2011 Author Share Posted October 1, 2011 Great stuff. You seem to have made fantastic progress, and this will be an inspiration to many. Well done! Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted October 1, 2011 Author Share Posted October 1, 2011 (edited) http://i.imgur.com/zwtu3.jpg(Sept. 30.) This was my first time attempting to seriously use a fountainpen with an italic nib. The exercises seen span two pages inthe book, I trimmed the text out so I could double them up andfit it all onto one page. The purpose of this introductory section is to ensure that theangle at which you write with the pen, relative to the baseline,is at a consistent 45º angle. When I first put the pen in the correct position, I had someserious doubts about my ability to maintain it, but havingnow completed a page's exercises spent mostly in that position,I can see that it is entirely possible for me to do it comfortably,and that I will just need some time to get used to it. There were three main factors I had to keep in mind in orderto keep my lines (relatively) smooth and straight, and when I forgot any one of them things would quickly go askew. They were: The feel of the nib on the paper. As soon as I paid attention to this, my grip would relax.Keeping my weight shifted to the left, and off of my writing arm. Immediately after realizing I was putting too much weight on my right arm, and making theswitch, the difference in feeling was immediate. Less robotic, much more fluid.The position of my elbow. Near the end of each line I'd begin to have trouble,then remember to move my elbow out as well, and found the writing smoothonce more. I have a few more copies of this practice sheet printed off,which I'll be using daily to help familiarize myself withthe pen positioning, while improving the uniformity of mylines. -- (Editing this post instead of creating another. It's an hourpast when I originally posted.) Had another go at the practice sheet, taking into account the problems I had last time. Still not ideal, but a definite improvement. http://i.imgur.com/CHMPo.jpg The lines I skipped are ones designed to show you what it feelslike to write incorrectly -- not exactly something I wish topractice repeatedly. Edited October 1, 2011 by thusly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renegawlt Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Great stuff! My hat is off to any autodact! You have focus and determination. And patience. Good for you. I'll be watching for updates. :-> http://i.imgur.com/zwtu3.jpg(Sept. 30.) This was my first time attempting to seriously use a fountainpen with an italic nib. The exercises seen span two pages inthe book, I trimmed the text out so I could double them up andfit it all onto one page. The purpose of this introductory section is to ensure that theangle at which you write with the pen, relative to the baseline,is at a consistent 45º angle. When I first put the pen in the correct position, I had someserious doubts about my ability to maintain it, but havingnow completed a page's exercises spent mostly in that position,I can see that it is entirely possible for me to do it comfortably,and that I will just need some time to get used to it. There were three main factors I had to keep in mind in orderto keep my lines (relatively) smooth and straight, and when I forgot any one of them things would quickly go askew. They were: The feel of the nib on the paper. As soon as I paid attention to this, my grip would relax.Keeping my weight shifted to the left, and off of my writing arm. Immediately after realizing I was putting too much weight on my right arm, and making theswitch, the difference in feeling was immediate. Less robotic, much more fluid.The position of my elbow. Near the end of each line I'd begin to have trouble,then remember to move my elbow out as well, and found the writing smoothonce more. I have a few more copies of this practice sheet printed off,which I'll be using daily to help familiarize myself withthe pen positioning, while improving the uniformity of mylines. -- (Editing this post instead of creating another. It's an hourpast when I originally posted.) Had another go at the practice sheet, taking into account the problems I had last time. Still not ideal, but a definite improvement. http://i.imgur.com/CHMPo.jpg The lines I skipped are ones designed to show you what it feelslike to write incorrectly -- not exactly something I wish topractice repeatedly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolverine1 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Keep up the good work, Thusly!!!!! You are an inspiration to me. On July 31st, I suffered a severe stroke- leaving me with problems in my right hand, meaning that I can no longer write properly. Along with physical therapy, I am also relearning to write. Your example motivates me, and therefore, THANK YOU!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smk Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 This is really interesting. I will be following your progress with great interest. Salman Store :: Instagram :: Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afderrick Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 You have inspired me! I have this same book, bought it almost a year ago and have done nothing with it. I now write with fountain pens but don't have any italic nibbed pens, might try try and start with my medium regular nibs, at least for starting. I'll start... tomorrow (so I can also photocopy the pages). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verdict Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 thusly, I am trying to improve my handwriting too, and that book caught my attention as well. I am new to fountain pens, and I would like to ask if the Italic style of handwriting requires an italic nib. The italic style of writing is very similar to my current & natural handwriting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JefferyS Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Even George S. Patton could get choked up over your progress. Good work!!!! Jeffery In the Irish Channel of New Orleans, LA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewgwu Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 It is very encouraging to see your progress. Your successes show the great effort you have put into it. I too am new to FPs and am looking to improve my hand writing. Thank you for taking the time to post this, it gives beginners like me inspiration and ideas on how to improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treecat Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Thank you! I like the day-by-day journal style you're using in this thread. I feel very caught up in your practice. My handwriting needs a lot of improvement, and your thread is inspiring. You've improved a lot in one month, can't wait to see what you'll be doing at the beginning of November. Reservoir Road Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) Thank you, everyone. My apologies for not responding individually to all of yourkind words. I am very glad to see that so many are interested in my progress,and that it has even managed to inspire others. thusly, I am trying to improve my handwriting too, and that book caught my attention as well. I am new to fountain pens, and I would like to ask if the Italic style of handwriting requires an italic nib. The italic style of writing is very similar to my current & natural handwriting. I believe an italic* nib is a necessary aspect of Italic cursive and calligraphichandwriting. Without that 45º angle, you lose the verticals and horizontals showing equal line weight, while the upward and downward angles consist of thicker/thinner strokes. I will happily defer to someone with more knowledge of calligraphy, scripts, et al. than I, but I believe that these aspects are part of what defines the Italic script. If you're asking whether one could complete the book without an italic nib, Iwouldn't advise it. You could follow through the first 30 pages with a broadenough nib, and learn the strokes used to form the letters, but given my ownexperience so far, switching to an italic nib is like being hit with a bucketof cold water. It's very different, and the remainder of the book relies onits characteristics. * Moreover, a nib whose line variation is dependent upon the angle of the strokerelative to the nib, and not, e.g., dependent on pressure (flex nibs). You could also achieve this script style with an oblique nib, for example, however the illustrations in the book showing the proper pen angle will not be accurate for you. Edited October 3, 2011 by thusly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thusly Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 On the one hand, I do not want to fill this thread with everysingle exercise that I do. On the other, I really want toavoid making my progress look like a "Learn to Draw an Owl"instructional booklet, where step #1 is a series of circles,and step #2 is a fully shaded and perfect looking completeddrawing, with all of the grueling work in between left out. I would much rather make my progress, and occasionally thelack of it, apparent to all. So, after doing a sheet designed to help you get used to theproper pen angle, I moved on to trying to re-draw thealphabet that I learned in the 30 introductory pages, but this time with the italic nib at the proper angle. At least, that was the idea. In practice.... http://i.imgur.com/k1AlB.jpg(Oct. 1.) Not so much. It is considerably more difficult to managethe same strokes as you've learned with a felt, when you are also trying to maintain a consistent pen angle -- an angle which, I might add, puts your hand in a position it is altogether not used to being in. Some of my issues were ones listed above coming back, liketoo much pressure, or too much weight on my right arm. Other issues were new altogether. I found myself tilting myhead along with the pen, for example. And maintaining therequisite slant? Oof. I kept defaulting to no slant at all. Here's my second attempt, probably 20 minutes aftercompleting the first: http://i.imgur.com/N46Im.jpg(Oct. 1.) Mildly improved, but the strokes are far from smooth, andmy slant is all over the place. The purpose of this exerciseisn't actually to make sure you get the letterforms perfect,but to help you to get used to how those forms should feelwhen you're maintaining the correct pen angle. On that frontI feel I've done okay. http://i.imgur.com/vUBEu.jpg(Oct. 1.) A final attempt done last night. Certainly improved over thetwo prior, but it's still wrought with issues, and writing it all out was quite uncomfortable, with the angle not feeling natural at all. I decided it would be better for me if I took a break from trying to follow forms, and just wrote a bit on a blank sheet of paper. http://i.imgur.com/54XvC.jpg(Oct. 1.) While still a mess, it helped me to get used to how thingsshould feel when writing like this -- including what it feelslike when I write something badly. A number of issues stemmed from me not positioning my arm correctly. http://i.imgur.com/lMgGO.jpg(Oct. 2.) Done this morning, this was my best one yet. Slant continuesto plague me, but all of the letter forms were done much moreaccurately relative to the example forms. And the real purposeof this initial exercise -- pen angle -- seems, to me at least,to be satisfactory enough for me to move on. Given that the book itself only provides one copy of this sheet, I may be going a bit hard on myself, as it's quite likely thefuture exercises will help my other problems. http://i.imgur.com/NvYzE.jpg Some more French work, done this afternoon. I'll try to keepincluding recent non-italic writing samples along with myprogress in the book, to allow both myself and others to seehow much the one improves the other (after all, it is myevery-day writing I set out to improve). I should note that my daily routine involves no writing at all, so in between these French exercises I'm not getting any otherpractice in. The only fountain pen I currently own is the Lamy Safari, which is of course fitted with the italic nib and is being used for my exercises, so my other writing will to continue to be written with a gel pen (Pilot G-2 0.7mm). With that said, I can really see why everyone finds FPs so addictive; the amount of pressure I need to use in order to write with the gel pen feels Herculean in comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palansil Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Done this morning, this was my best one yet. Slant continuesto plague me, but all of the letter forms were done much moreaccurately relative to the example forms. And the real purposeof this initial exercise -- pen angle -- seems, to me at least,to be satisfactory enough for me to move on. Thanks for sharing your progress. It's amazing how far you can go with the proper tools and a little practice. I think everyone has problems with slant. I know I did and still do. Have you seen this thread? Slope Angles for All Scripts The idea is to tilt your paper such that when you make a stroke straight down, you end up with the correct slant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now