Thusly's Handwriting Improvement Log: Starting From Zero

[smk]

Your progress is quite visible. Looking forward to the regular handwriting samples.

 

Salman

[thusly]

I began learning the joins for cursive italic the day after my last update in here. Cursive italic

involves both a smaller x-height, and the addition of joins between specific letter combinations.

This is a copy of the very first sheet:

 

http://i.imgur.com/S0wby.jpg

(Oct. 27)

 

And, after a short break, I went over another copy of it again:

 

http://i.imgur.com/bQGnw.jpg

(Oct. 27)

 

Initial thoughts: pen angle is extremely important here. Too obtuse or acute and your joins end

up far too thick. Combined with the lower miniscule/x-height, the page turns into a black blob.

You'll get to see my very own black blob later in this post.

 

Some continued practice the day after:

 

http://i.imgur.com/4xoWc.jpg

(Oct. 28)

 

There is one more sheet, but other than these three, that is all that is spent on teaching you the

proper joins. It then moves into the next project, writing capital letters. I don't doubt the author

will return to cursive later in the book, but I still find such a short amount of instruction to be a

bit jarring.

 

Not wanting to neglect my progress in the calligraphic mode, I did a full page sheet of words for practice:

 

http://i.imgur.com/X5JzB.jpg

(Oct. 29)

 

Along with a page of cursive:

 

http://i.imgur.com/FJ4sF.jpg

(Oct. 29)

 

That being maybe the 5th sheet on which I'd ever written cursive italic, I am pleased with the result.

The biggest issue was easily pen angle, followed by x-height and staying on the baseline. I find

myself wondering if it wouldn't be better for me to simply print off copies of the guide sheet that I

use as the underlay, so that I don't need to constantly struggle to see the baseline as I write.

 

Cursive practice the following day was notably worse:

 

http://i.imgur.com/L0lBI.jpg

(Oct. 30)

 

But my calligraphic wasn't suffering as badly (after the rough start):

 

http://i.imgur.com/FXd4D.jpg

(Oct. 30)

 

I managed to maintain my daily practice this time, here's a copy of the sheet I started on the 24th

and finished on the 30th:

 

http://i.imgur.com/O9iWY.jpg

 

And, because it's my thread and I can do what I want to, Halloween!

 

http://i.imgur.com/Vs7tw.jpg

(Oct. 31)

 

Alas, all was not well afterwards. The day after, I set up a blank sheet with the cursive guideline

underlay, and meant to write a sheet full of cursive words. Instead, I found myself failing repeatedly

in every possible manner. I am going to in part blame my exhaustion from the day prior.

 

http://i.imgur.com/YPH1X.jpg

(Nov. 1)

 

As you can see, I eventually just gave up, insisting that I need to review the three pages once more

and do more tracing. The biggest problem with that sheet is the thickness of the joins. It didn't seem

to matter which direction I rotated the nib to compensate, they still came out too thick. It's possible

the angle of the pen relative to the paper was a large factor.

 

It was truly disheartening to see the above come out of my hand, after all the previous progress. I've yet

to review the three pages again, but will be doing so this weekend, and hopefully it was just a bad day.

 

Oh, and while scanning all of this in, I realized that I hadn't done any writing with a non-italic pen. I

wrote this out to show where my writing stands when using a pen that lacks line variation.

 

http://i.imgur.com/HdZ07.jpg

(Nov. 4)

 

That's all my progress up to date, but I will be trying to find time later tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, to

write a bit more about posture, pen hold, and some other books I've read through.

[DLindenbaum]

Great progess! It's amazing to see such progess in such a short amount of time! Congrats!

[gwoodbridge]

I have enjoyed following this post! I, too, am going through a similar journey with a new fountain pen and a book, and have found a new obsession. Even my wife is in on the deal and trying to learn different scripts. Keep it up! and keep posting...love the pics.

[sleeprl]

This is great. I'm currently using Fred Eager's book with my Lamy Joy and having problems with the slant and I'm pretty impatient so its hard for me to take my time learning. Seeing your progress is great inspiration.