Some Practice With Gothic

[Zopiac]

I first tried dabbling in gothic and Germanic scripts yesterday, and decided to take the practice up a notch today. What do you gents and gals think of it so far? The Fractura font is very hard to do on a fixed-width calligraphy nib, so the majuscule letters tended to get sloppy as I went over the thicker lines multiple times overlapping.

 

I just remembered that I forgot to ink in the crow quill fine lines for the Old English/Blackletter font! Oh well

 

Transcript:

Gothic & German Fonts
1 Just a simple practice
2 using a Manuscript
3 2B calligraphy nib.
1 Blackletter
2 Schwabacher
3 Fractura
2{ Very interesting, if I
do say so myself!
Fractura is so far
the hardest of the three
to write with this pen

The gothic* font is nice, but requires crow quill ornamentation
to be pulled off properly.
Fractura is just a pain because of the greatly exaggerated
line widths and flowy majuscule letters.
Schwabacher is a very nice "hybrid" of the two styles.

 

* I mean blackletter here, or whatever the actual name is.

 

The schwabacher font actually ended up being almost comfortable to write with, or at least as comfortable as you can get with a decorative gothic font using a 2B nib without being particularly familiar with each letter.

 

Also, Happy Easter!

[Randal6393]

Hi, Zopiac,

 

Not bad for an early effort. Especially with something as structured as German text. Over the years, I have found many penmen mistake the German texts for an "easy" alphabet. No such thing. To do a textura hand (or any other) well requires a lot of practice. The textura hands grew out of the national German writing hands and require a lot of practice. So you are going along the right path.

 

Best of luck to you,

[Zopiac]

Hi, Zopiac,

 

Not bad for an early effort. Especially with something as structured as German text. Over the years, I have found many penmen mistake the German texts for an "easy" alphabet. No such thing. To do a textura hand (or any other) well requires a lot of practice. The textura hands grew out of the national German writing hands and require a lot of practice. So you are going along the right path.

 

Best of luck to you,

 

Thanks! I've been trying to perfect the basic structure by just writing samples and samples and samples, at different sizes and with slightly varying techniques to achieve the most accurate form. I've been able to write with probably an 80% or so accuracy, twice as large as my normal writing, and at about a fifth the speed. While obviously not an everyday font, not even when it was in widespread use, I can certainly see myself sending cards and thank-you's with this sort of embellishment. I'll have to get a more specialised pen if I were to keep trying to accurately portray Fractura though -- it's just wild!

 

I'll bet my extended family on my father's side would be excited to get a handwritten letter in schwabacher, as they are all fully German-American with a hefty (but healthy) sense of German pride.

[smk]

Zopiac - its good to see you are learning Blackletter along with the more challenging hands. I found this tutorial on the web some time ago that I think gives one a good start with Blackletter. Here's the link: http://www.calligraphy-skills.com/gothic-alphabet.html

 

My suggestion would be to stick to one hand and learn it well before moving on. The tutorial linked above gives a good explanation of the spacing and strokes used to form the letters - something that will stand you in good stead when learning other hands.

 

I would also recommend getting a broad edged Calligraphy FP with at least a 2mm nib for practice. You learn much more easily when the strokes are clear. An alternative would be buying a holder and a set of dip pen nibs - cheaper than an FP and produces much better results.

 

Best of luck with your lessons.

 

Salman

[Zopiac]

Zopiac - its good to see you are learning Blackletter along with the more challenging hands. I found this tutorial on the web some time ago that I think gives one a good start with Blackletter. Here's the link: http://www.calligraphy-skills.com/gothic-alphabet.html

 

My suggestion would be to stick to one hand and learn it well before moving on. The tutorial linked above gives a good explanation of the spacing and strokes used to form the letters - something that will stand you in good stead when learning other hands.

 

I would also recommend getting a broad edged Calligraphy FP with at least a 2mm nib for practice. You learn much more easily when the strokes are clear. An alternative would be buying a holder and a set of dip pen nibs - cheaper than an FP and produces much better results.

 

Best of luck with your lessons.

 

Salman

 

Yeah I tried my hand with three hands (heh) with a Manuscript 2B, which I measured to be 1.5mm. I'd like to use a 4B on it but alas, I have none. I've streamlined my practice to using only schwabacher but will graduate to blackletter once I achieve a higher level of quality with this current script.

 

I don't know where I'd get dip nibs of that thickness... I think Michaels might have some thicker calligraphy nibs but I doubt they are larger than 2B from what I remember. I'm heading back to Hobby Lobby sometime soon, hopefully, so maybe I can grab something from there.

[smk]

Maybe you can get something like this at Hobby Lobby: http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/calligraphy-lettering-set-119768/ - there are a couple of others too.

 

John Neal Bookseller carry a variety of holders and dip pen nib sets. FP ink should work just fine for broad edged Calligraphy.

 

Schwabacher requires a bit more skill than Blackletter and depends on pen manipulation for some strokes e.g. the principal stroke of the 'f'. You might want to check out the Batarde lessons here for some tips on pen manipulation and spacing - it translates well to what you'll need for Schwabacher.

 

Regards,

Salman

[Randal6393]

Zopiac,

 

My favorite source for dip pen nibs is John Neal, Books. They have a good variety -- would recommend an inexpensive holder (unless you already have one) and two or so of the broader nibs. Any good ink will do -- a small artist's brush makes it easier to load the pen. The rest is practice, practice, practice. The Tape nibs are nice, so are the Tachikawa. The best, IMHO, are the Mitchell nibs. Don't forget to buy reservoirs for the Mitchell nibs. Cleanliness is next to godliness with dip pens. So a small dish/glass of water and a soft toothbrush help as well.

 

My favorite inks (currently) aren't really inks at all. I use gouache. A small dab of acrylic gouache paint, an (approximately) equal amount of water, and a drop of gum arabica in a small ink well and you are in business.

 

If you google "Hermann Zapf" on FPN's search engine, you should find a video that shows how to load a pen from a paint brush, how to sharpen the nib, how to clean the brush, etc.

 

Best of luck to you,

 

PS: Paper, Inks, and Art is another good source for calligraphy items as well.

[Zopiac]

Maybe you can get something like this at Hobby Lobby: http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/calligraphy-lettering-set-119768/ - there are a couple of others too.

 

John Neal Bookseller carry a variety of holders and dip pen nib sets. FP ink should work just fine for broad edged Calligraphy.

 

Schwabacher requires a bit more skill than Blackletter and depends on pen manipulation for some strokes e.g. the principal stroke of the 'f'. You might want to check out the Batarde lessons here for some tips on pen manipulation and spacing - it translates well to what you'll need for Schwabacher.

 

Regards,

Salman

 

I HAVE noticed that that stroke on the 'f' is a bit whacky! But, as far as difficulty, I find that schwabacher is more often friendly for a calligraphic fountain pen nib since it doesn't need crow quill ornamentation like blackletter. That dip pen looks like it would be handy, but I've had bad experience with speedball... it has only been a single pen, so I am still willing to give it a shot, especially given the low price, but I'm miffed because of the last sample of theirs I got.

 

Zopiac,

 

My favorite source for dip pen nibs is John Neal, Books. They have a good variety -- would recommend an inexpensive holder (unless you already have one) and two or so of the broader nibs. Any good ink will do -- a small artist's brush makes it easier to load the pen. The rest is practice, practice, practice. The Tape nibs are nice, so are the Tachikawa. The best, IMHO, are the Mitchell nibs. Don't forget to buy reservoirs for the Mitchell nibs. Cleanliness is next to godliness with dip pens. So a small dish/glass of water and a soft toothbrush help as well.

 

My favorite inks (currently) aren't really inks at all. I use gouache. A small dab of acrylic gouache paint, an (approximately) equal amount of water, and a drop of gum arabica in a small ink well and you are in business.

 

If you google "Hermann Zapf" on FPN's search engine, you should find a video that shows how to load a pen from a paint brush, how to sharpen the nib, how to clean the brush, etc.

 

Best of luck to you,

 

PS: Paper, Inks, and Art is another good source for calligraphy items as well.

 

I don't have a holder, nor a brush (which would be quite useful of course). Sadly I'm stretching my pockets just to get a second pen, even a cheap one, so finding an online shop and paying for shipping would be a detriment for certain, and I know no pen shops locally.