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Naughty Words: Your Favorites


Mickey

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No matter how well conceived the architecture of a hand, there will always be pairs or groups of letters which do not go together easily. Some of these groups or words force us to make adjustments to normal spacing or letter shape if they are to look correct, while others require such perfection of execution that even the tiniest deviations from perfection howl off the page at us: "Sloppy penman, Sloppy penman."

 

I imagine many of us have personal betes noires. I know I do and will often fill an entire practice pages with them trying to better myself. (Whether I succeed or not is open to interpretation.) Anyway, the point of this essay is to solicit from my fellow ink-slingers their black beasts, so that all of us might try our hands at them and thereby improve our penmanship, not to mention our humility. So, please offer up your three favorite (or least favorite words) and a brief explanation of the problems they present. If you are able to limit yourself to only three words, you will be rewarded and allowed to add a fourth word, one which you enjoy writing and that shows you off to best advantage. It would also be sensible if we mentioned the hand we are practicing. Here is my Spencerian list.

 

1) error [The problems here should be pretty obvious, making the 3 r's look the same and maintaining good spacing]

 

2) elegant [This is mostly a spacing problem in Spencerian, the first three letters want to spread out and the final four want to bunch.]

 

3) lily [The problems are making the three loops harmonize, and connecting and spacing the l and y attractively.]

 

Favorite word: Asparagus.

The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. (4 Bl. Com. 151, 152.) Blackstone's Commentaries

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Les betes noires of writing. They are not your faults, maybe... as the faults of our calligraphy, of our calligraphy's architecture. The latin alphabet is designed to communicate the word, rather than saying something through the aesthetic of the text. That's more like Chinese / Japanese calligraphy. Nevertheless I feel sometimes bothered by this weakness of our calligraphy, the lack of balance of it. Especially when my "dyslexic" hand is not able to write in a coherent way a word. And yes, it happens frequently with some words. Les betes noires! Ha ha :) Agree with the first three. Especially with "error"... ah, bothers me. Always. As for the "asparagus", I can't help laughing. You made my day.

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I love writing "communication" - it just seems to flow with great rhythm. My favourite letter to write is lowercase "f" - it has it all! I hate writing double "e" because the second "e" always looks like a tear drop.

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I love writing "communication" - it just seems to flow with great rhythm. My favourite letter to write is lowercase "f" - it has it all! I hate writing double "e" because the second "e" always looks like a tear drop.

 

Sorry, no favorite word posting without 3 tripwire words. Go stand in the corner with Miss Bates.

The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. (4 Bl. Com. 151, 152.) Blackstone's Commentaries

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Love writing the word "announce" :)

post-95923-0-31748200-1369510782_thumb.jpg

Current pens:

 

Parker IM Med Modern nib

Esterbrook 9550 XF nib

Parker 21 Fine nib

Chineese Fuguilong 1001 Med nib

3x Liquid Bold Fountain Pens Med nib

 

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Copperplate tripwords:

  1. expeditiously
  2. lightly
  3. disproportional

These offer some challenges in spacing and the ascender height proportions.

 

Favourite:

  1. Marvellous

A capital with compound curves, some parrallel shades and aiming for even and rounded vowels.

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lazy

liquor

Mississippi

 

Favorite,

 

The, but only at the beginning of a sentence, the capital "T" lends its self to minor embelishment

Increase your IQ, use Linux AND a Fountain pen!!http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk11/79spitfire/Neko_animated.gif
http://fedoraproject.org/w/uploads/5/50/Fedorabutton-iusefedora.png

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One of my standard texts for practising is the gospel for Christmas: Getting the Syrian governor Quirinius just right and instantly legible is a challenge. Even on my screen in this font it kind of blurs. Try it. (Luke 2:1-14 if you want the whole text.)

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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Sorry, no favorite word posting without 3 tripwire words. Go stand in the corner with Miss Bates.

I tried "asparagus" (the word, I love the fresh variety) but my brain/hand coordination is non-existent!

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"Massachusetts" is all kinds of wrong. Any style, any pen, any time of the day or night. It sounds like there should be a second double-s in there, but that would probably make it even worse.

 

And it doesn't get better with practice either. I like to jot down which ink I'm using on whatever I'm writing and lately I've been using a lot of Noodler's 54th Massa...gaah, I hate that word.

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Thanks Zipp, it is fairly messy writing. I write extremely fast and sometimes it can enhance and other times it detracts. When I use an italic or flex nib and make an effort, it can be quite pleasing. I will try and post an example at a later date. Again thank you for your kind words.

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'Satisfying' - any word with the f'y combo, actually. The forms I have for these letters, though quite serviceable otherwise, seem impossible to combine successfully.

Sincerely, beak.

 

God does not work in mysterious ways – he works in ways that are indistinguishable from his non-existence.

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I once wrote a postcard to forum mod Dizzypen. That's four letters in a row with three kinds of descenders!

 

Doug

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"Delightfully"? My test word for flowing strokes above and below.

Each day is the start of the rest of your life!

Make it count!!!

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Not sure if this was thrown out as a challenge, but anyway.

post-79994-0-78029500-1369884286.jpg

Edited by slippery when wet
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Absolutely Delightful!!!! Your script is very attractive and constant. That can't be said for mine these days, but certain pens come close.

 

post-4063-0-53078100-1369890919_thumb.jpg

Each day is the start of the rest of your life!

Make it count!!!

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