My Curious Adventures Learning Spencerian Script

[RunningUtes]

Here are some of my most recent work with Spencerian script. I started yesterday.

 

Please comment so I can improve.

[wallylynn]

The hallmark of spencerian is the uniform slant and uniform spacing. Dedicate a row to the line and oval drills.

[Randal6393]

Texts on Spencerian are available at http://www.iampeth.com/. Hope they give you a good idea of how to go about learning Spencerian.

 

Enjoy,

[Gloucesterman]

The key to learning everything is practice. One of the wonderful things about calligraphy is that we can practice anywhere and everywhere. All we need is paper and a working pen. yes, the right paper and a proper pen can make it more elegant, more beautiful and more attractive, however the simple act of practicing our writing with care can only improve it ... and us.

 

Just my .02 cents worth.

[RunningUtes]

I have been practicing much more. I still have some issues with a few capital letters. Specifically, the I, and the C in Spencerian script. Could someone post a few of their examples for me to see?

 

Also, any tips or examples on joining the lower case letters O, W to the next letter in the word. For some reason, I cannot seem to find great examples of this right now.

[wallylynn]

I personally like this reference best:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924029485467

 

 

What references are you using for your practice? Are you just copying/drawing the shapes? Or are you following the prescribes strokes? I use the Mott set of practice books. Starts you off with the basic techniques, adding more complex letters and groups as you progress. I didn't try to learn the whole alphabet in one shot. I followed the book and didn't go to the next page until I was satisfied I could write that one letter well

Are you just writing? Or performing drills? If you're just writing, my experience is that can be too much for your brain. I would lapse into writing words, rather than writing individual letter. It took extra mental effort to concentrate on each letterform, and avoid wordform.

[Mickey]

Don't begin trying to copy letters. Learn the 'principles,' the basic strokes, first. Almost surely, you will never master this script if you don't. Work first on the exercises that emphasize the basic movement of the pen (oval, spirals, circles, etc.) not the letter forms, which won't make proper sense to either eye or hand till the basis movements are embedded.

 

Spencerian is as much about rhythm and movement as shape.

[smk]

Don't begin trying to copy letters. Learn the 'principles,' the basic strokes, first. Almost surely, you will never master this script if you don't. Work first on the exercises that emphasize the basic movement of the pen (oval, spirals, circles, etc.) not the letter forms, which won't make proper sense to either eye or hand till the basis movements are embedded.

 

Spencerian is as much about rhythm and movement as shape.

 

This is good advice.

 

It may not seem like it but by practicing the basic strokes you are in fact developing the ability to form the letters. One cannot produce consistently good letter forms without this ability. While one can, theoretically, develop this ability by practicing the letters directly, it would be much more difficult and time consuming.

 

Salman