Absolute Beginner Feedback - Wobbly Lines

[Trynix]

Hi everyone,

 

Inspired by many of you, I have decided to start working on my handwriting. As my aim is for it to be legible for every-day handwriting, I went for the Fred Eager book (The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting).

 

I have spent a week so far practicing for at least 1 hour a day and performing the practice worksheets given by the book.

 

My slow writing has improved as there are many good tips the book provides that I've become conscious of (a,d,g,q all have the same base, b,d,p are flip variants, etc). At this point I'm hoping to get some general feedback and guidance on issues I've been facing in order to build the correct habits.

 

1) The book recommends having the writing pad as straight as possible, while other sources recommended rotating the writing pad to around 30-40 degrees - is there a hard rule here? I prefer the "as straight as possible" approach because it allows me control slant better - but I still have to be really conscious about the slant otherwise slant becomes straight again.

 

2) I feel that my lines are not "clean" or "consistent" for lack of better terms. The lines are not straight, they get a bit wobbly, they don't appear as "smooth" as what other writers post here. What would be the best advice to overcome that?

 

3) I'm going to get into the smaller "cursive" writing section of the book (rather than the calligraphy) - is the aim to continue using the same muscle groups that I was using with the bigger letters? As the letters are significantly smaller, I'm tending to perform the finishing touches/curves using my fingers (ending narrow curve of letter "a" for instance, or the ending for letter "r")

 

Although I haven't gotten into writing alot of passages yet, I have attached today's alphabet practice (some of the letters are still not there yet, but it'll give you an overview). Please feel free to comment on the general structure of my letters too, and throw in any advice I need to be aware of as I try to build the correct habits.

 

Thank you for your time and advice.

[graystranger]

I think your progress is wonderful! I wish mine were as good. As to Question 1: Try slanted and straight and use the one that is most comfortable for you for a while. If you are not as happy with your chirography, then switch to the other one for a while and see if you write better.

 

2. I think your lines are just great. Wish I could do as well as you. All I can say is you will get better with practice. One person who had beautiful cursive writing was asked how she did it. Her answer was "... practice and obsess over every letter when you do." Looks to me like you have done that. I was taught in school (60 years ago) to slant the paper, so I would have a very hard time writing with it straight. I assume you are sitting properly at the desk/table, feet on the floor, upright in the proper position, etc. I have to add, I'm not anywhere close to being an expert, and I am starting a book on improving my calligraphy. One goal I have is to write as well as you are doing!

Edited November 17, 2014 by graystranger

[Randal6393]

Excellent work! Improvement should come with practice, practice, practice. You seem to be practicing towards a goal and that is great.

 

I started my handwriting study with Fred Eager's book over forty years ago. Now use italic as my everyday hand.

 

Have you read the portion of the book that deals with cursive vs formal italic? It is a choice that starts bringing individuality to one's writing hand. My hand runs two to three pen widths high, looks quite different than your hand. Look up some of Ken Frazier's work in the Penmanship forum and you'll see what I mean.

 

Best of luck,

Edited November 17, 2014 by Randal6393

[ac12]

A tip that I was told was, to "write in strokes."

 

What this means is when you write in a stroke, your hand motion is fairly smooth.

When you go TOO SLOW, you end up "drawing" the line vs. writing the line, and that is when you get wobbly lines.

 

So, what I am saying is that there is a practical minimum speed to writing, to have nice lines.

You need to experiment to see what this is for you.

In your case, I would guess, that you need to speed up the stroke.

This does not mean write faster, just the speed of the individual strokes to the letters may need to be sped up.

[pmhudepo]

In my experience, from improving my own handwriting, it seems that wobbly lines would occur as you developed a relaxed hand, a light touch, and that they go away as you get better at it.

 

At first, if I planted my wrist firmly on the desk, gripped the pen tightly and wrote using my fingers only, applying more pressure than a fountain pen needs, I was somehow able to force my fingers to create tight lines. But it certainly was quite a wrestle, and I would quickly get cramps and become tired and frustrated.

 

When I tried to loosen my grip and use my whole hand or even arm to create a much lighter, more fluid motion, as is often suggested in books and on FPN, control went out the window. Gone were the tight lines, here are the wobbly ones. Horrible!

 

For me, it turned out to be a matter of more practice. Keep at it, and sketch, doodle and draw if you like. Consider some of the exercises from a different writing method (e.g., Palmer; and so much as to learn that script, but just the ovals and lines and curves to get a better "grip" on your pen, motion and writing). Keep writing, make sure, as I believe you are doing, that you get the basic shapes and angles right.

 

From your writing sample, it seems that the x-height of your letters (i.e, the height of letters like "a" or "e") is much more than 5 times your nib width. You might consider writing smaller, or using a bigger (wider) nib. But perhaps this is what is covered in the "cursive italic" section of your book.

 

Overall, I'd say pretty impressive results after one week of practice.

[Mickey]

Wobbly lines are mostly the result of a pen moving too slowly. As others have mentioned, concentrate on making strokes, not shapes. When your muscles 'understand' the strokes, your line quality will improve, as will the letter shapes. Concentrate on where you want the point to go, not where it is.

 

The grip should be relaxed, but that does not mean loose or sloppy. I think of a good grip as quiet, i.e., it doesn't draw attention to itself. I'm aware of the point on the page, but don't really notice the pen shaft. Remember, grip pressure and nib pressure are related - the lighter the touch on the page, the softer the grip can be.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Mickey

[byggyns]

2 points:

 

1) Wobbly lines will never go away, they will just become less common as you practice. At this year's Ohio Pen Show, I had Master Penman Michael Sull write my name in Spencerian Script (which he does for people at the show every year), and even his hairlines were wobbly. There of course are factors that come into play, but It will be a permanent struggle no matter how much you practice.

 

2) Practice builds your muscles, so you will experience less wobbly lines the more you build those muscles through practicing. I saw vast improvement in mine over the months I spent in regular practice. I would suggest doing warm up activities every day to help build muscles & encourage whole arm movement. The IAMPETH site has some old scanned books in the section for Spencerian that contain good practice exercises. Michael Sull's American Cursive Handwriting book also has good ones.

 

 

This has nothing to do with wobbly lines or technique, just appearance of the final product: Your Italic is very thin. Most books will give you a suggested height for miniscules of about 5 nib widths to correctly proportion italic writing with an italic nib. I have seen some books that say 4 and some that say 6, most say 5 gives a good ratio of line width to letter size.

It looks like you may not be using a stub or italic nib (if you are, it is probably a fine one). With a wider nib, the true form of the italic letters will be revealed..

Edited December 11, 2014 by byggyns