Modern Calligraphy - An Excuse For Not Learning The Principles Of Calligraphy?

[vPro]

Is 'modern calligraphy' just an excuse for people not willing to sit down and learn the principles of calligraphy or is it a reaction to the perfect scripts that the computer can produce? Or maybe something else completely?

[Rednaxela]

Can you tell the difference?

[httpmom]

I too would like to see opinions on this topic. As. Person who does both I can say this...they both take hours of practice but the results are completely different. Being an artist I like the freedom of adding personal flourishes. Tradition is beautiful as well. One difference is that I use a dip pen for both while some modern folks use calligraphy felt tip pens.

The good news is that the new style has become popular enough to draw in many new calligraphy converts which is a positive thing for a dying art, I would say.

[Rednaxela]

When the result is of high quality, who cares if it was adopted to bypass the basics?

[Bo Bo Olson]

I am too lazy. I have a good book.

 

I use the excuse I am writing the worlds longest western....but am here instead of taking a hammer and chisel and prying open my dust rusted shut book.

 

Most or all of the scripts are really nice.

One does have to learn to draw the letters....and with practice one don't need the book open for every letter.

 

Perhaps many think Copperplate or Spenserian is easier.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[linearM]

I am not a calligrapher, don't have the patience to practice or the desire to have that perfect copperplate script. My handwriting is ever-changing. It started with the Palmer method that I was taught in elementary school and has continued to evolve, taking some elements from Copperplate script and some elements from other script styles. I also use an italic script based on a script I found in a little book of script styles from the 1520s in Italy. I modified it because some letters were not present and others could have been confused for a different letter by contemporary readers. It wouldn't be confused with a specific italic script style.

 

It depends a bit on how you want to define calligraphy as apposed to everyday handwriting. There are calligraphers who feel one must strictly follow a set style of script. There are others who want a beautiful hand and don't follow any specific style. I suppose they could be the ones who you classify as examples of 'Modern Calligraphy.' A lot of it has to do with intent.

Edited August 11, 2016 by linearM

[Randal6393]

Will refer to the Rule of Painting. A master painter knows the rules of painting, modifies them AFTER learning the basics. So it is with calligraphy/writing. It is much easier to modify a script if you understand the basics of letter forms. So, love unique, modern hands. Also know that the alphabet is rooted in historic hands and one must know a certain amount about letter forms before changing.

 

As for me, I love the classic hands. Have evolved my own forms that are pretty close to the classic hands. Works for me.

 

Enjoy,

[PS104]

Totally agree with Randal wrt painters. One of my favorite artists is Picasso. He taught himself every style of painting and drawing that ever existed up to that point in his life. Then he embarked on his ensuing styles like cubism. He learned all the rules and ​then proceeded to break them.

​As for the variety of fonts, we have, for all his genius and failings as a human being, Steve Jobs to thank for that. Legend has it that he took a class in calligraphy and discovered all the underappreciated fonts and then incorporated them into Apple's products

[vPro]

Will refer to the Rule of Painting. A master painter knows the rules of painting, modifies them AFTER learning the basics. So it is with calligraphy/writing. It is much easier to modify a script if you understand the basics of letter forms. So, love unique, modern hands. Also know that the alphabet is rooted in historic hands and one must know a certain amount about letter forms before changing.

 

As for me, I love the classic hands. Have evolved my own forms that are pretty close to the classic hands. Works for me.

 

Enjoy,

 

Hello.

I very much agree with your way of thinking. However, an increasing number of people online claim they are 'modern calligraphers' and while their script indeed is beautiful and unique, their calligraphy seems to be limited. People are free to do whatever they want, but isn't calligraphy dying that way?

[sandy101]

It isn't dying, but adapting to the times.

 

Those who take up modern calligraphy are starting with some sort of pen and paper and going from there, instead of relying upon a computer. Some who take up modern calligraphy will go on to try the more complex stuff if they want to. Maybe modern calligraphy is allowing beginners to achieve something tangible early on, which can encourage them.

 

 

There is a lot to take in when starting out - what pen, what paper, what ink - and then you've got to learn how to hold the pen at a different angle and then be able to make a straight line with a different grip. That's a lot of variables and can make starting out frustrating - especially if you are trying to teach yourself.

 

Perhaps we could say that modern calligraphy is making it easier for people to start. People are engaging with paper and materials, and starting to develop the hand-eye skills that go with traditional calligraphy. Maybe modern calligraphy are the baby steps that lead to more traditional forms and techniques.

[Randal6393]

It isn't dying, but adapting to the times.

 

Those who take up modern calligraphy are starting with some sort of pen and paper and going from there, instead of relying upon a computer. Some who take up modern calligraphy will go on to try the more complex stuff if they want to. Maybe modern calligraphy is allowing beginners to achieve something tangible early on, which can encourage them.

 

 

There is a lot to take in when starting out - what pen, what paper, what ink - and then you've got to learn how to hold the pen at a different angle and then be able to make a straight line with a different grip. That's a lot of variables and can make starting out frustrating - especially if you are trying to teach yourself.

 

Perhaps we could say that modern calligraphy is making it easier for people to start. People are engaging with paper and materials, and starting to develop the hand-eye skills that go with traditional calligraphy. Maybe modern calligraphy are the baby steps that lead to more traditional forms and techniques.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Enjoy,

[ehemem]

 

​As for the variety of fonts, we have, for all his genius and failings as a human being, Steve Jobs to thank for that. Legend has it that he took a class in calligraphy and discovered all the underappreciated fonts and then incorporated them into Apple's products

Legend is wrong.

 

First off, "font" is a term from typography and shouldn't be used for scrip/written forms.

 

Second, Steve Jobs didn't take a calligraphy course, he occasionally sat in on one that was a combination of lecture in paleography, demonstration of historical scripts and their variants, and studio practice taught by Robert Palladino. When he was getting Apple off the ground, he contacted Palladino for advice. Very little if anything in Palladino's course had anything to do with fonts except to emphasize that most common fonts were based on calligraphic script forms. Jobs may have been many things but to credit him with the discovery of underappreciated fonts is stretching things a bit...

[Randal6393]

The important point is that Jobs was smart enough to ask for advice from an expert. Many of us are guilty of wanting to do it all ourself, never find out what we need to know until after the project is done.

 

Robert Palladino qualified as an expert. Right up there with Lloyd Reynolds. Believe they were friends, IIRC. And, so, Steve Jobs did ground his fonts in the study of historic letter forms, although second-hand.

 

Enjoy,

[rwilsonedn]

I suspect Jobs was rather caught between the rich font support on the Xerox STAR, of which the MAC was an attempted ... uh ... emulation, and the inability of Apple to afford license fees for commercial fonts at the MAC's intended price point. Turning to calligraphers, who don't charge royalties, was an easy way out. But I'm sure such things will not interffere with the growth of the SJ hagiography.

ron

[sidthecat]

All this penphilia has been to the goal of improving my handwriting and making it look more...old-fashioned is a good term. My handwriting now looks like that of a semi-educated nineteenth-century American gentleman, which is a considerable improvement.

[drv1913]

My calligraphy guild has had this discussion not too long ago. The general consensus was that "modern calligraphy" could often be attractive but did indeed seem to be a style for people who did not want to deal with the aspects of calligraphy that require more discipline.

 

I personally enjoy looking at all kinds of calligraphy and lettering (and typefaces and fonts) and don't really feel inclined to label my own work, let alone other people's. I am fairly lazy and do not always take the time to practice, rule guidelines, check nib angles, etc. I feel that I have produced both beautiful and amateurish results whether I have set to do "calligraphy" (which is so much more, by the way, than Spencerian or copperplate scripts) or just "lettering". My calligraphy can turn out technically beautiful but lack soul, and my lettering can consist of subpar letterforms but be visually pleasing overall. As a whole, I simply tend to judge the results - whether or not I like it and it accomplishes what I want to accomplish - rather than get hung up on whether a given form of lettering counts as calligraphy. I feel the same way about the proverbial art-versus-craft and "who is an artist" discussions. I guess my ultimate response to all of those types of questions is, "Who cares?" I mean that sincerely, not flippantly.

 

All that said, I do regularly take calligraphy classes and workshops from well-known professionals in order to improve my skills and techniques, and I am a guild member. I never have and probably never would take a class or workshop in so-called modern calligraphy.

[dms525]

 

Robert Palladino qualified as an expert. Right up there with Lloyd Reynolds. Believe they were friends, IIRC. And, so, Steve Jobs did ground his fonts in the study of historic letter forms, although second-hand.

 

Enjoy,

 

FYI, Fr. Palladino was a young Trappist Monk and largely self-taught calligrapher when his monastery moved from New Mexico to Oregon. Reynolds was already an established authority on paleography and calligraphy on the West Coast. Palladino began studying with Reynolds who saw his potential and suggested he go study with Fr. Edward Catich at Ambrose University in Iowa. (Catich literally "wrote the book" on the techniques of Classic Roman monumental inscriptions.) Palladino did so, and, when he returned to Oregon, Reynolds got him involved in teaching calligraphy and surreptitiously groomed him to take over at Reed College and the Portland Art Museum when Reynolds retired.

 

As has been said, Jobs sat in on some of Palladino's classes, after he (Jobs) had already dropped out of Reed College. He didn't really study calligraphy, but he did gain some understanding of letter forms and their variations which stimulated his interest in having the Macintosh use fonts other than those which emulated typewriter types.

 

David