My poor poor penmanship...

[Nitesiter07]

So here it is... I finally scanned in some samples. This is my writing AFTER a few months of practicing and trying to improve.

 

It's still not good.... however it is MUCH better than before if you can believe that.

 

 

Any advice, critiques or suggestions are very welcome.

 

 

Dave

Edited February 23, 2010 by Nitesiter07

[vidalia11]

The attachment isn't a link to anything...

[park]

Well, most importantly, it's perfectly legible so... :clap1:

 

Maybe use lined paper or a guide sheet underneath blanks to help keep things even?

 

Keep up the good work!

[Nitesiter07]

Okay... I've been using these guidelines when I practice. Here's a sample of that. The guidelines were printed from Scribblers.co.uk (no affiliation).

 

(Dont think that I wont tell my wife that SOMEONE said my handwriting was perfectly legible... cause I will!) :-P

 

 

I've tried to bring my writing speed WAY down. The speed I write is i think the biggest reason my handwriting is as bad as it is. That being said, even when i slow WAY down, it's hard to get my lettering shapes to look nice.

 

I've gone thru and practiced hours and hours and hours of doodling the shapes, circles, lines and letters that are shown in the writing techniques of the penmanship pdfs on the IAMPETH links page, and am frustrated at the apparent lack of letter shape improvement. I can write with my arm better than before, but it's still not great. I can write with my fingers and it takes SO much more concentration to write legibly. :-/

 

 

Any tips or advice?

 

Dave

Edited February 24, 2010 by Nitesiter07

[Shangas]

I've seen worse, don't worry.

 

Your handwriting is legible, although I'm not sure I'd call it 'neat'. You're certainly making progress if your original hand was even worse than this!

 

If all my practicing at handwriting analysis (a little side-hobby of mine) was ever any good, I'd say that you wrote this rather quickly, didn't you? Slow down and write letters and words carefully. Examine each letter and how they best link up with each other and then carefully speed it up to your regular handwriting speed, when you're satisfied with how your handwriting looks when you write slowly. Trying to rush into it will make a mess of things and waste time.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Shangas

[Nitesiter07]

  On 2/24/2010 at 11:01 AM, Shangas said:

You're certainly making progress if your original hand was even worse than this!

 

THATS the kind of stuff im used to hearing! :-P I'm all warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside now. :roflmho:

 

I typically write WAY too fast and I understand that makes my writing very poor. The words in my head flow by much faster than when im writing so in the past i've tended to scribble to keep up. This was actually written much slower and with effort. Scarey huh?

 

Dave

[handwriter]

"and am frustrated at the apparent lack of letter shape improvement"

that's cause your improvement is slow, if you were able to see how your writing is now from a month perspective, you'd probably notice the improvement. Check your months old samples, it would be your best encouragement.

It IS very legible (and English is not my native language). I'm used to grad exams, and let me tell you, your writing is not just legible but beautiful. Sure, you'll be able to improve it. But is just a matter of time and as you said, going slower and writing with shoulder/arm instead of fingers. Surrender's not an option!!!

[caliken]

Dave,

 

On the plus side, your writing is legible with good inter-letter and inter-word spacing. It is much better on the lined paper IMO. Also, it is well spaced across the page with no compression of the letters.

 

I think that your problem is simply one of writing discipline. The following exercises will help to correct this, and your writing will improve considerably. These exercises were written with an italic nib.

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/exercises6.jpg

 

There is nothing new here - these exercises are as old as the hills and are proven as the best way to control consistency. Aim for parallel construction and don't be tempted to rush ahead with writing until you feel in control of the shapes on the page. Be your own sternest critic. Keep all your work as you progress, as this will give you confidence as you see improvements.

At the moment the pen is controlling you, not the other way round and it's a great feeling as you master it. From time to time, ask your wife for her opinion as to your progress. Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can spot things one may miss.

Believe me, this does work if you're prepared to spend a bit of time on it.....and be patient!

 

Don't get too hung up on the Shoulder/Arm/Fingers thing. I find that a combination of movements works best for me. For tiny writing I use my fingers; for huge lettering I use muscular movement and for everything in between, I use a combination of movements. Your writing shows no sign of cramped, horizontal compression so I would stick with your present method....whatever works is usually best!

 

Good luck!

 

caliken

Edited February 24, 2010 by caliken

[Mauricio]

+1 to Caliken's advise

 

Your desire and firm determination for improvement will get you there. That's already 50% of the battle won.

 

I have also found that the "sticks" and "circles" drills recommended in the Palmer Calligraphy method build that foundation to nicely train your writing to proper letter shaping and slanting. As tedious as it may seem to practice on those Palmer drills, they will really build you up .... and what a better way to put your fountain pens to use than learning ways to enhance your penmanship. To add a little fun, I try to test new pen brands, models, nibs, ink colors, etc and make it less tedious to practice hard on these drills.

 

IAMPETH has scanned the entire Palmer book and you can access it with the following lik. Book pages 19, 21, 23, 24 have the "sticks" and "circles" drills. Here's a link to the book...

 

Book "The Palmer Method of Business Writing"

[tawanda]

To begin with, when practicing, you could concentrate on single, unjoined letters, getting each one to sit on the line properly. That seems to be one of your more obvious problems, they're kind of bouncing off the base line. Don't join them up, work slowly, I count 1 adn 2 and 3 and 4, as I'm making letter forms. It helps to slow me right down.

[MrMGWard]

  On 2/24/2010 at 3:29 PM, caliken said:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/exercises6.jpg

 

^^^ What he said heh. I have stacks upon stacks of legal pads riddled with these, and Palmer's circle and sticks. I find a great place to practice drills like these (for me anyways) is on my mail... Envelopes have no lines, and are often I have found good paper for FP use. Plus its a good way to get use from all that extra paper that comes with bills without worrying about wasting good paper.

 

Your writing looks legible to me, I just think you need work on your consistency in both form and angles.

 

My $0.02

 

Swavey

[nawybot]

  On 2/24/2010 at 10:01 AM, Nitesiter07 said:

Okay... I've been using these guidelines when I practice. Here's a sample of that. The guidelines were printed from Scribblers.co.uk (no affiliation).

 

 

....

 

Any tips or advice?

 

Dave

 

Pardon my presumption. You are getting advice from some really amazingly talented Master Penmen here, who know a lot more than I do about calligraphy and how to teach it.

 

But, like you, I'm an amateur, and I think from my relatively dim position I can see exactly what you are doing wrong. It is not a matter of practice, imho. It appears to me to be a simple misunderstanding on your part: you seem to me to have misunderstood the purpose of the guidelines, so your letter SIZES are all over the place.

 

You are NOT supposed to write the letters WITHIN their two guidelines! No!

 

You are supposed to write each letter so that it touches BOTH its guidelines EXACTLY and SIMULTANEOUSLY. Not stay within. Not go over. EXACTLY TOUCH both guidelines, top and bottom simultaneously. Yes! (Pardon me for being so emphatic, but this is one of my own faults.)

 

Here's what I do to try to correct this fault in my own writing practice:

 

1. I always use guidelines, as you apparently sometimes do.

 

2. I like to practice with "Pack my box...", which you apparently do, too.

 

3. I write "P" first, of course. Then, I stop and look at it and its relationship to its guidelines. If I have written a "P" like your first one, I would say something to myself like, "Well, the good part is that it EXACTLY TOUCHES its top guideline. But the bad part is, it doesn't quite all the way come down to its BOTTOM guideline. So, I have to do it over." I repeat this as many times as I need to, until I get a "P" that sits exactly on its top and bottom guidelines simultaneously. (Going over a guideline like your second "P" is no good!)

 

4. Next to a perfectly sized "P", I write an "a". I stop and look at it. If I write an "a" like your first one, I would say, "good on the TOP guideline, not good on the bottom one." And then I would do it over. And over. And over, till I get it the right size exactly.

 

I could fill up a whole page like that trying to get through "Pack my box..." just once. I recommend it to you, and I hope this naive advice helps.

 

 

 

 

 

[beelzebub23]

I am not good either, in fact I am trying to relearn cursive. R's always throw me off, I can never seem to get them right haha.

[Anne-Sophie]

I find tracing letters very useful.

 

If you could print out in the darkest possible shade, the letters which are offered in the free lessons, you could use printer paper to trace the letter over.

 

If you can get a hold of tracing paper, it is even easier.

[tawanda]

Ive traced too. Its great fun and does really help. I used the pages from the book 'Write Now,' photocopied some, and then traced them over with my favourite FP.

[Hammer1]

I have tried years and years of writing exersises, and nothing much helped. The disipline of using a fountain pen was the best tool for me, which landed me in this mess in the first place.