Louis Madarasz

[caliken]

I wrote this small example to pay homage to the ultimate master of the flex nib, Louis Madarasz.

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/Madarasz11.jpg

 

caliken

[Gran]

Caliken, a beautiful tribute. Thank you for posting it.

[tipstricks]

...and written by our great calligrapher Ken!

 

Lovely! Thank you for sharing!

[Journaleur]

Beautiful message in a beautiful hand. Thanks Ken: you did it again.

[HDoug]

Wow, that's so gorgeous. Really fascinating to look at the letter forms. I notice the four minuscule t's are all crossed differently.

 

Again, thanks much for posting. I always look forward to seeing your posts, even if I don't reply sometimes. There are only so many times one can say "wow" ...

 

Doug

[msacco]

Ken,

truly impressive!

Defintely has the Madarasz look and feel. You're making me want to learn this script. Did you take it slow or did move along it a pretty good clip. How much finger or combined movement?

 

Mike S.

[caliken]

Gran : tipstricks : journaleur : HDoug

 

Thank you all, very much.

 

(nice signature, tipstricks)

 

Ken

Edited November 18, 2009 by caliken

[TrevorML]

I notice the four minuscule t's are all crossed differently.

 

I noticed that as well...

 

I absolutely love the look of what you have done in your homage Ken... and truly love the look of such beautiful ornamental penmanship such as Spencerian and Palmer handwriting having grown up with the English/Australian style of copperplate/roundhand influenced handwriting...

 

but...

 

I fail to see the benefits of such a script for everyday writing as it is far from being easily readable... even for an old hand :-)

 

unlike the highly readable cursive italic of the late 15th and 16th Centuries... here is a text style that is around 500 odd years old and would be able to be read even by the cursively challenged youth of today... although I was very pleasantly surprised the other day to see my daughter who never grew up with cursive at all easily read the old school Australian/English cursive of an 70's year old woman's letter to my wife

 

and the crossing of the miniscule t's are just so wacky to verge on the ridiculous... at no point in the previous history of handwriting... to my knowledge at least... was there at any point such a departure of the crossing stroke from the body of the letter "t"... it ends up looking merely as a decorative flourish added to embellish the rest of the curves used within a body of Spencerian/Palmer text...

 

don't get me wrong... as I said I really love the look of it and what is being done on the Ornamental Yahoo group and at IAMPETH... been a very regular lurker there for years... but it is not a style that does it for me personally... the miniscule t's just ruin the whole style for me to want to use it... they just don't "gel" with the rest of the style at all

 

just my 0.5 cents worth :-)

 

again... brilliant work Ken !! :drool : :notworthy1 : [some of the darn emoticons not working]

 

[[ @ 43C !!!! it is easy to be a devil's advocate ]]

[msacco]

I notice the four minuscule t's are all crossed differently.

nd what is being done on the Ornamental Yahoo group and at IAMPETH... been a very regular lurker there for years... but it is not a style that does it for me personally... the miniscule t's just ruin the whole style for me to want to use it... they just don't "gel" with the rest of the style at all

 

just my 0.5 cents worth :-)

 

again... brilliant work Ken !! :drool : :notworthy1 : [some of the darn emoticons not working]

 

[[ @ 43C !!!! it is easy to be a devil's advocate ]]

 

 

Yes, there are more than a few variations of lowercase "t" but the compound curve is probably most popular. It's funny because that's one of my favorite things about lowercase OP/Spencerian. It does makes perfect sense to have this kind of crossing because as you state it's a flourish that is familiar; with curves and lines found elsewhere.

In art this is a perfect example of the design principle known as Unity through repetition.

 

My two cents.

 

Mike S.

Edited November 19, 2009 by msacco

[TrevorML]

but the compound curve that "floats" above the body of the "t" just does not say miniscule "t", it is saying something (??) totally different... a sort of "l" or a tall "i" or even a majuscule "T" with a wayward top stroke or something like that... it definitely does not read as a miniscule "t"... whereas the variation with the compound curve that crosses the body stroke is perfectly in tune with the rest of the characters that make up the beautiful letterset for the Spencerian/Palmer style... just not the one with this wayward floating cross bar... which does not cross... it is at odds with all latin based character sets since minuscules arrived onto the scene... as I said as far as I know

[caliken]

Did you take it slow or did move along it a pretty good clip. How much finger or combined movement?

 

In this writing, I stuck as closely as I could to the original. As you know, Madarasz used several forms of the lower t, often within the same piece of work and I included three of them here.

 

This was written fairly slowly by necessity as I am still unfamiliar with this style. I used finger and combined movement. It's astonishing how different it feels under the hand compared to Copperplate.

 

TrevorML -

"Madaras'z Script" was intended as "Insurance Policy Writing" and in his instructions he writes :- "If you want to be a rapid and sure writer, master the style before you". With the amount of shading involved, I doubt if I'll ever be able to handwrite in this style......I'm much too slow!

 

If you want to learn this style, study "The Madarasz Book" on the Iampeth site and use the perfectly legitimate crossing strokes (either straight or compound) on the small letter t.

 

Ken

Edited November 19, 2009 by caliken

[caliken]

When Madarasz was talking about "rapid writing" he was comparing his style to "Engravers Script" which is very slow and is drawn, not written.

 

If you want to see Engravers Script at its very best, search for any of Joe Vitolo's examples on the Iampeth site.

 

Ken

[vidalia11]

Ken,

 

He deserves a tribute! And he'd be pleased by your beautiful writing. :-)

 

Here is a sample of his writing from the great book, Spencerian Script & Ornamental Penmanship, Vol. II, by Michael Sull. It's available at John Neal Books (http://www.johnnealbooks.com/).

 

Karen

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2745/4117204173_fb943fe817_o.jpg

[caliken]

Ken,

 

He deserves a tribute! And he'd be pleased by your beautiful writing. :-)

 

Here is a sample of his writing from the great book, Spencerian Script & Ornamental Penmanship, Vol. II, by Michael Sull. It's available at John Neal Books (http://www.johnnealbooks.com/).

 

Karen

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2745/4117204173_fb943fe817_o.jpg

Thanks Karen. I agree that this is a great book, full of wonderful Spencerian examples.

 

Ken

[Mauricio]

Caliken,

 

The Louis Madarasz is "The Ultimate Calligraphy Style" in my humble opinion and you have mastered it in your "writing rendition"

Congratulations on a job well done!

I continue as a beginner student of this method and hope to be at least 5% as god as you are!

[Mrsstraw]

Amazing as always Caliken. You continue to inspire us...

 

Are you aware you have now reached the 21st century - @Alihh has mentioned your DVD on Twitter.com?!!

[Mauricio]

Ken,

 

What pen did you use in your writing sample?

[vela]

Exquisite!

[caliken]

What pen did you use in your writing sample?

 

I used a Hunt 101 dip nib in an oblique holder.

 

Ken

[Renzhe]

I'd like to add that my favorite piece of writing (in Latin characters) is this.

http://i44.tinypic.com/actrty.jpg

 

It's a casual letter by Louis Madarasz. Although the letters are irregular, one can see through the writing that the writer is incredibly skilled and experienced. No part of this writing is constructed, and there was no will it make something beautiful, but it is beautiful, and so this is genuine writing of a master. And although it's beautiful, one can see the writer's understanding of calligraphy. No ordinary calligrapher can produce (or reproduce) this sort of writing. If I could get the original, I'd hang it up.