Italic Handwriting Competition

[umenohana]

I love looking at all the different characteristics of the entries!

 

-Hana

[lisa]

I'm just jealous. :blink:

[yoyology]

At first, I wasn't going to enter this competition at all, but then I saw that James' purpose is to encourage the use of Italic as everyday handwriting, and since that's why I'm adopting it, I decided to go ahead and post an entry.

 

As you can see, this is far from a copybook sample. My "f"s and "s"s go back and forth from italic to cursive, and I can't seem to decide on whether to join or not to join in a lot of cases, but it certainly looks a lot better than my old writing!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y15/yoyology/Pens/ItalicContestEntry.jpg

 

James, I hosted this image on Photobucket, and it didn't come out as clear as I'd hoped. If it's not sharp enough for the competition, please let me know by PM and I'll e-mail you the raw scan.

[PinarelloOnly]

Here is my entry and I am so new to this. I've been practicing heavily

every day for a month and I am just starting to get the hang of it.

 

Scott.

 

 

 

http://fototime.com/%7B2904BF2B-1C97-4D44-A9D2-0D74A65F6CB3%7D/picture.JPG

Edited October 13, 2006 by PinarelloOnly

[Dawn]

Hi

 

Here is my entry, not upto the standard of many of the wonderful entries here, but I had a great time practicing and hope to improve.

 

Dawn

[london]

Here we go.... (Black and red notebook)....

Edited October 13, 2006 by london

[M4R1N4]

http://agrino.org/marinasspot/waldo.jpg

[James Pickering]

Thanks to all who participated in my competition -- several of the submitted exemplars were very good indeed and I am consequently going to award three prizes instead of two!

 

As I outlined in my original post I will use the following critera in judging the entries:

 

.......... those that best exemplify beautiful and elegant Italic handwriting and the spirit of its execution. I am not interested in display calligraphy -- my own passion has always been for practical handwriting that can be used in everyday pursuits such as correspondence, journaling, notes and personal cards, etc. -- and so precise layout and decoration is not a consideration. I have no concern for cross-outs, corrections or insertions -- for they are inherent in practical handwriting -- as long as they are tastefully executed. Therefor you don't have to worry about post-mortem mistakes you discover in a rendition that you are sure you could never duplicate. Use your own style of Italic handwriting.

 

I will post the winners later today.

 

James

[James Pickering]

It was an extremely difficult task to determine the three submissions that best exemplified beautiful and elegant Italic handwriting and the spirit of its execution -- and additionally conformed with the competition rules. Based on the foregoing criteria the winners are:

 

Chrysoulla

M4R1N4

Stumpy

 

Seventeen FPN members submitted entries for the competition:

 

yiterp, ToThePoint, Tytyvyllus, Stumpy, einv, TMann, NG_Huy, Chrysoulla, cwm, sonia_simone, Hobo Bob, jamesm, yoyology, PinarelloOnly, Dawn, london, M4R1N4

 

I thank each of you for your participation -- I know you expended a great deal of time and effort in preparing your submissions.

 

In reading through the submissions I realized that I should have made two of the rules clearer. Following are those rules and how I have applied them:

 

3. A fountain pen (no dip pens or reservoired quills/cane pens), black ink, and paper must be used (detailed as part of the submitted rendition).

 

I intended for each participant to record the fountain pen, ink and paper used as part of the handwritten submission for the edification of all. Some participants included that information as part of their typed commentary -- I decided to accept either form.

 

5. Rendition must be full page (or thereabouts) -- it is easy to render a few lines of writing -- much more difficult to render a page.

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal23.jpg

Example of suggested submission -- layout and composition of rendition is at the discretion of the submitter, but it should be about this long

 

Anticipating a variety of letter sizes and line spacing, I didn't want to impose a strict limit on the size and scope of the submissions but I think the rule and the accompanying exemplar (consisting of 22 hand written lines) indicated that I expected a full page of writing. I didn't anticipate that some participants would double space their entries using quite large letterforms. Although I believe my instructions were pretty definitive, I decided to accept submissions of 11 lines or more -- approximating a double spaced page of writing. I rejected submissions of less than 11 lines of writing. Of course my rationale for approximating my exemplar was to make the playing field level for everybody. As it is, I have only judged the first 11 lines of each submission in order to make it equitable for all.

 

The winners must provide their postal mail address (via PM or e-mail) to me by 21 October 2006 so I can mail them their prizes.

 

This has been an exhausting but enjoyable endeavor for me. My motivation is to perpetuate an appreciation for "the sweet Roman hand" -- Italic (Chancery cursive) handwriting. At 78 years of age my own handwriting has become somewhat shaky and, in my opinion, the letterforms have lost some of their quality. None of my offspring are interested in Calligraphy, so I am using the good offices of FPN to "further the cause "

 

As a point of interest, I offer the following:

 

Webster Dictionary definitions:

 

cursive .......... a. of writing: flowing often with the strokes of succesive characters joined and the angles rounded [b:] having a flowing, easy, impromptu character.

 

running hand .......... n: handwriting in which the letters are usu. slanted and the words formed without lifting the pen.

 

As can be seen, Italic (Chancery cursive) handwriting can have all letters joined (in which case it is running Italic handwriting), some letters joined or with no letters joined.

 

Italic letterforms should be narrow and sloping, the minuscule letter bodies being formed within an imaginary right sloping oblong with their width being approximately half their height.

Edited October 17, 2006 by James Pickering

[Hobo Bob]

Congratulations guys! This was a great competition James, and I enjoyed seeing everybody's work. I'll admit here, I'm stealing some people's letterforms to use in my own writing. Thanks again!

[umenohana]

Congratulations, everybody! Thank you all so much for letting me sit back and watch all the beautiful entries.

 

Thank you, Mr. Pickering, for clarifying just what italic handwriting is-- I was just wondering the exact thing.

 

-Hana

[a11en]

James,

 

What a wonderful gift you've given us all in this contest! Thanks so much for running it! Even though I haven't got an italic "hand" yet, I've watched this thread with great interest. The entries were wonderful. Thanks for going to all this hard-work, James! A wonderful and kind gift to us all!

 

-Allen

 

ps- Honestly, I see no shakey hand here!!

[Dawn]

Congratulations to the very worthy winners ..... you have beautiful handwriting and deserve the win.

 

Dawn

[Melnicki]

I purchased a Duke calligraphy-nibbed pen in response to this thread, just so I have something fun to practice with. (Now I wait for it to arrive!)

 

Is it better to learn/practice/execute Italic with a stub, or with a calligraphy nib (the bent kind)? Of course, you can still do it with a boring, regular nib, right?

[James Pickering]

I purchased a Duke calligraphy-nibbed pen in response to this thread, just so I have something fun to practice with.  (Now I wait for it to arrive!)

 

Is it better to learn/practice/execute Italic with a stub, or with a calligraphy nib (the bent kind)?  Of course, you can still do it with a boring, regular nib, right?

I personally use square cut edged nibs -- quill, cane, reed, steel nibbed dip pens or fountain pens -- for all my calligraphic writing. The fountain pens I use the most for my practical everyday italic writing are Rotring Art pens (because their nib profile resembles that of handcut quills) -- I use the 1.5mm and 1.9mm wide nibs "out of the box" for special writing and I mostly reduce the 1.1mm wide nibs to a suitable width for my normal text body writing. I also use Manuscript Calligraphy fountain pens "out of the box" for much of my everyday italic writing -- I like their thin, sharp nibs.

 

I prefer somewhat flexible nibs for all of my writing -- some people prefer "stiff" nibs for rendering Italic handwriting.

 

I invite you to visit my Italic Handwriting Web pages at http://jp29.org/itdr.htm -- and particularly the Good books or sites on italics? thread at https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=13346

Edited October 18, 2006 by James Pickering

[HDoug]

It's almost a shame that this was a CONTEST because I found each entry so intriguing. Great idea James, and I'd like to see more of everyone's writing. Much love and respect to all who participated.

 

Doug

 

P.S. Oh, and in the spirit of competition, what can I say but, "rematch!".

[James Pickering]

It's almost a shame that this was a CONTEST because I found each entry so intriguing.  Great idea James, and I'd like to see more of everyone's writing.  Much love and respect to all who participated.

 

Doug

 

P.S. Oh, and in the spirit of competition, what can I say but, "rematch!".

Well, Doug, it so happens that I have a few excellent used Italic reference books (in good condition) that I would be willing to donate to the cause as prizes via another competition -- maybe we can have round two, so to speak?

 

James

Edited October 17, 2006 by James Pickering

[Guest Saints1976]

When I saw Chrysoulla's entry I had a feeling that would be the/a winner. A lovely piece of handwriting.

[london]

Many thanks for this James. It has been great fun to see the entries posted, and interesting too see other peoples' hand. A good learning experience.

 

Congratulations all. Both to the winners and those who have partcipated. There are some very beautiful scripts there.

 

Cheers all.

 

- Mark

[yoyology]

Thanks again, James, for the opportunity to compete. I wouldn't mind a competition for "most improved" handwriting. Italic has made such a difference in my writing that I want everyone to know about it!