Beauty in Irregular and Rushed Penmanship

[Renzhe]

One may see me as a heretic, but please consider my point of view. The members of this Penmanship forum have generally emphasized legibility and regularity, and equate it with beauty. I am among you, who find regular, carefully-formed letters attractive. However, I also find beauty in the opposite of end of the spectrum; that is, I give equal value to irregular, speedy writing.

 

Somehow I feel that many would like to be able to write like an engraved plate of copper, and regard its regularity and orderliness as the epitome of calligraphic art; and regard their own work as inferior, perhaps because they could not emulate the precision of a copper plate.

 

Set that standard aside for a second. Get the a nib that behaves well under extreme conditions, and write a line as fast as you can. Put aside all efforts to produce a consistent x-height, slope, complete letters, etc. Hell, do it drunk, or half-awake. Then, if you find it ugly, well whatever; try again? If you find it beautiful, then consider posting it here, so that we can all admire it.

 

http://i37.tinypic.com/ar39l.png

[HDoug]

I'll post when I get a chance (maybe tomorrow) but I just wanted to say that this is a great idea and I do hope people will post some examples. Your post sets a great example of what you are saying.

 

I think Asian calligraphy more than traditional Western calligraphy emphasizes that the calligrapher's understanding of what he is writing is conveyed by the movement of the writing instrument, and the trail of ink is an expression of that movement.

 

Doug

[Renzhe]

Well, it's good to know at least one person gets my idea.

[Titivillus]

There is a term in ink painting called 'flying white'. Maybe that is why Iam drawn to it

 

 

K

[jimk]

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/fpn.jpg

[musok]

great handwrite here! keep on i want to improve my handwrite on this terms but it isnt easy ehehhe

[Nabster]

I'd best just post this without thought, the more I think about it, the more I find I hate how my handwriting looks here and the more I hesitate to post it. Vicious cycle.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/Nabsterdude02/Pens/fast.jpg

[Renzhe]

Thanks for posting, jimk and Nabster!

 

HDoug, now that I think about it, it's probably from Chinese cursive calligraphy that I got this idea.

http://i35.tinypic.com/msi39v.png

(Wang Xizhi, Jin dynasty)

 

(bleep), flying white refers to writing with a slightly dry brush, so that it produces a line with paper showing through instead of a solid black line.

Edited September 23, 2008 by Renzhe

[Bananafish]

In terms of "speedy" scripts, here's a couple of my favs. If I can write just half as well as these guys I'd give away all my FPs!

Found no English translations - my apology.

 

 

懷素-自敘帖-狂草

http://www.npm.gov.tw/dm2001/B/exhibition/...2N_adv.htm#java script:;

 

王羲之-蘭亭-行書

http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...p;variant=zh-hk

Edited September 23, 2008 by Bananafish

[rakim]

Yep, I understandexactly what you are getting at wrt 'speedy writing'. In fact, most of my writing with fp's is speedy and it's only when I deliberately slow myself down that the letters and words a more distinct and wel formed. My 'speedy writing' is legible to myself anyway and mostly done when writing drafts and taking notes so not really for anyone else. I'll post a sample sometime. Good, original thread Renzhe.

[musok]

I'd best just post this without thought, the more I think about it, the more I find I hate how my handwriting looks here and the more I hesitate to post it. Vicious cycle.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/Nabsterdude02/Pens/fast.jpg

 

I do like your handwrite... maybe because it is most alike my own one ehehe.

i just have some problems on the x-height and so...

[Blade Runner]

Thanks for raising this interesting topic. I think the fluidity of a fast hand outside "standard" writing is much more interesting in its individuaiity and can be beautiful too. But whether the hand its fast and individualisitc or slower and closer to the "standard", I like it best when there is an order or regularity to it. - regularity in letter shape and size, letter and line spacing, lines that run parallel to the top and bottom edges. A fast and fluid hand can be orderly or sloppy, beautiful or ugly, or somewhere in between.

[penmanila]

sounds like my handwriting, but i don't know about the "beauty" part

[Renzhe]

Hey Bananafish! 蘭亭集序 is probably the most famous Chinese calligraphic work. <-period

 

...in case you didn't know, but you probably did.

[Usui]

Here's my humble contribution

[Bananafish]

Hey Bananafish! 蘭亭集序 is probably the most famous Chinese calligraphic work. <-period

 

...in case you didn't know, but you probably did.

 

 

Hey Renzhe! Thanks for the link. I enjoy Chinese calligraphy, so always keen on learning any chance I get. As you said, the 蘭亭集序 is THE thing. It’s actually the piece I use to practice my Chinese handwriting. With fountain pens mostly; wish I’d more time to practice with brushes.

 

I see your point of view. While the regular, carefully-formed letters have their attractiveness, I always find the speedy, flying, scripts more enjoyable to look at. The spontaneity and liveliness in them are exhilarating!

 

Aesthetics aside tho, I think the actual practice in writing regular, carefully-formed letters has its function. Speaking for myself, for example, I find practicing brush writing of the regular, carefully-formed type (楷書) to be an excellent training in concentration. Not to mention a challenge to my patience as well!

 

Anyways, I’m glad you brought this up, and glad to see so many wonderful examples of individuals’ handwritings here!

Edited September 25, 2008 by Bananafish

[ralphawilson]

I've enjoyed this thread, and many of the fast-handed examples. I enjoy writing fast sometimes, but find it sometimes exacerbates a problem I have however fast I write: dropping letters. It's a challenge for me to keeping focused on creating the words on the page accurately and not skipping anything. I tend to write ahead of brain, I guess. This is especially troublesome when I'm composing as I write.

 

Maybe fast writing would be a good exercise to help focus my feeble brain on the actual words I'm trying to write. I can also see an argument for trying to write slower. Any thoughts?

[jimk]

Maybe fast writing would be a good exercise to help focus my feeble brain on the actual words I'm trying to write.

 

I think it is helpful to practice at a variety of speeds. I almost never try to write fast merely for the sake of speed. I am always trying to balance nicely shaped letters and good spelling and grammar, versus just trying to keep up with the flow of ideas running in my head. It's like, I always have to put a brake on the content in order to maintain some level of reasonable form. The variable is just how hard do I have to apply the brake. I never need to hit any kind of gas pedal. It's a bit like coasting down a big hill. If I were to take my foot entirely off the brake, I would end up going far too fast and an ugly wreck would be inevitable.

[aNONIEmous]

I write fairly slowly compared to anyone else in my family, thanks to years of being indecisive about which penmanship I wanted to adopt. I had the bad habit of trying to copy every beautiful handwriting I came across in the hopes of making it my own, until the next time I saw another that tickled my fancy, and then I'd start all over again.

 

I am always fascinated by people who write fast and legibly and beautifully. Because I aspire to be as good as you folks, would you be so kind as to tell me how fast you write? If it isn't too much trouble, I would appreciate it if you wrote the phrase "Mary had a little lamb" as many times as you can in a minute without losing legibility and kindly post how many letters a minute you write. I believe there are 18 letters in that line so you only need to count how many letters you are able to write of the very last sentence and then just multiple the number of lines before that by 18 and add them all up to get your total.

 

Alternatively, would you please write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" as many times as you can in a minute and post your results? This line has 36 letters, so again just multiply that by the number of complete lines and then count the letters in any incomplete sentence and add them up.

 

This is a good way to gauge your speed, and you could perhaps keep a record and monitor your progress as you get better with forming letters. So anyone game for this?

 

Edited to add a sample of my one-minute "speed writing". Any faster and my hand goes stiff. The circled number is the total count of letters:

scan0034.pdf

Edited October 3, 2008 by aNONIEmous

[caliken]

My total for 1 minute is 97 letters - but my effort, whilst legible, is not as neat as yours.

 

I've never been much good at speed writing, it's not my "thing".

 

caliken

Edited October 4, 2008 by caliken