Copperplate practise

[MarieD]

Finally got round to trying a bit of copperplate capitals practise.....

 

 

 

 

 

I will carry on with practising short verses as well as needing to improve the capitals as well.

I found the capital letters g,h,i,j,r,t,x the hardest to do.

 

 

[Anne-Sophie]

That is really beautiful.

 

I use my own I and T but the worst problem I have is with z and Z.

 

How do you make those?

 

I think we need to ask caliken for a Copperplate majuscule online tutorial.

[MarieD]

Thats a brilliant idea, do you think he would oblige. Maybe an a to z exemplar wouldn't take as much time if he is busy...

I have checked out his web site, his work is wonderful, I would love some day to be anywhere near as talented as he is.

Edited April 3, 2009 by MarieD

[tipstricks]

Well done, Marie, great work!

I find all capitals hard to do (maybe for less use in writing), but I think they need more and more time to practice.

Many thanks for sharing!

 

Giampaolo

[caliken]

Thats a brilliant idea, do you think he would oblige. Maybe an a to z exemplar wouldn't take as much time if he is busy...

I have checked out his web site, his work is wonderful, I would love some day to be anywhere near as talented as he is.

 

Anne-Sophie & MarieD,

 

For Copperplate exemplars, check out "lessons" on the IAMPETH website. Dr Vitolo has made short videos covering every copperplate letter in detail - well worth a visit.

 

caliken

Edited April 4, 2009 by caliken

[MarieD]

tipstricks,thank you for your comment. You do need lots of practise to be able to do them well. At the moment

I try to choose small verses that only have capital letters I am comfortable with, I couldn't get away with it though

with the a to z

 

caliken, thanks for the tip re: lessons on IAMPETH. I will check it out, I am sure Anne-Sophie will be following

suit as as well. Any help or advice is much appreciated.

 

There are two questions I would like to ask you,

 

1. "Is it advisable to change from practising one hand and go onto another and then

back again, or should you stay with one particular hand until competent enough before moving on?????

 

2. "Being a novice I dont know much about inks, In the UK I had only heard of W&N, Daler Rowney, Brian Walkers Ink

and Blots Ink. I checked out the ink forum and came across 'Diamine' ink that are available in such lovely colours and

are also obtainable from the UK. Would you recommend these as suitable for me to practise copperplate with and

uncial at a later date???? I have tried W&N and Daler Rowney inks and didn't like them, I like the Brian Walker Ink

but he only supplies black and brown (?).

 

I'm off to carry on my practisie again, I am working on improving my miniscule 'r's and they look a lot better now.

 

 

[caliken]

 

MarieD

 

Copperplate, being written with a flex nib, is quite different from lettering with an edged nib in styles such as uncial and italic. For this reason, I feel that

there is no confusion if they are developed at the same time as they feel totally different. I would stress, however, that this is just my personal opinion based on my own experience.

 

I use Diamine inks frequently and like them. I think that they can be successfully used with flex nibs. My favourite black inks are Aurora for fountain pens and Higgins Eternal for dip nibs, especially with flex nibs for Copperplate and Spencerian. All these inks are available in the UK.

 

Ken

Edited April 4, 2009 by caliken

[balzerhaut]

That is simply beautiful handwriting. I need a lot of practice.

[wykpenguin]

Just tried doing some copperplate (aka formal script for those who don't like to use the term), despite my Spencerian practice, I found that it is a totally different ball game and IMO more difficult than Spencerian. Much more demanding in terms of constant pressure and steadiness of the hand.

 

I will go with caliken's suggestion of Higgins Eternal. Although it leaves much to be desired in terms of "smudge resistance" and blackness, it is the only ink that has worked in my dip nibs. Stay away from Pelikan Scibtol at all costs, looks wonderful on paper but also gums up nibs very quickly.

[MarieD]

balzerhaut, thank you for your comment. I see you are a 'newbie' to the FPN as I am. Welcome.

 

wykpenguin, I couldn't make my mind up which hand I wanted to learn, Copperplate or Spencerian.

I opted for the Copperplate because IMO it looks more elegant and feminine than the masculine looking

Spencerian. I still love to look at Spencerian scripts though, especially script with all the ornate flourishing.

Some of the 'artwork' ???? produced with just flourishes are amazing, that must take some practising.

 

caliken, I have ordered my Higgins Eternal to-day, so hopefully I should receive it by Tue/Wed.

Can't wait to try it.

 

(Re: Q1), I have never been interested in trying the 'italic' hand again in adulthood, but looking at some of

the lovely samples I have seen here at the FPN I will be giving it a try at a later date. We were taught basic

italic writing in school, I will be 'rusty' at it (a lot) but I will have a go. I will however be starting some

Uncial practise work very soon (in another thread), with Irish blessings . I know you have to carefully consider

which type of hand works the best with a particular piece of verse. ie. you wouldn't choose Copperplate for

Irish blessings, or psalms etc.....

 

I will post some more copperplate practise pieces here with the new ink I have ordered, and I think I will try

writing one verse in a couple of different x heights to compare them.

 

 

 

 

 

[MarieD]

Received my new Higgins Eternal ink ( I like it) on Thursday, tried it out with the following samples.

After trying a couple of x heights I have decided 5mm seems to be the ideal size for me.

 

All samples Higgins Eternal Ink, Conqueror paper, Gillott 404 nib.

 

 

 

 

 

[James Pickering]

What very nice Copperplate writing, Marie -- congratulations!

 

James

[slqqqq]

How beautiful~

[georges zaslavsky]

stimply stunning. keep up the good work

[MarieD]

James, slqqqq, & georges, thank you for your comments.

 

I have ordered nine bottles of coloured Diamine inks today, they should arrive in a few days.

The next practise pieces will be in colour......

[MattN]

I'm enjoying this thread and your progression through it, and looking forward to seeing more samples. I'm just starting on this journey myself, and it's encouraging for me to see how quickly you've developed a very nice hand.

[caliken]

I have ordered nine bottles of coloured Diamine inks today, they should arrive in a few days.

The next practise pieces will be in colour......

MarieD,

 

You may be interested in this brief Diamine colour comparison which I posted some time ago.

 

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...c=68804&hl=

 

[MarieD]

MattN, Nice to hear that you are enjoying this thread. I have had encouragement along the way, nice

comments, and most of all the help and advice from some very talented calligraphers, which is very much

appreciated. The lovely thing is that everyone, not just me, can benefit from this advice.

I feel I have improved from my first postings, some of my miniscules are much better formed especially the

'r's, I,m not too bad with the slant on the writing, still need to work on the hairline joins though. Have been

doing more practise (doodling) with capital letters.

Cant wait to see your post, to see what paper, inks, nibs etc you are using and how you are fairing.

 

caliken,Thanks for the colour comparisons. I hope I have ordered the right inks, I only chose the small 30ml

FP inks for practising, is there any difference besides quantity and price between the Old English, New Century and

the 30ml bottles of FP inks.

I was surfing the net yesterday and came across the 'Ackerman pump pen', I have never heard of it before, dosn't seem

to be available in the UK as its American. It seems its been around for quite a while. It looks very interesting, I came

across a copperplate video as well and as soon as I saw it I knew it was you.....that unmistakable flick of the wrist on

your end letters. You were using this pen with the Gillott 303 nib, which is the one I would be interested in. I came back

into the FPN forums and found your post about these pens. Are you still satisfied with it, I was wondering if the results

of the writing would be any better than using dip nib pens, or is it just the convenience of ink bottle free writing, no dipping?.

 

I have just heard the doorbell go....yippee, my inks are here. Not bad, quick delivery only ordered them Monday night.

Got to go and play now....be back soon.

 

 

 

 

 

[MarieD]

Just a quickie to show you all the colours I have chosen. I am happy with the inks but I am having a problem

with a couple of the colours with 'bleeding' (using same Conqueror paper and same nib). Colours in question, worst one

Sapphire Blue, then the Florida Blue and once or twice the Imp Purple. Could be I am overloading

the nib, will carry on with some colour practise pieces over the next couple of days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2009 by MarieD

[MattN]

Cant wait to see your post, to see what paper, inks, nibs etc you are using and how you are fairing.

I don't have any samples scanned yet, but I can tell you what I'm using.

 

Paper: Rhodia and Staples Eco-Friendly (the sugar cane stuff). The Staples paper resists feathering quite well, but has a bit of bleedthrough. Good for rough practise. The Rhodia paper is pretty much perfect, but more expensive and less available. The problem with both is that they are ruled - great for my regular handwriting, but the line spacing is not quite right for my copperplate.

 

Ink: Currently using Parker Quink Blue-Black. I like the colour, and it has nice shading. I use other inks for other pens, but this is my current favourite for practising copperplate.

 

Pen: A Pelikan M200 fitted with a semiflex 14C gold 0.5mm stub nib from a Pelikan 140. It does the trick, but the hairlines aren't quite thin enough. I recently purchased a Waterman 52 1/2V with a very flexible nib, and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival. I know, I should be using a dip pen with an oblique penholder... It's just not portable enough. I like to be able to take out my pen for some practise on my lunch break without having to carry an ink bottle around with me.

 

I originally just jumped right in and started writing, and that was fun, but last night I went back to the basics and started from Lesson 1 on this page: http://www.zanerian.com/BairdLessons.html. I also printed off some guidelines to fix my slant. I was amazed at how difficult it was to make those simple shapes with consistent slant and spacing, even with the help of the guidelines. I clearly have some work to do!