choice of pen nib and handwriting style

[aNONIEmous]

aNONIEmous I am envious your writing is so neat! I am trying to improve my daily writing as at the moment I feel it looks childish and lacks character once I am feeling brave enough I will post difficult to gain the nerve in such esteemed company.

 

andyg30, what a kind compliment! I am glad I finally found something I liked and which was legible and stuck with it, because I find it easy to write without thinking about it. Sometimes it looks better than others--usually when I'm not trying too hard. I think practice could make it look really good when I'm trying to actually match caliken's skills--which is when I'm trying too hard.

 

I must confess though that I have years of practice, as well as years of complacency, when others said I wrote nicely and didn't need to improve. So if you stay focused and work on improving what you aren't happy with, you'll shock yourself one day when it starts to come to you naturally.

[KateGladstone]

To aNONIEmous -- you definitely rank as one of my better students!

[James Pickering]

.......... Is there a name for hand writing in all caps? ..........

It is commonly referred to as "Capital" or "Majusucule" or "Upper Case" lettering. I include a short treatise with exemplars at:

 

Supplemental Writing Hands

 

James

 

[McPete]

Here is a sample of my handwriting. Over the last week or so, I've been attempting to re-learn the cursive I was taught ten years ago, after many years of scrawling and printing. A scary consideration is that this is a notable improvement over the handwriting I produced through high school! You may be able to see remnants of printing in there, but I've made a concerted effort to change and improve my handwriting. Any critique is welcome.

P.

 

[KateGladstone]

Well, McPete -- To improve this valiant effort, I'd recommend keeping the descenders of each writing-line from filling the same space that the next line's descenders will also occupy.

 

You can accomplish this in any of several ways:

 

either /1/ write slightly smaller -- but on the same size of lined paper,

 

or /2/ leave a blank line after each line of writing (without reducing your writing-size),

 

or /3/ (this one usually works best) DON'T skip lines, DON"T change the size of "short" letters (such as "a/c/e", etc.), but instead slightly reduce the height of capitals, as well as reducing the length of the stems on "tall" letters (such as "b/d/f"/etc.) and "descending" letters (such as "g/j/p", etc.). In other words: instead of making capitals/"tall" letters twice as tall as "short" letters, make them only 1 1/2 times as tall -- instead of making the descending stems of "g/j/p"/etc. fill up the whole space below the writing-line, make them fill up only half that space -- do this (or adopt either of the other two numbered suggestions) and the upper portions of capitals/"tall" letters will no longer collide with the lower portions of any letters written previously on the line just above.

[McPete]

Well, McPete -- To improve this valiant effort, I'd recommend keeping the descenders of each writing-line from filling the same space that the next line's descenders will also occupy.

<snip>

 

Kate,

Thankyou, duly noted. I'll give #3 a shot first up, but I suspect it'll come to #1.

P.

[tipstricks]

Definitely I use italic nibs for my handwriting. For quickly notes I print my writing, but often I take necessary time to write in Italic script (for practice).

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_1v8Xv71Du3g/SfAyM9vZcDI/AAAAAAAAEjE/5sqjBHaMl1g/s400/23042009068.jpg

 

To mention also my love for flexible nibs, I use for practicing in Copperplate style.

 

Cheers

Giampaolo