Learning Copperplate...

[nawybot]

Here are two freely translated pages from the French handwriting book. I had a lot of fun with this. Where I have taken liberties, I have made a note in brackets "[...]" in the text.

Especially, I have substituted what I think is good English jargon for French jargon. So "corps d'ecriture," for instance--which literally means something like "body of the handwriting"--I translate freely as "x-height," which is a jargon term I learned years ago from an English translation of Arrighi's Operina. So that you can follow the diagrams in the source (available on the IAMPETH site) more easily, I have shown French words where you need them to track to the pictures.

Hope you like this! I am certainly not a professional translator, and not even a good speaker of French, so please feel free to correct me where I have gone wrong:

<translation>

page 3: General Observations

I. In all types of handwriting, especially cursive, a letter's shape is comprised of three principal parts, to which, by convention, we give the following names:

1st A heavy part, the downstroke [Fr: le plein], which is executed by pressing down on the pen, from top to bottom;

2nd A part that is usually very thin, the join [Fr: la liaison], which is executed from the bottom up without pressing on the pen;

3rd An intermediate part between the downstroke and the join, to which we give the name, "upstroke" [Fr: delie] (figure 5.)

II. The distance between the lines delimiting the small letters, such as U, N, V, etc., is called the [freely] x-height [Fr: corps d'ecriture] (figure 6.) This distance is illustrated by the perpendicular X Y between the top and bottom lines.

The x-height for bold handwriting is 10 millimeters, for medium 5 millimeters, and for fine 2 millimeters.

III. [Very freely] Everything must be written on a slope [Fr: la pente], which is the direction of the ruled line D M (figure 7), determined by joining the corner D of the square A B C D to the point M, which is 2/3rds of the way from A to B.

IV. All proportions of the various parts of the letters shall be, in what follows, expressed in fractions of the x-height; for example, when we place the fraction "1/2" beside the top part of the T and against the top line of the x-height (page 4), we mean that the T passes the top line by a length equal to half the x-height; in the same way the top parts of the curly letters is equal to 1 and 1/2, which is to say one and a half times the x-height.

…

page 5: Straight downstroke with upstroke above and with two upstrokes

Observations

This exercise covers the study of the arms of M and N.

The last arm of each of these two letters shows an upstroke at the top and another upstroke at the bottom; take care to make these two upstrokes (emphasis) exactly the same. (end of emphasis)

Observe the diagrammed form of the M which shows the way this letter must be executed.

The final hooks of the V and of the W, labelled A in the figures, must begin and end exactly at the top line of the x-height.

Give the same weight to the two upstrokes of the V and [very freely] take care to bend the lower upstroke gracefully into the join.

</translation>

Edited February 27, 2011 by nawybot

[texaspenman]

Keep up the good work everyone!

[fuchsiaprincess]

Wish work didn't get in the way of practise! After so many days, finally got the chance to do some writing. Salman, you are correct. It felt so alien again after not practising for a few days

 

Wow! Very nice. May I ask where your letter forms come from? They look quite different than the Jackson ones I use - e.g. the "b" with the rounded right side.

 

Thank you Achim! I copied my letters from Eleanor Winters' "Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy".

[fuchsiaprincess]

Wish work didn't get in the way of practise! After so many days, finally got the chance to do some writing. Salman, you are correct. It felt so alien again after not practising for a few days

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y331/fuchsiaprincess/IMGP2276.jpg

Spectacular!

 

Thank you.

[Achim]

What I find strange in that french book and in many others - even in videos (Dr. J. Vitolo), is the way you're expected to do the squared top. If the nib is held in the direction of the slant line, then it's physically impossible to do so (I think). See my illustration: "a" is what it should be - and "b" is what it could look like without turning the nib to a different angle. The top can be done by letting the right nib tooth spring to the right, then drawing the line, and at the bottom, shortly before the end of the line, let the right nib tooth return to the left one, which stays on the slant line. It would also be possible to leave the right tooth on the slant line, stop on the base line and then let the left tooth go to the right, which would leave a triangle gap on the lower left, same as the one on the upper right of the line.

So my question is: how can you reach the perfect squared ends of illustration "a" without retouching? I usually fill in the top gap by drawing a tiny "7" to fill in the missing triangle (and an upside down 7 on the bottom if necessary - but that usually looks good without retouching).

Edited February 27, 2011 by Achim

[nawybot]

What I find strange in that french book and in many others - even in videos (Dr. J. Vitolo), is the way you're expected to do the sqared top....

So my question is: how can you reach the perfect squared ends of illustration "a" without retouching?....

 

Hi, Achim,

Let's make a distinction here.

Dr. Joe's instructions are for "Engrosser's Script," formal lettering drawn painstakingly on diplomas. Le Recueil Methodique taught "ecriture," specifically "cursive," to Parisian school children in 1918. "Ecriture" translates as "handwriting," and from the word "cursive" I infer the need for at least a little speed.

Therefore, to me, it is more puzzling to find strokes squared off in the French book, than in Dr. Joe's lessons.

Of course, the diagrams in the French book were drawn slowly by an artist working more or less in Dr. Joe's fashion, for publication. I understand them to be Platonic ideals, not to be executed down to the notch by every child writing an essay question during an hour exam.

Folks following this thread may have a similar disparity of intentions. For instance, I am not so much interested in slowly engrossing. Instead, I am using Dr. Joe's instructions for the purposes of Le Recueil Methodique, to get my handwriting to look nifty when I scribble (well, maybe not that fast!)

-- Toby

[smk]

I made an interesting discovery when I printed out some practice sheets. Its much easier to practice with the guidelines printed on the sheets compared to the guideline placed underneath! This is an exciting discovery for me and I'd like to share the results:

 

 

Salman

[smk]

So my question is: how can you reach the perfect squared ends of illustration "a" without retouching? I usually fill in the top gap by drawing a tiny "7" to fill in the missing triangle (and an upside down 7 on the bottom if necessary - but that usually looks good without retouching).

 

What I understood from Dr. Vitolo's videos was that you move the pen down as the tines spread. If you match the rate of the tines being spread to the rate of downward movement you should get a square top. At the bottom I see him lift the pen quickly and with a slight leftward motion.

 

I have tried this out and have had marginal success. It is on my list of skills to practice and I'll let everyone know how it goes when I get to it.

 

Salman

[Murphhans]

Looking really good Salman.

[Ghost Plane]

Salman,

Check the bottoms of your U and A. Otherwise, yes, you're much more even with the guidelines. Well done! :clap1:

 

I'm not sure why the rounded letters seem to stop just above the bottom - perspective?

[fuchsiaprincess]

Salman,

Check the bottoms of your U and A. Otherwise, yes, you're much more even with the guidelines. Well done! :clap1:

 

I'm not sure why the rounded letters seem to stop just above the bottom - perspective?

 

Could be because some of the upstroke took off at a rather acute angle. This only happened in some of the 'u' letters.

 

Beautiful hand, Salman! You are a natural calligraphy

 

Warm regards,

Soki

[Wickwack]

Beginning capital letters - I have some new paper on order that will be smoother for using dip pens - I don't have a FP with a fine enough nib for the hairline strokes.

[smk]

Salman,

Check the bottoms of your U and A. Otherwise, yes, you're much more even with the guidelines. Well done! :clap1:

 

I'm not sure why the rounded letters seem to stop just above the bottom - perspective?

 

Could be because some of the upstroke took off at a rather acute angle. This only happened in some of the 'u' letters.

 

Warm regards,

Soki

 

Both these points are valid. The bottoms of the round letters do start to turn up earlier than they should and the upstroke after a straight shade, as in the two strokes for 'u', do turn up more sharply than they should. More practice is needed to get them right consistently - much more practice.

 

Salman

[smk]

Beginning capital letters - I have some new paper on order that will be smoother for using dip pens - I don't have a FP with a fine enough nib for the hairline strokes.

 

Your slant is much more consistent now and I can see the strokes relaxing in their form. There's a lot of variation in the letters though e.g. in the first row.

 

I think the smooth paper is going to help a lot.

 

Salman

[Wickwack]

Beginning capital letters - I have some new paper on order that will be smoother for using dip pens - I don't have a FP with a fine enough nib for the hairline strokes.

 

Your slant is much more consistent now and I can see the strokes relaxing in their form. There's a lot of variation in the letters though e.g. in the first row.

 

I think the smooth paper is going to help a lot.

 

Salman

I agree! It's interesting to see my work looks differently when posted in a photograph - it's easier to see the variations (ie: mistakes ) I can look at it with a more discerning eye. I love getting more comfortable with using this script and notice I'm incorporating some of the letter forms into my correspondence writing! My emphasis will continue to be keeping my slant consistent and letters reaching the bottom line - little steps.....

[Murphhans]

Baird's lesson 2 after a small hiatus. This is a humbling endeavor, indeed.

 

Lessons Learned: Go slowly. Whenever I hurried, I lost focus and my breathing got sort of constrained. Consequently, my letter sizing, slant and shadow weight all suffered. Also, lots of coffee seriously compromises a steady hand.

 

Goals: Hours more practice on the "O" shape (and c, x ,e, etc...focusing on slant and weight).

 

Sorry for the poor image; the only camera I have is my iphone.

[Achim]

I use a bigger scale now - 8 mm x-height instead of 6. This seems to work better with the Zebra G nib - which kind of grows on me; it needs more pressure than the Principal, but that makes consistent line width easier. And I can see my errors better at that larger scale .

 

My slant lacked today, and often my letters didn't reach the base line when coming from above - things I'll have to work on.

 

 

Here's the template used:

Copperplate_8mm.pdf

[bigstick]

If you have a colour printer Salman, try changing the guidelines to 10% blue or blue-grey. You will like the result.

 

I made an interesting discovery when I printed out some practice sheets. Its much easier to practice with the guidelines printed on the sheets compared to the guideline placed underneath! This is an exciting discovery for me and I'd like to share the results:

 

 

Salman

[fuchsiaprincess]

Today's attempt (I halved the size of the grid by putting two on an A4 sheet)….

 

I have a question (see the last two lines "gentle and kind") : which way should one join onto the 'n'?

 

Thank you!

 

Warm regards,

Soki

 

[caliken]

I have a question (see the last two lines "gentle and kind") : which way should one join onto the 'n'?

The first way

 

Ken