Cursive Italic Writing With Pointed Flex Nib

[lamder]

Hi all,

 

I have seen very nice examples of italic writing done with edged nibs, and those done with stiffer monoline nibs, but I wonder if there exist different styles of writing italic with pointed flex nibs. (I have some pointed dip pens that writes pretty smoothly, are somewhat stiff by dip dip pen standards, but are probably considered at least semi-flex/flex by FP standards. I am thinking of how I can employ them for italic writing).

 

I found a somewhat relevant thread started years ago, https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/569-learning-to-write-with-a-flexible-nib. It led me to James Pickering's site where he describes a very pleasing style of italic writing. But there the flex FP is written with very light pressure, and the line variation is mostly incidental, according to him. For instance in http://www.jp29.org/cal59.jpg, I can see a few thicker strokes in the flourishes of some capital letters, but that's about it.

 

Are there exemplars of other italic styles that employs more line variation by putting more conscious pressure (on the downstrokes, say)? Given that italic downstrokes have a slight /// slant, wouldn't making them wider give the somewhat opposite effect as regular italic writing done with an edged nib? And if so, is it even italic?

 

In one of Richard Binder's web page, http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/nibs/flex_italic.htm, there is an interesting example, http://www.richardspens.com/images/ref/nibs/flex_vs_italic/flex_vs_italic_1_5x.gif, where the second line was written with a pointed flex nib. I like how it looks, but I doubt it is considered italic, and I am not sure how that writing style can be adapted for writing italic with regular slant. It does illustrate the part about generating thicker downstrokes in everyday writing, however.

 

I hope I am making sense, and apologies if I am being oxymoronic :-P

 

Sam

[Mountolive]

This doesn't really answer your question, but Part Three of Getty and Dubay's "Write Now" is on "Edged Pen Italic," and the authors include dip pens in that category. The exemplars in this section all seem to involve variations in line thickness.

 

This section doesn't go into great detail (the entire section is only about 14 pages long), but has some interesting comments about pen angles.

 

Unfortunately, the line variation shown in the writing examples is not very great (more like you would expect to naturally arise from writing with a medium flex pen), and therefore I don't think this is exactly what you are looking for.

 

Still, it does seem to indicate that there is some distinction drawn between techniques for writing italic with non-flex pens and techniques for writing italic with flex pens.

[lamder]

Funny you should mention the Write Now book as I just borrowed a copy two days ago. I read part three but I believe the authors were talking about edged dip nibs (many of which are name 'xxx stub'), not pointed nibs. Thanks for the reply and yeah I am liking the book!

 

This doesn't really answer your question, but Part Three of Getty and Dubay's "Write Now" is on "Edged Pen Italic," and the authors include dip pens in that category. The exemplars in this section all seem to involve variations in line thickness.

 

This section doesn't go into great detail (the entire section is only about 14 pages long), but has some interesting comments about pen angles.

 

Unfortunately, the line variation shown in the writing examples is not very great (more like you would expect to naturally arise from writing with a medium flex pen), and therefore I don't think this is exactly what you are looking for.

 

Still, it does seem to indicate that there is some distinction drawn between techniques for writing italic with non-flex pens and techniques for writing italic with flex pens.

Edited April 2, 2011 by lamder

[Mountolive]

Funny you should mention the Write Now book as I just borrowed a copy two days ago. I read part three but I believe the authors were talking about edged dip nibs (many of which are name 'xxx stub'), not pointed nibs.

 

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't realize that there were dip pens that didn't end in a point, so I have learned something new today. :hmm1:

 

I've been playing with some medium flex dip pens myself lately, so I am also interested in the answer to your original question. Now that I have learned the basics of writing with flexy pens (write slow, light touch, pull don't push) I am wondering what to do with the flex capabilities.

[lamder]

Funny you should mention the Write Now book as I just borrowed a copy two days ago. I read part three but I believe the authors were talking about edged dip nibs (many of which are name 'xxx stub'), not pointed nibs.

 

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't realize that there were dip pens that didn't end in a point, so I have learned something new today. :hmm1:

 

I've been playing with some medium flex dip pens myself lately, so I am also interested in the answer to your original question. Now that I have learned the basics of writing with flexy pens (write slow, light touch, pull don't push) I am wondering what to do with the flex capabilities.

 

I don't want my post to lead you down the wrong way. Italic handwriting is usually not associated with pointed flex pens from what I can tell. A style more suited for flex is something like Copperplate/English Roundhand. Lots of cools examples by some handwriting artists in this forum.

 

Sam

[katim]

For what it's worth, I recently tried writing italic with a flexible nib and I append the result. I found it was possible, but difficult to do - no doubt practice would make it easier. I didn't take it any further because I have perfectly good italic nibs and couldn't see any value in making life any more difficult than it is!

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s289/kent993/Flexitalic-1.jpg

[lamder]

For what it's worth, I recently tried writing italic with a flexible nib and I append the result. I found it was possible, but difficult to do

 

Thanks for posting the sample (nice job!). I gather from the lower stroke in the letter k (of 'works') and the diagonal line in the letter x that you are still holding the pen at about the typical 45 degree slant. When I did the same with a pointed nib to write out some italic, I too found it rather difficult to use. Seems like I was fighting the natural tendency of the nib, especially when doing the long vertical strokes.

 

There are some interesting bits in the beginning this 1957 article I found on italic-handwriting.com which talks about how edge pens are associated with italic writing whereas pointed flex nibs are not. According to it, being able to pull off what you did makes you an "uncommon man" :-)

 

My suspicion is that trying to replicate the effect of a edge nib in italic writing with a pointed nib is a fool's errant. I made this post in the off-chance that there are people who have made some stylistic/mechanical variations to accomodate such a nib. As an example, I searched around the FPN site and found a nice writing sample by treecat (hope the author doesn't mind me reproducing here as the associated thread is not particularly relevant).

 

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s193/FallLine_Photos/Carene-cursive-italic.jpg

 

I know it is not technially italic, (heck it's not even written with a pointed flex but a CI nib), but it's nice cursive nonetheless, The thickest lines are on vertical strokes that follow the natural / slant of the writing. I can see such writing adapting much better to a pointed flex nib with the pen held more like how one would do for copperplate instead of italic.