Fun With Handwriting Practice

[ihtzazqamar]

Good to see you Patrick. Good sample. I like several things about it. e.g.

D in Dimple as you said

G in Go...love it

L in Look

P in Patrick is also good

T in There

 

If you write A with proper slant, it will look good too. I like the idea of mixing different forms. I also do that in my normal ( when not practicing) writing.

 

I have seen people writing h,l,k without looping in copperplate. Specially when doing copperplate with a flex pen. You should try that.

 

Overall, a nice sample.

 

Regards

Ihtzaz

[pmhudepo]

Pmhudepo,

 

post #140

 

Yngling. Did you mean Yuengling?

 

Is that some in your glass?

 

Yuengling, mmmmmmmmmmmm!

 

Nope, I meant Yngling, a sailing boat.

 

Yuengling sounds nice, too... although, given my last name, I should probably opt for Hudepohl beer.

[ihtzazqamar]

My today's sample. Just showing off my flex fountain pen expertise. I practice on three fronts...dip pens, flex pen and regular fountain pen. Today was flex pen day.

 

 

Ihtzaz

[pmhudepo]

Wonderful sample, Ihtzaz! Nice to see variations of your capital letters. I particularly like the A in Amp, the D in Drum. The S in Stereo and Sound looks musical to me.

 

What script is this? I think it would be very nice to journal or write letters like this.

 

What paper are you using and what is the line spacing? I'm trying to get a sense of scale.

[pmhudepo]

Well, after watching this topic for the last few weeks and being imspired by the work being done here, I finally decided to join. Here is my first structured practise session, completed just five minutes ago. I thought it would be a good idea to warm up with some Palmer-style drills, work on individual upper case letterforms, and then copy from a book to work on lower case. Feedback would be much appreciated, as well as any tips for improvement It was written on staples lined paper, with a Medium nib-Lami Safari filled with Diamine Evergreen ink.

 

This reply is a bit late, but I wanted to say that I like this script and the colour you used. I just received my bottle of Diamine Umber, also a green, and your sample has made me wonder...

 

The warming up is a good idea; my first few lines tend to be a bit shaky if I start writing, especially during an early morning session.

 

Would increasing the x-height of your script be an improvement? It seems quite small to me. The minuscule 'd' Is confusing to me. But, I'm not a expert on any formal script, so you might very well be dking it right!

[ihtzazqamar]

Wonderful sample, Ihtzaz! Nice to see variations of your capital letters. I particularly like the A in Amp, the D in Drum. The S in Stereo and Sound looks musical to me.

 

What script is this? I think it would be very nice to journal or write letters like this.

 

What paper are you using and what is the line spacing? I'm trying to get a sense of scale.

 

 

I am out of town right now. Will reply in detail after I return on Saturday.

Ihtzaz

[GhostShip Blue]

Looks like everyone not named Graham has been busy keeping up on their penmanship practice. Here's what happens with a few weeks during which you don't make time to practice:

[ihtzazqamar]

Wonderful sample, Ihtzaz! Nice to see variations of your capital letters. I particularly like the A in Amp, the D in Drum. The S in Stereo and Sound looks musical to me.

 

What script is this? I think it would be very nice to journal or write letters like this.

 

What paper are you using and what is the line spacing? I'm trying to get a sense of scale.

 

 

I am out of town right now. Will reply in detail after I return on Saturday.

Ihtzaz

 

Well, here is the required info. I hope it helps. To develop this kind of writing style one must learn copperplate with a proper dip pen. Once the hand is set, one can port the training to fountain pen writing. A fp with some flex helps.

 

Ihtzaz

Edited October 8, 2011 by ihtzazqamar

[ihtzazqamar]

Looks like everyone not named Graham has been busy keeping up on their penmanship practice. Here's what happens with a few weeks during which you don't make time to practice:

 

You have a neat hand. A guide sheet certainly helps.

[pmhudepo]

This weekend, I tried something that felt a bit silly at first. I closed my eyes and started writing. I wanted to get a better idea of comfortable posture and grip, without being distracted by what I was actually creating on the paper. Just like doodling, sketching and goofing off helps, in the sense that you are using your pen, but without any bad habits you may have associated with actual writing, I figured not seeing, but feeling and listening, might help as well.

 

I leaned back into a fairly straight-up chair, put both arms on the table, remembered something Ghost Plane said about the lightest grip possible and wrote. I imagined beautiful letters and just traced them with my pen. I did take an occasional peek, certainly at the start of every line, to make sure I was still writing on the paper and not on my dining table

 

I noticed I would "reset" my arm fairly often along a line. Leaning back into the chair, instead of hunching over my work, is more comfortable; it helps take the weight off the writing arm. Leaning ever so slightly onto my left arm helps as well. Keeping my arms a bit further away from my body felt good too. All these changes are quite subtle, but they help relax the fingers, hand, arm and body. I focused on the sound of the nib as it glid across the paper. Well, sometimes it scratched as I lost track of its angle.

 

The result wasn't half as bad as I expected. Much larger than usual, and my lines have a tremendous downward slope. Can't cross my Ts or dot my Is properly, but a serious loss of accuracy is no surprise.

 

Tried it again this morning, followed by a short break and a bit of writing on a guide sheet -- trying to transfer the feelings, impressions, relaxed state to my actual writing. This might actually work.

 

Not sure if you want to see pictures of this... had a load of fun, though

 

This session was inspired by the idea of Blind Countour Drawing.

[ihtzazqamar]

 

Not sure if you want to see pictures of this... had a load of fun, though

 

 

 

I/we would love to see the pictures. Remember it is 'fun with ...'

 

Ihtzaz

[ihtzazqamar]

I tried and here is what I got. It is fun.

 

[pmhudepo]

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm still writing and enjoying morning sessions. I haven't posted much the past few days, because practice has become a little repetitive. I'm sure you believe I can complete a reasonably nice practice sheet by now

 

My main struggle is to transfer lessions learned from practice sheets to actual writing like letters, my journal, notes at work. It seems that as soon as I leave the safe playground of a guide sheet, old habits creep in. Perhaps because the nice stationery is much smoother than my laser printer guide sheets and I'm thrown off track. Perhaps more so because I want my letters to look really nice, to show my most beautiful penmanship, which, ironically, seems to hinder relaxed writing.

 

Anyway, I am going to write a few letters, prepare for an upcoming trip and try to spend a little more time writing in my journal. I will definitely post again, but it may take a few weeks.

 

Finally, despite this "struggle," I want to add that I have learned quite a bit already thanks to this website and everybody who participates in this thread (and similar ones). Posture, grip, angle of nib, slant of letters. I have a much better idea of what I like in a pen and nib, definitely springy and creating line variation, for beautiful tall ascenders and long descenders, a hint of old-fashioned flourishing. I have found some great penpals, whom I mustn't disappoint with too much practice and too little letter writing :embarrassed_smile:

 

See ya!

Edited October 18, 2011 by pmhudepo

[pmhudepo]

I'm back!

 

I've stopped using guide sheets for now, and have concentrated a bit more on journaling and letter writing. I've also bought a new pen, a Montblanc 3-42G with a medium, stubbish, flexible nib. A whole new dimension to my writing. Here's a bit of practice from today:

 

 

 

Despite quite a break (with practically no writing for about 12 days), I am pleasantly surprised by the results. My updates in this thread may not be as frequent, but I still plan to come back every once in a while. I am very curious to see what the handwriting of each of the participants looks like in a few months time. I hope mine will have a bit of flair added to it, while maintaining the legibility and consistency of a guide sheet.

Edited November 8, 2011 by pmhudepo

[nicholasyeo]

What a lifestyle! Lovely!

The more I look at this, the more I feel like buying myself a pen

with another nib!

Edited November 8, 2011 by nicholasyeo

[alonsh2006]

Thank you, friend!

I am new to fountain pens, and even newer to the FPN, and your ideas seem genius to me! I will try them right now!

I had difficulty with the fountain pens, even with correct position, but after getting proper paper today, it's much nicer. Me and my trusty Parker Urban are going to use up some ink!

As a last note, I have a question which hopefully you can answer..

When you place your arm on the desk, does the elbow rest on it as well or is it behind the table? That's one thing that the Palmer Method pictures did not help me understand.

Thanks again!

 

-Alon.

 

P.S. When I am proud of my handwriting, I hope it'll be alright to add my own samples to this thread

[pmhudepo]

When you place your arm on the desk, does the elbow rest on it as well or is it behind the table? That's one thing that the Palmer Method pictures did not help me understand.

Thanks again!

 

-Alon.

 

P.S. When I am proud of my handwriting, I hope it'll be alright to add my own samples to this thread

 

 

I found this post by Mickey very helpful: There are three points of contact between the writing arm and the desk, the pad of forearm muscle near the elbow, the last two finger nails of the writing hand, and the nib.

 

Equally so, this post by troglokev helped me understand the tripod grip a little better. I had it almost right, except for the position of the thumb, which was too far towards the nib (like Skyclad does/did).

 

Please do post your writing in this thread. I found it very encouraging to do so. Even if we're not all experts, we learn from our exercises and continued practice.

Edited November 29, 2011 by pmhudepo

[pmhudepo]

Talk about fun with handwriting practice... while browsing FPN the other day, I came across a link to Strange Overtones - A Calligraphic Tribute. Just wanted to share.

Edited December 6, 2011 by pmhudepo

[Opiy]

Talk about fun with handwriting practice... while browsing FPN the other day, I came across a link to Strange Overtones - A Calligraphic Tribute. Just wanted to share.

 

Yea, she has some very fun videos to watch and her handwriting is very nice. Her comparison of the roller ball pen vs a fountain pen was great.

 

Tagging along with this thread so maybe I can pick up some good techniques while I practice. I have given up on a fountain pen since I am a hooker lefty but I do want to get better regardless of the writing instrument. My glass dip pen is a blast. At some point I will post up something of mine.

[pmhudepo]

This morning I decided to practise my handwriting and started to copy a paragraph of text I'd just read. Nothing to difficult, so I could concentrate on letter forms rather than on the content of the message. I noticed however, that I was putting pressure on my hand, causing me to write with my fingers. This makes writing longer words without lifting the pen more difficult, and it promotes a death grip.

 

It occurred to me that I am more likely to 'finger write' when I'm writing actual words and not some much when I'm just drawing some shapes without paying attention to what it's supposed to be.

 

Over the past couple of months, writing practice had taken a backseat to letter writing and journaling. I actually managed to write a few notes about every day of my life for a little over a month now. I've also sent out several letters, postcards and a hand-written invitation. I'm really enjoying that and am glad I found several penpals to exchange letters with.

 

What I continued to struggle with, is... finger writing and a cramped hand. While my letter forms have definitely improved during the course of this thread so far, I could not yet write easily, with a relaxed hand. Also, when taking notes at work, I would forget about everything I had practised and return to chicken scratch.

 

I have taken a step back and started doing exercises by EC Mills. I am aware of posture, grip and motion, but am also careful not to be too strict about it. I try to start correctly and just continue for an entire line on the page. Below is my exercise for today. Writing like this, I do not yet have the fine control that finger writing offers, but I am confident that I will eventually find a nice mix of speed, fluid motion and control.

 

 

 

On the second page, I gradually move from exercise ovals to actual letter forms. The ovals are relatively easy to create in a relaxed manner, and by changing the shape gradually I guess I trick myself into creating letter forms in a relaxed manner as well. I think this works well for me.