Learning Spencerian...

[Whome]

Tonight's practice doodle. Suggestions and recommendations on form is welcome and needed. Thanks to some great advice, I took a break for a little while. Paper is cheap graph paper, Nikko G nib.

[gfs2222]

Tonight's practice doodle. Suggestions and recommendations on form is welcome and needed. Thanks to some great advice, I took a break for a little while. Paper is cheap graph paper, Nikko G nib.

 

Lovely letterforms.

[proton007]

Ow my hands!

 

I'm at exercise 8, and the shape is proving to be a challenge. The descent and rapid ascent causes my pencil to dig in to the paper....Any suggestions?

 

After an hour + my hands have started to give up, its painful but I think should be improvement tomorrow.

Edited May 26, 2013 by proton007

[smk]

Proton007 - it is recommended to keep your practice sessions short (about 20 minutes) so you don't get tired. Trying to push it with tired hands and eyes can actually be detrimental to your progress.

 

I have found on many occasions that the challenges I faced in a previous session weren't so difficult when I started fresh.

 

Salman

[MrMGWard]

Spent a couple months working in Canada and didn't keep up with my nightly drills. Not enough hours in the day hah. I'm back now and figured I'd play around tonight before I get back into drill mode A little out of practice. I don't usually cross my t's like this, but wanted to try out out for experiment sake. May have over done it a touch.

 

Edited June 6, 2013 by Swavey

[proton007]

Really nice!

[Stompie]

Spent a couple months working in Canada and didn't keep up with my nightly drills. Not enough hours in the day hah. I'm back now and figured I'd play around tonight before I get back into drill mode A little out of practice. I don't usually cross my t's like this, but wanted to try out out for experiment sake. May have over done it a touch.

 

 

Very nice!

 

But tell me, why do your 'a' letters not have that little shade to them?

[proton007]

Very nice!

 

But tell me, why do your 'a' letters not have that little shade to them?

 

I think its because of the double strokes, up and down.

Edited June 6, 2013 by proton007

[MrMGWard]

But tell me, why do your 'a' letters not have that little shade to them?

 

Good eye Stompie! I wish I had a better answer. I am not at the point where my "a" shade happens without thinking, like my t's or d's yet. Thank you for your observation. I think I want to start shading the small down stroke on my r's as well.

 

Ill post up a new drill sheet soon.

[Stompie]

LOL, ok, I too have to think all the time about each letter before I write it.

One more question - what nib are you using?

[thang1thang2]

 

Good eye Stompie! I wish I had a better answer. I am not at the point where my "a" shade happens without thinking, like my t's or d's yet. Thank you for your observation. I think I want to start shading the small down stroke on my r's as well.

 

Ill post up a new drill sheet soon.

 

The a shade is optional, but it does look better with than without if your ds and ts are so thickly shaded as yours are. Perhaps try shading your d's and t's only about 3/4ths of the degree you do now until you get the 'a' down.

 

Your spencerian looks marvelous for someone "out of practice". I must confess, though, to not having seen that variation of a capital 'e' before. I can't say it's my favorite. The little loop at the top is reversed from normal and it just makes the curvature look so odd to me. In my opinion spencerian is based upon circles, so having compound curves instead of circles throws off the entire look of the letter and makes it look malformed, not modified. You can keep it as is, however, as it's up to opinion at the level of skill you're at.

[thang1thang2]

Here is a poem that I wrote for my girlfriend. I did this work in one sitting, rather "rushed" and with very little guidelines. They were so faint I almost couldn't see them. Very little care was made to forms or flourish and it was, overall, a sloppy work. But it was just an excuse to get me actually using my nibs again rather than putting it off so I could "take it serious". Sumi ink used, with a leonart principal EF nib at near the end of its lifespan (I think). Paper is 32lb inkjet that I got from staples. I think it's staples brand, rather than say HP.

 

Comments, critiques? What I think I need to work on most is getting things smoother and more consistent, so what that means is I actually need to practice (shocking, I know). I'll design and print out several templates tonight if I can so I can practice home or away, fountain pen or dip pen. All the fundie forms are monoline except for gentle "unnessecary" shades, so all that matters is getting the templates out so I can practice perfectly rather than imperfectly by eyeing it from screen to paper.

[smk]

Very little care was made to forms or flourish and it was, overall, a sloppy work.

 

The best and most sincere advice I can give you is to resolve to _never_ do that again - ever.

 

Even if it is just 2-3 minutes try to get one letter, or even one stroke, right. It might sound too little but every little bit helps and does add up. At the very least you will feel better about the exercise and are more likely to get meaningful feedback :-)

 

Looking forward to your next mini-session.

 

Salman

[smk]

Spent a couple months working in Canada and didn't keep up with my nightly drills. Not enough hours in the day hah. I'm back now and figured I'd play around tonight before I get back into drill mode A little out of practice. I don't usually cross my t's like this, but wanted to try out out for experiment sake. May have over done it a touch.

 

 

Glad to see your practice sheet - it doesn't look like your hand suffered much from the lack of practice

 

Salman

[MrMGWard]

One more question - what nib are you using?

 

Currently inking a Nikko G nib.

 

Your spencerian looks marvelous for someone "out of practice". I must confess, though, to not having seen that variation of a capital 'e' before. I can't say it's my favorite.

 

Thank you very much. I put in many many hours at the nib before taking my little break.

 

I personally disliked capital E's until I came across this variation. I will admit, the one in this post is a poorly executed version of the intention. I did his name as an after thought somewhat hastily. (oops)

 

[thang1thang2]

The best and most sincere advice I can give you is to resolve to _never_ do that again - ever.

 

 

Looking forward to your next mini-session.

 

Salman

I do hate it when I'm somewhat sloppy with my work. I paid attention to forms and everything, to be sure. It it was less calligraphy and more shaded handwriting at the speed that I had to go, given my time constraints. Now that summer is here and some amazing nibs are in the mail, I'm going to work on being serious about it. The main problem I've had is the lack of things to write on. There's no lack of instruction books out there, but so very few come with printable practice sheets that it almost seems like you have to eyeball it, or buy books off of amazon. As I'm too poor for the second option, I need to stop being lazy and make my own sheets to practice on

[thang1thang2]

I would like to ask a certain question that I've been puzzling on. In several different types of spencerian books, they'll advocate different types of drills. Some might say to do ovals, some might say to do one type of thing, or another, or yet a different type, etc. What type of drills do you guys use to practice with? Or do you just practice with your words and nothing more?

[smk]

thang1thang2 - do you mean a sheet with grid lines by exercise sheet? They are easy enough to make, I have attached a 2mm one that I use for practice in A4 size.

 

As for instruction material, there is nothing better than watching an expert at work but that is rarely possible. In learning from printed material any of the well-regarded books will take you there - choose the one that appeals to you and then stick to it. The secret of self-paced study for me is to set goals for every session and then do an analysis of what I achieved and what I need to work on for the next one. My practice sessions are usually short - about 15 minutes. This practice has helped me the most IMO.

 

Others might have different things that work for them but one thing is common: consistency pays - no matter which method, or instruction book, you choose.

 

Salman

 

Spencerian Guidelines-2mm-grey.pdf

[MrMGWard]

I personally made my own guide sheets that I modeled from an old book. Can't remember the title right now, sry. I too keep my sessions short most of the time, and like to switch between drills from various books, and random quotes/sayings/stream of consciousness. I often look over my previous drills to find things I need to focus on for the next set.

[Mickey]

My morning warm-up or practice sessions both begin with a spiral of ovals, both clockwise and counter-clockwise. I start off lightly shading each stroke, then I try to write with no shade, and finish by alternating shaded and unshaded strokes.

 

If it's a practice session, I might start off working on the principles or do a page from a copy book, typically one of Michael Sull's. Afterwards, I'll concentrate on anything I didn't do well in the previous practice, which increasing has been to work on problematic pairs or groups of letters.

 

The most important thing is to be methodical in your practice and critical of your work, especially as concerns slant and spacing. As Madarasz advised, study as much as you practice. Study exemplars from the Golden Age. Until you get the look of Spencerian in your eye, you will have great difficulty getting it to come out of your fingers.

Edited June 9, 2013 by Mickey