Learning Italic

[dms525]

Nice italic handwriting and nice haiku, hh1990!

 

We had our first much-needed rain last night. This monkey wanted to celebrate.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[hh1990]

4 hours ago, dms525 said:

Nice italic handwriting and nice haiku, hh1990!

 

We had our first much-needed rain last night. This monkey wanted to celebrate.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

 

Thank you David! If you have the time, I would love to see more samples of your italic. Hope all is well.

[dms525]

21 hours ago, hh1990 said:

f you have the time, I would love to see more samples of your italic. Hope all is well.

 

All is well as can be expected, sheltering in place while the pandemic rages and American democracy is under assault. But samples ... The past few weeks, I have been working on Johnston's  Foundational Hand and Gothic Bâtard rather more than Italic. Here are a couple samples:

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[Inky.Fingers]

Wishing everyone good health and safe passage through this pandemic.

 

David, exceptions are made with posting of beautiful non-italic handwriting in the "learning italic" thread.

 

Much appreciated

[hh1990]

David, thank you very much for sharing. Please keep posting as you are able. I love seeing your work. Stay safe and healthy. 

 

[hh1990]

[TitoThePencilPimp]

If one wanted to learn italic, what would be a good starting source. My cursive writing is crude and mixed with print. I always wanted to improve my writing, but never knew where to start. My choice of wanting to learn italic, is that some of my favorites books/treatise were originally written in italic.

[AmandaW]

24 minutes ago, TitoThePencilPimp said:

If one wanted to learn italic, what would be a good starting source. My cursive writing is crude and mixed with print. I always wanted to improve my writing, but never knew where to start. My choice of wanting to learn italic, is that some of my favorites books/treatise were originally written in italic.

 

I've been teaching myself this year using the Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting by Fred Eager.

 

You could get started with it online at archive.org to see if it's what you want: https://archive.org/details/italicwaytobeaut00eage/mode/2up

 

Hopefully I've a attached a pdf with guidelines for italic. I made it to slip under the page of an ordinary lined binder book and help keep my slant consistent. It wasn't long before I no longer needed it. This one is A4, if another page size would be better I can change it.

italic_guides_a4.pdf

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, TitoThePencilPimp said:

If one wanted to learn italic, what would be a good starting source.

 

Some pens, such as the Pilot Parallel, and ‘calligraphy’ (fountain or dip) pen sets come with a sheet of exemplars and perhaps basic instructions.

 

I find Eleanor Winters' book Italic and Copperplate Calligraphy: The Basics and Beyond, of which I bought the Kindle edition, to be pretty good, with enough text to walk you through both styles of calligraphy, and give you the opportunity (if you're motivated enough) to have a go and decide if you want to pursue practising either or both styles.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

1 hour ago, AmandaW said:

 

I've been teaching myself this year using the Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting by Fred Eager.

 

You could get started with it online at archive.org to see if it's what you want: https://archive.org/details/italicwaytobeaut00eage/mode/2up

 

Hopefully I've a attached a pdf with guidelines for italic. I made it to slip under the page of an ordinary lined binder book and help keep my slant consistent. It wasn't long before I no longer needed it. This one is A4, if another page size would be better I can change it.

italic_guides_a4.pdf 5.88 kB · 0 downloads

No. This is a perfect size. Thank you.

 

44 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Some pens, such as the Pilot Parallel, and ‘calligraphy’ (fountain or dip) pen sets come with a sheet of exemplars and perhaps basic instructions.

 

I find Eleanor Winters' book Italic and Copperplate Calligraphy: The Basics and Beyond, of which I bought the Kindle edition, to be pretty good, with enough text to walk you through both styles of calligraphy, and give you the opportunity (if you're motivated enough) to have a go and decide if you want to pursue practising either or both styles.

Placed an order for this book. I read the available free pages and it appears to be well written. I could have also downloaded it, but I like to support Dover as a publisher. They reproduce out of print classic text in mathematics/physics/engineering at an affordable rate. 

[dms525]

12 hours ago, TitoThePencilPimp said:

If one wanted to learn italic, what would be a good starting source. My cursive writing is crude and mixed with print. I always wanted to improve my writing, but never knew where to start. My choice of wanting to learn italic, is that some of my favorites books/treatise were originally written in italic.

 

The Fred Eager book is good. Also, look at the books by Getty & Dubay.  

 

The problem with learning any motor skill from books is you can't get a sense of the movement and rhythm, and those are important in learning italic handwriting (or any other calligraphic style.). So, I strongly recommend viewing the series of instructional videos Lloyd Reynolds made in the 1970's for Oregon Public Broadcasting. They are available on youtube. There are 20 of them, although #2 is missing. They should be viewed in sequence. The greatest benefit comes from viewing these videos while using Reynolds' workbook, "Italic Lettering, Calligraphy & Handwriting." Unfortunately, it is out of print, but copies are usually available through used book channels. FYI, Reed College is working on re-issuing this workbook, but I don't have a release date.

 

As you learn, do submit your practice for review and suggestions here. 

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[hh1990]

From Invitation by Mary Oliver

 

 

 

[dms525]

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks to the people who posted sources as starting points.  

Although I like Dover Publications in principle though (I'd LOVE for them to reprint a book that -- in hardcover is generally priced at at about $350 because it's out of print; or, as I said to the one person I knew who had a copy of of it ~25 years ago "I'm sorry -- that's a CAR payment!"), I can tell you from bitter experience why their books are so inexpensive (it's not just that they're reprinting stuff where the copyright has expired).  Back when I got out of college, I had a job interview for doing layout and pasteup of their book pages -- and at the time (early 1980s -- they were not even paying minimum wage.   For me, it would have involved catching a commuter bus to midtown Manhattan, and then taking a subway downtown to Varick Street (this was before they moved out to somewhere on Long Island).  To go home would have been the reverse trip -- with the additional problem of if I missed the last bus (in which case it would have been the subway across to Grand Central Station and taking the train to Croton on Harmon (roughly 20 miles from my parents' house) and then having someone pick me up at the train station).  Art jobs generally pay poorly, but at $135-150 US per week, I couldn't AFFORD to take the job.  Ended up going back to the local "Pennysaver" the next town over at $4/hour (where I'd had a couple of summer jobs during college) and keep looking for something better).  (Dover offered me $140/week).  By the time I paid for commutation, and room and board, and my share of the phone bill, to my parents, I wouldn't have had much left....

The Thomas Registry -- also in lower Manhattan back then, was offering $12K a year.  I didn't take them up either....  The Pennysaver was a sucky job, and I knew it would be a sucky job -- but it was four miles away and I did learn on the job the two summers I had worked there before (and because someone remembered me from when I'd worked those two summers, I got the option of day or night shift...).  And I stuck it out until something (a little better) came along.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[hh1990]

[Inky.Fingers]

David

Those are beautiful letterings.  

 

HH1990

Nice big letters.  That's the way to do it!  What size is the nib?

 

[hh1990]

11 hours ago, Inky.Fingers said:

David

Those are beautiful letterings.  

 

HH1990

Nice big letters.  That's the way to do it!  What size is the nib?

 

 

Thank you Inky.Fingers. It's a 1.5 mm Pilot Parallel. 

[Inky.Fingers]

[AmandaW]

I heartily agree Inky Fingers, the Sailor calligraphy pens are good - I really like the wetness and the fine line on the sideways stroke. (Is that what is referred to as "crispness"?) However the best thing is that they haven't dried out at all, unlike my Lamy set which dried to dust and have now been cleaned and put away til the cool weather comes back.

[hh1990]

 

This video on Swash Capitals was very helpful for me. I am going to give the Sakura Calligrapher markers a try, too.