Learning Italic

[dms525]

Post prandial penmanship practice. Possible progress?

 

 

 

Gotta clean my scanner.

 

David

[bassmannate]

So, I realize that everyone here probably knows this, but episode 2 of Lloyd Reynold's tv series isn't available anywhere. I don't have the book either but am next in line to borrow it from openlibrary.org. Does anyone know what I should focus on next before I start in with episode 3?

[mvarela]

Post prandial penmanship practice. Possible progress?

 

 

I'd certainly say so. You're producing very attractive lettering!

[bassmannate]

 

I'm impressed with your ability. These examples show a very good control of the nib angle and you maintain a good slant throughout. If anything, your letters have a tendency to be a bit square, other than that, great work

 

Looking forward to the next sheet.

 

S.

Well, here's some practice from today while my daughter was taking a nap. I'll probably do more but I ran out of guide sheets. I had about 1/2 page more but it was on a blank sheet with a guide sheet under it and was mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. Very disorganized and difficult to make out what was recent.

As you can see, I started messing with a few new letter forms. As I said earlier, I don't really know where to go next since I don't have Lloyd Reynolds' book yet and the second video in the series is not up. I feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of things though! I even wrote some of this with a bit of speed and it felt pretty natural. My "m" is even starting to look good there at the bottom of the page!

 

One question I do have: I found a scan of plate 1 in Reynolds' book. It shows that the "o" is a single stroke letter but at the bottom, it shows that it's a double stroke letter when written large and, indeed Reynolds does write his o with two strokes in the videos because he's using something like a 3-4 mm nib. What would be classified as "large?" Is this more of a personal thing? When writing an o with a single stroke becomes uncomfortable, do you switch to a double stroke at that size? I'm using a 1.9 and it seems fairly easy to do a single stroke.

 

Hard to believe that in school, I HATED writing but this is so much fun!

[mvarela]

Well, here's some practice from today while my daughter was taking a nap. I'll probably do more but I ran out of guide sheets. I had about 1/2 page more but it was on a blank sheet with a guide sheet under it and was mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. Very disorganized and difficult to make out what was recent.

 

You can use the guide sheets under your paper, that way you don't use them up, and (at least for me) they are less distracting.

[flaviocu]

Great to see everyone practicing I was also busy training my muscle memory:

 

New line in the weekly alphabet:

 

What is great when working through the book (as was said before) is, that it teaches you how to spot errors in on the letterforms. The "q" was really messy, and I think I was able to correct it on the "correction-line".

 

Next on, some cursive practice (from today and yesterday):

 

I noticed my pen became wetter and wetter the longer I wrote, so the last line came out a bit "thick" and almost no variation in the lines. Maybe I was holding it incorrectly... I also tried another pen with a 1.5mm stub (the lamy word), but it was too broad in my opinion so I went back to the 1.1mm.

 

Anyway, I worked on some quotes:

 

The slant is still not consistent, I think I switch to the guidesheet with slant-lines instead of just the horizontal lines, what do you think?

 

And then I tried some umlauts and I was wondering what your opinions are regarding the "correct" one:

 

 

I like the orange marked ones the best, with dots like on the end of a sentence, I like it better if they are closer together. I don't like the first two variants which I think are more similar to the "i" dots but could be mistaken (somehow) as a french accent. The dots further apart looks unproportional and a single straight line is also too close to an accent and it looks somehow wrong. On the right I was trying some "dot with line" combinations, I like it, however I feel it doesn't match the style of the font face. What do you think?

 

Well, I think that was my practice for today, I'm enjoying it more and more, and I also feel I'm making progress, which is usually the most rewarding feeling one can get when trying to learn something new.

 

Keep posting and have a nice day/evening/night...

Edited December 20, 2013 by flaviocu

[dms525]

I'd certainly say so. You're producing very attractive lettering!

 

Thanks, mvarela!

 

David

[bassmannate]

You can use the guide sheets under your paper, that way you don't use them up, and (at least for me) they are less distracting.

Yeah, I know I can put them under a sheet. I just need to see the lines more clearly right now to firm up a consistent slant. Once I have that a bit more under my belt (I feel close to it) I'll start putting guide sheets under a piece of paper.

[dms525]

Practicing critically.

 

 

Comments?

 

David

[smk]

David - you are absolutely right. To me, it is milestones like these (when you understand the nuances of a hand) that makes learning Calligraphy so much fun. Once the mind starts to understand the principles, the hands follow easily.

 

S.

[smk]

Great to see everyone practicing I was also busy training my muscle memory:

 

New line in the weekly alphabet:

 

 

What is great when working through the book (as was said before) is, that it teaches you how to spot errors in on the letterforms. The "q" was really messy, and I think I was able to correct it on the "correction-line".

 

Next on, some cursive practice (from today and yesterday):

 

 

I noticed my pen became wetter and wetter the longer I wrote, so the last line came out a bit "thick" and almost no variation in the lines. Maybe I was holding it incorrectly... I also tried another pen with a 1.5mm stub (the lamy word), but it was too broad in my opinion so I went back to the 1.1mm.

 

Anyway, I worked on some quotes:

 

 

The slant is still not consistent, I think I switch to the guidesheet with slant-lines instead of just the horizontal lines, what do you think?

 

And then I tried some umlauts and I was wondering what your opinions are regarding the "correct" one:

 

>>> pics deleted <<<

 

I like the orange marked ones the best, with dots like on the end of a sentence, I like it better if they are closer together. I don't like the first two variants which I think are more similar to the "i" dots but could be mistaken (somehow) as a french accent. The dots further apart looks unproportional and a single straight line is also too close to an accent and it looks somehow wrong. On the right I was trying some "dot with line" combinations, I like it, however I feel it doesn't match the style of the font face. What do you think?

 

Well, I think that was my practice for today, I'm enjoying it more and more, and I also feel I'm making progress, which is usually the most rewarding feeling one can get when trying to learn something new.

 

Keep posting and have a nice day/evening/night...

 

I'm with you - the ones you picked are the most clear.

 

S.

[smk]

Well, here's some practice from today while my daughter was taking a nap. I'll probably do more but I ran out of guide sheets. I had about 1/2 page more but it was on a blank sheet with a guide sheet under it and was mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. Very disorganized and difficult to make out what was recent.

 

As you can see, I started messing with a few new letter forms. As I said earlier, I don't really know where to go next since I don't have Lloyd Reynolds' book yet and the second video in the series is not up. I feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of things though! I even wrote some of this with a bit of speed and it felt pretty natural. My "m" is even starting to look good there at the bottom of the page!

 

One question I do have: I found a scan of plate 1 in Reynolds' book. It shows that the "o" is a single stroke letter but at the bottom, it shows that it's a double stroke letter when written large and, indeed Reynolds does write his o with two strokes in the videos because he's using something like a 3-4 mm nib. What would be classified as "large?" Is this more of a personal thing? When writing an o with a single stroke becomes uncomfortable, do you switch to a double stroke at that size? I'm using a 1.9 and it seems fairly easy to do a single stroke.

 

Hard to believe that in school, I HATED writing but this is so much fun!

 

What makes an 'o' look good is the shape of the counter (the empty space inside the letter) - not the outline. The counter should be a uniform oval at the correct slant. In my opinion it doesn't matter whether you achieve that with one stroke or two - do whatever is comfortable for you as long as you can 'consistently' get the proper counter.

 

S.

[bassmannate]

What makes an 'o' look good is the shape of the counter (the empty space inside the letter) - not the outline. The counter should be a uniform oval at the correct slant. In my opinion it doesn't matter whether you achieve that with one stroke or two - do whatever is comfortable for you as long as you can 'consistently' get the proper counter.

 

S.

That makes sense. I can make the o look better with two strokes but I think it's only because that's the way I've been practicing it after seeing Reynolds doing it that way in the series. I can write it faster in one stroke and I can imagine I can make it look better as well with a bit more practice on it.

 

Interesting that it's the counter that makes the o look good. I'll have to review my sheets and compare the ones I like with the ones I don't like.

[flaviocu]

due to a busy weekend I only managed one of three quotes I was supposed to write next (as per project 5). Anyway, I'll keep on working, hopefully I'll be able to finish the three quotes during xmas.

 

 

(and distracted minds make stupid mistakes....)

 

I wish you all a happy xmas and keep practicing

[pmhudepo]

What a great thread this is! I've been playing with my Pilot Parallel pens and created a Christmas greeting. YouTube videos of Lloyd Reynolds on the iPad for guidance and, mostly, inspiration.

 

 

I found the 3.8 mm pen (red ink) to be quite difficult to handle. So easy to get the angle wrong and have only a tiny bit of ink appear on the paper. I was much more comfortable with the 2.4 mm (green ink). After I took the pictures I saw that the letter 'f' needed a descender, which I added later on. Then I gave the original away :-)

Edited December 31, 2013 by pmhudepo

[flaviocu]

I hope you all had nice holidays and recovered from the feasts. One thing I made last week and I quite like:

 

 

Unfortunately I didn't use a guideline on the side, and ofcourse there are still a lot of mistakes (especially slants) to be spotted.

 

What's definitely great is the ink which is very vibrant and almost glowing, I doubt the picture does it justice: Caran d'Ache Chromatics: Hypnotique Turqoise and Divine Pink.

[bassmannate]

I've been doing lots of practice but am out of town at the moment. I'll have to scan some stuff in when I get back. I've been having a lot of trouble getting my s to look good.

[henkm]

Not quite as bad as before but still plenty of 'opportunities for improvement'. I did print a guide sheet but find it difficult to see the lines through the paper I'm writing on.

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img819/7339/cml8.jpg

[Aquinata]

After several months of learning and reading, I've decided that Italic is the style I'd like to learn to improve my cursive.

 

Here is my question: I'd like a recommendation for a reasonably priced first dip pen, I simply don't know where to start. I am right-handed.

 

I am working my way through this great thread, but have yet to locate a post specific to this question...

 

Thanks from a total newbie!

Edited January 1, 2014 by Aquinata

[Randal6393]

After several months of learning and reading, I've decided that Italic is the style I'd like to learn to improve my cursive.

 

Here is my question: I'd like a recommendation for a reasonably priced first dip pen, I simply don't know where to start. I am right-handed.

 

I am working my way through this great thread, but have yet to locate a post specific to this question...

 

Thanks from a total newbie!

The Mitchell dip pens are great, be sure to get enough reservoirs. Either John Neal Books or Paper, Ink, and Arts carry them. Also, get consistent good results with the Tape nibs.

 

Best of luck to you,