A Modest Italic Experiment

[Mickey]

Recently, the question of whether the fingers played a dominant role in the writing of italic arose in another thread, some saying the fingers (especially the forefinger) dominated the process, others saying that the first two fingers and thumb's job in italic was essentially the same as in most other Western hands, i.e., securing the pen in the hand. A similar question was raised regarding the role of the wrist. In pursuit of a bit more knowledge, I performed a quick and dirty little experiment this past week.

 

Here is the test grip.

 

 

Notice, the forefinger does not touch the pen barrel, also notice that I am wearing a wrist brace, limiting the contribution of wrist motion to the process. Here is the output at x=2mm.

 

 

No attempt was made to adhere to stylistic niceties. I simply wrote with the pen and paper that were handy.

 

The greatest difficulty I experienced was keeping the pen stable in a two finger grip, this instability accounting for the slant on the two 'f's in forefinger (slow recovery from push strokes). Very little practice was done, working on the theory that if the 'arm knew how to write' no extended acclimation or retraining would be necessary. That was my experience. The sample you see is the 4th line I wrote. The results of the previous three attempts are not materially different. I did miss the sense of edge orientation and paper contact I lost when the forefinger was removed from the grip. This made setting and maintaining the initial pen position and rotation somewhat more difficult.

 

I also tried several alternative grips: 1) index finger on top of thumb, the tip not touching the pen barrel, 2) the pen held between the 2nd and 3rd fingers, and 3) right-hand over-writing with a standard tripod grip. This last deserves some comment. Aside from the 90 degree displacement of the thick and thin strokes, this was intuitive and an easy alternative, in spite of the fact that the verticals had been turned into push strokes.

 

Conclusion: For this 3-decade long writer of italic (not calligrapher), the fingers play almost no role in italic handwriting other than securing the pen, sensing the edge contact, and changing the edge-orientation for serifs and other similar techniques. Likewise, the wrist plays almost no role for me other than connecting the hand to the arm and allowing me to slide the hand down the writing line while maintaining proper pen / writing-line alignment, very much like a violinist's wrist moves when bowing. In short, the basic technique is not that different from that which I employ for copperplate and monoline Spencerian. OP, I will concede is a different kettle of fish... but not that different.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Mickey

[New_Falcon]

I should say that I don't write an italic script but a 'form' of cursive that I'm trying to improve upon.

 

I know that when I focus on taking the fingers out of writing and only use them for holding the pen, the writing experience is a lot more relaxed and enjoyable. Now I have to make this the default for my writing.

 

I also want to thank you for taking the time to do this and write up your findings.

 

Thanks!

[smk]

This is most interesting Mickey.

 

This is not directly relevant but I found it interesting, and somewhat amusing, that I had more control in writing Spencerian at a smaller sizes (between 2-3 mm x-height) when relying mostly on arm movement. At >3mm, I found I naturally used more finger movement than at the smaller size.

 

Salman

[Mickey]

This is most interesting Mickey.

 

This is not directly relevant but I found it interesting, and somewhat amusing, that I had more control in writing Spencerian at a smaller sizes (between 2-3 mm x-height) when relying mostly on arm movement. At >3mm, I found I naturally used more finger movement than at the smaller size.

 

Salman

I've had very much the same experience, except the break over point for me is closer to 1.5mm. I can write a fairly respectable basic Spencerian at speed, right up to about x=1.8mm. After that, letter forms degrade unless I slow down a lot and take more conscious control. Then at about x=3mm (or for majuscules) arm dominance works well again. I wonder if this may have something to do with one's internal clock.

 

Supposedly, Madarasz let his fingers become active for the top of 3x letters, like 'l'. Could this relate to your observation, as well?

 

Question: Are your letter forms generally better at the smaller size or are they roughly comparable to x>3mm letters?

[akustyk]

Mickey,

This is a very interesting effort on your part. Your results speak for themselves!

 

My personal view on grips has evolved over time. I joined a local calligraphy community and have had a chance to observe some amazing calligraphers at work. The interesting thing is that each of them uses a different kind of grip, angle, etc. The only constant is the 45-degree rotation. Some people write with their hand, some rest the palm on the desk, some do not. Some write "with their fingers," while others move the entire hand, or arm. The bottom line is that despite the technique, each of these people produce incredibly beautiful italic calligraphy. Breathtaking, even.

 

Seeing professionals at work has changed my otherwise rigid views on grip, angle, movement, etc.

[smk]

I've had very much the same experience, except the break over point for me is closer to 1.5mm. I can write a fairly respectable basic Spencerian at speed, right up to about x=1.8mm. After that, letter forms degrade unless I slow down a lot and take more conscious control. Then at about x=3mm (or for majuscules) arm dominance works well again. I wonder if this may have something to do with one's internal clock.

I think it is closer to 2mm than 3mm for me. Any larger than that and I need to slow down and pay more attention to the writing.

 

Supposedly, Madarasz let his fingers become active for the top of 3x letters, like 'l'. Could this relate to your observation, as well?

It seems like it - once you reach the top of the range, you extend it using the fingers. Makes sense to me. This technique seems to apply to his 'careful' work rather than regular everyday handwriting.

 

Question: Are your letter forms generally better at the smaller size or are they roughly comparable to x>3mm letters?

My shades are definitely better at the larger size. The letters are quite consistent at smaller sizes but not very accurate - I think it has to do with muscle memory (from my regular handwriting style) taking over the process. At larger sizes I draw each stroke rather than writing letters and words and the results, while technically better are not as flowing as one would want (...yet).

 

Akustyk makes a good point about different people getting great results with different techniques. The same applies to both Calligraphy and Handwriting IMO.

 

Salman

[Mickey]

 

Akustyk makes a good point about different people getting great results with different techniques. The same applies to both Calligraphy and Handwriting IMO.

 

Salman

 

My sense of things is that italic calligraphy probably tolerates more technical variation than italic handwriting. How much variation is open to debate, but efficiency (speed vs legibility and fatigue) will likely impose practical limits on the amount and types of variation. BTW, I repeated the above test using a larger nib at x=4.5mm, writing formal italic at what I would describe as calligraphic speed. Other than grip insecurity (as noted in the other test), I found this a perfectly acceptable (intuitive) way to write.

 

Something which got ignored in the other thread was the difference between the perceived technique (how we think we write) and the actual physical process (how we actually create the marks). I don't think one necessarily maps well on to the other.* The only way to discover how well the skills do map, is to constrain (or eliminate) suspect techniques (singly, if possible) and evaluate the results. That is what I did in my little experiment. I eliminated the forefinger from the physical process entirely and the thumb and middle fingers substantially. I leave it to someone who sincerely believes the fingers dominate their process to constrain (or eliminate) similarly the movement of the forearm in the plane parallel to the desk and compare the resulting marks to their normal writing, both in terms of quality and ease. (They might also repeat my test and compare the results of the two constrained systems.)

 

* In fact, my experience as a professional musician, teacher, and clinician suggests that such mapping is exceedingly poor for most people.