Point Me In The Right Direction?

[jasonchickerson]

 

Some "masters" did a pen lift. This is, you complete the downstroke, lift up the pen, leave a minute gap and then start the upstroke. Again, pressure on the holder has still to be controlled.

 

 

Thanks for your thoughtful responses, Prasad. The location of the "ink dump" is not usually located a the termination of the miniscules such as s, t, u, etc. leading into the upstroke as in your image.

 

Rather it is here on the l form where the shaded downstroke crosses through the hairline:

 

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ6494_2.jpg

 

I suspect the answer is to "draw" the upstroke, shaded downstroke, loop, and exit upstroke separately as Dr. Joe Vitolo demonstrates. However, I've been going through Eleanor Winter's book, and her method is to write the upstroke to the midline, then swing it out and up, descending into the shaded downstroke all in one motion.

 

Thus, in her method, the miniscule l is completed in a single stroke. This more "written" approach is preferable to me. I can only assume it works for some skilled calligraphers, given to popularity of Ms. Winters' book.

 

I'm not having much luck with it, though.

Edited February 23, 2015 by jasonchickerson

[prasadvenkat]

 

I suspect the answer is to "draw" the upstroke, shaded downstroke, loop, and exit upstroke separately as Dr. Joe Vitolo demonstrates. However, I've been going through Eleanor Winter's book, and her method is to write the upstroke to the midline, then swing it out and up, descending into the shaded downstroke all in one motion.

 

Thus, in her method, the miniscule l is completed in a single stroke. This more "written" approach is preferable to me. I can only assume it works for some skilled calligraphers, given to popularity of Ms. Winters' book.

 

I'm not having much luck with it, though.

 

Like you correctly mentioned the Dr.Vitolo method is one way. If you are not comfortable with it and want to do what Winter suggested, you could still do a pen lift here.

Bring your lead in stroke to the x height line. Pause, lift the pen. Leave a small gap before you start the loop ascender stroke. As you bring down the shaded downstroke, (being thick) it will cover that gap. You can do this until you get a feel for pressure and your hairlines are Thinner, so they dry faster.

 

I also noticed in your l's that the total downstroke is the same thickness. Modify this a little and you may find the problem going away.

As you loop down, start applying pressure only after about a ¼ of the way down. The l is more of a swell stroke than a full thick like the "t".

 

The same applies for the descenders in j,g,y. You have to break the hairline on either side of the thick, or the chances of dragging ink is high.

 

Most say that "Copperplate" is a drawn, rather than a written script. There are a lot of breaks in the writing and though it looks like l and h are formed in one stroke, generally there is a pen lift between direction changes.

-Prasad

Edited February 23, 2015 by prasadvenkat

[jasonchickerson]

My alphabet as of today.

 

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ6505.jpg

 

Not perfect by any standard, but I'm happy with the progress I'm making. The feathering seen here seems to happen in the middle part of HP 32 lb. laser paper. The top and bottom of the sheet look much cleaner. Written with a Desiderata pen and titanium Zebra G nib and Parker Quink Black ink.

[prasadvenkat]

Wonderful work and progress

[jasonchickerson]

Wonderful work and progress

 

Thank you. You've been a great help.

[janiegirl]

I have to say I'm so impressed with your progress! There's such a difference between your first post and the last one, and in only 2 weeks. I hope I can do as good when I start practicing.

[jasonchickerson]

I have to say I'm so impressed with your progress! There's such a difference between your first post and the last one, and in only 2 weeks. I hope I can do as good when I start practicing.

 

Thank you. I've been pleased with the progress as well. Here are a couple from the last two days. I'm about halfway through exploring the letter connections, i.e. writing oa ob oc od oe of og, etc.

 

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ6523.jpg

 

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ6524.jpg

This is a tongue in cheek Get Well card I sent to my wife's grandmother, who recently had knee surgery.

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ6520.jpg

 

And this is one of the party invitations I'm working on for my youngest daughter's second birthday. As you can see, I have not yet studied the Upper Case forms. The card will be folded and the reverse will have some kind of washed sketch, like the Get Well card, but I haven't quite figured that part out yet. One thing I've learned with these: the layout is even harder than the writing!

 

http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac209/jasonchickerson/_FUJ6525.jpg

 

All of these were done on Original Crown Mill Pure Cotton Paper. After days of frustrating practice on high quality laser paper, I've decided not to worry about the cost and just use the good stuff for all my practice from now on. I've ordered a ream of Tomoe River for practice, as well. Though I don't personally like it as well as the OCM papers, it has a very high transparency, takes a dip pen very well, and costs about 1/4 as much as the OCM.

Edited February 28, 2015 by jasonchickerson

[ac12]

For cheaper paper try Staples "Sustainable Earth" 20# sugar cane paper.

It isn't as smooth as HP 32# Premium paper, but it is cheaper and I can see my guide sheet below.

It has stood up to virtually all the inks that I have used on it.

 

I was going to suggest more vertical spacing, but looks like you found that in the guidesheets that you are using.

My current guide sheet is similar, the descender line is the ascender line of the text line below.

When I am cramped vertically, like when when using regular ruled paper, where the base line is the ascender line of the text line below, I tend to flatten my writing, so it looks chunky or it gets smaller, which are not desired.

Edited February 28, 2015 by ac12

[prasadvenkat]

 

All of these were done on Original Crown Mill Pure Cotton Paper. After days of frustrating practice on high quality laser paper, I've decided not to worry about the cost and just use the good stuff for all my practice from now on. I've ordered a ream of Tomoe River for practice, as well. Though I don't personally like it as well as the OCM papers, it has a very high transparency, takes a dip pen very well, and costs about 1/4 as much as the OCM.

Great great work. You have a natural hand for this.

Glad you ordered Tomoe river. It's a magic paper. Another paper you can try, which is cheaper than Tomoe and takes ink very very well is Onion skin.

 

I have a whole ream of this and it's my daily practice paper. You can get it here.

http://www.thepapermillstore.com/paper-store-24-7-onion-skin-white-paper-8-1-2-x-11-in-9-lb-bond-smooth-500-per-ream.html

 

Happy writing

-Prasad

[jasonchickerson]

Great great work. You have a natural hand for this.

Glad you ordered Tomoe river. It's a magic paper. Another paper you can try, which is cheaper than Tomoe and takes ink very very well is Onion skin.

 

I have a whole ream of this and it's my daily practice paper. You can get it here.

http://www.thepapermillstore.com/paper-store-24-7-onion-skin-white-paper-8-1-2-x-11-in-9-lb-bond-smooth-500-per-ream.html

 

Happy writing

-Prasad

 

Thanks for the tip. I bought a ream of so-called Air Mail paper that I thought would perform as well I've heard this paper does. Alas, it worked but not well. I'll keep your suggestion in mind for my next paper purchase.