Signature Help - Ornamental Penmanship

[CaseyKitten]

I've been wanting to work on my OP signature....but I have not really found any guidelines or help in regard to this area. Can anyone help me with understanding how to make this a reality?

P.S. I'm going to have to learn 2, because I'm trans, but not out yet. I'm having the most trouble with my given name, J.I.Bewley.

[Incongruent]

This will be of use as a reference for the letterforms, if you don’t already know if it:

https://www.iampeth.com/pdf/lessons-ornamental-penmanship-bloser

 

Traditionally, much thought was put into creating the all capitals in as few strokes as possible, so barring pen lifts in letters like T, all the capitals were created in a single stroke, then the lowercase letters were added. You may need to modify the letters to link them well.

 

For flourishing, I don’t really know what to say other than look at the work of others and practice.

 

If the lines are kinky and angular rather than smoothly curved, then the execution of the signature is too slow, so practice going fast enough to limit the influence of shaking muscles (which is inevitable). As the document linked previously put it, think it is easy.

 

If you ask, people here may design it for you, should that be your issue. I wouldn’t consider myself good enough at OP to do it, though.

[sidthecat]

Some of the italic penmanship books of the 17th and 18th centuries strike a nice balance of clarity and decoration. I got one recently: a used copy of “The Practice of Letters”, which is essentially a catalog of the Hofer collection of antique manuals. IAMPETH might contain the same information if you feel up to some burrowing.

[txomsy]

You may want to look at

 

"Calligraphic Flourishing. A New Approach to an Ancient Art" by Bill Hildebrant

 

"Lessons in Ornamental Penmanship", there are two books on IAMPETH, one by Zaner and one by Bloser. Both downloadables as PDFs.

 

The one by Zaner is shorter and may be easier, provides sample signatures at the end. The one by Bloser is more systematic, and designed as a practice book, you can print it and use it as a collection of practice sheets.

 

Also on IAMPETH, there is Jones' "95 lessons in Ornamental Penmanship". I think. If it is not there, then it must be on Archive.Org

 

Zaner's "Gems of flourishing" is (IMHO) more about drawing sketches than letter flourishing.

[HobansTreasures]

Also if you search IAMPETH for Signature Writing, you'll get some pretty cool exemplars and notes that might help.

[Inkyways]

@CaseyKitten There's no guidelines to create signatures. It  is the The basic knowledge of penmanship OP  writing  and speed. ( arm movements writing )

Then comes the conneting of  the Letters of  Alphabets. Your Name J.I.B.......... asatures.  follows . and that is the signature idea. er on. 

I'll do some thing roughly and come back to later on.

If you go to  IAMPETH, web site archive- SCRAPE BOOKS  can find many signatures of older  masters.

Then  you have to pick up the strokes they used on letter connections. This is the only to learn how to create signature.is 

There's no short cuts or many written guidelines  for this.  ( Sull's New Manual of Advanced Penmanship has a short passage on this under  CREATIVE SIGNATURE. )