Correct practice?

[KateGladstone]

I learned to write as an "arm writer," holding the pen loosely and started using inexpensive fountain pens at the age of 9. I had lovely penmanship--until I went to college. Arm writing, for me, is slower than "finger writing." Then, in the working word, I was often writing on two-part small note pages where, again, arm writing didn't work well. As a result, my once-lovely penmanship has deteriorated significantly.

 

Now, I'm slowing beginning to lose the fine sensations in my thumb and first two fingers of my right (dominant) hand, so back to arm writing it shall be. The upside is that if I'm moving back to arm writing, I have an excuse to go back to fountain pens. I really must locate my 1974 Parker 75.

 

I recommend wrist/forearm writing for most people -- it tends (in my experience/observation) to work better than the other extremes.

[caliken]

I recommend wrist/forearm writing for most people -- it tends (in my experience/observation) to work better than the other extremes.

Good, sound advice from Kate Gladstone - as usual.

 

I tend to finger write very small lettering and gradually move to wrist/forearm as the letters increase in size- this feels most natural to me. I try not to think about this aspect too much, as I'm likely to get too 'hung up' on it and it might well destroy the pleasure I derive from writing.

 

caliken

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I think the shoulder motion is more a feel of the shoulder being there…I have done it for a whole minute. I noticed I have a shoulder.

 

I must turn my dinosaur hen scratch into something readable. I believe the need of speed in writing because I had much better things to that to write as a child and the fact I was not to waste paper in it was expensive, turned my C grade writing into the D- it turned into. I had fountain pens off and on from mid grade school, to and through Jr. High, and a few times in High School. I never remembered, much of it is supposed to flow, so I’d gone through a number of pens that are now wanted, and gladly gave up the fountain pen for the ballpoint pen.

In addition, I think I was using a fine point where I should have been using a medium or a broad, but with a fine point, you could put more words on a line, and that was not letting a fountain pen flow.

By saving paper, I put a cramp into my hand writing…Well, a good excuse is worth its weight in gold.

 

My mother had a beautiful script; learned under pain of sexually frustrated nuns with stout 18-inch rulers with the brass insert. My mother told me of coming home with her palm all swollen from the learning. It worked.

 

The man who found that Palmer down load; should have posted the link.

 

I had a Parker 75 that sat in my wife’s jewelry box for 30 years. It writes so good.

I live in Germany. One of her relatives died 10-12 years ago, leaving the pens that sat in the drawer. As I got ready to flea market them, I discovered one was a double J gray Esterbrook 2996, a name I vaguely recognized. If I’d had an Esterbrook, it had been one with a cheap “modern” top. That cheap nib Esterbrook writes well too. The rest seem to be fine nibbed. I wish to write bolder than fine.

Oddly as a child, I was very conservative, and would never had a splotchy colorful pen. Only Black, dark blue, and here and there a red when none of the dark ones was to be had. Now I want color in my life.

Thanks to the internet, I discovered seven from eight had a small value.

Suddenly I had a collection of fountain pens. I discovered nibs. I found I still wrote so only an English teacher or a Pharmacist could read it. I decided to learn to write. I might some day, write well enough to write a letter: to whom I don’t know.

 

If one follows the links in that woman’s com, something that leads to a PDF, for 2-3 grade lined writing paper. One of course wants to write on good paper and not grade school.

I have the pens, the lined paper. Now I need the right “book” and a daily dose of will power.

Edited April 22, 2009 by Bo Bo Olson

[Johnny Appleseed]

I find when I consciously try to use only my arm and shoulder movements, and to keep my fingers relatively still, that my letters are formed more consistantly, the bottom of the letter line up better, and my x-height is more consistant.

 

One of the problems with finger writing is that you tend to keep the wrist resting on the writing surface and pivot on the wrist as you move along the line - sometime this can even result in a "lumped" look to the line. Shoulder writing lets you pivot off of the shoulder, so your hand movements are more consistant across the line of writing.

 

However, I find that it only works well when I am writing in a situation that allows for good writing posture and a good writing surface. I have tried it when journaling in a smallish journal, in some of the odd places I write (lying in bed, sitting on stairs, outside, etc) and it does not work so well. It also takes a lot more work and concentration, though I think that is in part because I don't do it often. I end up holding my fingers too rigid. It is something I am working on, but not to try to train myself to strict shoulder-writing - more to get my whole body involved in the process.

 

I think the key is, as bitterwonder points out, to keep the arm and shoulder loose and to learn to use the whole unit to make more fluid and controlled movements. Careful control of finger movements takes the combined use of the whole arm and upper torso, using each part for the right movements. There is more to good writing than just the fingers, and I think that is what is important - to not only use your fingers, but to use your arm and shoulder in a way that lets your fingers work more successfully.

 

I wish I could find it, but there was an article in Letter Arts Review from many years ago where one of the more famous calligraphers recounts when one of her teachers told her "If you really want to learn calligraphy, study modern dance." It really struck me as how calligraphy, and drawing and painting, really are about how the body moves - that what happens on the paper is just the end result of a set of complex movements of much of the body that allows the pen to dance across the page.

 

 

EDIT: Just for kicks, I scanned a couple samples of my own hand, one done finger-style, one done mostly from the shoulder. Pen was a Charles Ingersoll oversize, with a semi-flex + nib. In fairness, the finger-style was probably done a bit faster than the shoulder writing, as it is closer to the way I naturally write.

 

One thing I note is that it feels easier to join more when shoulder writing - maybe that is one of the reasons it was so popular with specific all-joined styles in the past, such as Palmer.

 

 

John

Edited April 22, 2009 by Johnny Appleseed

[James Pickering]

.......... there was an article in Letter Arts Review from many years ago where one of the more famous calligraphers recounts when one of her teachers told her "If you really want to learn calligraphy, study modern dance." ..........

Probably not the one you were referring too, John, but in advocating the use of base guidelines alone, Edward Johnston's maintained that attempting to write between base line/letter height guidelines inhibits fluid, rhythmic writing and is like trying to dance in a room where the ceiling is the same height as the dancer.

 

James

[rolniolnhpet]

ipona mat?... êå

[bdanh1989]

You need to follow the Palmer method.

[bdanh1989]

It's great and very clearly to self-study. Before writing caligraph well, you need to learn how to use pen and muscular correct ( in my opinion). They are slow progresses