This will be repeat for Lyric - but I think it bears repeating.
There are many different styles of teaching - and often times people who start teaching feel like the way they learned was the *best* way because it worked for them. When I started teaching, I called it *showing* -as in- I can show you how to follow the directions in a book.
I did not make any judgment about which was *best* - the historical styles or the new bouncy contemporary styles. I often had students pursuing both directions in the same class. I had picked up a lot from all the different classes and workshops that I had taken with the true rock stars in calligraphy.
Something that I think helps a lot - no matter where you are on the learning curve - is to practice your letters in groups.
The space between the letters is JUST AS IMPORTANT as the letters themselves.
So, practicing letters in groups will double your skill-building.
Why make 5 rows of the letter i and 5 rows of the letter n - when you can write the word - in - 5 rows - and also practice your word spacing?
Letter spacing and word spacing are essential -
The way letters join is an essential part of the script styles.
Lyric -- you have put in a ton of hours -- and I know that you have made a lot of progress.
I really hope that you can put letters together and also maintain proper word spacing between the groups -
Your single letters are just fine -- but, I think they will be even better if you allow them to *join* and contribute to a beautiful page of texture.
I frequently see examples of beginner work that is very nice- but there is way too much space between the words.
So many people remember their lessons from first grade and put a *finger width* between each word.
That was fine in first grade -- but if you look a page of beautiful script done by someone like John Stevens, you will see much less than the width of a finger. The amount of space that a lower case I takes up is good for starters.
I look forward to seeing a page of joined letters with beautiful letter spacing, Lyric :-)