Author Topic: An attempt at "running hand"  (Read 1098 times)

Offline daviddigi

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An attempt at "running hand"
« on: November 23, 2020, 05:30:17 PM »
Running Hand is something you will see in the historical specimens by Golden Age penmen. My attempt is only a rough idea of what they were capable of, but the idea is to compress the letterforms vertically and stretch out the spacing horizontally while simplifying forms wherever possible. This results in a hand where you feel like you are constantly moving to the right with little interruptions in between to make ascending and descending strokes. I don't think it is necessarily a faster hand, but more of a flowing hand. And definitely hard to read!

Wish I could find a sample of running hand by one of the masters. I'm attaching the closest thing I could find after searching my digital archives. It shows some of the aspects of the running hand in more of an Ornamental style.
Sincerely, Dave aka @PerfectBiscuits
Specializing in Business Penmanship, Palmer Method, American Cursive.
Consistent Cursive (free course) | ThePalmerMethod.com

Offline nicole.t

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Re: An attempt at "running hand"
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2020, 11:42:38 PM »
There's a lot of movement and rhythm in this style - it's very pleasing to look at!

Very nice work & thank you for sharing  :)

Offline Trazo

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Re: An attempt at "running hand"
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2020, 11:29:39 AM »
It is great to decided to share this awesome work here too.

PS.-By the way, I forgot to say (in another thread) that I don't know the Chinese penman. Could you tell me where I can found him?

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: An attempt at "running hand"
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2020, 04:40:39 PM »

Wish I could find a sample of running hand by one of the masters. I'm attaching the closest thing I could find after searching my digital archives. It shows some of the aspects of the running hand in more of an Ornamental style.
@daviddigi
As you correctly note, your sample is not formal running hand, which, if I recall correctly, has 2 letter spaces between each letter. The term "running hand" was used loosely by a number of penman/teachers to describe a general flowing hand (of which your piece could be an example). Another example would be plate 15 of the Spencer brothers New Spencerian Compendium.
Examples of formal running hand are rare, as it is truly a novelty script and not too practical--a few words take up an enormous amount of paper. If you would like, I'll look through what I have and post a couple of other examples if I find them and you are interested.

Here is an example by C. P. Zaner (from Michael Sull's book Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship, Vol. 2, page 540).

You're on the right track--good work.


Offline daviddigi

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Re: An attempt at "running hand"
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2020, 04:51:32 PM »
@AnasaziWrites Awesome, thank you for sharing this! If you know of any other examples, please share them as well.
Sincerely, Dave aka @PerfectBiscuits
Specializing in Business Penmanship, Palmer Method, American Cursive.
Consistent Cursive (free course) | ThePalmerMethod.com

Offline RD5

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Re: An attempt at "running hand"
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2020, 06:00:14 AM »
"Running hand"is basically a synonym for Cursive, which comes from the Latin root for for to run. Current also comes from the same root. It's exact meaning varies by context, but it is sometimes synonymous with handwriting.