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General Categories => Introductions => Topic started by: A Smug Dill on August 23, 2018, 02:55:10 AM

Title: G'day from Sydney, Australia
Post by: A Smug Dill on August 23, 2018, 02:55:10 AM
Hi,

I'm Gil. I live in Sydney, Australia and have been for twenty years and, before that, elsewhere in Australia for a decade, so I get by with my spoken and written English but my penmanship is, as they say, pretty ordinary. I'd like to improve on that, and I'd been keen to at least correct the form of my cursive script and maybe learn a new hand. I hope to learn much here, and I pray you all will be generous with your guidance.

Even though I haven't written anything much in Chinese – by hand or otherwise – in more than a quarter of a century, my Chinese handwriting is thankfully still passable, and one of my recently reignited interests is in better producing the shapes of kaishu (i.e. regular Chinese script) using fountain pens, and I like experimenting with different nibs – soft, hard, flex, the fude, the Concord, etc. – to see which ones would allow me to do so. That is another reason why I was referred here by someone on the Fountain Pen Network; there is a forum section on Eastern calligraphy here, in which I look forward to more discussion and participation.

See you soon!

(In case anyone wants to look it up independently using digital resources, the text on the card is:
小弟初到貴論壇
請大家多多指教
which means, “I'm new to your forum; please advise and guide me generously.”)
Title: Re: G'day from Sydney, Australia
Post by: ash0kgiri on August 26, 2018, 02:19:41 AM
Hi Gil,

Welcome to FF. And the post written in chinese is so good. Wonder the pen's nib is bent down for any specific reason?
So what do you want to start with... since you have mentioned cursive writing you can start with Business penmanship and move to spencerian and so on.

Dont hesitate to ask if you have any doubt.

-Ashok
Title: Re: G'day from Sydney, Australia
Post by: Bianca M on August 27, 2018, 11:42:07 AM
Welcome to the forum, Gil!
Title: Re: G'day from Sydney, Australia
Post by: FlowerCityLetters on August 27, 2018, 03:29:48 PM
Welcome, Gil.

I have to say, I think your regular penmanship is quite beautiful already! You're in the right place to start learning more :).
Title: Re: G'day from Sydney, Australia
Post by: A Smug Dill on August 27, 2018, 08:38:28 PM
Thank you very much for the warm welcome.

Raayynuh, you're too kind!

Ashok, the Naginata Concord nib I have is essentially an inverted Fude nib, which writes differently in both normal/upright position and upside-down. The Concord nib, in upright position, writes like a F or MF nib with the tip of the beak. When writing upside-down, it produces a variety of brush-like stroke widths, depending on the angle (and of course the pressure, too).

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/S5QxgF2FJaaJYOzwrxATRlH4LUP2rsiLHME3JJ4r0HhcBUljXHn3UzjU3KXiF3r8zwb38MR0fI_5lx3RRWd1wSN5P8lOaaD8ADQT4PRLMj6n8_cNXZ5eeefT0CsPCEHWTGSY3mR-Q4nNlTSUcUzCDHTERyLepu5vMzagSTGq-5AWdxXp4xwtCDjuAf4H3AIeMGoYuAGofDSveUKJjKp-333Z4xDs6uHpWyQXkgQ1kqt5WaSgUPPJkwYqCCPZL6Qhi8qOCmVbe48UYmj_w0S5wVC8x25M66612njrGKZ7wUuuK2nzbjN8vd2gtL38D0DIeuBs67YQzo8WqqB68WZlM4OgicpG3gn7w-hHbX7ls9aWXpOnudDEJcgMiv2NjFfj_793sXBSU5hHwkEYJLuTsCx-bfS2qV3_uao_3U2R3NZLGtGJ9nAtD11gfRQA0CRd_fqBo36zLuhzKt-LBB7XcBL1yl3pBi1M5oWkIlmj9rIseaRGn1L6O7vYFbR7jjQ6e_i0KXLk2Fui62qe8ReTIEwMKdtUZ3hYl6aDnIa3DPx6SbHqL3xJBpvJU9eHzcLknj0KW7yEqRiGVYEcPAimTEaBI-2fqk40gAYmbeZ-HJqHJKLelV8E6jT1o7SYywmPiPoYqmaGWfbDTaXJ4Ha33XLdgzq7sByQok_6iD5pj0f4G45PBlZllVYy=w400-h438-no)

(Sorry for the crappy writing sample, I was testing how the newly received Diamine Evergreen ink performs in the pen, and it seems to flow a bit dry; furthermore, the ink feathers somewhat on the Daiso 5mm grid Word Card.)

I prefer the Concord nib to the Fude nib for everyday use, since I can write normally with the former and then use it upside-down for bold text or headings and such; the latter produces broad strokes in normal position, and fine lines when used upside-down.

I wonder what someone could do with a Concord nib for brush lettering?
Title: Re: G'day from Sydney, Australia
Post by: Martha Laurens on August 29, 2018, 08:20:47 AM
Hi Gil,

That's a very nice writing from you! and believe me even though I've learned Chinese in the past, but I cannot even write like what you did in the post :D

Finally somebody from Sydney is here! :P I just moved to this city few months ago from US and currently lives in the inner west. So anyway, welcome to the flourish forum! ^_^ maybe we could do a pen meet up sometime :)

Cheers!
Martha