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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Benjamin Eakins -- Early American Penman
« on: June 18, 2019, 05:05:43 PM »
Thanks @AAAndrew, that is fascinating information!
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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Benjamin Eakins -- Early American Penman
« on: June 17, 2019, 07:34:02 PM »
I was recently reading a book on the important American artist Thomas Eakins. I was interested to learn that his father was also artistically inclined, and a teacher of penmanship.
Here is a quote from the book, Eakins Watercolors, by Donelson F. Hoopes:
Thomas Eakins was born in Philadelphia in 1844. His family derived from a working class background of farmers and craftsmen. His father, Benjamin Eakins, earned a modest living by teaching handwriting --"penmanship," as it was termed -- in the fashionable private schools of the city. In a time when the manual arts were still flourishing, "Master" Benjamin supplemented his income by engrossing documents and presentation testimonials with his elegant steel-pen script. Son and father had a close personal relationship ...
Often it does happen that an artistic parent contributes to the development of an artistic child, and this appears to have been a formative influence for Thomas Eakins.
Does anyone know of other references to his father, the penman Benjamin Eakins?
Here is a quote from the book, Eakins Watercolors, by Donelson F. Hoopes:
Thomas Eakins was born in Philadelphia in 1844. His family derived from a working class background of farmers and craftsmen. His father, Benjamin Eakins, earned a modest living by teaching handwriting --"penmanship," as it was termed -- in the fashionable private schools of the city. In a time when the manual arts were still flourishing, "Master" Benjamin supplemented his income by engrossing documents and presentation testimonials with his elegant steel-pen script. Son and father had a close personal relationship ...
Often it does happen that an artistic parent contributes to the development of an artistic child, and this appears to have been a formative influence for Thomas Eakins.
Does anyone know of other references to his father, the penman Benjamin Eakins?
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Introductions / Re: Salvete from Houston
« on: August 13, 2018, 10:23:48 AM »
Welcome, @Jennifer_J . I also enjoy Latin, and I have thought that there are Latin words which would be very good for calligraphy practice. One that comes to mind is "huius", this should be a good word to use to focus on uniform letter spacing.
John
John
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Spencerian Script / Re: Practice with ballpoint pen
« on: July 23, 2018, 07:06:25 PM »
As far as availability and price, it looks like the .7mm pen is available for about $3.30 on Jetpens.com, which is usually a good vendor in my experience. Thanks for the tip, I like Pentel pens, but have not yet tried the Slicci!
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Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / A Handwriting Lesson from 1965
« on: June 05, 2018, 09:10:25 PM »
When I was about 12 years old, my parents were so distressed by the state of my penmanship, that they engaged a professional handwriting tutor to instruct me. I know, it may be hard for those of you who know my penmanship now, to believe that I started from such an unpromising beginning…or then again, maybe that’s actually not so hard to believe.
That was back in 1965, in Norfolk, Virginia. It is certainly unlikely that now, more than 50 years later, that I should happen to find exemplars and lessons from Mrs. Sutton (such is all I know of her beyond her name) as I engaged in a long overdue cleaning of my attic. I still remember her placing her own hand around my twelve year old hand, and my amazement at watching the letters that were produced from my pen.
Her method, (at least in so far as it is still preserved), was to write a row of exemplar capitals, and I would repeat rows of the same letter below. Her style has elements of business penmanship, as found in Palmer and others, although I think it is modified in some aspects in order to comply with school instruction standards in Virginia in 1965.
Should anyone have, or be able to find, any more information about Mrs. Sutton, beyond this very limited sketch, I would be fascinated to learn more about her. I am attaching two exemplar pages in her hand that I hope you will find of interest. Note the rewrite of the word “detailed” in the second file.
That was back in 1965, in Norfolk, Virginia. It is certainly unlikely that now, more than 50 years later, that I should happen to find exemplars and lessons from Mrs. Sutton (such is all I know of her beyond her name) as I engaged in a long overdue cleaning of my attic. I still remember her placing her own hand around my twelve year old hand, and my amazement at watching the letters that were produced from my pen.
Her method, (at least in so far as it is still preserved), was to write a row of exemplar capitals, and I would repeat rows of the same letter below. Her style has elements of business penmanship, as found in Palmer and others, although I think it is modified in some aspects in order to comply with school instruction standards in Virginia in 1965.
Should anyone have, or be able to find, any more information about Mrs. Sutton, beyond this very limited sketch, I would be fascinated to learn more about her. I am attaching two exemplar pages in her hand that I hope you will find of interest. Note the rewrite of the word “detailed” in the second file.
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Letter Pixels / Re: Adapting images for print
« on: May 07, 2018, 07:48:46 PM »
I agree with the suggestion to get a scanner. I have been using an Epson V600 scanner for about a year now, and it is easy to use and produces great quality scans. It might even be more economical than the photoshop solution in the long run. And I keep finding unexpected uses for it; it is a very versatile and useful machine.
Just a thought....
Just a thought....
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Introductions / Re: Hello from North Carolina!
« on: October 18, 2017, 03:26:06 PM »
Hi Aituaje, it is good to have a fellow North Carolinian join the Fourish Forum!
Looks like you are off to a great start! There are plenty of great resources that you will find on this site to help you, at all stages of your journey.
Looks like you are off to a great start! There are plenty of great resources that you will find on this site to help you, at all stages of your journey.
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Word of the Day / Re: Idoneous
« on: October 15, 2017, 10:27:27 AM »
Sharing my current best effort at writing the word of the day, Idoneous. So challenging, but fun, to try to get eight letters in a row all to work!
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Introductions / Re: Hiya from Oregon!
« on: August 26, 2017, 08:19:34 PM »
Hi Ealasaid, glad you are here. I agree, I keep finding new depth in Spencerian drills. They do seem to help to develop a precision in our mental concepts of letter forms. They also help to foster a facility of muscular movements, with mental attention, that produces the desired result on paper (in the cases where it all goes right 
.
Welcome,
John
.Welcome,
John
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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Straight vs Oblique (one more point)
« on: June 16, 2017, 07:31:57 PM »
I would like to add one more thought to this thread, in case anyone else has had the same thought.
Because an oblique holder is so precisely aligned with the 52 degree angle, I find that sometime it obscures visibility of what I am writing. In particular, if I am watching my ascenders, I find that they are hidden by the nib until after they are made. A straight holder (or a ballpoint pen) does not have this issue of obscuring what I am writing, as I write it.
Anyway, just a thought, and maybe a small point in favor of the straight holder. I still love oblique holders, of course, for the great, even, swells they make.
--John
Because an oblique holder is so precisely aligned with the 52 degree angle, I find that sometime it obscures visibility of what I am writing. In particular, if I am watching my ascenders, I find that they are hidden by the nib until after they are made. A straight holder (or a ballpoint pen) does not have this issue of obscuring what I am writing, as I write it.
Anyway, just a thought, and maybe a small point in favor of the straight holder. I still love oblique holders, of course, for the great, even, swells they make.
--John
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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: Parlez-vous Française?
« on: June 04, 2017, 03:31:55 PM »
Hi @InkyFingers. I was in Paris two weeks ago. I have T-Mobile here in the US, and it worked well in Paris. I think it is because it uses a GSM network, which is common in Europe. I have friends with Verizon in the US, and they actually bought a French plan SIM card for their phone for the best calling there. If you are primarily texting, you can check out WhatsApp. That is a texting app that uses wireless internet to receive and send text messages, so you don't have to go through your phone connection, you just have to have an internet connection.
Anyway, please understand that I am not an expert, but I hope this will be somewhat helpful.
As for restaurants, it's France, so almost all are good!
Anyway, please understand that I am not an expert, but I hope this will be somewhat helpful.
As for restaurants, it's France, so almost all are good!
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Broad Edge Pen Calligraphy / Re: which hand next?
« on: May 06, 2017, 10:31:29 AM »
Hi @garyn. I think one nice thing about Uncial is that it is so different from much other western calligraphy. Maybe this is due to it's roots in ancient Greek letterforms and their often rounded character. And the nice thing is that there is not just one Uncial style. You can choose from several versions, presented in their historical context, in the book Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique by Marc Drogin.
Good luck with any new style you try, they can all be fun and rewarding!
Good luck with any new style you try, they can all be fun and rewarding!
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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: Old practice sheets - what do you do?
« on: April 06, 2017, 06:59:24 PM »
I like to cut up a practice page vertically into bookmarks. It's practical, and the resultant fragments of writing acquire a mystery that they never had as practice sentences. But alas, even the most voracious reader only needs so many bookmarks...
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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Calligraphy Humor
« on: March 25, 2017, 01:27:03 PM »
Calligraphy humor doesn't often make it into the New Yorker magazine, but I thought this group would appreciate the attached cartoon from the March 27, 2017 issue. Enjoy!
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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Warming Up...
« on: February 12, 2017, 08:42:59 AM »
Hi @RobertFontaine, the kind of cycle you describe is very familiar to me, thanks for bringing up this topic.
I guess the key is, how can we extend the amount of time when we are writing well--after we are warmed up, and before we start to lose it. I sometimes seem to get into that zone more quickly when I have an non-writing warm up first, something like light weight bearing exercise, yoga, stretching, or mild aerobic exercise. On the mental side, music sometimes help me to get into the proper frame of mind more quickly. I do agree with you that any way we can get more quickly into that state where we are writing well helps to extend the amount of good writing we can do before the exhaustion sets in.
John
I guess the key is, how can we extend the amount of time when we are writing well--after we are warmed up, and before we start to lose it. I sometimes seem to get into that zone more quickly when I have an non-writing warm up first, something like light weight bearing exercise, yoga, stretching, or mild aerobic exercise. On the mental side, music sometimes help me to get into the proper frame of mind more quickly. I do agree with you that any way we can get more quickly into that state where we are writing well helps to extend the amount of good writing we can do before the exhaustion sets in.
John
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