Author Topic: Italic Exemplar Favorites  (Read 3854 times)

Offline Elisabeth_M

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Italic Exemplar Favorites
« on: July 23, 2017, 10:18:30 AM »
So, Italic.... Sheila Waters italic alphabet has a certain degree of pen manipulation (changing the angle on some of the strokes for some miniscule letters like w, v, and y in order avoid having very thin diagonal strokes) while Fred Eager does none of that.  I like the look of Sheila Waters' alphabet which is a bit more rounded on certain letters, but I hate the pen manipulation. It feels like cheating not to do it if I'm using her exemplar, though.  I can't decide if I should just give up on her exemplar and use Fred Eager's (which is is what I started with when I started learning italic, and does feel a bit more natural to me) or just leave off the pen manipulation or suck it up and do the pen manipulation.  Or maybe keep digging for the perfect exemplar?


ETA:  Links to the exemplars mentioned in the replies below

Arrighi
Bernadino Cataneo
Dodington
Ken Fraser
Tom Gourdie (I could not find an exemplar of his style so I have linked to his book on Amazon) (See Ken Fraser's post #09 below)
John Stevens
Sheila Waters
« Last Edit: July 25, 2017, 09:11:18 PM by Elisabeth_M »
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Offline Ken Fraser

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2017, 05:04:52 PM »
Or maybe keep digging for the perfect exemplar?

I. personally, prefer Sheila Waters' italic to that of Fred Eagar.

However, my first choices would be the superb italic of Tom Gourdie and Tom Barnard, following  that of Alfred Fairbank.

Having said that, I prefer to use my own exemplar
« Last Edit: July 25, 2017, 09:27:30 AM by Ken Fraser »

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2017, 06:36:17 PM »
I split this off into its own topic. John Steven's Italic is my personal favorite. Ken, your italic (like all of your Lettering Styles) is so beautiful!  :)
Warm Regards,
Erica
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Offline Elisabeth_M

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2017, 10:33:46 AM »
Thanks for making this its own topic, @Erica McPhee.  I don't want to derail Ken's Compendium with a long discussion on Italic.  Which will hopefully not become fodder for the Calligraphy Bar Brawls topic.   ;)
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.  --Carl Sagan

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Offline AndyT

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2017, 05:20:43 PM »
The first Italic example which really grabbed my attention was a letter by Bartholomew Dodington, part of which is reproduced here.  I definitely prefer the renaissance style to modern exemplars, and find Arrighi particularly pleasing.

Offline Ken Fraser

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2017, 05:45:55 PM »
I split this off into its own topic. John Steven's Italic is my personal favorite. Ken, your italic (like all of your Lettering Styles) is so beautiful!  :)

Thanks, Erica.  :)

Offline InkyFingers

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2017, 11:07:59 PM »
Whatever you like to follow, follow with vigor.
That is do the pen manipulations it is well worth it.
It will have many usage later on when you decides to lean another script.

That Dodington is muy bonito.
I much prefer Bernardino Cataneo. 

Offline Elisabeth_M

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2017, 11:16:20 AM »
I split this off into its own topic. John Steven's Italic is my personal favorite. Ken, your italic (like all of your Lettering Styles) is so beautiful!  :)

So, first, did you know that there's a professional hockey coach named John Stevens?  Thank you google for enlightening me.  John Stevens the calligrapher can be found here if people are interested.   :)  Having briefly perused his site, I can see why his style appeals to you, @Erica McPhee.  Some of the examples remind me a bit of modern pointed pen calligraphy (I hope I don't offend anyone by saying that).
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Offline Elisabeth_M

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2017, 11:28:27 AM »
The first Italic example which really grabbed my attention was a letter by Bartholomew Dodington, part of which is reproduced here.  I definitely prefer the renaissance style to modern exemplars, and find Arrighi particularly pleasing.

I like the renaissance styles as well, but I tend to find the traditional contemporary styles call to me more when I think about mastering a particular style.
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.  --Carl Sagan

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Offline Ken Fraser

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2017, 06:35:13 PM »



ETA:  Links to the exemplars mentioned in the replies below



Tom Gourdie (I could not find an exemplar of his style so I have linked to his book on Amazon)


I didn't want to risk copyright infringement so I'm posting a little tribute I penned a couple of years ago in the cursive Italic handwriting style of Tom Gourdie.

Offline Elisabeth_M

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2017, 09:19:03 PM »
Thank you, for the Tom Gourdie style exemplar @Ken Fraser.  I was considering getting his book (used, since it is out of print), but I think my husband may quietly go insane if I buy yet another book on Italic. 
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.  --Carl Sagan

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Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2017, 10:26:11 AM »
The first Italic example which really grabbed my attention was a letter by Bartholomew Dodington, part of which is reproduced here.  I definitely prefer the renaissance style to modern exemplars, and find Arrighi particularly pleasing.
That is lovely. How did you happen upon this?

Offline JERRY TRESSER

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2017, 04:09:52 PM »
As to Fred Eager, whom i had the pleasure of having lunch with in the mid 70s. He wrote one book , soft covered, It Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting. The point being Fred was a principal of a private school in Ct.  He was an advocate of teaching children how to write Italic in a cursive mode.  That is where the emphasis is. Not based on historical examples. Thats where Sheila come into the picture.  I can assure the reader that for many years Sheila had strict guidelines for this hand following Johnstons rules.  Which i have posted on another thread here.

 The point being, she began to relax her own position  on making pen angle changes in a letter or even a stroke. Not attributed to her learning anything new in Italic (as she is very well versed) but competition from other well know calligraphers who had a different way .  The time was right.  Secondly, people on the west coast as well as Canada, had a different form of Italic. Not so much dependent on Johnstons rules. This was in the early 80s.

There are certain things that really should be taken into consideration when developing Italic as opposed to Chancery. Above everything else, one should be consistent. JERRY

Offline AndyT

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Re: Italic Exemplar Favorites
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2017, 05:13:55 PM »
That is lovely. How did you happen upon this?

It appears in full in Michael Gullick's Calligraphy (London 1990), and there's also a detail in Alfred Fairbank's A Book of Scripts.  I think the Gullick book came my way first.