Author Topic: No drills club  (Read 16751 times)

Offline handmadeletters

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #30 on: July 13, 2016, 08:36:35 AM »
@evjo and @Bianca M, so sorry for failing to respond. I appreciate your kind words! Indeed, I bought my first calligraphy set around March 2014, and I've just been plowing away since. I don't do drills, but have made a lot of progress by writing lots of letters and practicing words/sentences whenever I have free time.

And I'm truly thankful to @himasf for giving me the courage to be proud of my own practice method!

Offline AmyNeub

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #31 on: July 28, 2016, 09:40:00 PM »
James, do you do running ovals to warm up? Or just start writing letters? I guess I am confused by drills. You don't just write a row of a's? @himasf

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #32 on: July 29, 2016, 08:00:52 AM »
What's your reason for not doing drills?

I don't know if its too early for me to comment on this topic or the kind of style i like to do, which is Copperplate
But when i started a few months back i started with a book method and thought i would follow it religiously.
Blame the digital media especially Instagram for you see these amazing videos of people writing and you want to do exactly that.

So i did a page or two of those round ovals and circles. And been from an art background Im quite familiar with these pattens and it also bored me.
So i moved on to the specific group letters and words there after. Which made a visible difference in my writing.

May be i would do some when i start learning spencerian.

Ashok

Offline himasf

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #33 on: July 29, 2016, 12:35:40 PM »
Hi @AmyNeub ! I just start writing. I make ovals in the air before I start a capital. I don't do rows of a's. Maybe a few a's if I feel like working on that letter. But usually I just dive right in & copy a Madarasz/Lupfer specimen I printed out. If I don't like how a letter turns out, usually a capital, I just try again right next to it. (after cussing, of course)

Offline AmyNeub

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #34 on: July 29, 2016, 10:45:54 PM »
So i did a page or two of those round ovals and circles. And been from an art background Im quite familiar with these pattens and it also bored me.

Hey @ash0kgiri they might be boring at first, but running ovals will help build up muscles so you can write lighter and flourish without shaky lines. They warm your hand and arm up. You could do them and think of something to mediate on each line, either in your letters or areas you want to improve.

Offline Scarlet Blue

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #35 on: August 01, 2016, 10:23:47 AM »
I don't do drills, but I have to write a page to warm up and relax into what I'm doing  :)

Offline AmyNeub

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #36 on: August 01, 2016, 09:43:21 PM »
@Scarlet Blue I did that once writing to a pen pal and it took almost the whole page to get my hairlines warmed up. I threw the sheet away and started again. Apparently I need to warmup more than others.

Offline Estefa

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #37 on: August 02, 2016, 03:34:03 AM »
I don't do whole pages of a single letter or drill – too boring and not effective for me – but lines, yes, and running ovals and ovals with direction changes like these wool balls definitely improved my capitals very much! I also suspect that you are quite rarely talented, @himasf ;). I did the just copying style of learning when I started and for weeks there was no visible improvement. It really helped (and still helps with warm-up) me to to a certain among of drills. I think I said already that I also regard them as some sort of meditation, @AmyNeub :)!
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Offline kmedina

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #38 on: August 02, 2016, 06:45:41 AM »
I do not regularly do drills specifically. If I do plan to write in a specific hand and take the time to do drills beforehand, I do see a significant difference in how long it takes to warm up and get into a flow. I have a heavy hand and unfortunately many bad habits so warming up with drills and practice running through an exemplar of letterforms does help my lettering.
INSTAGRAM: @kellymariecalligraphy

Offline FlowerCityLetters

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #39 on: August 02, 2016, 02:58:36 PM »
I wish I could get away from drills. I've tried it recently, and noticed a huge downward spiral into terribleness in my writing when I don't do drills for awhile.

Most of the drills I do focus on muscular movement for ornamental penmanship, without doing them I feel like my muscle memory disappears. I can barely write anything unless I get out a line of ovals first.

I am a slow learner though, so maybe my muscles just need extra help lol.

Edit: I just wanted to add this because I think @himasf makes a really good point about speed: I do think for doing drills (for the people who do them ;) ) that matching the speed of your writing is important. When I first started doing drills it was at a much faster pace than my actual writing, and that really didn't help my actual writing, just my drills. Once I matched them up, I noticed my writing was actually incorporating the muscular movement I was training, which improved it a lot.

I think people should just do whatever works for them though. I'm just jealous of you guys that I admire that don't do drills!
« Last Edit: August 03, 2016, 01:00:32 PM by Raayynuh »

Offline himasf

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #40 on: September 23, 2016, 11:51:41 PM »
Hey Club! Look at these drill soldiers:



The ideas they come up with to make drills interesting...

Offline handmadeletters

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #41 on: September 24, 2016, 08:37:53 AM »
Haha, this is amazing! If there were a drill I'd be willing to do, it'd be that. Thanks for sharing James! @himasf

@Andrew H Look at this. ;D

Offline Andrew H

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #42 on: September 24, 2016, 08:48:45 AM »
Haha, this is amazing! If there were a drill I'd be willing to do, it'd be that. Thanks for sharing James! @himasf

@Andrew H Look at this. ;D

@handmadeletters Wow, I haven't been on here in so long!!  :'( We can mention people now!? Thanks for getting my attention! Haha.

Yeah, I've come across that page before, it's hilarious! ;D There are also some pages with examples of faces made out of letters, but I'm not sure if I could find them easily anymore.

I'm going to tactfully avoid wading into the overall discussion…  ;)
Andrew

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Offline handmadeletters

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #43 on: September 24, 2016, 09:54:09 AM »
Wow, I haven't been on here in so long!!  :'( We can mention people now!? Thanks for getting my attention! Haha.

Yeah, I've come across that page before, it's hilarious! ;D There are also some pages with examples of faces made out of letters, but I'm not sure if I could find them easily anymore.

I'm going to tactfully avoid wading into the overall discussion…  ;)
@Andrew H Wow, I'd love to see those faces. I'll have to do some digging. Please share if you do find it.

And yes, that @Erica McPhee always thinking ahead and making this forum better. :)

And if you wanted to scold us, it'd be ok with me, haha! You're in good company, though, Elaina, Stefanie and Amy have shared how drills and warmups have benefited them.

Offline AnasaziWrites

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Re: No drills club
« Reply #44 on: September 24, 2016, 11:15:14 AM »
@Andrew H Wow, I'd love to see those faces. I'll have to do some digging. Please share if you do find it.

Is this what you were looking for?
from Michael Sull's Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship, Vol. 2 p. 524