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Topics - Rednaxela

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1
Spencerian Script / Wonderful Madarasz Exemplar
« on: November 07, 2016, 06:09:47 PM »
Some time ago I stumbled upon this 'practice page' by Louis Madarasz.

http://www.iampeth.com/artwork/practice-page

At first I was not entirely sure what I was looking at. It doesn't have a description, and the content looks slightly random. I also found the title a bit confusing. Practice page? Whose practice is this about? Madarasz's?

However, behind what is shown on the IAMPETH page is a terrific high-resolution scan of something I find myself turning to more and more lately. Here it is:

http://www.iampeth.com/sites/iampeth.com/files/artwork/Madarasz_practice.jpg

It was not until yesterday that I realised it actually has all the lowercase letters, with variations for many of them. The quality of the writing is fabulous, and certainly more than good enough for the piece to serve as my go-to OP lower case letters exemplar. Though it's not a very long list, I think the practice words are a nice bonus as well.

In any case I really like it and I hope it is of interest to some of you too.

2
Spencerian Script / Courtney OP Section in Palmer's Penmanship Budget
« on: November 03, 2016, 05:42:02 AM »
The book Palmer's Penmanship Budget has an Ornamental Penmanship section by F.B. Courtney. Something I found out the other day and might be worth sharing here. It starts at page 71.

https://archive.org/details/PalmersPenmanshipBudget

Hope it is of interest to some.

3
Spencerian Script / Ron Tate Instruction DVD
« on: September 27, 2016, 02:57:24 PM »
The writing in this trailer fascinates me greatly.



I think I've never seen it done as briskly as this. No judgement of course, just an observation. The result looks absolutely wonderful. I'm wondering if this technique could be something for me. Or is it only for the real masters?

Thoughts?

4
Spencerian Script / I Can Watch This For Hours...
« on: September 21, 2016, 02:33:47 AM »
So much for me to see in this video:



What are your favourite Spencerian/OP videos?

5
Kind Critique / Spencerian Capital I
« on: September 08, 2016, 02:54:26 PM »
Yesterday night's production.



This is basically the first letter I'm really studying instead of trying out a couple of times and then hope for the best. As you can see it is not much yet. What intrigues me is that two loops and a shade can give one so many headaches. It's like every skill I am still lacking is needed to get this letter right. This combination of simplicity and challenge is why I chose this letter first.

I am also taking the opportunity to learn to make a low, curved shade. So far it looks like aligning the nib with the connective slant works best for me. When I keep it at the main slant the pen seems to take over control once I apply pressure. It then prefers to go straight down and I lose the ability to make the turn.

Anyone who recognises this? How do you curve and shade at the same time?




Edit: is -> it is

6
Tools & Supplies / Free Set of 71 Spencerian Worksheets
« on: August 16, 2016, 02:16:11 AM »
Edit 2016-09-08 22:27 - 'About this Document' section finalised. Draft watermark removed. The latest version can be found HERE.
Edit 2016-08-22 22:37 - 'About this Document' section added.
Edit 2016-08-22 06:04 - Added Plate 2 and moved the document's download location.
Edit 2016-08-21 18:44 - Completed all shapes, including Principles and Figures.
Edit 2016-08-19 08:15 - Added first row of capitals, O - Z.
Edit 2016-08-18 22:28 - Completed lower case letters, added title page.
Edit 2016-08-17 22:03 - Added letters a - b.
Edit 2016-08-16 22:03 - Added letters w - o.

---

Last weekend I have taken this exquisite scan made by @SeanM of Plate 2 of the New Spencerian Compendium, and isolated all letter shapes from the second half of the plate. My goal is to turn these into a set of worksheets that would make it easier for people (including myself) to practise the plate's contents.

Please find attached the first two worksheets, for the miniscules 'i' and 'u'. Every sheet consists of four sections:

1) A full grid exercise
2) An exercise on a simpler grid with only a base line, x-height line, ascender/descender heights, and one slant line per letter
3) Exercise 2 repeated without slant lines or x-height line
4) A final base line exercise, where ascenders and descenders overlap by one x-height

Please note that this is still very much work in progress. Using LaTeX and TikZ, I've automated the creation of the sheets to such an extent that adding the next one is reduced to creating a high-precision digital 'stamp' of the next letter and using this in a new work sheet generation instruction to be added to the overall script. So far I've only made two stamps so this is why I can't share more sheets at the moment. Updated sets will certainly follow!

I would be very interested in what you think of the result so far. Would a set like this serve a need? Anything in the sheets you would have done differently? Any other thoughts?

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

7
Introductions / Hello from The Netherlands!
« on: July 30, 2016, 01:44:41 AM »
Dear Flourish Forum Members,

In this post I'd like to say hello to you all and introduce myself a little.

My name is Alexander and I'm from The Netherlands. December last year I realised my handwriting had deteriorated to such an extent that I found myself unable to nicely write out a two A4 pages long poem for somebody. I wanted to do something about this and started writing, at first with a ball point pen, then a gel pen, then a fountain pen. Then I got into Spencerian, Ornamental Penmanship, dip pens, made my own oblique holder, and got myself a handful of vintage Perry 120EF dip nibs. At the moment I'm trying to work on my Spencerian in a more or less structured way, the picture below showing one of my first attempts.



Still a long way to go, but I'm enjoying it all immensely. I'm very much looking forward to discuss the topic with you here, share my progress and hopefully learn a lot from one another!

Kind regards,

Alexander


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