Trouble maintaining slant

[Liane636]

Hello all!

I am very new to copperplate and continue to learn and practice with the help of various books, videos, and Erica’s amazing tutorials! I am struggling with maintaining a 55-degree slant, even with the help of guidelines, which I expect is pretty typical for a newbie.

How long did it take until writing consistently at the 52-55-degree slant came more naturally to you? Any particular tips or tricks that helped?

Thank you so much! I love this community!!

[Erica McPhee]

Thank you Liane!

Maintaining the slant is very tricky and takes a ton of practice. It comes with time and rhythm. I still mark many, many slant lines for guide. All it takes is one off slant to make the whole piece less appealing.

I would suggest using several practice sessions to just focus on slant. Don't worry about anything else, just concentrate on slant. Start off with a pencil and do drills of just lines on the correct slant. Then do just straight lines with a pointed pen, then work on letters. You want to build that slant into your muscle memory.

Try to pay attention to how you are holding your pen, rotate it a bit back and forth to find the right angle for you to achieve the slant, start off slow, then build speed.

I hope that helps! 

[InkyFingers]

I always find it most convenient to use a graph paper to practice the slant.

[Liane636]

Thank you both so very much. The practice tips and graph paper sketch have been incredibly helpful!

[Ken Fraser]

Erica's advice is spot on IMO
Lack of slant control can destroy an otherwise attractive piece of lettering. Practice can be tedious, but ultimately very rewarding. -stick with it!

[arherbgm]

Yes, I HEAR you on the slant "thing".  It's one of my biggest challenges as well.  Great advice here, and for what it's worth I found myself practicing on paper I printed out WITH slant lines on it, then moved to guidelines/slantlines under practice paper.  And I probably use more slantlines than others (every 1/4 in., sometimes even every 1/8 in.). This really helps.  At one point I thought I'd never improve, and now it is much better and I may likely most often use the slantline guidesheet at every 1/4 in. on my lightpad.  Hang in there!