Author Topic: Best teaching resource?  (Read 2198 times)

Offline cyndih

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Best teaching resource?
« on: September 12, 2015, 08:48:15 PM »
I would like to start to learn Spencerian.  What book/books would you recommend as a place to start to really learn the basics of the letter formations and style?

Offline elsa.d

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Re: Best teaching resource?
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2015, 02:15:26 AM »
This might be a good place to start.

http://www.iampeth.com/pdf/lessons-ornamental-penmanship-bloser

Mind you, it's for Ornamental Penmanship which I understand is a showier version of Spencerian, but still a great resource.

Offline AndyT

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Re: Best teaching resource?
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2015, 05:19:35 AM »
The Bloser book is excellent - indispensable in fact - for Ornamental Penmanship, but for textbook Spencerian, you really could do with a textbook by the Spencer brothers.  :)

The one I'd recommend is The Theory of Spencerian Penmanship, simply because there is a printed edition available from Mott Media at a very reasonable price, which is well worth buying.  As a complement to that, The Payson, Dunton, & Scribner manual of penmanship is rather more informative about certain practical matters.  There are also the two Spencerian Compendia, old and new, which you should certainly have a look at, but there are considerable differences between the two which could lead to confusion.  Most people will prefer the latter, I should think.

My take on Spencerian is a fundamentalist one, and I see no reason why anyone should look beyond the original 19th century exemplars.  Rather unusually, the style is carved in stone, as it were.  There are some very poor alternative exemplars out there, and I'd suggest that you have nothing to do with them.  It's different for Ornamental Penmanship though (an elaborated form of Spencerian), and there are many excellent resources to browse, starting with the rare books section at IAMPETH.


Offline AmyNeub

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Re: Best teaching resource?
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2015, 12:22:23 PM »
My fav is "Learning to Write Spencerian Script" by Michael Sull and Debra E. Rapp. Also, Harvest Crittenden teaches an online class to through her Acorn Arts. I think there is one beginning in the fall/winter.

Offline cyndih

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Re: Best teaching resource?
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2015, 07:48:02 PM »
Thank you!   :)