Crikey - was that the only bit which was unintelligible? You must be very good at deciphering gobbledegook.
Let's have a rummage around for a nice "f" then. The one attached is from P Z Bloser's Ornamental Penmanship book, which is a good first port of call for this sort of thing because the construction of the letters is broken down into stages. I've made an attempt to tweak the contrast a little for the sake of clarity since the pdf file doesn't bear much magnification, but it's still well worth your while to download it,
here.
At this point please indulge me whilst I mount my hobby horse and state that
Ornamental Penmanship is not Spencerian. The latter is handwriting, and the former is showing off. Those of us who make the distinction can probably shout it out until we're blue in the face as if we're suffering from some form of calligraphic Tourette's Syndrome without making any difference whatsoever, but it's true. However, the same underlying principles apply to the lower case by and large, and if you want lucid instruction with a minimum of 19th century florid language, Bloser's book is as good as it gets. The capitals are pure Ornamental, though. If you find yourself doing those, you've just fallen down another rabbit hole.
Back to business. The upper loop is the same as any other. You continue down through the baseline applying some pressure, and if anything kicking very slightly to the left, before releasing the pressure, making a tight turn and entering the upstroke. Where this meets the downstroke is your decision - if you're really strict you'll aim for midway between the base and waist lines, but there's something to be said for aiming for the baseline as illustrated. Especially if the next letter is going to be an "e" (hint)!
Does that help at all? I hope so. I expect everybody struggles with making light downstrokes to start with, but some people may have forgotten about that. One thing which will either help or drive you crazy is to use something soft under the paper, like felt for instance, or even thin upholstery foam. The softer it is, the lighter your touch will have to be to avoid spearing the paper. This makes heavy shades out of the question, but those shouldn't be a priority to start with. I claim very little for my writing abilities, but one thing I will say is that I'm not heavy handed. That's down to a combination of a soft surface, the ill-tempered Gillott 303, and a perverse willingness to attempt to write on wholly unsuitable paper.
Guidelines would certainly help with providing points to aim for, and slant lines are a boon when you're starting out, because the last thing you want to be worrying about is angles when there are all those forms to remember. Eventually you'll probably find that the most convenient thing is to revert to simple lined paper - which is only right and proper since this is practical handwriting, after all - but having a framework to hang the letters on will certainly make life easier at this stage.
