Whole Arm Movement

[AndyT]

Forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know, Akawaii, but Schin's OpenInkStand Youtube channel is a superb resource, well worth exploring.  Especially the Pointed Pen Calligraphy 101 series which runs to about three hours worth of wit, wisdom and writing demonstrations so far.

[Akawaii]

Forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know, Akawaii, but Schin's OpenInkStand Youtube channel is a superb resource, well worth exploring.  Especially the Pointed Pen Calligraphy 101 series which runs to about three hours worth of wit, wisdom and writing demonstrations so far.

Oh yes, I do know that channel! It is amazing and her work is beautiful. I've been tempted to click on the 101 videos, but the length of some of them prevented me from doing so. But now, I think I will click on them. Thank you Andy for all of your amazing help!

[Andrew H]

There seems to have been a lot of confusion around this subject over the last few weeks, much of it caused by seemingly conflicting Periscope broadcasts. Broadcasters often forget to point out (or assume viewers know) which script style the lesson they're giving applies to. As everyone else has said, the answer is "it depends which script you're studying". In general:

• Copperplate (and Engrosser's script in particular) - Finger/wrist movement
• Spencerian - Muscular/arm movement
• Ornamental Penmanship majuscules - Whole arm/Shoulder movement
• Flourishing - Whole arm movement
• Business Penmanship - Muscular movement

Even if you're learning Engrosser's, the muscular and whole arm drills are useful for warming up and encouraging a light hand and freer movement. However, when writing the script your wrist should be planted and finger/wrist movement used, to give the necessary control.

[Entropy]

Whole arm movement is very important.  You can certainly do Ornamental, Spencerian and flourishing without it, but it will be "drawn" rather than written freely.  Eventually, you will reach a point where there will be no more improvement in your writing.  Better to learn properly, right from the start. 

There's quite a bit of information out there about whole arm movement for ornamental styles, but here is a link to a book by C.P. Zaner, that is all about it, reasons to use it, how to do it, etc., etc. 
https://archive.org/details/armmovementmetho00zane

You can see a short video of Del Tysdal demonstrating arm movement penmanship on the IAMPETH website here:
http://www.iampeth.com/video/ornamental-penmanship-demonstration

Unfortunately it's not the best video, but you can see how fast he is writing, and that his fingers never move. 

Flourishing, when done properly, is done incredibly fast!  Like......you can't even believe it's happening that fast and that accurately without any pre-penciled guidelines at all!  I had the opportunity to see a few old masters do it and their fingers never really moved.  They spun the paper around and around as they worked, without even thinking about it, and every line was perfectly placed.  It was mind boggling!  It's possible that I have an old video tape of Del Tysdal flourishing that fast, but if I do, it's on VHS and I haven't transferred any of my videos to digital formal yet.  I need to do that, but I have a real fear of sending them away.  :-/

I hope that helps!

Kathy

As always Kathy, you are amazing. Thank you for sharing this with us! I definitely don't move my arm like Del in that video- what I'm doing is probably some sort of thing where my movement "wave" originates from my shoulders and, for tiny lettering, almost entirely my wrist. This was how I taught myself to write again and, subsequently practiced and modified based on my understanding of various books. I hate to admit it to myself but this information only raises more questions for me- which, in the long term, is great (but in the short term makes me wonder if I've been doing things weird for half a year lol).

[Akawaii]

In conducting my own research, I've found an extremely helpful article on the movement. http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html Check it out if you are unsure!