Topics

1

Tools & Supplies / Moon palace sumi ink

« on: December 12, 2020, 06:05:07 PM »

In my short calligraphy journey I have tried all the inks I could find and I have to confess that I am not fond of (generally beloved) sumi ink, specially for pointed pen. Everybody recommends Moon Palace, but the only sumi ink I can find around is Kuretake. My question is very simple: is Moon Palace much better than Kuretake? If so, where is the difference? I just would like to know if it is worth to try to find it somewhere. Thanks in advance.

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Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / The mysterious blue lines

« on: November 27, 2020, 04:04:13 PM »

This may be a stupid question, but it keep me intrigued. All the methods of business writing take the space between two (blue) lines of the paper as a unity of measure, but I don't have a clue about the standard distance between lines in the paper of that period in the US. If anybody could help me with this, I would have a better idea of the desired size of the letters and the movement exercises. Thanks.

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Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / Learning business penmanship

« on: November 20, 2020, 01:59:56 PM »

Less than half a year ago I started my self-taught calligraphy journey mostly with Spencerian. That led me soon into what I think are the two main offsprings of the Spencerian tradition: ornamental penmanship and business writing. In this short time I have read a lot and practice a bit. And I have become fascinated with business writing, because I think it means a complete revolution about how writing should be taught and practiced. I am trying myself to strictly follow the method (one could say the mantra) of all the BW old books: first speed, second touch and third form. In my apprenticeship I have been very inspired by the work of Marcus Carlini, Michel Gebhart and specially David DiGiovanni.

As David @daviddig has recently joined the forum (I don't know if the other two gentlemen are already part of this community) and he has kindly offer his expertise, I have decided to ask a question.

All the BW specimens and videos I have manage to find in the internet are executed by people who already master the system. I can't find anything showing the actual process of acquiring the skill and I am not sure if the masters got to that point through the three steps method I mentioned above. All the old method books say you have to keep writing at high speed with whole are movement until you get the accuracy in the the form of your letters. I have been working in this way for a couple of months and I have seen a big improvement in my whole arm movement but I don't think if I will ever get the accuracy. In short, I think I have quite good speed and touch, but good form seems to be almost unreachable. Will it come with time and practice? How much? Any advice about how to work further?

4

Word of the Day / Czechoslovakian pangram

« on: October 28, 2020, 03:16:22 PM »

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia. I have committed myself to compose and write a pangram for every festivity which gives me a day off. Here it is today's one dedicated to Masaryk, first president of the now extinct country and intellectual father of the czechoslovakian idea. The script is learned from The Postman's Knock blog.

5

Word of the Day / Saint Wenceslas Spanish pangram

« on: September 28, 2020, 02:59:14 PM »

Today we celebrate the festivity of Saint Wenceslas, patron of the Czech lands. In compensation for the day off, I have composed a Spanish pangram in his honor (taking advantage of the fact that the W is a rare letter in Spanish). As we say here that "every Czech is a musician", I assume this is true also for the poor Wenceslas and I have made him an accomplished xylophone player. Oh yeah!

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Spencerian Script / Spencerian beginner

« on: September 15, 2020, 10:28:20 AM »

Hi there!

I am completely new to this forum and very new to calligraphy. I am trying to find my way trough Spencerian with the help of some old instruction books. In this adventurous journey a couple of question have turned up (hopefully they are not very stupid):

1) Is there any quality on-line course on Spencerian in a near future? Are there any other resources available I should try? Any magic books or supplies I should buy?

2) Spencerian was created for English writing, which means the original script has no diacritics. I come from Spain, but I have been living for the last 25 years or so in Prague (Czech republic). For this reason my writing is mainly in Spanish and Czech, and both languages (specially the last one) use diacritics. I know this is a small detail, but I would like to know if anybody has resolved satisfactorily this question and if there are any exemplars I could consult.

3) Is there any online resource where I could see exemplars of actual Spencerian writing from the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century? I am interested in real material from normal people (letters, business documents...), not from pen masters. I would really love to see how the script functioned and evolved in real life. However I wouldn't mind good pictures of Spencerian masterpieces: the exemplar of the old books are lithographic reproductions, which is not quite the thing, and the photographic reproductions in more modern materials (like the ones in Lessons of Ornamental Penmanship by Bloser) have very poor quality (specially after printing from a scanned version of the book, which is my case).

Thanks for your time and expertise. I am very glad to be in this venerable community. All the best.