caligráfica

Calligraphy Jag

I've been on something of a calligraphy jag lately -- finding a great deal of pleasure in lettering. The italic letter forms are coming easier -- I think I'm more suited to the smaller Brause 1.5 nib than the Speedball C-2. There's still a lot that needs improving but the flow is starting to feel natural. 

 The quotations I'm practicing have a Christmas theme.  I'd like to make something for the holidays but have no idea what. Maybe I'll just trying doing some lettering on envelopes. 

I'm trying not to press so hard, but it's difficult. I'm also still struggling a bit with ink flow (the two are likely related).  Still the letters are looking less heavy. 

I can't tell you how much pleasure doing this writing gives me. It's intensely relaxing and absorbing.

The above writing has been done on gridded practice paper, which as you can see has not just the base and ascender lines but also has slant lines as well. This makes it much easier to judge letter size and, of course, to keep a consistent slant.

Below are my first two attempts to work without slant lines on paper printed with lines from the Scribbler's generator.   

As you can see, the letters get fat / heavy again with fewer of the nice thicks and thins. There's lots to still practice, especially since I have to make my example book pages by our class next Wednesday. 

Good thing the practice is the best part for me. I enjoy the process a lot more than the outcome.  

 

Still More Italic Practice

I did more calligraphy practice tonight. I'm trying to move from the Speedball C-2 -- which I used for yesterday's work and for this first page today. 

As you can see, I'm having a little problem with ink flow.  I'm not sure what's up -- it's probably still to do with the pressure I'm putting on the nib. 

This second page was written with a Brause .2 nib. Again there's the problem of ink flow -- something which bothers me because I haven't had any problem using Brause nibs in the past. They're my favorite brand of nib because they're generally they're more forgiving of my tendency to press too hard. 

I like the Brause 2 nib. Going smaller is nice because the pen doesn't need to be dipped as often. Carrie gave us practice sheets from Scribbler's so we can try to go down as small as 3/4. The lines on those sheets are so close together I can't quite imagine it.  We'll see how it goes. 

Italic Calligraphy Practice

The calligraphy class at RAND is focused on the italic hand right now. I've been struggling with it more than I would have expected.  It's not the letter forms that have been a challenge (though I'm definitely struggling with the letter "s") but the problem of pen angle and pressure. 

Carrie has been helping me, both of us thinking that I had so internalized the 30 degree pen angle of the foundational hand that I was unable to switch to the 45 degree angle that's needed for italic lettering. However, when she was going over my homework she saw another issue -- I press too hard on the pen nib which makes it go wider and makes my strokes too full.  It's true, I write with something like an death grip, holding the pen too tightly and pushing on the nib too hard. 

We're not meeting next week (though there's a playdate the Saturday after Thanksgiving) so my goal is to break myself of the pressure habit between now and then.  I'm definitely feeling into calligraphy right now -- I came home from class and then practiced for another two hours. Italic is a beautiful hand and one I at which I would really like to have some level of mastery.