My Journey in Penmanship — Breaking Free of Old Habits

If you want to improve your handwriting, you’re going to have to practice writing — there’s no getting around that fact.  So … What do you write when you’re practicing?  Well, why not write about the journey and your struggles to improve your handwriting? I’m going all out — and striving towards a nice Spencerian look; to that end, a number of my letters needed to be modified from the way I originally learned them. In this article I demonstrate and discuss this journey in detail.  Take a look. 

  

The lowercase letter t:

  
The lowercase letter o:

  

So why is it that some letters can be difficuly to convert, while others are not? Might it be that the letter “t” occurs more frequently than the letter “o”? Or, is there some other reason? At any rate, it seems that the t issue is more deeply rooted and converting from the way I used to make o’s.

  
  
Write “ni” in lowercase, and then turn your paper upside down. You should still see an “ni”. Proper curves for these letters should be reflective inverses of each other.  Spencerian, because letters are based on only 8 strokes, is a very uniform style. 

  
I will add more to this article as I get time.

Stay tuned …

2 Replies to “My Journey in Penmanship — Breaking Free of Old Habits”

  1. Eris

    Thanks for your posts, I’ve been hankering for a fountain pen and was wondering if I’d gone mental. I have been looking at the pilot metro and I believe your post and pictures have swayed me to have it as my starter pen

    • richard

      Eris

      Any of the Pilot Metros are a great starter pen. Don’t forget that a Pilot medium nib is like an American fine; and a fine is like an extra fine as Japanese sizes are one size smaller. There are several styles of this pen — 3 classic colors with plain, diamond pattern, or dot on the bands; several animal prints; and now new retro colors. 

      Let me know which you decide to get. 

      Thanks for stopping by my site. 

      -richard

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