My Struggle In Learning, Obsessing Over Cursive Letters With A Fountain Pen!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มี.ค. 2024
- Let's Use our Fountain Pens to dive into Cursive Letters! There is nothing like writing with a fountain pen. It's always fun to add variations into your writing and interesting to see how someone else draws their script. I am always obsessing over how to write letters, so Join me, won't you?
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Hello HJ. I certainly applaud your diligence in striving to improve your hand writing. It's a sign of continued improvement in life. Beautiful handwriting is a dying art especially since our school systems have abandoned the teachings. Great job in leading the way to a better life. Keep them coming my friend.
Thank you, Richard! I appreciate your continuous kind support.
“I’d rather be expressive than perfect” needs to be the new channel slogan 😊
Beautifully done video! ❤
Thanks very much and thanks for watching!!!
"I would rather be *expressive* than *perfect!!!"* - Hemingway Jones I say, YES SIR!!! Let’s *express* away!!! Being able to show a bit of personality in our writing? YESSS!!! (Also...."The Great Gatsby" ink is *beautiful!!!)*
Thank you very much and thanks for watching!
I say it should be the channel motto!!! ❤
Hi HJ I am old enough when penmanship was taught in school. I have always loved handwriting and the art form is presents . My mother had beautiful handwriting as did my grandfather. I have just ordered a self taught course on Spencerian Writing which I purchased off of Amazon. It is titled the Spencerian System Practical Penmanship published by MOTT media. It comes with 5 books to practice and progress.
I TRULY believe that like everything you want to master is that it takes consistent practice and patience. Thank you for the Video.
My handwriting has been barely readable my entire life. I am now almost 73 and retired. Since I discovered fountain pens a year ago, it has improved to the point where I'm almost proud of it. I continuously strive to improve my handwriting by writing everyday and your videos are a great help! I hope to write as well as you do some day.
That is absolutely wonderful to hear! You should be proud of yourself. Well done!
One thing that has helped me to achieve mediocrity (very late in life) has been trying to avoid scrunching too many words in an allotted space. If you normally write, say, 12 words per line, try an experiment and cut that number in half: 6 words per line means the individual letters have more space to breathe, and they're lower and flatter in appearance. It takes discipline to s t r e t c h those letters out, while still keeping them connected, and your formation of letters/words starts to involve more arm movement and less hand/wrist movement. The more we use large muscles to write words, the more uniform our writing becomes; conversely, the more small muscles (fine motor skills), the more "fussy" and inconsistent things like letter height and slant become. Try stretching out (flattening) your writing and see if it doesn't begin to look better.
I love how you do that! Your writing has been looking amazing lately.
When I was in the First Grade this is what my teacher wanted my mother to help me with. My spacing was too crowded...my words too close together. Really appreciate you identifying the large motor skills verses the small. I excel with small...enjoying embroidery and cross stitch as a child. Two of my children also excelled with small motor skill (electronic circuits, turning a small gear on a toy when a baby ). I wouldn't be surprised that crawling as a baby, and large motor skills are connected!
Love this suggestion. A friend's writing is low and stretched out like that whereas mine is tall and slim. He fits around 7 or 8 words on a line and I get up to 14 sometimes!
Come now, your writing far exceeds mediocre!
@@dutchessdoolittle7477So interesting our differing experiences of learning cursive! Sometimes it depends on the teacher’s preferences. My third grade teacher was appalled at my small handwriting and made me write THREE spaces tall all year. It was a struggle to put my name, date and subject in the heading on the page. Anyway, by fourth grade, my letters were fat, juicy and HUGE, and my fourth grade teacher told me to put my letters on a diet. 😂 The outcome of all that was that I learned to write pretty well, and my love of fountain pens has given me a new appreciation for handwriting as an art.
I’ve always admired how precise you are in both writing and speaking. Love the channel!
I really appreciate that. Thank you!
I really like this because it shows that you really do use your fountain pens! It's more than a collection of things, but it's a collection of tools. Penmenship is part of your personality it's about who you want to be. When I was younger it was chaotic for me. I loved that I was able to hide in it, making words so that no one besides me could see what was in there, afraid to share my dyslexia with the world. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much! Sometimes, It’s just fun to obsess over the form of a line. Thanks for watching!
My longhand has been abismal all my life. Besides practice for me, especially journaling, I’d say my biggest task to help would be to slow down. Be more intentional in that.
Very true words there!
It's relaxing and yet somewhat fascinating to watch someone else write! My handwriting is tall and compact. I need a fine or extra fine nib, and my letters go up and down into the lines above and below. I often write on every other line as my letters are so loopy and tall.
Your letters looked so wrong to me, so small - and yet with a medium nib... my letters would have blobbed into one with a medium nib.
I practice for around 10-15 minutes every morning and often use calligraphy books to copy other styles. I love my quiet practice time, and I like to work through all of my inked pens to keep them from drying out. I get to play with them every day.
We were taught to write cursive with fountain pens in junior school here in the UK (this was in the 70's and 80's) so I've always had "joined up" handwriting, as we call it.
Thanks for sharing.
Watched this with a Pilot 823 in hand, with my favourite ink while the car is getting serviced at the workshop. 25mins well spent! Am new in this hobby and following your videos the last 2months and there is always something I learn.
I like the way you talk about and to the letters. As if they were little creatures you’ve formed.
Thanks very much! I feel that way sometimes.
I like seeing other people’s writing style. It gives me ideas for my own writing. Our styles are pretty similar but still nice to see.
Thank you for your interesting suggestions. In my opinion, they aim at improving the hand writing technique. Being familiar with that, expressivity would come up easier and clearer.
One of the viewers said a few inspiring words about music.
Yes, there is a similarity with
music: if you know the technical elements of playing a violin, then you have open way to create nuances.
As I know, there is in English this saying:"Speak your heart!".
Well, I would adapt it and wish you:"Write your heart!"
And more:"Put your love in your writing style!"
Thank you for the video!
This is a wonderful comment. Thanks very much! I appreciate your perspective.
I’m not sure how I got so lucky, but when I was taught cursive in school, I was taught that many letters had several forms. You could choose your own adventure, pick which fit your style (or, at least, worked best for your hand). As a result, I still play with alternate forms. My own day-to-day hand may not be consistent between forms (p doesn’t have a loop below while a q does), but it is my own.
I ordered a Clairefontaine spiral bound notebook of traditional French ruled paper. I find it very helpful. I also love how it keeps the lines of writing from getting in the way of the consecutive lines, so it looks very neat and legible. It minimizes the size of your cursive handwriting as well. I think my handwriting looks much more elegant using the French ruled paper.
Great video!
Thank you so much!
Lisa
Thanks for watching! Thanks for the kind words. I have that paper too, but I get lost! It’s almost too many lines for me.
@@HemingwayJones Repetition and practice are key. I haven't had any issues using it at all, and i am really liking how it is transforming my cursive handwriting.
@@craft-o-matic399 Seyes paper (Grand Carreaux) certainly is a huge help in getting letter sizes even and ascenders/descenders at the correct length.
Iv been trying to improve my cursive writing ever since I got into fountain pens a year ago, and I came a long way so far. But I’m always on TH-cam looking for videos that walk through it or help me with it and haven’t had luck until I came across this one! Thank you!
Thank you very much! I appreciate it greatly.
Lovely and interesting. Thanks for keeping Thursdays. Even more interesting. I very much enjoy the outros.
Glad you like them! I wonder who makes it that far. Thanks!
Interesting, most of the Spencerian method script is very similar to the Dutch cursive writing. Except for the lower case z. This is totally different. Ours doesn't have bits sticking out at the bottom. It looks more like the lower case r, but with an extra little wave at the bottom.
California schools are once again teaching cursive . It seems very strange when students say they can't read cursive writing. 😱
I saw that in an article and they said it has been demonstrated to increase comprehension.
The old adage of 'How does one get to Carnegie Hall?' applies... practice, practice, practice! The dividends from learning a script properly really are huge and worth the time and application. Improvement arises from focused practice, and expressiveness is born from acquired skill. There really are no short cuts.
On another note, I just acquired a Tactile Turn pen. It's not a fountain pen (of which I have a few, and love them!) but it writes as well as any fountain pen I've ever tried. No pressure needed, the tip glides across the page. In the same vein, I've often suggested that people should practice with a pencil, the learning curve is made somewhat easier.
Lastly, your lettering is certainly coming along nicely!
As with most things, it all looks so simple until you start looking closer into improving. Penmanship, sports, any of the arts, there's so much to do!
My Mom was a Lefty and wrote with the weirdest grip and contorted wrist position, yet it gave her the most unique and identifiable handwriting! My grandmother also had a very distinctive style, which was more like print letters, connected together. My father was a mechanical engineer that wrote everything in print capital letters. Exposed to their distinctive styles which rebelled against the "norms," I loved the idea of being "different"! After all, I had a mother that was quite the Rebel, for her time (she played baseball in Little League before girls were allowed, disguised as a boy), so I spent a lot of time in high school perfecting my "personal style," which is a hybrid of print and cursive. I have zero interest in reverting back to traditional cursive because I want my handwriting to be unique and recognizable. (I'm a Polite Contrarian, HJ!) One of my most treasured possessions is a recipe card box, hand-carved by my father and filled with recipe cards in my grandmother's, great-grandmother's, and my parents' handwriting! I really wanted to learn calligraphy, but I am just too rebellious and "set in my ways" to force myself to "copy" someone else's style at this point in my life! I do, however, try to slow myself down while writing to make my handwriting, with it's quirks, more legible.
Thanks so much for this wonderful comment! I love print cursive! I also love hearing one of my own quotes. Thank you and thanks for sharing this.
you sound like an interesting and rewarding person. I would love to see your handwriting!
My father also wrote in print capital letters. He had gone to school for engineering. His writing was very beautiful, and recently I've been trying to learn to copy it.
Another great watch HJ. I always enjoy your vids.
Thank you and thanks for watching!
I enjoyed this video, Tim! I did some practice along with you using my Majohn Q1 fat man pen filled with a 2 ml sample of Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Budo. Took a photo, I was hoping to share it, but I don't think I can attach it here.
My MB 221p is now equipped with a MB Mystery Black cartridge. It writes like a dream and is so light in the hand! I can understand why your MB 149 is a nib. My 221p has a nib and to my eye it writes more like an extra fine, but that's okay. I love it!
Send it to my email! Hemingwayjones at iCloud. It’s on the main page too. By the way, the Q1 video is up in 2 weeks!
@HemingwayJones I just sent it to your email. Looking forward to that Q1 video. I love my Q1 nib - so happy I bought it!
I would like to see how you deal with the cursive lowercase "v". I struggle with it.
Thank you again Hemingway!
Lisa
He is a sharp little bugger! I am sure I will revisit this topic again.
Good afternoon, I am brazilian and I know little english however you speak so cristal clear that I understand everything . I like very much for your vídeos. Best regards from Brazil, Mário.
Obligato! Thank you! I really appreciate it. Thanks for being here and for your kind words.
@@HemingwayJones 😃
I set aside time every night specifically for journaling, my problem is I tend to write fast. I just have to learn to slow-it-down !!!!!
Gino! Slowing down is so important. It’s tough having that much time!
Good Morning, HJ! Must say I really enjoy your penmanship videos! Watched the Capital letter one a couple of weekends ago, and managed to watch this one last night on my break periods. GREAT! I want to re-watch them on my TV and practice along with one of my fun pens and one of my Rhodia notebooks! Thanks for making these videos!
Thank you! I love these too! I think they’re important to show how we all struggle and yet find so much joy in it.
It’s interesting that cursive handwriting is one of few things that we’ve been doing consistently since about third grade and almost no one feels like that have it mastered in a clean, stylish and polished way. I’ve learned to do other things professionally. I mean, I’m a tattooer and I can do a clean tattoo with a heavy machine and my handwriting still looks like I’m on angeldust.
I don't know how I learned to do them this way, but there are a few letters I do differently. My f is like @AtomicElf1's, and similarly, my q bounces off the descender rather than looping it. I close the base of my s. One of the most interesting ones is that I always cross my x from top to bottom, and since it is in my name, I do it rather often. After my z descends to the baseline, it makes a very shallow curve before rising to join, almost like an upside-down r. I thought I wrote just the way they taught me to in grade school, but when I went looking for what style I'd learned, I couldn't find a close match! I probably mutated my writing unconsciously.
Thanks for the q-form, it's better than what I've been doing. I gather there are cursive variations taught between countries. I'm keeping my a though that enters on the top.
Thanks so much! I think this is what makes it fun! “Q” is such an interesting letter too in all its forms.
HJ- thanks for a wonderful video. Well, I too a trying to relearn how to write legibly, because, the strke I suffered last April totally made the muscked in my hand and on my forearm and upper arm not work properly. So I am working with my Occupational Therapist to be able to write properly again. I am using the book titled "Write Now" to help me with writing exercises to regain my ability to write in a flud manner again.
Thanks for a very inpiring video.
Keep up the good work, HJ.
_Sid
Understanding this is a kid friendly channel… my inner child couldn’t help but cackle when HJ kept talking about how loopy “d”s were just friendlier…
Hey Now! I snicker sometimes too when I slip into double entendres!
I am constantly trying to improve my penmanship. However, old habits are hard to break. The lower-case 'f' is one of my favorite letters. It often feels like I am drawing it, rather than simply writing it.
I know the feeling! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts while writing those letters! The fact that my own writing is very different doesn’t change the value of your video. I hope we will get to follow your further progress! My hardest letter to write as a beginner was ”o”. Now it’s my easiest. Instead I struggle a bit with ”d”. Thanks again!
Thanks very much for watching and for your kind comment. Thanks!
HJ, I noticed that your grip has been more “normal” in the last couple of videos. I have been praying that your should and arm pain would be healed. I assume your PT is working. But HJ folks know that pen grip is a very personal thing and if someone’s grip works for them, great.
Haha, well, remember, I filmed this video a long time ago. I’m not entirely sure when. I know I rescheduled it a few times. I haven’t watched it to refresh my memory on it, but I imagine I am writing while being in terrible pain. I am a bit better these days. Thanks for being here, My Friend.
I watched myself. I look OK. It must have been filmed after. There may be some videos out there though still!
Would be interested in the word frenzy to distinguish the z from a y.
I will do that soon!
I am bad at dotting it's accuractly. I tend to just jab the pen somewhere after I finish the word, usually a few mm off. Half the i dots in my journal are whited out and redone. And trying to keep e's open...
I'm still trying to find a Y I'm happy with
Right!? It’s not easy to settle on letter forms!
Please revisit the "f". It felt like it wasn't connected to a stream of letters but just hung out by itself. The tail is going away from the next letter. How do you join it?
I agree. I was off on that one. I usually connect it, but I was thinking of it in isolation at the time. I can get myopic sometimes and much to my own detriment. I do this when it is at the end of a word. Thanks for pointing it out.
I've never followed the lower case f final stroke through the joining point "like a bow." I stop at that point and then loop back down to connect with the next letter. This is based on the cursive I learned in elementary school.
It's interesting that there have been different forms of cursive writing promoted at different times. This video prompted me to look into the differences a bit. It turns out that besides the various systems of cursive writing, there seem to be three main sub-classes of cursive writing.
Ligature is writing in such a way as to not have to require lifting of the pen from the paper between letters.
With Looped Cursive, some ascended and descenders have loops which provide for joins.
Cursive Italic uses non-looped joins and not all letters are joined (some specified and a few others discouraged).
@@AtomicElf1 I noticed the f as well, and I think I do mine the way you describe.
I will have to try that at the end of a word. Makes more sense!!
Love your TH-cam channel. Thank you for all your creative hard work!
Great video,they don't teach cursive in schools any more maybe another pen in two weeks,frank in Oswego,ill
Congrats, Buddy!!!
Maybe Giogia from pen Penn chalet.
Rather than cursive, I wish I could write like a typewriter. But I write by hand so very little that the payoff is not worth the practice. So I use typewriter fonts on my computer.
You know, they used to teach a version of this, a stylized print in architectural school. Every architect I know has the same typeface style of print-writing. There must be a manual on it somewhere. I think I am going to look.
@@HemingwayJones isn't architectural script all caps?
I’m not sure. Possibly. It was used on blueprints. The letters I had from them used upper and lower but they may have just been bigger and smaller. Tom Oddo can also print in a script like courier.
I don't see “t’s” in Hemingway Jones 😂
My actual name! Good point though.
We live in a funny world. Most people have lost sight of certain signposts of character, yet everyone respects putting your John Hancock on an agreement.
Humans can be such odd creatures.
We can indeed!
As I recall from my school days, use your full arm, not the hand.
I think this one would have benefitted from more frequent, even closer zoom on the page. I say this because you narrated mostly about the shapes and less about your hand or arm movement. Overall enjoyed the video though HJ
Thanks for watching! I appreciate the feedback.
A few observations:
A connecting stroke before an "a" (or any other letter) is superfluous if there is no preceding letter. It's like beginning every spoken sentence with "So,...."
Excessive loops contribute to illegibility.
The height of ascenders should equal that of descenders, and be taller than upper case letters. All need to harmonize.
Slant and spacing should be consistent.
The "t" is not an ascender!!!
Mas vale la gracia de la imperfección, que la perfección sin gracia."
Thanks for watching!
@@Johan-vk5yd
Under the Palmer method, the "t" extends only slightly above the "x" height (the body of the letter without ascending or descending stroke.) In Carolingian minuscule, the "t' does not extend above the "x" height.
grind, the only way, been mindful of white space. If you'd done a Spenserian grind you'd know a lot o your examples are off. Elegance and form I feel is older than time, some complex rules, that we all recognize like music, we may not all be musicians but we know when something is especially off.
How can my examples be off when I am speaking of my own personal writing style? I’m not a calligrapher. I love your music analogy. Very well said.
@@HemingwayJonesThis is the wonderful thing with writing. We can use it to be self-expressive in unique and creative ways. I think there is a clear difference between writing for our own enjoyment and that which is meant to be read and understood by the masses. Systems of writing have developed both for the purpose of aesthetic quality and for readability. Although cursive has recently been reintroduced to the education system, its importance for widespread everyday communication is not quite the same as it used to be, so adhering to a specific system is much less important. Still, there is something to be said about the points of consistency, readability, and aesthetic appeal in whatever style we personally adopt or develop.
@@HemingwayJones I'm very hard on myself on select aspects of my work. I spoke out of turn regarding your work. Please accept my apologies.
Your handwriting is not special. Just ordinary at best.
Perhaps, but unlike you, I am kind hearted and posses a sense of propriety.
@@HemingwayJones not very kind hearted to say those things about someone, schmuck.
"j' was, I belive, the most recent addition to the alphabet (split from "i"), You could also try some dropped letters: eth and thorn: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eth
I learned those in linguistics. Love it!
I long in Italian too. Love that.
An exercise I do to practice joining letter helps with consistent flow:
zzyzxzwzvzuztz..zbzaz
yyxywyvyuytysy...ybyay
Each time you drop a letter until:
eedecebeae, ddcdbdad, ccbcac, bbaab
This way you do every letter combination once.
I try to keep a 2:1 balance for looping letters and 1:1 with the shorter letters like d,t,
Preferable if you start with Seyes or French ruled paper then work to writing every other line with an overlap of half a line for descending and ascending letters. Thus breaking the writing within the lines constriction. So for 5mm lined paper an h will go up 2.5 and 5 mm and a g will go down the full 5 mm of the next line.
I make practice sheets with my printer of 3, 4 and 5 mm spaced lines. This is useful for fine, medium and broad nibs to keep the proportions of the letters consistent height with thickness of line. Or you can print a guide sheet of thicker lines and put it under plain paper that you can just see through. Like old airmail paper.