As a result, the term “copperplate” is mostly used to refer to any old-fashioned, tidy handwriting. This style of calligraphy is different from that produced by angled nibs in that the thickness of the stroke is determined by the pressure applied when writing, instead of nib angle in relation to the writing surface. Ruled Calligraphy Paper. This is a test application I'm using to become familiar with the Google App Engine. You can use it to generate a ruled PDF suitable for calligraphy practice, with ascender and descender lines and slant guides.
Posted byScribe / Hemographer5 years ago
Archived
This is Part 1 of a series. There will be more coming soon.
Mmkay, this was semi-widely requested. I think it would be a helpful resources to those of us wanting to learn Engrosser's Script. Really any of the Copperplate hands, but this will have a lot of information specifically relating to Engrosser's.
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I (sorta) apologize for the sheer length of this, but I feel it's important. If you want to get the most of it, please, read the entire post in full. Don't skim.
Introduction and Corollaries
The main reason I wanted to make this, is because of the inherent difficulty in Engrosser's Script, and the trouble that I had with it (and other people seemingly do). There is a wealth of information online about alphabets, and exemplar pieces of penwork, but surprisingly little about the actual writing of the script. A lot of techniques that I think are absolutely essential are hardly mentioned. To that end, hopefully this will help people learn those techniques to improve their work.
Furthermore, I have been doing Engrosser's Script for aroooouund 4 months now, but only serious dedicated practice for 1.5. Because of this, I will have very few of my own examples, unless it was penned specifically to demonstrate a concept.
Philosophy of Practice
Gonna start with a little breakdown of how I schedule my practice. This is what works for me. I am studying penmanship full time and college, so I have 60+ hours a week at my disposal. I presume almost no one else has that kind of time on their hands, so adjust the following as necessary.
Couple notes on the above.
I am primarily using Sumi inksticks right now, so I have a decent amount of time that goes into my prep work. Still kinda new to using inksticks, so I spend a bit of time ensuring the consistency and flow of my ink is correct.
In regards to guidelines. Early on in my copperplate practice I didn't use slant guidelines, it was a terrible idea. However I noticed something after a while, my slant ended up being rather consistent because I would practice it often. However it wasn't at 52 degrees, closer to 60. The point is: practicing with guidlines is essential to get the correct slant/height in your muscle memory, but also occasionally practice without them. A couple of the old penmen would advocate for occasionally practicing without an x-height.
Always make sure to refer to your exemplar. Never practice using your own work as a guide. This is the best way to end up with terrible, innaccurate letterforms. Trust me. It's how I tried to learn Quadrata. Would copy down the letters, then bring that to lectures and practice. Ended up getting continuously more incorrect. Had to re-teach myself everything more than once. It's brutal to realize how much time you've wasted on poor practice. Annnnd, this transitions perfectly into the next section.
Intro to Engrosser's Script
Engrosser's Script is a gorgeous, visually striking text, whose beauty comes from the uniformity of the slant, and the grace of the ovals. In order to pen good script, you must first understand what good script looks like. In the words of Bloser: 'The hand cannot well perform that which the mind does not perceive.' Also Madarasz: 'Study as much as you practice'. It is absolutely necessary that you spend a good amount of time really studying exemplar pieces of penmanship. Don't just look at them for their aesthetic value. Try to discern why they look good. Place a piece of tracing paper over it, and as accurately as possible trace the letterforms. Look for the ovals. Read written pieces from past and present masters. Joe Vitolo is a huge name for Engrosser's Script, but it shouldn't be the only one you read. Look at the work of Brown, Hovis, Howe, Lupfer, Zaner, and Baird. All are available on the IAMPETH website.
In regards to studying... the next bit will be about letterforms themselves, techniques, and master penmen.
Study
Just remember something that I'm going back and adding now. You should always, always, always study with the best exemplars possible. You can't expect to get good unless you're studying from the very best. I'm going to use some arbitrary numbers for a sec here to demonstrate a point. Let's say that in a year of practice, you can get half as good as the exemplar you're working from. If you're working from an exemplar with a rating of a 4 in quality, you'll only reach a 2. However if you're working from an exemplar of a rating of 10, even if you do one fourth as well... still will achieve better results.
There are some key ideas that I'm going to present first, because they are very very important, and serve as the basis for everything that I've said and will say. Fundamentals. Fundamentals are absolutely key. When trying to learn a script such as Engrosser's Script, consistency is king. The best way to achieve consistency is through dedicated practice of the fundamentals of the script.
By breaking up all the letters in the alphabet into a small number of fundamental strokes, you can master the alphabet by learning very few basic strokes. Joe Vitolo has written much about it.
One of the things that blew my mind when reading it, came from this. If you look at example 1B, the bottom of all the stokes are nearly identical. Both ovals, and straight down-strokes, resulted in the exact same looking form. Really the only way to get this consistency is by drilling the fundamentals.
There is a technique for improving consistency that I sadly only found very very recently. It's written about in very few places. In this page Lupfer mentions how Engrosser's Script can not be penned effectively without many pen lifts. You must raise the pen every time at the base-line. This was very confusing for me at first, because I had only been exposed to Joe Vitolo's videos, and he doesn't use this technique. In this piece of text as well as this one written by Zaner, the pen lifts are also mentioned.
I had originally seen a few pieces that looked like the pen was lifted, but I wasn't sure if it was a poor quality scan, or the ink had fallen out after a hundred and fifty years. For example on this piece penned by Baird, it appears as if there could be pen lifts in the 'p', or just a poor scan. However after looking at more examples of past masters I saw more of the pen lifts.
Most recently, I started trying to do my own reproduction of this piece by an Unknown penman. It is currently one of my favourite pieces of Engrosser's Script, and the pen lifts are quite apparent, especially when zoomed in.
Howe also has a couple examples where pen lifts look likely.
Also this piece by Baird has seemingly very evident pen lifts.
Another important technique, is being able to individually manipulate the nib tines. Joe Vitolo writes about it briefly on page 2, but not nearly enough I feel for such an important concept. And with no accompanying pictures.
So I've done you all the disservice of uploading my own poorly penned examples, however I believe them to be a decent example of what I'm explaining. As a note, I penned them at 2x the standard height to make it easier to see.
Mmkay, we'll start with one of the most fundamental units of Engrosser's Script. The 'i' stroke. The nib tines have been colour coded to make the explanation easier to see. The pen-point will start with both nib tines together, and no pressure, at the top right corner of the 'i'. You will then push the left nib tine towards the left, and pull the stroke straight down. Through the entire downstroke, the right nib tine should do nothing but go straight down following the main slant angle. As you're getting close to the base line, lift pressure gently allowing only the left nib tine to move towards the right. It should follow the shape of the bottom of an oval. Then lift the pen point. Place it back down and add the hairline transition. I have them spaced far apart in this picture for demonstration only. They should be pretty much touching.
The next stroke will be the inverted 'i'. Similar to last time, the curve you are trying to trace is an oval. However this time, it will be with the right nib tine. Start from approximately half-way up the x-height and very lightly push a hairline up and around. As we reach the top of the x-height, push the right nib tine out and around, following the oval. Meanwhile, try to keep the left nib tine pulling straight down the main slant. When you reach the bottom of the stroke, try to pull the right nib tine towards the left across the base line for a square cut-off. This may need to be re-touched. These pen examples aren't done great, and I would very much suggest you re-look at samples of Engrosser's Script with this in mind. It will demonstrate the concept far better than I can explain it. As a note, this may also be penned with a break between the hairline, and the shade, at the top of the stroke. I was just looking at this piece and thought to include that. I personally normally do not.
By combining these two, we end up with the 'v' stroke. Should note that you basically just have two inverted forms of the same shape. The left nib tine traces one, whilst the right nib tine traces the other.
Now for the 'o' shape. The main thing to note, is that the shade does not curve. The left nib tine is pushed out to form the oval shape, whilst the right one is pulled straight down following the main slant angle. This is what gives the whole text consistency, and why the bottom 1/3 of the text looks identical.
In Conclusion
This may work for you, it may not. In a Flourishing class taught by Jake Weidmann at last summer's IAMPETH convention. A student asked 'should those hairlines be an upstroke or a downstroke'. He responded, 'it doesn't matter, whatever works for you. If someone is looking at your work, they won't be able to tell if you made an upstroke, or a downstroke.' More or less: if this pen lifting technique works for you, awesome. If not, also awesome. Joe Vitolo doesn't use it and pens amazing pieces. Norder (I'm fairly certain) didn't use it, and pens amazing pieces. Jake Weidmann doesn't use it, and pens absolutely amazing pieces.
Part 2 will be coming soon, and will deal more with the actual penning of letters. Also, if anyone has questions or requests, I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.
(edit: formatting and links)
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