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| The designs made by blowing on a blotch of ink on paper remind me of highways radiating from a large city. |
I forgot to mention that I was having trouble with my Zebra stainless steel ballpoint skipping, as well as just about every other ballpoint pen I use, which partly prompted me to buy a blue extra-fine point Lamy Safari. The other reason was I wanted a more practical way to write in style than my dip pen. Which is not practical at all.
My writing is much less sloppy with a felt tip pen though. It actually looks rather consistent and nice. But still not as fun… hopefully a fountain pen will meet somewhere between the two.
Pencast with my Hunt nib and Daniel Smith walnut ink.
Very nice handwriting, Nick. And I've realised in recent months that I tend to write a few lower-case letters differently depending on where they are located in a word. A word as simple as "that" can produce two or three variations. And lately, I've been thinking of learning Spencerian script, but I wonder if the 'unlearning' curve will be steep.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the Lamy Safari, too!
I just had the thought that I ought to clean my nib. I've done much better work with this pen and ink before.
DeleteI've thought about learning different scripts as well. I learned Russian cursive very quickly but this is different because I have to write the same letters…differently. I've been studying old English (like Declaration of Independence) and normal German and Finnish (pre 1960s/1970s reform style) handwriting to try to add some distinction, and it's tough going. Don't want to discourage you, though. Knowing Spencerian would be splendid!
When I worked briefly at a pen store last year, a calligrapher had a look at my handwriting and basically said that I would be able to master something like Spencerian, but it would take a little work because my writing is devoid of the loops that Spencerian requires. Still, the fun is in the trying. I just hate the thought of all that wasted paper by the time I'm done.
DeleteThe wasted paper is probably worth the benefit your mind will get from the trying, even if you don't master it. :)
DeleteI'm worried about how inconsistent my writing always is. It's not even due to the tiring of my hand/wrist, it's just wildly variable after a few lines. It's not like I'm unused to precise pen/pencil work as I've been drawing for years.
Yeah, mine can vary throughout the day. Posture plays a part, too. If I'm sitting down comfortably and my mind's not on other stuff, my writing tends to look okay. Even better if I use a fountain pen, although I've gotten back into using ballpoints again. Blue ink rocks!
DeleteAt any rate, my classes start again tomorrow morning, so I'm sure I'll be writing a lot of notes.
IMVHO Lamy Safari is a good choice. I really enjoy mine. Easy and smooth to write with and it is inexpensive so you can have a few of them with different ink colours :)
ReplyDelete$30 is a huge amount for me to spend on one pen, so we'll see about that. XD Though I also bought an ink converter and I'll be using bottled ink. Most likely some shade of brown, I think. I wouldn't mind a black and a really deep, violet-tinged blue...
Delete$30 really? As I got my last one (vista) from Amazon UK for £11 (delivered) I thought they will be below $20 in USA. Still - I like writing with it much more than with slightly more expensive (not much) Parker or Inoxcrom.
DeleteToday I spotted another one (vista) for £9.95 (delivered) so I grabbed it as well :) No info on the nib though - no problem as I'm happy with medium and fine that I already have (so if it will be one of those - great) and I'm also happy to try broad or extra fine. And it adds a surprise element to the purchase :)
DeleteYour handwriting looks nicer than mine.
ReplyDeleteMy handwriting varies all over the place. I have yet to find a standard that I follow. I too, like my history prof. when I was in college make my lower case f as you do. I often make my t different when it ends a word, and my signature? I do not recall when the last time was when I could write it consistently.
I've been wanting a Safari pen for years. Maybe I will get one this year. I find I like fine and extra fine nibs because I can then use my pens on many more papers than my medium nibs.
I really need to practice a standard script. Paper is not a problem, I don't like spending money on ink.
I reuse 99% of my paper which makes a good supply for practicing or typing.
I've never seen anybody write the f that way before. It's funny because I always am noticing it, even though that's how I always write it. It stands out as odd to me.
DeleteFrom all I've heard, they're very worth the $30.
You have an interesting hand. And I do like your more romantic take on the ink-runs being like highways leading from a city on a map. Do you still collect maps?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it'll get less interesting when I actually do a pencast with a pen I feel really comfortable writing with. We'll see.
DeleteI think I never won't collect maps... I just phase in and out from buying them. Though, over the past several months I've purchased one or two maps/atlases per month if they particularly grab my interest. :)
Walnut ink is very soothing. I wonder if you can get typewriter ribbons that shade? :)
ReplyDeleteI do have an old ribbon in that shade, but it's a bit dried out. You can still buy brown ribbons, to my knowledge only in this one place and they're way expensive: https://www.etsy.com/listing/127174610/universal-color-typewriter-ribbons?ref=favs_view_4
DeleteI like your "pencast". I haven't written in script for many decades. I gave up because my handwriting looked so awful to me. So I print, i.e., a sort of (hopefully more sophisticated) third grade font. I keep a journal fairly regularly, so my writing feels kind of consistent and comfortable to me, although it can vary considerably depending on my emotional state.
ReplyDeleteI like the brown ink. Did I suggest Diamine's Ancient Copper to you? Brown with boldness.
Well, your post may result in your suffering through a "pencast" of my own!
Brown is probably my favorite. That walnut ink had my name on it when I saw it in the store. I'm definitely looking into buying some Diamine ink. It's just hard to choose between all of the browns!
DeleteI look forward to. :)
I tend to make a similar ƒ. In fact, our handwriting styles share various retro elements.
ReplyDeleteI lament the fall of proper handwriting around the world. There are many things I regret about being homeschooled, but learning a slightly modified Palmer method of cursive is one thing that I treasure. :)
DeleteYour Palmer is pretty good (seeing as how we're so focused on handwriting now.) It's the same system I learned in school, with some variances that I don't see in your writing. My own homeschooled daughters may be learning either the script style from Queensland or New South Wales, so we'll start them off with international flair.
ReplyDeleteMy own personal experience with handwriting in school -- "penmanship" it was still called, though we used pencils -- was that I consistently earned average grades in there. Whether it was due to a lack of fine motor-muscle control, or impatience, or being forced to learn with scratchy pencils or sticky ballpoints, I'll never know. I'd like to think that I was something of a rebel at age 8 when we first learned cursive writing, and that it was my brain, not my hand, that rebelled at repeating lines of ooooooo bbbbbb vvvvvvv wwwwwww over and over. I'm grateful, in a strange way, for the influences that have shaped my own hand over the years and turned it from "not very good" to "distinctive."
I've never have writing that looks like Copperplate, and I know this. My slant is all over the place and my baselines like to meander. Sometimes I even have trouble sorting out things I've written in a hurry since I like to let my letters open up a bit like your "p". But it's my handwriting, not Palmer's, or Zaner-Bloser's, or anyone else's. It occasionally wins polite comments from people who like me, as in, "your handwriting is neat" -- as in "cool" not as in "tidy." I'll take this praise where I can get it. Who wants to look the same as everyone else?
You might as well use a typewriter!
It was called penmanship when I learned it, too. I just don't care for that word as much as handwriting. It's a lot more applicable when you're actually learning it, obviously, but being out of any penmanship class for some 12+ years it's just handwriting now for me.
DeleteI've seen modern Australian handwriting and I like it. I didn't know that each state had it's different method, though!
Your handwriting does tell a lot about your past, whether it was what you were forced to learn (I hated penmanship class, too, to be honest, although I look back at my rebellious printing from before that and it looks horrid)
;)