Pen, Points and Points on Pens

The Pointed Pen and the Oblique Holder
Throughout this blog, I have somehow managed to forget to talk about the all important tools in detail, so here it is.

The diagram below shows two pen holders, oblique and straight and some pen points, also known as nibs. On the first two rows are pointed pens and on the bottom row are Italic nibs of different width and slant for, you guessed, Italic and Roman. Pointed pens are further divided into "flexy" and "rigid", or "stiff", according to their ability to flex. The top row shows flexy nibs and the middle row shows some rigid ones. A flexy nib is one that will lay down a wider line (or "will shade" in penmanship terms) when the pen is pressed downwards. Some nibs are "soft" or "springy" which means that the point will deform under pressure but will not give a thicker line. For Spencerian, one will need a flexy point. Rigid points can be used for Business Script, which essentially is the same as Spencerian without the flourishes and shading.



Worth noting is that Italic nibs are supplied with a reservoir, either over or under the nib. The left nib in the bottom row shows an "under-the-nib" reservoir while the one on the right shows an "over-the-nib" reservoir. Pointed pens on the other hand are not commonly fitted with reservoirs, though it is possible to do so. For this reason, they are more picky in terms of the ink used and nib preparation.

Preparing your Points
So you've bought your nibs and holders. You fit them together and dip them in your favourite ink to write. The pen burps out a blob of ink and does not write anymore. You are disheartened thinking there is something wrong with your technique, but this is not the case.

Nibs are made from steel, ink is made from water. Metal repels water and paper absorbs it. The fact that lubricating oil is used during the manufacturing process of the nib doesn't help. The result, any ink clinging to the nib after it is dipped is transferred to the paper instantly in the form of a blob. A bit of gum in the ink helps a bit but doesn't solve the problem.

A quick and dirty way is to pass the nibs over a small flame such as a lighter flame or a candle. Does not always work and will change the temper of the nib if not done right.

A slightly more civilized way to prepare a nib for writing is as follows. The first thing to do is to remove any traces of oil from the nib with a bit of soap and water. Then we need the all important surfactant. A surfactant is something that will bridge between the ink and the nib, something like soap which helps bring oil on dishes into the water. In our case, the surfactant of choice is saliva. Lick a piece of paper and rub that on the nib. Now dip ink in and enjoy. You should be able to write at least ten words if you don't flexy crazily on every opportunity. If not, repeat the process of soap and water followed by saliva. If all fails, throw out the nib and try another one because its probably got more to do with the nib than you.

After you write, just wet another piece of paper with saliva and wipe off the ink. A thorough cleaning with soapy water is not absolutely required unless you are using corrosive inks such as gallic ink or when changing colours.

A word of caution. Do not clean all the nibs after purchase because a clean nib will start rusting while a oil coated one will last for decades. Only clean the ones that you will use and expect it to rust or at least loose its shine in a few weeks.

Using the Pointed Pen
A pointed nib is meant to be pressed evenly and can only be dragged while pressed. To apply any amount of pressure on the upstrokes will cause the tines to snag on the paper and bend, instantly killing the nib. If your nib becomes scratchy on the upstrokes no matter how light your hand is, the tines are probably bent or misaligned and it is best to change it out. There is nothing worse than bent tines catching on the paper sending out spurts of ink droplets over your work. Press as much as the point can take without permanent deformation on the down strokes but use a little pressure as possible on the up strokes. Some amount of practice is needed before one gets used to the amount of pressure, or rather the lack of it, that is needed or tolerated when using the finest of pointed pens. With practice, it is possible to write without line variation using a flexy point, on newspaper!

The fact that the point has to be aligned on the main slant during the down strokes for shading means that it must be held pointing to the upper right hand corner of a piece of writing. It is somewhat impossible for right handed penmen to adopt this pen angle so the majority of the population will need an oblique holder such as the one shown above for Spencerian and other pointed pen lettering. The pen is held almost straight up and down the page as shown below and the holder orients the nib along the down strokes.



Lefties such as the author will have the choice of using a straight holder which means it will be much easier for them to use flexy fountain pens (which all all straight) to write. However, it is not uncommon for left handed penmen such as John DeCollibus to write down the page with words turned 90 degrees clockwise using an oblique holder as shown below.



When to Change a Point
Dip pen points cost next to nothing so don't hesitate to change a point when the line begins to thicken due to the point wearing out or when the point gets scratchy due to bent or misaligned tines.

Despite your greatest efforts not to bend the tines by using a little pressure as possible on the up strokes and to not misalign the tines by applying even pressure on the two tines at all times, it is almost inevitable that the tines will at some point become scratchier over time.

If it does not, the truly inevitable blunting of the point will affect its performance sooner or later. Pen points have no iridium tip unlike fountain pen nibs, with use the point gets wore away. The author was able to go through a point every week by writing 2 pages of A4 paper every day. Your nibs may be more long lived if you have a lighter touch but they are consumables. The advice is to stock up.

Some penmen say they keep blunted nibs for writing larger letters so you may wish to keep some of your old nibs for this reason.

It's not easy to use a flexy nib and even harder to use it well. From here till the next post, I bid you farewell and say to all readers, "Have fun practicing!"

SPencerian, Part II - Basic strokes and Minuscules

Spencerian books used to be very exacting in the sense that nothing was left to the freedom of the writer. Main slants, connecting slants, proportion of the letters and letter spacings were often stated numerically. This approach seems to be ill suited for today. After all, calligraphy is about beautiful writing, not turning oneself into a typewriter. Therefore only the finer points will be specifically addressed in this series.

Proportions and Basic Strokes
Spencerian is written with a main slant of 52 degrees to the horizontal. The letters d and t are twice as high as the rest (x-height). The loops of r and s also reach above the x-height a little bit. b, l, f, h, k reach up further than d and t, about 3 x-heights, while g, j, p, q, y and z drop down twice the x-height.

Spencerian minuscules are made from combinations of 7 basic strokes. Amongst them the familiar straight curve and round point which Italic writers will be familiar with. The big O is easy to understand. The remaining 3 have the unique "Spencerian look" and are unique to this script.



Note that the straight parts of the letters b, f, h, k, l are never truly straight. The reason being that if they were, the rounded ends would produce the illusion of them being curved to the right. Therefore the pen is actually pulled back a bit to the left and pressed down a bit to give a thicker line (known as shading) after crossing to correct for this optical illusion.

Letter Variations
Spencerian is also known for it's letter variations. To make starting letters the upstroke of each letter is dropped with the exception of e, u m, n, b, d, p, l , k , h and s since dropping the initial upstroke would make the letter look a bit funny. Sometimes the English r is used to start an r-word instead of the French r. To make ending letters the bottom loop letters (j, y, g, f, z) would lose their loops and the letter t turns into a funny zigzag (bottom row, fifth letter from the right). There are multiple ways to end with an f as shown in the above sample where the last 2 letters are both ending f's.

The old Masters sometimes varied letters for double letters, such as the two t's in the word letter.

The only real rule to flourishes and letter variations is "whatever looks good".

Spencerian, Part I - History

Cursive refers to letters that are joined as different from the separated letters of print. The scribbles of most people's handwriting might be called a form of cursive Italic, which basically describes most semi-joined scripts with some degree of slant. Some of us were fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to be taught English Round Hand in primary school which we automatically refer to as cursive handwriting. In fact, cursive can be further divided into many types.

Amongst these, Spencerian is, in the opinion of the author, the most distinctively beautiful type.

Invention
Invented by the American Platt Rogers Spencer in 1840, the Spencerian script was designed to be written rapidly and legibly. The script was widely taught during the late 1800's in Business Schools which were schools that taught people how to write letters and how to write them beautifully. Spencer never lived to see the script become popular but his sons did and published their father's works which in turn made Spencerian "the" way to right in America. Of course, nobody ever wrote a business letter again in the 1900's. Remnants of this script can still be found in American company logos such as those of Ford Motors and Coca-Cola. The script was once taught in American schools but was finally replaced by Palmer's cursive, which the author thinks is ugly.

Evolution
Spencerian was designed to be written fast with a somewhat rigid pen (a semi-flex according to current standards). Many successful penman drew inspiration from the flowing lines of Spencerian and started using increasingly flexible pens to write with more and more line variation, ultimately producing what we now refer to as Ornamental Penmanship. The original version of Spencerian which has minimal line variation became known as Business Script.

While the author's skill cannot match the master penman who once made wonders, this series of posts will try to provide a very superficial introduction on Ornamental Penmanship.

Back from a long break

Time to sweep away the dust and start some new posts.

We will be taking a short break from Italic to talk about a "modern" script, the Spencerian.

How to practice.

Some suggestions for practicing calligraphy.

1. Don't try to write the same letter over and over. It's tempting but instead of improving, you will remember you mistakes.
2. Practice letters in groups. Letters with similar strokes or proportions should be practiced in groups.
3. Once it's on the paper, it's too late anyway. Fill a page and then go back and look at it, think about it and try to do better the next time. It's more important to get the feel of writing (esp. when practicing with the pen) than to stop after every letter and worry about whether its perfect.
4. Don't over-do it. There's only that many sheets you can fill before you feel tired, physically and mentally. Stop, relax and come back tomorrow.
   

Italic, Part II - The minuscules

Because metal broad edge pens cannot be pushed, the strokes must differ from the accepted stroke order of the English alphabet. Strokes are often broken into two part to allow pulling of the pen. Strokes directions are indicated in the diagram below with red arrows, the red lines indicate where a stroke starts when there is ambiguity. The number of arrows correspond to the number of strokes.

The basic strokes of Italic are the straight curve and the rounded point. (This is full of Zen.) The straight curve starts at 45 degrees and flattens out toward the top. The rounded point is the other part of the straight curve which starts out at 45 degrees and goes down and up. The rounded point can also be written upside down as is in the letters b, p, h, m n and k.

For starters, ascenders and descenders both have the same height as the x height. Although this is often changed to suit the mood of each piece.

The slant (indicated by the dotted lines) should be consistent throughout the whole piece. For letters with straight portions the slant is easy to determine. For letters without straight lines running along the slant, the slant is the optical bisector of the letter (e.g. o, x, v ,w) or the bounding box of the letter (e.g. z, e, c, s). Although the proportions of the letters are not as strict as in Roman, Italic minuscules should occupy a parallelogram that has a width smaller than the height and that parallelogram should be of the same size throughout a piece.

Notice that q's should look like turned over b's and n's like upside down u's. Try to make them as similar to each other as possible. Consistency is more important than form. Two consecutive letters (e.g. those two t's in "letters") really do have to look the same to "make it work".

Italic, Part I - History

Before the invention of printing, manuscripts had to be copied by scribes. Italic was the result of lazy scribes but then replaced the unwieldy Uncial. The name results from the country which most books were written, and hence had the most book writing scribes, at the time. The word Italic should be pronounced "It-tal-lic" in honour of its origins and not "I-tal-lic" as it is sometimes heard. Italic is not a single kind of script. Any script that has a slant angle and is written with a broad edge pen can be considered Italic. This series will use the most clearly formed type of Italic, Chancery Italic, as an example to illustrate the basic construction of Italic letters.

A script to meet the needs
Italic was a result of the Renaissance. Before that, the only thing that needed to be written belonged to the church and there was no great rush to publish many copies. Hence booked were decorated (illuminated) with drawings and gilded. The speed at which the script could be written was of no great importance. It was probably during the renaissance that the word "sold out" was first related to books. Suddenly, being able to write fast was a useful skill. At that time, the official "book hand" (script used to write books) was Uncial, which was slow to write since it required multiple strokes for each letter. Scribes started seeking "short hand versions" of the letters which meant that they would write each letter with one stroke. Writing with quills, they were able to push their pens; something that modern calligraphers with crisp Italic nibs cannot, which explains why we need more than one stroke for most Italic letters nowadays. The writing slant was also a result of speeding up since the natural movement of the (right) hand is from bottom left to top right.

Evolution under constraints of the tool
The flag top (i.e. upward motion before verticals in letters d, b, p, h, m, etc.) and the ligature (i.e. the final upward stroke of the letters a, d, h ,m, n, etc.) was part a solution to a technical problem and a result of speedy writing. Quills don't always start on the first touch or they may put down too much ink at the first touch (which incidentally is sometimes a problem with dip pens too), the flag top allowed the ink flow to become consistent before writing the letter, it was also allowed the writer to have a second chance on the letter spacing - imagine starting straight down and finding that the letters were too close together. The ligature was most probably the result of lifting the pen too slowly when moving to the next letter. In Chancery Italic the letters are not linked, but Italic in which letters are linked (cursive Italic) do exist.