10 copybooks to study when you’re learning the Italian Hand
The Italian hand is the oldest of what we call the “pointed pen styles”. If you’ve seen it, maybe in one of Heather Victoria Held’s beautiful compositions, you’ve probably found it a little strange but full of charms. Did you know that it originated in Italy around the 1560’s, back when they didn’t have any […]
The 10 copybooks you need to know about if you study Copperplate / English Round Hand
You know I spend a lot of time looking at old copybooks, I love to study these old models and I’d love to help you get better acquainted with old Writing Masters and their works. But because there are so many options in the bibliography section, I thought it would be nice to narrow it […]
How to study from exemplars
Kate and Cecilia of the EU pointed pen collective had the kindness of inviting me to a live IG chat yesterday, to ask me questions about Penna Volans and, most of all, to let me share how I go about studying the capital variations you can find in my catalogs… This is something I had […]
The Forgotten Secrets of Flourishing
As I just hit “publish” on my catalogue of Ascenders variations, I thought it may be useful to have a look at the flourishing habits of past writing masters and take the time to explain the few rules of flourishing… I think it is quite clear that calligraphers today are very attracted to flourishing… I […]
The Italian Hand
I already told you about the various styles within the Round Hand family, and why writing masters needed to distinguish between each of these styles. Before telling you more about the classic Round Hand itself, I feel like it would be interesting to dive into the family tree of this writing style and uncover […]
Pointed or broad… Which is the best nib for Round Hand ?
Well, that title is a lie : Obviously, a pointed nib is what you need to write a “pointed pen style” ? !… All calligraphers spend a lot of time thinking about their nibs, especially when it comes to pointed pen calligraphy, as there are so many different nibs to choose from… But did you know that Copperplate […]
The family of English Round Hands
In my previous post, I briefly wrote about what I called the English Round Hand’s “sub-styles”. Today I want to take the time to explain what I meant and show you what those styles are. In the 17th and 18th centuries, professional scribes had to learn a wide variety of hands because different styles were […]
“Copperplate” : why calligraphers hate the name but use it anyway
If you are interested in pointed pen calligraphy, you have certainly heard more than one eminent calligrapher state their opinion about the right way to call the various pointed pen styles popular today… The term “Copperplate” is on all the book covers, but it is often pointed out that it may actually be inappropriate. Frankly, […]
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