The art of penmanship

[Flyboy]

After drawing, calligraphy was probably one of my favourite creative hobbies. I haven't practised it seriously for many years, but I found it's like riding a bicycle — once you've mastered the skill, you never lose it. One of the legacies of this hobby is my collection of over 30 fountain pens. The pen in this drawing is based on one of them — a very expensive Montblanc (a gift from a fellow fountain pen afficionado).

Any other calligraphers or fountain pen lovers here?

Mike.

[Flyboy]

After drawing, calligraphy was probably one of my favourite creative hobbies. I haven't practised it seriously for many years, but I found it's like riding a bicycle — once you've mastered the skill, you never lose it. One of the legacies of this hobby is my collection of over 30 fountain pens. The pen in this drawing is based on one of them — a very expensive Montblanc (a gift from a fellow fountain pen afficionado).

Any other calligraphers or fountain pen lovers here?

Mike.

[Peter Clifton]

Flyboy

Calligraphy is the one subject I am excluded from by nature, did you know it is impossible for an exclusively left handed person to practise calligraphy.

That is one of the reasons I took to computers so well I think

All my childhood, when my primary school dissallowed the use of pencils and the spawn of the devil ball points, I suffered with pushing a nib across a page, smudging everything as I went.

Yes I even tried the Osmoroid left hand oblique nib, or perhaps it should be labelled left hand ink blot creator.

Thankfully secondary schools were not so strict an I could at least use a ballpoint though by then the damage was done.


I thought it was just me, in my latter teenage years I really started to admire parchments and got a book out of the library on calligraphy intending to do something about it. On the very first page it said you have to be right handed. If you create letters using standard caligraphic nibs with a lefthand all the flats and thins are reversed.

Nowadays I block capital when I write notes or use a computer.

I only use handwriting for personal letters.

Still the book from the library was extrememly interesting and I still admire good penmanship.

Peter

[roman]

Thanx for sharing. That pen is really beautiful.

IMHO all the bad is good for something. Complications and obstacles are there to train us to be better. That's why many lefthanded people are so original & succesful. Sometimes I wish I was born lefthanded, maybe I would me much better person now ;-))

[ivan louette]

Nice image Mike!

And Peter I am also left handed and had the same problems at school and after...!

Kindly,

ivan

[gwpriester]

Another leftie checking in (loud hurrahs!)

I just learned to write with a hook, hooking my left hand so as to avoid smudging the ink. Of course it was only partially successful and most of my grade school papers were smudged.

Oddly, I learned to use a mouse with my right hand and by the time it occurred to me I should be using my left hand, I had gotten too adept with my right hand.

Call me confused :-)

Oh, nice image Mike. I thought it was a photograph at first.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

[roman]

That's why many lefthanded people are so original & succesful...

[Flyboy]

My sympathy to the lefties. I have a friend who is left-handed. When she saw my calligraphy, she wanted to try it too, but obviously couldn't. Until then, it had simply never occurred to me that left-handed people were excluded from this satisfying artform.

Mike.

[a4hire]

I am another left hander. I thought I would mention this since it seems to to the topic. I never tried to do calligraphy. I do know the experience of smuding ink when writing papers. I do my computer work right handed with the mouse.
I think your work is very nice. I still write and draw with my left hand! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[panfer]

It does look like a photograph. Very impressive.
Flyboy is it possible to post a closeup of the nib part?