Quirky Sample

Mr. Legend is an advanced student, working on Spencerian. Amy said she was practicing, but I am not sure which style she is practicing. Maybe all of them at once.

Traditional teachers will say that it is essential to focus on just one style until you have a good grasp of that style. Then, you may move on to other styles. I agree, but only 50%.

I am pretty much 50-50 on everything. That is a lesson I learned from my physics teacher in high school. He said that in reality, every rain forecast was 50%. Maybe it will rain, maybe it won't. Then he had a more comprehensive lesson on weather forecasting and calculating all the various things the weathermen calculate and he probably intended for me to learn something else, but instead, I just went with the 50-50 rule and I apply it to e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. It makes life easier. A perfect balance between optimism and pessimism.

Returning to the topic of whether or not you should focus on one style at a time. Maybe. Maybe not. If you only have a copperplate book, then, it would be a good idea to focus on copperplate for a while. If you have The Speedball Textbook, you might want to just go ahead and try every single style in the book to see what happens. In my years of teaching, I was frequently surprised when a student who was not having any success with the first few styles I offered would suddenly try one that was a perfect fit for them and *voila* they were off and running.

So, do not be discouraged with your penmanship or calligraphy studies until you have tried every single style there is. You won't know until you try. If you are enjoying the very first style you try, stick with it for as long as it maintains your interest.

If you are flighty and want to try everything, let me know. I can start putting up a ton of alternatives. But, I don't want to bombard you with too much at the beginning.

The sample today is a quirky script. Compared to the upright exemplar I posted, it is elongated and slanted, but the shapes are generally the same as any script. I drew some wonky guidelines as a design element and chose a matching stamp. It isn't spectacular. But, it is an adequate idea to make a birthday card or thank you note a little more interesting.