Does it have to be so oblique?
May. 20th, 2020 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverYou know, it is really hard to teach yourself new crafts.
As I noted a few weeks ago, I'm trying to teach myself a calligraphic script called Copperplate. Up until now, I've been doing broad-edge pen calligraphy, but Copperplate is a pointed-pen script, which means that the nib is made of two pointed tines that meet at the tip, and when you write, you press harder to spread the tines apart to make a wide line.
Copperplate is a very slanted script (vertical letters like lowercase 'i' are slanted to 55 degrees from the horizontal), which is difficult to write as a right-hander. One way to make it easier is to get what's called an oblique pen holder, which looks like this. The nib is placed in the brass flange on the side (as shown in the photo), which angles the tip for you.
So, like a good student, I purchased an oblique holder (the bottom one in the picture, actually), and it came with a paper titled, "How to align your oblique holder." It had multiple diagrams showing how everything should look, that this part should align with this axis and that part should be right here and no further, etc. I looked at the holder I received and saw that every bit but one was in alignment. Was the one important?
I took the pen to one of my calligraphy guildmates and asked her if the holder was right. She took it, wrote a couple of words, and said that it seems fine, and if it works for me, don't worry about the instructions. Okay, so far so good.
That was back in October. When shelter-at-home was started, I began actually learning to write Copperplate... and found it to be unbearable. I was pressing so hard on the pen to spread the tines that I was scoring the paper - you could see the scratches indented on the back - and even then, the lines were still too narrow. I was also having problems with the tines pulling up fibers from the paper at every stroke, which causes the ink to blot all over.
I asked on Reddit for advice, and no one had any idea what the problem was. I finally found a book that actually talked about "how to hold your oblique pen" and found that because of that one bit that wasn't in alignment, I was holding it weird to make sure that bit contacted the paper correctly, and the weird angle made the vectors all wrong and I had to press really hard to make up for it.
Okay, great. I adjusted that one bit (which required a little readjustment of the other bits) and changed my hold, and I was able to write with a LOT less pressure.
I've been practicing like this, but still having a few problems. The most notable was that the nib would often get caught on the paper as I pushed upwards (it's a sharp nib, after all), which makes smooth curves difficult. I was also still having occasional problems with catching fibers in the tines. I noticed that I could still hear the pen scratching over the paper, though only about a tenth as loud as it used to be. However, I've been progressing - I've gotten past the "learn the basic strokes" phase and am in the "let's learn each letter" phase, and have even written a couple of words ("it" and "tag", for your information). But man, my hand was getting tired after even fifteen minutes of practicing.
Last night, after massaging my hand after practice, I remembered that the Postman's Knock blog talked about oblique holders, so I went to go check it out. I found a video on "how to adjust your oblique holder" created by TPK and a master pen crafter and omg, the things I learned!
First, the angle of your pen to the paper should be low or your nib will catch on the paper. Your nib should never catch - it should glide smoothly. I'd seen some people say this about the angle, but not why. TPK estimated it should be 45 degrees, but the angle in the video looked more like 30.
Second, the pen alignment instructions that I received with the holder were totally and completely wrong. What it did was align the brass flange with the axis of the holder, which means the nib is held at the angle of the holder. Try holding a pen at 30 degrees from the paper: it's not comfortable at all.
The video stated that the holder must be adjusted to the way the scribe holds the pen. The pen crafter demonstrated by adjusting the holder for TPK's holding style (which was different from his own), and following that, I adjusted my own holder.
I tried it out and no scratching sound when writing, no catching on the paper, and just the gentlest pressure spread the tines correctly! Writing straight lines was easy - no wobbling as I tried to keep the pressure up - and my nib didn't get caught when curving around on the 'o'.
So, my question is, why is this so hard to get across? So many sources - the calligraphy supply company, my friend, the book I'm learning from, blogs on the web - and they all disagree on how to do things. The book told me how to hold the pen but didn't tell me that the holder adjustment was important. TPK says you have to hold the pen like this, but the pen crafter says that the way you hold is fine, and it's the pen that gets adjusted to that. Nobody seems to cover it all.
Well, hopefully after all this, I'll be able to concentrate on the learning and not on fighting my pen.
As I noted a few weeks ago, I'm trying to teach myself a calligraphic script called Copperplate. Up until now, I've been doing broad-edge pen calligraphy, but Copperplate is a pointed-pen script, which means that the nib is made of two pointed tines that meet at the tip, and when you write, you press harder to spread the tines apart to make a wide line.
Copperplate is a very slanted script (vertical letters like lowercase 'i' are slanted to 55 degrees from the horizontal), which is difficult to write as a right-hander. One way to make it easier is to get what's called an oblique pen holder, which looks like this. The nib is placed in the brass flange on the side (as shown in the photo), which angles the tip for you.
So, like a good student, I purchased an oblique holder (the bottom one in the picture, actually), and it came with a paper titled, "How to align your oblique holder." It had multiple diagrams showing how everything should look, that this part should align with this axis and that part should be right here and no further, etc. I looked at the holder I received and saw that every bit but one was in alignment. Was the one important?
I took the pen to one of my calligraphy guildmates and asked her if the holder was right. She took it, wrote a couple of words, and said that it seems fine, and if it works for me, don't worry about the instructions. Okay, so far so good.
That was back in October. When shelter-at-home was started, I began actually learning to write Copperplate... and found it to be unbearable. I was pressing so hard on the pen to spread the tines that I was scoring the paper - you could see the scratches indented on the back - and even then, the lines were still too narrow. I was also having problems with the tines pulling up fibers from the paper at every stroke, which causes the ink to blot all over.
I asked on Reddit for advice, and no one had any idea what the problem was. I finally found a book that actually talked about "how to hold your oblique pen" and found that because of that one bit that wasn't in alignment, I was holding it weird to make sure that bit contacted the paper correctly, and the weird angle made the vectors all wrong and I had to press really hard to make up for it.
Okay, great. I adjusted that one bit (which required a little readjustment of the other bits) and changed my hold, and I was able to write with a LOT less pressure.
I've been practicing like this, but still having a few problems. The most notable was that the nib would often get caught on the paper as I pushed upwards (it's a sharp nib, after all), which makes smooth curves difficult. I was also still having occasional problems with catching fibers in the tines. I noticed that I could still hear the pen scratching over the paper, though only about a tenth as loud as it used to be. However, I've been progressing - I've gotten past the "learn the basic strokes" phase and am in the "let's learn each letter" phase, and have even written a couple of words ("it" and "tag", for your information). But man, my hand was getting tired after even fifteen minutes of practicing.
Last night, after massaging my hand after practice, I remembered that the Postman's Knock blog talked about oblique holders, so I went to go check it out. I found a video on "how to adjust your oblique holder" created by TPK and a master pen crafter and omg, the things I learned!
First, the angle of your pen to the paper should be low or your nib will catch on the paper. Your nib should never catch - it should glide smoothly. I'd seen some people say this about the angle, but not why. TPK estimated it should be 45 degrees, but the angle in the video looked more like 30.
Second, the pen alignment instructions that I received with the holder were totally and completely wrong. What it did was align the brass flange with the axis of the holder, which means the nib is held at the angle of the holder. Try holding a pen at 30 degrees from the paper: it's not comfortable at all.
The video stated that the holder must be adjusted to the way the scribe holds the pen. The pen crafter demonstrated by adjusting the holder for TPK's holding style (which was different from his own), and following that, I adjusted my own holder.
I tried it out and no scratching sound when writing, no catching on the paper, and just the gentlest pressure spread the tines correctly! Writing straight lines was easy - no wobbling as I tried to keep the pressure up - and my nib didn't get caught when curving around on the 'o'.
So, my question is, why is this so hard to get across? So many sources - the calligraphy supply company, my friend, the book I'm learning from, blogs on the web - and they all disagree on how to do things. The book told me how to hold the pen but didn't tell me that the holder adjustment was important. TPK says you have to hold the pen like this, but the pen crafter says that the way you hold is fine, and it's the pen that gets adjusted to that. Nobody seems to cover it all.
Well, hopefully after all this, I'll be able to concentrate on the learning and not on fighting my pen.
