There has already been a post on this blog about preparing nibs before you start to use them. Using a new nib frequently causes problems. Only the other day I spoke to a customer who was experiencing difficulties try to get the ink flow from a new nib. After a chat they followed the instructions on the preparing a nib post and later emailed back and said it worked.

Another method of preparing a nib is to use a naked flame. With this method, the nib is passed back and forth through a naked flame. I have tried this method and the results seem to be the same as using boiling water, so I have always stuck with that. However, the following email extracts prove it can be worth trying different ways.

Back in May, a customer contacted us with the ink flow problem. Attached to their email was some photographs that clearly showed the problem.

“I am attaching these pictures to illustrate my problem with this nib.
You sent me a Leonardt 33 nib. But, as you can see I can’t seem to write a single word.
I have ink on the nib but no flow at all. What am I not doing wrong? Any suggestion would be helpful.”

As the first photograph clearly shows, the ink was just sitting on the nib. You can see the tip of the nib is still dry. So we recommended the boiling water method. The following day we received an update.

“Unfortunately , it is not working for me. The nib cannot write at all.. despite the soaking.”

We then suggested the flame method. A couple of days later we receive another email and photograph. It had worked.

What I had learnt from this was that it is worth trying different methods on the same nib. Just because once in the past the flame method had been tried and the result had not appeared to be any different to the boiling water method I had not used it since. However, if one method does not work, try another.

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We recently discussed ways of practising your calligraphy. In that post we said it is best to practise frequently and do so in a constructive and methodical way. By setting yourself a target for the practise session you would be more focused and achieve better results.

I thought I would follow this up by describing the way I practised Italic Minuscules. I don’t intend to explain how to write that style rather than my approach to practising the style.
The characteristics of Italics are different to those of Roman Capitals and Foundational Hand.

The nib is held at 45° to the write-line. So, I constructed a 45° line at the top left on my practise paper (I like to use Layout Paper). Next I ruled up the paper. It’s best to write large at first and at a later stage reduce the x-height. So I started with an x-height of about 15mm. The letters are also sloped at 5°, so I constructed a 5° line and then copied it across the page at 20mm intervals.

I was ready to begin; after loading the nib with ink, I hovered it over the 45° line to make sure the pen angle was correct. From experience I find that each practise session starts of badly – it takes a while to warm up. Then for a while you write at your best before starting to become tired and the letters become weaker. So at first I produce a few vertical and horizontal lines to get myself in the right frame of mind and to check the ink flow. It is important the nib is correctly inserted in to the penholder and the ink is flowing nicely. When practising, you do not want to be distracted with any nib and ink flow problems.

At this stage, the paper is ruled-up ready including your 5° slope lines and 45° pen angle line. Your nib and reservoir are correctly fitted and the ink is flowing nicely from nib. We are now ready to start writing …..

Italic Minuscules can be grouped together based upon similar characteristics. In this practise session I had already decided to practise the ‘O’ group of letters. It is difficult to get the consistency of these letters because they are all based on the oval shape. Getting the shape is not so bad, but to get the same width oval shape is hard. In contrast to this if you were studying Roman Capitals or the Foundational Hand you may be finding it really hard to get a perfect round circle, but at least you can visualise the shape. Visualising the correct width of the oval is a lot trickier.

Now warmed up and ready to go, I started by writing out a line of the letters c, e, o, l and t to get going. Next a complete line of the o letter was written. Then I looked carefully at my letters comparing them to the alphabet sampler and accompanying notes. Each letter was analysed and if I thought it was acceptable I placed a small tick next to the letter. If the letter was bad a small cross was made against it. At first there would be whole lines of letters with a cross against each of them. Several lines later a few more ticks started to appear.
This technique was then used with the other letters of the group.
Towards the end of the session I produced a couple of lines writing each letter of the group in turn.
By analysing and marking EACH letter written, quite quickly I found my work would improve. This method was used for each group of letters.

Finally, It’s a good idea to date your work and keep all the practise sheets for a while so at a later date you can go back through them and see how much progress you have made.

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Learning calligraphy is a bit like learning to play an instrument. You will only achieve results through practise.
What is the best way to practise? Well, everybody has their preferred method. It’s a bit like revising for an exam.
Set a side time for practising your calligraphy – Firstly, do not sit down and practise for hours at a time. Frequent sessions are better than the odd long practise.

Before you start your practise think about what you want to achieve. It is far more productive to have an objective for the session; otherwise, you can easily end up writing loads but not really improving. Objectives for a practise could be; maintain a consistent pen angle, produce consistent straight vertical and horizontal pen strokes.

Once you have a good control of the pen you can then start practising the letters. With many styles of writing, letters can be grouped according to their characteristics. It is best to practise a group of letters in one session and a different group another time rather than writing out each letter of the alphabet.

If in one session you can see an improvement in one are you will be more satisfied with your progress. If you feel you are making progress you we will become more motivated and will want to practise more

Progress = motivation = progress

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With Copperplate, it is important to have the right equipment and materials.

Drawing Board
For most work, a calligrapher will use a drawing board, which if at the correct angle will help improve ink flow. When writing Copperplate, I personally tend not to use a board. By having the paper flat on the desk, it naturally increases the ink flow because the penholder and nib will be more upright.

Nibs
Pointed nibs will not last very long. Typically they will start to scratch after writing only a few A3 pages. Some nibs are better than others. The Leonardt Principal EF nib will normally last longer than the Gillott nibs. Vintage nibs last longer than most of the modern nibs.
When the nibs start to scratch, I know some calligraphers have tried to sharpen them – I believe with mixed results. I have never had any success with sharpening pointed nibs.

Ink
The right ink is important. Many inks are too thick and will not flow well from the nib. Some inks are thin enough to flow, but are still quite thick and give a heavier hairline. Often it is possible to make the ink the correct consistency by adding a little water. For best results I use Walker’s Copperplate Ink. This recipe has been fine tuned by Brian Walker over the years and gives excellent results – a very fine hairline and dark shades.

Paper
The paper must be very smooth for Copperplate. If the paper is not smooth enough the nib will catch on it as you try and make it glide over the paper. If the nib is starting to scratch or the paper is not smooth enough, you will be disappointed with your efforts and very quickly become disheartened. Ordinary layout paper can be suitable as can a quality, but very smooth cartridge paper. For final pieces of work use a quality paper, these include some papers designed for ink-jet printers. The most popular paper for Copperplate is Character Paper.

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Books
Few Calligraphy books give instructions on Copperplate writing. In many cases they only give a couple of examples of Copperplate and do not go into any great detail about how the letterforms are constructed.
There are a few good Copperplate books around, but be aware of their limitations.

THE UNIVERSAL PENMAN Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20616-5 This is a reprint of an 18th century work. There are pages upon pages of Copperplate examples. This is the book for all Copperplaters.

MASTERING COPPERPLATE by Eleanor Winters. Watson-Guptill Publications, NY. ISBN 0-8230-3022-9 A very detailed book, with over 190 pages. This book gives good instructions on constructing Copperplate minuscule letters. Examples of bad letterforms are also included to help identify the most common mistakes. This book is not so good for Capital letters.

COPPERPLATE CALLIGRAPHY by Dick Jackson
Macmillan Publishing Inc. NY. ISBN 0-02-011710-8
This book shows you what not to do as well as what to do. A bit prescriptive, saying you must do it like this.

THE TECHNIQUE OF COPPERPLATE CALLIGRAPHY by Gordon Turner.
Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-25512-3
The whole of this small book (42 pages) is written in Copperplate. Unlike the other books, it does not go through the basic strokes that make up the lower case letters.

Scribblers Copperplate books

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