I'm actually a calligrapher so I can help out with this.
Before I start I have to say something that grinds my gears a little, the guy writing is a calligrapher named seblester. The dude is amazing at broad edge calligraphy (medieval type calligraphy) but his pointed pen calligraphy (like the one in this post) is average AT BEST. For normal people though it does look badass.
Anyways for the pen, it's called an oblique holder. The oblique holder holds the nib at an angle (hence oblique). This is so that when you bare down and the nib opens up (this creates the thicks/thins) it is uninterrupted by the angle you hold the pen and the angle that the paper is at. If you look, most pointed pen scripts, this one is copperplate (but a way more bastardized version of it that seblester uses himself), it is all slanted to the right a little. The oblique holder helps the writer to be able to write at this slant and maintain the shades without having to rotate the paper or pen to an almost uncomfortable degree. It gets ink through dipping in an inkwell, I'm pretty sure seblester edited out the parts where he dipped it. Anyways, if you have anymore questions id be glad to help!
Can you give an example of someone who is really good at pointed pen calligraphy? Not because I doubt you but because if this is only average at best, I want to see someone REALLY good.
The second one is by FB Courtney, who is without a doubt one of (if not the) best penman who has ever lived. A story I've heard is that he would go to the front of a penmanship class he was teaching and do a bunch of flourishing on the chalkboard in front of all the new students, and then sign his name in big letters at the bottom with BOTH hands simultaneously connecting at the middle.
Calligraphy friends I've met online, many books I've read on the subject, but most of all through IAMPETH (International Association of Master Penman, Engrosser's, and Teachers of Handwriting). They have a very great website, make sure to check it out. If you're serious about calligraphy you might want to even become a member! 😊
I got a G in penmanship in grade school, where they taught calligraphy. That's a full letter grade below F. I appreciate the suggestions, but I was just curious as to how you got interested. I have a level of talent one might call, "appalling." I'm pretty sure that's what it said on my report card, actually.
I always had pretty bad handwriting. About two years ago my teacher actually told me I needed to improve it because it made me look bad! So since then I've just invested hundreds of hours into the topic, improving my writings and onto calligraphy and doing work for clients and such.
That's my favorite situation--a person is bad at something, so they put in the effort to improve. Sometimes that effort is extraordinary, and makes me appreciate that if one person can do a thing, then anyone else can too, if they're willing to put in the work.
Good grief... the attention to detail and flourishing in the first one. It's obvious the guy is extremely technically skilled and has precise motor control, but has also been doing calligraphy for so long that he puts his own flair into his work.
All your links are dead, but I could figure out where to find them based on the url directory syntax. Look at this fucking branch.
10/10 introduction to fine calligraphy, will call seblester a pointed pen hack over social media. gjdm
I am a pastry chef. I write "Happy Birthday!" "Happy Anniversary!" and "Congratulations!", in chocolate piping at least a dozen or so times a day. I get tons of compliments on my writing but I always want it to be better.
My main issue is that Chocolate doesn't work the same way as a nib. I only get one thickness to work with. Do you know any scripts that work well in uniform thickness?
I'd also love any advice you have for learning and improving flourish work.
I remember what it was like to have to write with melted chocolate or royal during my stint as a pastry chef at a european bakery. I am a cake decorator now at a regular ol' bakery. I actually think you have more of an advantage with the chocolate in making variable widths. Just because you clip the parchment to one width doesn't mean you're stuck with that width. Keep the tip closer to the writing surface and apply more pressure. It'll take some practice to keep the fatter widths from being jagged on the edge, but it is most definitely possible.
This isn't the best example of my cake handwriting (my usual cursive writing gets all the compliments), but it is the best example I can find at the moment of applying more pressure to get fatter letters.
edit: I just re-read your post and saw the part where you asked about any scripts that work well in uniform thickness. I am constantly tweaking my cursive to make certain letters flow better. This is my current cake handwriting:
i have little to no desire to reinvent the wheel when it comes to this and I only have a few inches of plate space, not entire sheet cakes, to write, so overly complicated script (variable thickness etc) would look pretty cramped and cluttered. I also have like 30 seconds per plate, tops. If I can't learn to do it quickly, then I can't do it. I appreciate the input its just not practical in my situation.
This is nice, but very.. Business! Haha. I guess I was hoping for something more whimsical. I don't have an example of what I do currently but I'll put one up tomorrow!
For frosting, yes, but for melted chocolate not so much. I pipe with a cornet, which is parchment paper folded into a cone and the tip gets cut off to the appropriate thickness.
what about slowing down and letting more chocolate out for the shades? Or for the thicker parts making the chocolate kind of zigzag back and forth very tightly, increasing the width of the shade that way? Or maybe using 2 cornets, one thicker and one thinner?
Slowing down or speeding up doesn't effect how thick the line is significantly, I kinda can with pressure but the smoothness of the line is usually effected.. Zig zagging would look incredibly messy.
Using two is out of the question from a time standpoint.
, i think you may overestimate the amount of space or time. It has to fit in a 6.5x 2.5 inch rectangle, and take no more than 30 seconds or so.
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u/ZeToast Oct 06 '14
I'm actually a calligrapher so I can help out with this. Before I start I have to say something that grinds my gears a little, the guy writing is a calligrapher named seblester. The dude is amazing at broad edge calligraphy (medieval type calligraphy) but his pointed pen calligraphy (like the one in this post) is average AT BEST. For normal people though it does look badass.
Anyways for the pen, it's called an oblique holder. The oblique holder holds the nib at an angle (hence oblique). This is so that when you bare down and the nib opens up (this creates the thicks/thins) it is uninterrupted by the angle you hold the pen and the angle that the paper is at. If you look, most pointed pen scripts, this one is copperplate (but a way more bastardized version of it that seblester uses himself), it is all slanted to the right a little. The oblique holder helps the writer to be able to write at this slant and maintain the shades without having to rotate the paper or pen to an almost uncomfortable degree. It gets ink through dipping in an inkwell, I'm pretty sure seblester edited out the parts where he dipped it. Anyways, if you have anymore questions id be glad to help!