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Calligraphy tutorial. You will also need ink

Calligraphy tutorial. You will also need ink

18.03.2019

The development of good handwriting in students is one of the main tasks of the school when teaching writing.

To accomplish this task, the programs recommend building teaching writing on a systematically selected material that is accessible to the age of students, following a sequence in developing the skills of writing letters that make up words, and through special exercises to eliminate individual deviations and shortcomings that violate the clarity and legibility of the letter.

For handwriting classes, one lesson per six days is allocated from the Russian language lessons. In the first grade in the first half of the year, these classes take place in connection with the ABC lessons 3-4 times a six-day period within up to 10 minutes in the first quarter and up to 15 minutes in the second. In the second half of the first grade and in the second grade, calligraphy classes are held twice a six-day period, for which half a lesson is allocated for each lesson from the lessons of the Russian language *.

__________
* Elementary School Program, ed. 1935

In the first half of the year, students master the writing of all lowercase letters: they write elements of letters and letters, then words and short sentences.

In the second half of the year, children master the letter of capital letters, practicing mainly in writing names. Capital letters are written in a simple script, like lowercase letters, with the exception of B, E, C, D, R.

In the II class, the work of the I class continues and is consolidated. Students learn to write more rapidly (compared to the first year), clearly and beautifully, on two rulers and study the style of capital letters in a generally accepted font. Individual deviations and shortcomings that violate the legibility of writing are eliminated by setting up special exercises for individual students in the form of rewriting whole words, syllables, letters or their elements.

Teaching writing in ink should begin in illiterate classes at the end of September, and in literate classes from the second week of the children's stay at school. It is necessary to get each student a feather-cleaner made of flannel or cloth pieces of matter.

In order to cultivate the best attitude of the student to the notebook, samples of the best children's work should be exhibited in the classroom in order to stimulate students to correct, beautiful, clear and even handwriting and to the neatness of the notebook.

The proposed recipes give the teacher examples of correct writing, and help the student learn how to write correctly on systematically and expediently selected material. The material for calligraphy is arranged from easy to difficult. Starting with the exercises for the letter K, the material is given in parallel with learning to read and write in the primer. This material provides examples of the correct lettering, the correct combination of letters into words, and the correct organization of the page.

Copybooks serve students in grades I and II, but they can be useful for correcting handwriting and for students in grades III and IV.

For the first grade, the copybooks contain all types of calligraphy work according to the program, ed. 1935

For the second class are given:

a) preliminary exercises with the transition to a smaller font;

b) the inscription of lowercase and uppercase letters, arranged in order of difficulty, as well as words with these letters;

c) a sample lesson on capital letters P and T, revealing the system of work; similarly, other lessons are built on this or that letter;

d) connected text on various ways of connecting letters in words.

If the teacher finds it necessary to increase the number of exercises for each type of work, then he can do this on specially selected exercises, consistent with both calligraphy and spelling tasks.

Each calligraphy lesson is built according to the following plan:

Setting the goal of today's lesson.
Preparation for writing notebooks and pens.
Checking the ability to hold a notebook and a pen; observation of the correct fit.
Showing by the teacher on the blackboard the words in written type with the analysis of the letters into their constituent elements.
Analysis of what is written in terms of style: where to start and where to end, how to connect one stroke to another, how to connect one letter to another, etc.
A letter of one line independently and under the account.

Work with prescriptions. Students independently examine and read the copybook text that they will write, find familiar letters, highlight a new letter, compare their letter with that written in copybook. After such preparation, the children write in the copybook on their own, and the teacher can work with another class if he has two of them.

Work accounting. In the course of work or at the end of handwriting classes, the teacher looks through the students' notebooks, indicating the general shortcomings and shortcomings of each student, correcting them by writing a sample on the blackboard or in the students' notebooks.

In the process of teaching writing, the teacher's own writing plays a huge role. Showing here is the best way to learn. That is why the teacher needs to take care of the technical perfection of writing on the board and in the student's notebook. The teacher's letter should be simple, clear and beautiful, in compliance with the normal forms of letters, without the use of any superfluous or conditional strokes and unnecessary decorations (zigzags, ponytails, flourishes, etc.).

Each teacher, before writing on the board, should be well acquainted with the text and the outline of the letters in the copybook. If the teacher does not do this, there may be a large discrepancy between the lettering in the copybook and in his sample on the board, and then the copybook, as a visual aid, will lose its meaning.

Bogolyubov N.N. Calligraphy technique

Proc. allowance for ped. schools. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - Leningrad: Uchpedgiz, 1955

Unique edition. The methodology for teaching beautiful writing is described in great detail. Today, ordinary school copybooks from 1955 appear to be calligraphy. The prescriptions are attached.

Starting the 5th edition of the Course of Calligraphy and Office Shorthand, the publishing house "Krug Samobrazovaniya" left the general plan of the publication unchanged, retaining mainly the simplicity and general accessibility of the presentation. The purpose of the publication is to give everyone the opportunity to a short time to learn how to write quickly and beautifully on their own was justified by the success that fell to the lot of the first four editions of the Calligraphy Course.

Beautiful and fluent handwriting is an urgent need of every literate person. It is necessary for teachers, officials, clerks, bank employees, clerks, draftsmen, craftsmen, merchants, etc. - in a word, in very many occupations, widespread. An obscure and ugly handwriting is very often the cause of the material disorder of those persons who have to correspond in the service or in their business.

There is no such ugly handwriting that could not be corrected and made beautiful. The proposed training system leads to handwriting correction in the most correct and shortest way.

Particular attention is paid to the fact that the student is conscious of the matter, that is, that he understands why each exercise is being done, and that he sees that this exercise is really necessary. With self-study, such a conscious attitude to the matter fully ensures success in the classroom.

The full course of calligraphy and office cursive writing consists of six sections:

1) Preliminary exercises;

2) Calligraphic handwriting;

3) Office cursive;

4) Direct letter;

5) Rondo and Gothic;

6) Elegant fonts: Battard, Frakturny, Fashionable Slavic.

For the convenience of practical exercises, an album of elegantly executed tables is attached to the theoretical part of the course, which contains samples of all letters, numbers and fonts.

The emergence of calligraphy dates back to ancient times.

On the most ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian monuments there are inscriptions that show that the art of reproducing written characters was already highly developed in those times far from us. IN ancient China calligraphy has reached a high degree of perfection.

The written signs that we use at the present time do not originate from Egyptian and Chinese letters, but most likely from the Phoenician ones. The ancient Greeks, apparently, borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenicians and, having significantly modified it, then passed it on to the ancient Romans. Here it underwent new changes and, together with Christianity, spread almost unchanged throughout Europe. Only in Germany medieval monks gave the Latin script an angular and curly shape and developed the so-called Gothic script. The Latin script also had a strong influence on the Russian alphabet, but some of the letters of our alphabet are borrowed from Greek.

Already in ancient Greece, and then in Rome, calligraphy enjoyed great honor and was highly valued. Printing had not yet been invented at that time, and the only way to compose books was to write them on parchment. This method required great skill, since cursive was not yet known at that time, and the only written type was the same type that is now used in printing houses, i.e. in those days they wrote in block letters.

The heyday of calligraphy, however, dates back to the second half of the Middle Ages, when the demand for books began to grow especially rapidly. Fonts of amazing beauty and elegance were created in this era. Not only almost all the so-called curly fonts (rondo, gothic, etc.), but also many of the current typographic fonts have been inherited from medieval calligraphers. In recent years, it has been possible to observe a return to medieval fonts in typography.

With the invention of printing, calligraphy lost its former importance and stopped its development for many years. Ultimately, however, calligraphy was never supplanted, but in last decade interest in it was revived again, and in the development of calligraphy a new period of prosperity began, even more magnificent than in the Middle Ages.

The scope of calligraphy is currently extremely extensive. The extraordinary development of typography, the unprecedented growth of the newspaper business, the enormous spread of advertising, and finally, the sign and poster business created an extensive demand for a variety of curly type. The number of such fonts is already very large, but every day brings us something new in this area. Thus, supplanted at first by the invention of typographic fonts, calligraphy is now called to a new life by the further development of the same type of typography.

The invention of the printing press revolutionized the book industry and for the first time created the possibility of widespread literacy. Simultaneously with the spread of literacy, there was a need for such written signs, which in their form would be simpler than calligraphic ones and did not require any special art or a lot of time for their reproduction. Having learned to read, people also wanted to be able to write, and, moreover, to write easily and quickly. Curly calligraphic fonts were completely unsuitable for this purpose. It was necessary to develop a cursive font that would not be difficult to learn, it was necessary to significantly simplify the old calligraphic fonts. This was done, but not immediately, but gradually.

The ancient cursive is very different from the present cursive. In the old days, people were in no hurry to live and they were in no hurry to write. Therefore, in ancient cursive writing, we find an extraordinary abundance of various curls, decorations and strokes, which made writing extremely difficult and slowed down. Our business time has completely discarded all these calligraphic tricks and subtleties and developed a simple, economical cursive. The former cursive has turned in our time into the so-called calligraphic (ministerial) font, which stands on the border between really calligraphic (curly) fonts and cursive.

The introduction of universal education in Europe greatly contributed to the simplification of cursive writing. In the past 20 years, teachers have devoted a lot of effort to this issue and not only introduced simplifications into cursive script, but also developed a method of teaching writing that gives the most correct results in the shortest time. Following the teachers, the issue of developing handwriting was taken up by prominent scientists who, from a physiological and psychological point of view, studied the issue of the movements made when writing. Through numerous experiments, the movements of the fingers, hand, forearm, shoulder joint and the whole arm were studied (the study of Jedd, Goldscheider and Kraepelin) and the speed of writing movements in sick and healthy people was determined; time spent on each letter of the alphabet (studies by Gross and Diehl), and the effect of alcohol on writing movements (studies by Meyer). Finally, a number of observations were made on the dependence of the angle of inclination of the letters to the ruler on the length of the fingers and hand, as well as on the angle formed by the notebook with the edge of the table (Marx Lobzen's research).

These experiments and investigations are far from being completed. Among educators, for example, there is no unanimity on issues related to teaching writing: some are in favor of a direct font, others defend italic. Finally, there are serious researchers who propose some modifications to the modern cursive type (eg, transfer of pressure, change in the shape of the rounding). Among these teachers, we note Georg Lang, who wrote a large study on modern cursive writing. In general, the work of teachers over the past 20 years has eliminated many prejudices and errors from teaching writing and opened up new ways of teaching writing.

In compiling this "Course of Calligraphy and Cursive Office Writing" we were guided by the desire to combine into a single whole all the more or less firmly established conclusions of modern scientific pedagogy.

When writing, a whole series of movements is made - with fingers, a hand with a forearm and with the whole hand. The main requirement that any system of teaching writing must satisfy, therefore, is that it accustom the student to free and firm writing movements, that is, to such movements that, with the least effort or muscle tension, give the greatest result. Free and confident movements are the basis of calligraphy and cursive writing. Handwriting cannot be free and beautiful if it does not rely on free movement. That's why the development of free writing movements should be the main goal of any system of teaching writing.

From this point of view, the dispute about direct and oblique writing is of secondary importance. Neither straight nor oblique handwriting is contrary to the freedom of writing movements. It is even difficult to say in which handwriting there is more freedom of movement. Therefore, both direct and oblique writing are equally suitable. It is impossible to say the same about handwriting slanted to the left (and not to the right, as usual). Such an inclination in the most decisive way contradicts the freedom of writing movements, since letters inclined to the left can be written only by unnaturally arching the right hand and placing the pen not along the paper, as usual, but across. Therefore, such a labored handwriting produces an extremely unpleasant, repulsive impression.

We will have occasion to return to the question of direct and oblique writing in the section devoted to direct writing, and there we will develop our views more fully.

In order to learn how to write, you need to learn free writing movements.

The teaching of writing is, or rather should be, the teaching of free writing movements.

This is the basis of our system.

That is why it devotes such a prominent place to a whole series of exercises, the purpose of which is to develop the freedom of writing movements. The student must approach these exercises with full consciousness, understand their purpose, and ponder over the system itself. He must firmly, clearly and unswervingly remember that without freedom of writing movements he will never be able to achieve free and correct handwriting. And this freedom can only be achieved by strictly following the exercises we have proposed. That is why we analyze each exercise in the most detailed way and strive to ensure that, when starting it, the student understands quite clearly for what purpose this exercise is given and what movements it develops.

Our course is designed not only for those who do not yet know how to write and are just beginning to learn, but equally for those who have already learned to write, but have a bad, spoiled handwriting and want to correct it. And for those and for others, our exercises are equally important: the cause of bad handwriting is always unfree, incorrect, connected or unbalanced movements. Our exercises make it possible to unlearn such incorrect and unfree movements.

It is also important for students to remember that without working, nothing can be achieved. It is impossible to acquire a beautiful, fluent handwriting by some miracle: for this you need to work. And to work means to carefully perform all the exercises and not rush forward. Throughout the course, we will constantly repeat: do not rush forward, otherwise you will have to go back. Remember that especially in calligraphy and cursive writing, you need to adhere to the golden rule: you go slower, you will get further. Go further only when you firmly grasp the old: the less you rush forward, the sooner and more successfully you will get to the end.

We found it necessary not only to provide sample exercises in our course, but also to separate them into a special album. When reading a course, constantly looking at the album would be burdensome. Therefore, we have included samples of our exercises in the text. On the other hand, it would also be inconvenient to use the samples placed in the text when writing exercises: the book is easily fluttered, and it is inconvenient to put it on the table. Much more convenient in this case is a table, which is convenient to put against you on the table and on which there is nothing but the exercises necessary at the moment.

Copybooks of the old sample in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages (narrow ruler, for each letter).

But enough preface! This page contains prescriptions for the Russian language for the "first class", which I made in full accordance with my ideas about what they should be.

First, I returned to a frequent oblique ruler, which made life so easy for first-graders at the time of my childhood.

Second, the letter pattern is repeated several times per line. Each sample is followed by a space where the child enters his letter. This is necessary so that the sample is always in the child’s field of vision, and not his own clumsy letter, written a minute earlier.

Third, the space allotted to the child for training is not limited in any way. Even if he did not have enough sheet to learn how to write any letter, exactly the same sheet can always be printed again. This means that it becomes possible to formulate a task for the child in such a way that it will not make any sense to work carelessly and hastily. Not “write so many lines”, but “write so many beautiful letters”.

However, I do not want to bore the reader with lengthy comments and guidelines. The prescriptions themselves will tell about themselves more eloquently than me.

Downloads:

Clean sheet with a ruler;
Sample page (for quick reference);
Samples of writing letters (alphabet);
Copybooks (sticks, hooks and Russian letters, 73 pages);
Ukrainian and Belarusian letters ґ, є, і, ї, ў, Ґ, Є, І.

Every day I wish the author health when I am writing with my daughter, a first-grader! Tears, tantrums and hassle are over! Now it’s not a problem to start studying, the child succeeds and this adds enthusiasm. When we work out the letter in these recipes, at school he already writes everything correctly and beautifully. (It’s unrealistic to learn how to write according to the Harmony program). Thanks a lot. Now I recommend it to all my friends.

Thanks a lot for your site! I found what I was looking for for a long time - my native children's copybooks, which allowed me to have good handwriting. I can’t calmly see my daughter’s handwriting, she is in the 5th grade. An integral system of teaching children, which has been honed for decades, has been destroyed, freak programs have been created instead, and this, unfortunately, concerns not only calligraphy.

Tell me, please, how much do you recommend printing each sheet? Is one copy enough? I mean that some letters (elements) do not work out very well, should I move on to others or should I practice writing a letter until a satisfactory result is obtained?

It is necessary to train to write each element, each letter until it turns out more or less decently (although perfectionism is also useless). These recipes, in my opinion, are good because any page can be printed any number of times - as many as needed. In my experience, the most copies are required for the very first pages - with sticks and hooks. Another interesting observation: even if a child has learned how to draw a “basic” hook perfectly, this does not mean at all that he will immediately start to get the letter “and”, which consists of two such identical hooks, right away.

You recommend a special pen for copybooks (we found and bought it) and laminated paper, but we cannot find it on sale. Tell me, please, some of the most common brand of such paper, perhaps I misunderstood something ...

Leonid Nekin
I am not recommending anything, but talking about my own preferences, which you may have different - taking into account your specific situation about which I know nothing. I once mentioned that I like the Stabilo point 88 capillary pen. As for the paper, I use plain paper for inkjet and laser printers with a density of 80 grams per square meter, printing copybook files on it. For toddlers who are just starting to learn to write, the capillary pen may blur a little on this paper, because babies draw letters very slowly and often press with all their might. In my opinion, this is not a disadvantage of such paper. On the contrary, the child has additional feedback, thanks to which he quickly learns to write correctly - so that the capillary ink does not blur. I have never tried laminated paper - I think that it is not needed, although, probably, the ink will not blur on it even for a small child.

But the question arose about writing a small letter g. Is it really written that way? It always seemed to me that it simply fits into one inclined cell, while yours fits into two.

Leonid Nekin
Maybe you are right about one cell. But according to the idea that underlies the copybooks, the letter "g" is not just the letter "g", but also the basic element that occurs in the writing of the letters "p", "r" and "t" and itself, in its own turn, based on the hook letter "i".

Funny discovery! On the screen, there are just gaps for writing letters, and on the printout of the page there are thin contour letters for their subsequent outline. Very nice and helpful, thank you for your concern!!

Leonid. Thank you very much for your site, I hope that your copybooks will help me a lot to correct the handwriting. I printed out a blank sheet and tried to write the alphabet, it's just super, never such beautiful letters turned out, it's just in a line in notebooks (as they sell now), in such a line, everything is simple and clear, how to write a pen. I read your article about pens, bought myself according to your recommendations, now I will try. It may seem strange that I am an adult girl, I write copybooks, but I need to correct my handwriting very urgently. As a child, they didn’t put it on me, I still suffer. I am a specialist with a red diploma, I have read more than one scientific article about handwriting in primary school. But your recipes made the biggest contribution. Thanks a lot!

I could not figure out how to make a notebook out of your copybooks.

In particular, if we consider the full copybook (where there are 73 sheets), each sheet is divided by a red line, as I understand it, this is the fold line, and bending along it does not work to make a normal notebook. Also, if you just flash all the sheets on the left side, then the red line in the center does not look very good. Maybe you have an option where the right and left parts are separated into separate sheets, or a file without a red stripe in the center.

Leonid Nekin
I did not at all imagine that a notebook would be made from these sheets. For starters, there is no surer way to scare a child than to show him the entire amount of work ahead at once. Further, it is not at all certain that the child will need exactly one copy of each sheet. In my experience, in order to learn to write more or less decently with the very first sticks and hooks, several sheets are required. And in general, the whole point of these copybooks is that the sheets are printed as needed. Finally, it is simply more convenient to write on one piece of paper than in a thick notebook (out of 73 sheets). The red line in the middle is drawn so that the lines do not seem too long, and not to bend along it. Although, perhaps, it can be bent, but not in the direction to make a notebook, but in the other - to make, as it were, one small double-sided sheet.

Starting the 5th edition of the Calligraphy and Office Shorthand Course, the Krug Samobrazovaniya book publishing house left the general plan of the publication unchanged, retaining mainly the simplicity and general accessibility of the presentation. The purpose of the publication - to give everyone the opportunity to learn how to write quickly and beautifully on their own in a short time - was justified by the success that fell to the lot of the first four editions of the Calligraphy Course.

Beautiful and fluent handwriting is an urgent need for any literate person. It is necessary for teachers, officials, clerks, bank employees, clerks, draftsmen, craftsmen, merchants, etc. - in a word, in very many occupations that are widespread. An obscure and ugly handwriting very often causes the material disorder of those persons who have to correspond in the service or in their business.

There is no such ugly handwriting that cannot be corrected and made beautiful. The proposed training system leads to handwriting correction in the most correct and shortest way.

The full course of calligraphy and cursive writing consists of six sections: 1) Preliminary exercises; 2) Calligraphic handwriting; 3) Office cursive; 4) Direct letter; 5) Rondo and Gothic; 6) Elegant fonts: Battard, Frakturny, Fashionable-Slavic.

Publishing house "Circle of Self-education".

Petr., B. Rifle, 7 - 9.

Introduction.

The emergence of calligraphy dates back to ancient times.

On the most ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian monuments there are inscriptions that show that the art of reproducing written characters was already highly developed in those times far from us. In ancient China, calligraphy reached a high degree of perfection.

The written signs that we use at the present time do not originate from Egyptian and Chinese letters, but most likely from the Phoenician ones. The ancient Greeks, apparently, borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenicians and, having significantly modified it, then passed it on to the ancient Romans. Here it underwent new changes and, together with Christianity, spread almost unchanged throughout Europe. It was only in Germany that medieval monks gave the Latin script an angular and curly shape and developed the so-called Gothic script. The Latin script also had a strong influence on the Russian alphabet, but some of the letters of the Nani alphabet were borrowed from Greek.

With the invention of printing, calligraphy lost its former importance and stopped its development for many years. Ultimately, however, calligraphy was never ousted, and in the last decade interest in it has revived again, and a new flourishing period has come in the development of calligraphy, even more magnificent than in the Middle Ages.

The scope of calligraphy is currently extremely extensive. The extraordinary development of typography, the unheard-of growth of the newspaper business, the enormous spread of advertising, and finally, the sign and poster business created an extensive demand for a variety of curly type. The number of such fonts is already very large, but every day brings us something new in this area. Thus, initially supplanted by the invention of typographic fonts, calligraphy is now called to a new life by further development of the same typographical business.

The invention of the printing press brought about an enormous revolution in the art of books and for the first time created the possibility of widespread literacy. Simultaneously with the spread of literacy, there was a need for such written signs, which in their form would be simpler than calligraphic ones and did not require any special art or a lot of time to reproduce. Having learned to read, people also wanted to be able to write, and, moreover, to write easily and quickly. Curly calligraphic fonts were completely unsuitable for this business. It was necessary to develop a cursive font that would not be difficult to learn, it was necessary to significantly simplify the previously calligraphic fonts. This was done, but not immediately, but gradually.

The ancient cursive is very different from the present cursive. In the old days, people were in no hurry to live and they were in no hurry to write. Therefore, in ancient cursive writing, we find an extraordinary abundance of various curls, inscriptions and flourishes, which made writing extremely difficult and slowed down. Naniya business time completely discarded all these calligraphic tricks and subtleties and developed a simple, economical cursive. The former cursive has turned into the so-called calligraphic (ministerial) font, which stands on the border between really calligraphic (curly) fonts and cursive.

Enter universal education in Europe greatly contributed to the simplification of cursive writing. In the past 20 years, teachers have devoted a lot of effort to this issue and not only introduced simplifications into cursive script, but also developed a method of teaching writing that gives the most correct results in the shortest time. After teachers, the issue of developing handwriting was taken up by prominent scientists who, from a physiological and psychological point of view, studied the issue of the movements made when writing. Through numerous experiments, the movements of the fingers, hand, forearm, shoulder joint and the whole arm (a study of Jedd, Goldscheider and Kraepelin) were studied and the speed of writing movements in sick and healthy people was determined; the time spent on each letter of the alphabet (studies by Gross and Diehl), and the effect of alcohol on writing movements (studies by Meyer). Finally, a number of observations were made on the dependence of the angle of inclination of the letters to the ruler on the length of the fingers and hand, as well as on the angle formed by the notebook with the edge of the table (research by Marx Lobzen).

These experiments and investigations are far from being completed. Among educators, for example, there is no unanimity on issues related to teaching writing: some are in favor of a direct font, others defend italic. Finally, there are serious researchers who propose some modifications of the modern cursive type (eg, transfer of pressure, change in the shape of the rounding). Among these teachers, we note Georg Lang, who wrote a large study on modern cursive writing. In general, the work of teachers over the past 20 years has eliminated many prejudices and errors from teaching writing and opened up new ways of teaching writing.

When writing, a whole series of movements is made - with fingers, a hand with a forearm and with the whole hand. The main requirement that any system of teaching writing must satisfy, therefore, is that it accustom the student to free and firm writing movements, i.e., to such movements that, with the least effort or straining of the luscules, give the greatest result. Free and confident movements represent the basis of calligraphy and cursive writing. Handwriting cannot be free and beautiful if it does not rely on free movement. Therefore, the development of free writing movements should be the main goal of any system of teaching writing.

From this point of view, the dispute about direct and oblique writing is of secondary importance. Neither straight nor oblique handwriting is contrary to the freedom of writing movements. It is even difficult to say in which handwriting there is more freedom of movement. Therefore, both direct and oblique writing are equally suitable. It is impossible to say the same about handwriting slanted to the left (and not to the right, as usual). Such an inclination in the most decisive way contradicts the freedom of writing movements, since letters tilted to the left can be written only by unnaturally arching the right hand and placing the pen not along the paper, as usual, but across. Therefore, such a tortured handwriting produces an extremely unpleasant, repulsive impression.

We will have occasion to return to the question of direct and oblique writing in the section devoted to direct writing, and there we will develop our views more fully.

In order to learn how to write, you need to learn free writing movement.

The teaching of writing is, or rather should be, the teaching of free writing movements.

This is the basis of our system.

That is why in it such a prominent place is given to a whole series of exercises, the purpose of which is to develop the freedom of writing movements. The student must approach these exercises with full consciousness, understand their purpose, and ponder over the system itself. He must firmly, clearly and unswervingly remember that without freedom of writing movements he will never be able to achieve free and correct handwriting. And this freedom can only be achieved by strict adherence to the exercises we propose. That is why we analyze each exercise in the most detailed way and strive to ensure that, starting with it, the student understands quite clearly for what purpose this exercise was given and for which it develops the movement of movement.

It is also important for students to remember that without working, nothing can be achieved. It is impossible to acquire a beautiful, fluent handwriting by some miracle: for this you need to work. And to work means to carefully perform all the exercises and not to rush forward. During the entire course, we will tirelessly repeat: do not rush forward, otherwise the van will have to go back. Remember that especially in calligraphy and cursive writing, you need to adhere to the golden rule: you go slower, you will get further. Go further only when you have firmly grasped the old: less you will rush forward, sooner and more successfully you will reach the end.

We found it necessary not only to present examples of exercises in the course, but also to separate them into a special album. When reading the course, constantly looking at the album would be burdensome. Therefore, we have included samples of our exercises in the text. On the other hand, it would also be inconvenient to use the samples placed in the text when writing exercises: the book is easily fluttered, and it is inconvenient to put it on the table. Much more convenient in this case is a table that is convenient to put against you on the table and on which there is nothing but the exercises necessary at the moment.

FIRST DEPARTMENT.

Preliminary exercises.

Basic conditions for free writing movements.

Before proceeding with the preliminary exercises for developing freedom of writing movements, it is necessary to learn how to sit correctly and hold the pen correctly. This is extremely important. Without this, we cannot move forward. Whoever does not learn to sit correctly and hold the pen correctly, he can give up on himself: he will never write well, because with the wrong position of the body and hands and with the wrong holding of the pen, all movements of the fingers, hand, forearm and whole arm will be constrained, unfree and wrong. Handwriting with such unfree movements becomes uneven, flabby, sweeping and illegible. The correct position of the body and hands and the correct holding of the pen are the main conditions without which there can be no free writing movements.

1. Lighting.

The reason for the incorrect position of the body and hands is very often insufficient and incorrect lighting. Proper lighting should be, first of all, bright enough - so that the eyes at a distance of 10-12 inches quite clearly, without the slightest effort or strain, distinguish even very small print. Secondly, the light should always fall from the left side. The fall of light when writing from the front, and especially from the right side and behind, is very harmful to the eyes. Take care of your eyes and when sitting down to write, always choose a place so that the window is to your left; in the evening, put the lamp also to the left of the notebook, a little in front.

If there is not enough light, the writer is forced to lean towards the paper in order to see better, while he bends his back, which is very harmful to health during prolonged studies. In addition, in such an inclined position, the movements of the right hand become unfree and the handwriting deteriorates. For nearsighted persons, we consider glasses necessary when writing. Otherwise, they get into the habit of sitting with their back bent and their head bowed to the paper itself.

2. Table and chair.

While you are learning to write, it is far from indifferent to you which table to write on and which chair to sit on while doing this. Subsequently, when your handwriting is finally established, it will not be difficult for you to write while standing at the desk or sitting on a high console. At the beginning, in order not to cause incorrect positions of the body and hands, it is necessary to observe the following conditions regarding the table and chair.

The chair should be of such a height that your legs do not hang in the air, but just reach the floor. Otherwise, the position of your body will be unstable and unstable, since it will not have a lower fulcrum. The same will happen if the chair is too low, so you have to bend your legs under the chair, or stretch forward. And in this case, your body, without having a lower point of support, will be in an unstable position. The unstable position of the gel is certainly harmful when writing, since it makes all movements of the right hand unstable, unsteady, oscillating.

The table should be of such a height that, sitting on a chair and lowering your right hand straight down (so that it hangs), you can touch the top board of the table with just your elbow. If this condition is met, then you can freely, without raising or lowering your shoulders and without bending your back, put both hands on the table with your elbows. If at the same time you do not feel any awkwardness and any embarrassment, then this will mean that the table is of a suitable height for you.

The chair should stand straight in front of the table (not sideways), so that its back is just behind (behind the back of the seated person). In no case should you move the edge of the chair under the table, just as you should not move it away from the table: the edge of the chair and the edge of the table should fall exactly on the same plumb line.

3. The position of the legs when writing.

As already mentioned, the feet should be free to stand on the floor. They should not be folded under the Chair or pulled forward. Similarly, one should not lay one foot on the other or move them to the side. Both legs should be placed directly against the body. You can put them instead of the floor on a solid fixed stand (for example, a crossbar between the legs of a table).

4. The position of the body and hands when writing.

The correct position of the body when writing is very important, first of all, for health. Of course, for one month, or even one year, the harm from improper sitting does not show up noticeably enough. This requires a longer period of time. That is why it is not uncommon to meet cheerful people who make fun of all the prescriptions of hygiene (the science of health) regarding the correct sitting while pissing, and even deliberately do not observe them.

For some time, this seems to cost them nothing, which further confirms them in a contemptuous attitude towards hypena. But they end up ruining their eyes and getting all sorts of chest and stomach ailments, which gradually and imperceptibly crept up on them. Then the fun of these unfortunates comes to an end, and they ask themselves with surprise where these diseases came from, completely unaware that non-observance of some petty, "trifle" hygiene prescriptions could have such harmful consequences. We warn against such foolish youth and sincerely advise you to strictly observe all the instructions below. All the more so since the observance of them presents absolutely no difficulties, and for free and effective movements it is absolutely necessary.

Rice. 1. Correct body position. Back view.

When writing, the body rests with almost all its weight on the seat of the chair and only slightly leans forward. The chest should be at a distance of at least one inch from the edge of the table, even two inches is better. Therefore, in no case should the chest rest on the edge of the table. Leaning the body back, so that the writer's back rests on the back of the table, should also not be allowed, since in this position the right hand lies too heavily on the table while writing and loses its freedom of movement. A necessary condition for the correct position of the body when writing is also its parallelism to the edge of the table. This means that both sides of the case - right and left - must be at the same distance from the edge of the table. When writing, the head tilts only slightly forward, and the distance from the eyes to the paper should not be less than 10 inches.

Rice. 2. Correct body position. Side view.

The whole weight of the body, as already mentioned, falls on the seat of the chair. The legs, resting on the floor, form the lower fulcrum of the body, which makes its position more stable. But this is not enough. To provide the body with complete stability, one more point of support is needed. This point of support is formed by the left hand, which is placed with the elbow on the table and serves to support the body and hold the paper in place: the elbow of the left hand rests on the table, so that a small part of the weight of the body passes to the left elbow, and the bone rests on the paper at the top of the notebook and holds it in one position, and when necessary, moves it up.

Keeping the correct position of the left hand is of the greatest importance. If the left hand is not on the spot (for example, it is lowered down), then the body does not have a solid support and seeks support in the right hand. It is not difficult to understand that if the right hand serves as a fulcrum for the body, if part of the weight of the body passes to the right hand, if, as a result, the right elbow rests strongly on the table, then the movements of the entire right hand will in this case be extremely constrained. Free movement is out of the question in this case.

Consequently, the slightest irregularity in the position of the left hand is immediately reflected in the right. And the incorrect position of the right hand always leads to bad, broken and ugly handwriting. It can be argued that in ninety cases out of a hundred the cause of bad handwriting is the wrong position of the left hand, which in turn causes irregularities in the right hand.

But, leaning on the left hand, in no case should you bend or tilt the body to the left.

Shoulders should be straight and at the same height. For maintaining health, this is one of the most important conditions. On fig. 3 depicts that incorrect and extremely unhealthy position of the body, which can often be seen in our schools. The consequences of such improper sitting are truly terrible: myopia, which often ends in blindness, curvature of the spine, which is observed not only in children, but also in adults, a number of gastric diseases, since with an incorrect position the stomach is severely compressed, and finally, the most terrible at the present time. the disease is consumption, which so easily climbs into the lungs, squeezed by improper sitting, which do not receive enough air.

Let the readers not think that we are simply intimidating them. Recently, in France, a government commissioner conducted a survey on the causes of blindness, and it turned out that school myopia, which develops as a result of an incorrect position of the body when writing, is one of the main causes of blindness.

Freedom of writing movements is possible only if the right hand making these movements is completely free. Therefore, the right hand should rest freely on the table, only slightly leaning on it. It has two points of support. The first is at the elbow. In this place, the right hand rests very lightly on the edge of the table. The second point of support for the right hand is the bent little finger, and sometimes with it the fourth (ring) finger, depending on the length of the fingers. The little finger touches the paper only with the right side of the last (final) joint, that part of it that is adjacent to the second joint. The fourth finger either slightly touches the paper with its end, or is located at a very small distance from it. This already depends on the hand and on the length of the fingers - as it is more convenient for anyone.

The most important thing in the position of the right hand is that it should have only these two points of support and not have any other points of support. Therefore, the brush should not touch the paper, there should be a gap between the brush and the paper.

There are two ways to check if the brush position is correct. The first way is to tilt your head to the table itself and look at the brush on the left. Then you will see if there is a gap between the brush and paper or not. The second way to check is in the direction of the pen. The top end of the handle should point towards the right shoulder. If the hand stands incorrectly, for example, rests on the second or first joint of the little finger (and not on the latter, as it should), then the handle will not be directed to the right shoulder, but to the right wall of the room (Fig. 5).

The hand should be carefully monitored, as incorrect position of the hand is the most common fault. Be sure to make both checks of the correctness of its position more often. Particular attention must be paid to the fact that the right hand at both points of support lies very lightly on the table, so that from under it, without any difficulty and effort, a sheet of paper could be pulled out.

In the beginning, you need to check the right hand as often as possible in order to achieve a completely correct position. For people whose hand is already damaged, it will not be easy at first to accustom themselves to a new position, since they will all be drawn to the old, incorrect position. But with desire and perseverance, they will always be able to achieve their goal. There is no handwriting that cannot be corrected, and there is no wrong hand position that cannot be unlearned.

5. Proper holding of the pen.

The pen is held with three fingers: thumb, index and middle.

The index finger, however, only lies on top, resting freely on the handle. To learn how to hold the pen correctly, take it with two fingers - thumb and middle - as shown in fig. 7. At the same time, raise your index finger up. In this position, the thumb presses the lower end of the handle against the last (lower) joint of the middle finger, so that the handle touches the nail of that finger. The upper part of the handle has a fulcrum at the beginning of the first joint of the index finger. In this position, even with the index finger raised up, it is already possible

Rice. 4. Correct position of the right hand. View from the lion. sides.

write, only the handwriting will not be completely firm and completely without pressure, which is performed only with pressure on the handle of the index finger.

Rice. 5. Incorrect position of the right hand: view from the right (back) side.

Rice. 6. Correct position of the right hand, view from the right (back) side.

If now it is easy and free to lower the index finger on the handle, then we will get the correct position of all three fingers, shown in Fig. 4.

All three fingers, holding the handle, are slightly bent in the correct position). gy and are located in the following order: closest to the lower end of the pen, almost at the very end of it, but in no case touching the pen, is the middle finger. Second from the lower end of the handle is the index finger. Even higher than the index finger lies the thumb. The top of the handle touches the beginning (upper knuckle) of the index finger. Thus, the index finger and the pen have two points of contact, but the middle finger of the index finger must not touch the pen.

The fingers holding the handle should not touch each other. With the correct position and sufficient thickness of the handle, a small gap remains between them.

The handle should be held lightly and freely, without squeezing it with your fingers.

To check if you are gripping the handle too tightly, try, without changing the position of the fingers of your right hand and without loosening them, with your left hand, pull the handle by the upper or lower end. With the right finger pressure, the handle should slide freely between them. If it goes tight or even does not move at all, then you are squeezing the handle too tightly. At the same time, this proves that you are holding the pen incorrectly at all, since if you hold the pen correctly, there is not the slightest need for squeezing it.

Necessary, especially in the beginning. often check the correct position of the handle. To do this, stop yourself in the middle of the exercises and, without changing either the position of the hand or the position of the fingers, try to raise your index finger up (as shown in p. 7). If at the same time it turns out that the handle does not hold at all or changes its position, this will serve as evidence that you are holding it incorrectly. Then pay attention to whether the top end of the handle is pointing in the right direction.

Rice. 7. The correct position of the right hand with a raised index finger.

Nowhere is there such a large number of irregularities as precisely in holding a pen. Some lie their fingers on the pen itself. This makes the handwriting small and extremely illegible. Remember that the fingers do not touch the pen, but wrap around the pen near the pen. Others, on the contrary, keep their fingers very far from the pen (Fig. 8). This is always associated with an incorrect position of the brush, which usually in this case touches the paper with its entire right side (see Fig. 5). Such an irregularity indicates the immobility of the fingers, which is very common. The fingers do not bend when writing, for each letter you have to move the whole hand, which is extremely tiring. Many people squeeze the pen with their fingers as if they want to crush it. One can imagine what an ugly handwriting is obtained with such convulsive clenching of the pen. Very often one comes across such bitter calligraphers who, instead of holding the index finger slightly arched at the top, arch it downward and give it a surprisingly ugly, unnatural shape (see Fig. 9). Some manage to bend the middle finger inward, so that the handle rests not on his nail, but on the second joint.

We have already spoken about the position of the fourth and fifth fingers above. These fingers bend a little more than the index and middle fingers, and even bend slightly inward. Both fingers are folded together, adjacent to each other and slightly separated from the middle finger.

6. The correct position of the notebook.

The notebook should lie against the body; the lower left corner of the page you are writing on is just opposite the middle of the chest. If you write on the left page of a notebook, then the lower left corner of this page is against the middle of the bust. When you move to the right side of the notebook, you will need to move the entire notebook to the left, and then the lower left corner of the right page will be against the middle of the chest. In this case, the lower part of the left page will hang in the air. If the position of the hanging body is correct, if you do not lean on the edge of the table with your chest and do not move too close to the table, and also do not bend the body to the left, this hanging part of the notebook should not interfere with you. If it interferes, then it means that you are sitting incorrectly.

You can make small deviations from this position of the notebook: you can move it a little to the right, so that the bottom corner of the page on which you write will fall against the right side of the chest. But moving the notebook strongly to the right is not good: for the right hand it would be very convenient, but for the right hand it is very harmful. If the notebook is too far to the right, you will have to squint your eyes to the right all the time, especially the left eye. The eyes will work unevenly, which is very harmful for them.

It is certainly unacceptable to move the notebook to the left of the middle position.

First, as just indicated, it is more comfortable for the right hand if the notebook is moved to the right; consequently, shifting the notebook to the left could only cause unfree, bound movements of the right hand. Secondly, when the notebook is moved to the left from the middle position, the entire body will also deviate to the left, which is harmful both to health and handwriting.

With its lower edge, the notebook does not lie along the edge of the table, but forms an angle with it. The value of this angle is indicated by our "notebook holder". The use of "notebook holder" is as follows.

Take a large sheet of thick blotting paper and pin it to the table so that the bottom edge of the paper runs along the edge of the table. Then attach the "notebook holder" to the bottom edge of the blotting paper with the edge printed on it: "Table Edge", so that the edge of the blotting paper and the edge of the notebook holder match. Then draw a straight line with a pencil on the blotting paper along the edge of the "notebook holder" on which the inscription: "The edge of the notebook" is printed. You need to draw several such lines, since the notebook has to be moved up and down, right and left when writing. Wherever the notebook lies, higher or lower, to the right or to the left, its lower edge must go along one of the molds marked by the "notebook holder".

The angle we have chosen for the "notebook holder" is the most normal, i.e. most common in practice. Small deviations from it are acceptable: you can slightly deviate the notebook from the lines drawn on the notebook, but it is better not to do this.

Lines on blotting paper should be drawn with a very hard pencil, no lower than No. 3 (or even better, "Siberian graphite"). Otherwise, the pencil will stain the notebook.

7. Position and movement of the pen.

Each pen is split into two parts: right and left. When writing, both nibs of the pen should touch the paper. You should never write with one half or one side of the pen. This is definitely wrong.

Between the position on paper of the right and left nibs of the pen, there is, however, a very small, but at the same time very important difference that must be learned. The right tip serves as a reference for the pen, while the left tip, although it touches the paper in all positions of the pen, does not serve as a support for it, but only slightly slides over the paper. It is not difficult to catch this small but important difference. Place the pen (without dipping it in ink) with its end on the paper completely evenly, that is, so that both ends of the pen - right and left - lie on the paper in exactly the same way. Now, without removing the pen from the paper, without changing its position, as well as the position of the fingers, make an extremely slight upward movement with your thumb. Due to this movement, the whole pen, along with the pen, will turn slightly to the right, so that now the right edge (right edge) of the pen will be a little closer to the paper than the left. This is the correct position of the pen, which must always be maintained. In this position, the pen rests on the paper with its right tip, while the left one only touches the paper. This difference between the position of the right and left tips of the pen is immediately revealed if, without moving the pen either to the right or to the left, neither up nor down, press down the pen with your index finger. Then - if the pen is correctly positioned - the right half of the pen will remain in place, but will be slightly bent, and the left half will not be bent, but will move to the left. In this way, you can always check if your pen is in the right position. A slight tilt of the pen to the right makes a big difference in pressure. Without such an inclination, the correct beautiful pressure is completely impossible. It is clear that tilting the pen to the left is completely unacceptable (at least at the beginning of the exercise).

If the pen is set correctly, then its movements on paper are light and free; it does not creak, does not scratch the paper, does not cling and does not jump, but goes smoothly and evenly. The speed of movement of the pen on paper can be different: the pen can move very quickly, or very slowly, or finally, neither fast nor slow, with an average speed. Rapid movements must be avoided at first, just as very slow movements; and for those, and for others, the hand at first is not strong enough and stable. Write slowly at first, then gradually speed up, but do not go beyond the average speed, except in those cases when you will be directly told to move quickly. Especially avoid quick movements at the beginning, as they can only hurt you.

8. Movement of various parts of the hand when writing.

The arm consists of the shoulder joint (from the shoulder to the elbow), forearm (from the elbow to the hand) and the hand. When writing, different parts of the hand make a variety of movements. The fingers holding the handle can bend and straighten, as well as slightly bend to the right and left. When bending the fingers, draw a straight linpo, going from top to bottom, while straightening it, draw a straight lishu, going from bottom to top. If you bend your fingers and at the same time take them a little to the left, then on paper you get not a straight line, but a curve turned to the left with a bulge. When straightening the fingers and moving them to the right, a curve will turn out with a convex part to the right. By combining various finger movements, you can get the so-called oval, which has the shape of the letter O.

The hand can make small turns to the right and left. Most of the movements of the fingers are connected with the movements of the hand.

The elbow moves while writing to the right with short movements that are made after each word. In this case, the elbow does not move along the edge of the table, but along a straight line inclined to the lower edge of the blotting paper at the same angle as the lines drawn by the "notebook holder". It is even possible to check on blotting paper where the elbow of the right hand falls, draw several lines along the "notebook holder". The elbow should move along these lines.

If you want to learn calligraphy but don't know where to start, then this article is for you. In it, you'll learn what supplies you'll need, how to hold a pen correctly, some tricks, and how to practice. Believe me, you will quickly become a professional!

Everyone can learn calligraphy. Even if you think your handwriting is disgusting, there is someone who wants you to sign wedding invitations with a fountain pen. People especially like modern calligraphy because it blatantly ignores traditional rules and emphasizes individuality.

First of all, you need to learn artificial calligraphy.

“Fake Calligraphy” is a great cursive with which you can learn how to use a fountain pen. Though to be honest, it's technically not "fake". It's still calligraphy, it just doesn't need a fountain pen. Whether you're an experienced calligrapher or just starting out, fake calligraphy is a very important technique to learn how to write on any surface.

This type of calligraphy takes more time than fountain pen calligraphy. However, if you need to write a simple phrase, then you will find this technique fun and you will love the great result that you can achieve with it.

So, first write your phrase in plain cursive. Don't worry if you don't write like the example below - just write as well as you can. This technique works with almost all connected letters.

Then you need to draw lines to indicate the thickening. They appear when your hand moves down to create part of the letter. For example, in the letter “a”, the first curve on the left is a bulge, then you move the pen to the right and down again to indicate the right leg of the letter “a”, and another bulge appears there.

When you have marked all the thickening, just fill in the empty spaces.

Fake calligraphy is a fun and easy way to understand calligraphy. By the way, often people cannot distinguish fake calligraphy from the real one.

Now that you've practiced fake calligraphy, you can move on and purchase a straight pen holder.

For beginners, it is better to use a plastic or cork holder, it will be more cost-effective.

Then you will need feathers.

These are the three feathers that are best for beginners:

pen Brause Steno
Feather Brause Rose
Nib Brause Extra Fine 66

Once you've purchased your pen, you'll want to insert it into the holder.

You will need to carefully make a wedge, as shown in the photo above, which will be located between the outer metal circle and the petals inside. It seems to you that the pen should be located in the middle, but it is not.

Always hold the pen by its middle and avoid the serrations because they are sharp and can hurt you...just as you can bend them if you accidentally squeeze them too hard.

Then select paper.

You can use sketch paper or any paper that is suitable for calligraphy due to its ink absorbency. If the paper absorbs too much, then you will end up with an inky cobweb around the letters.

You will also need ink

For beginners, Speedball India ink or Sumi ink is best. A lot of people try Higgins, but they give that awful gossamer effect mentioned above.

The last thing you need to do is prepare water for rinsing the pen.. You should clean it every couple of minutes.

Now you are ready to learn how to hold a pen! To create modern calligraphy, you can hold the pen just like a regular pen. Only the fountain pen needs to be held tight. Hold it with your thumb and forefinger middle finger use for support and a firmer grip, and use the ring and little fingers as a support.

Now you are ready to write! Dip your pen into the ink up to the middle of the well (the well is that hole in the middle of your pen).

The most important difference between a fountain pen and a regular pen is that the pen should slide over the paper, you don’t need to press on it the way you do with a regular pen. Otherwise, the pen will catch on the paper and you will get ink splatters. Watch this short video to show you how to hold a fountain pen and handle ink.

As a beginner, you may find yourself in a situation where the ink refuses to transfer from pen to paper. There is a simple trick to get him to do this: just “kiss” the tip of the feather on the water and try again. The ink should now behave just fine!

If the ink is old and clogs the nib, swirl it in water for a few seconds and then wipe it off with a soft, lint-free cloth.

With this article, we open a series of articles about calligraphy! Soon we will publish various techniques and lessons, so stay tuned and become a true professional in the art of calligraphy.

FULL TEXT OF THE BOOK
(no special characters)

A bit of history 8
Tools and materials 77
Calligraphy practice, wide nib 122
Modern handwritten book 197
Calligraphy in everyday life 224
Notes 242
Index of names of European, American calligraphers 245

This book is about the art of writing beautifully. People competed in it for many centuries. And not only professional scribes. Many famous poets, scientists, statesmen succeeded here, dispelling the myth that great people have bad handwriting. Michelangelo, Schiller, Goethe, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pasternak...
"Calligraphy for All" is an attempt to captivate a wide range of people with the art of beautiful writing, to help master the culture of type, to master the initial skills and more complex working methods, to acquaint the reader with a brief history of calligraphy. The author hopes that the unique works of famous artists from many countries (most of them are published in the USSR for the first time) will attract the attention of not only beginners, but also professional font masters.
The history of calligraphy is inextricably linked with writing tools. Nowadays, tools of distant antiquity coexist with a ballpoint pen, a felt-tip pen, a synthetic brush, but feathers continue to occupy one of the leading places.
A wide-nib nib, even in inexperienced hands, ensures the correct ratio of stroke widths in letters, and beginners quickly learn the basics of handwriting. Writing with a broad-nib instrument is the preferred style in this edition.
Calligraphy can be learned at any age. English educator Byron MacDonald recommended this activity to anyone who can hold a pen, from six to sixty years old. The famous master of the East (15th century) became famous already in childhood. “One of the graces of God is that I am nine years old, and I write that way,” he was proud. Natural ability, "limitless and innumerable exercises" led him to such early success.
A variety of writing tools, a bewitchingly untouched surface of a sheet of paper, an incomparable feeling of an easily and obediently running instrument - all this brings many minutes of true pleasure.
I thank the foreign and Soviet artists who sent their works for publication. For their help and constant attention, I express my special gratitude to Paul Luhtein and Will Toots from Tallinn, Vadim Vladimirovich Lazursky from Moscow, John Bigs from Brighton, Paul Shaw from New York, Gunylaugur Braim from Reykjavik and Konstantin Eremeevich Turkov from Krasnodar.

A LITTLE HISTORY
At the dawn of their existence, people learned to communicate with each other with gestures. The interlocutors frantically gesticulated, grimaced, winked, shrugged their shoulders, but did not always understand each other correctly. Several tens of thousands of years have passed. The man spoke. There was a more reliable opportunity to share knowledge and life skills. Speech served for direct communication between people, and they did not begin to transmit their thoughts and feelings with the help of conventional signs, to fix them in time.
Writing was improved for a long time and with difficulty by many peoples, but it was formed in Egypt and almost simultaneously in Sumer by the 4th millennium BC. At first, the letter was pictorial. The image of fish, animals, birds, plants is a troublesome business! It took a lot of skill and a lot of time. Gradually, the drawing was simplified, became more and more conditional, schematic.
Sumerian writing is called cuneiform. Badges were applied by pressing a wedge-shaped stick into damp, pliable clay (ill. I). Certain techniques, including the use of wedge faces, made it possible to achieve a variety of impressions. In Sumer, the first
Sumerian tablets with cuneiform writing. 3 thousand before and. e.
Hieroglyphic writing originated in Egypt. Ancient stones are so dotted with intricate patterns of signs that a doubt arose in the soul of one, not too meticulous researcher: is this the work of human hands? “The gray stones are eaten away by special snails,” the “scientist” decided. Cursive forms of writing developed in Egypt: hieratic * writing, and then a more simplified, demotic ** (ill. 2, 3, 4)
* From grsch. hieratikos priestly.
** From Greek. demotikos - folk.
Albert Capre suggests that in Sumer, Egypt and other ancient states that paved the way for the creation of writing, there already existed something similar to calligraphy contests *.
Why, then, have people long sought not only to express something in writing, but to do it beautifully? The world surrounding the ancient man was full of secrets, mysteries, and the signs, with the help of which it became possible to transmit vital content over long distances, as well as from generation to generation, were perceived as the greatest miracle given from above. The extreme clarity of writing made it possible to unambiguously understand its meaning, and the decorative flair of the ancients turns the text into a truly artistic work.
Sailors and merchants, the Phoenicians knew about the writing of the Egyptians. The honor of its further improvement and invention of the alphabet belongs to them.
An amazing innovation became the property of the ancient Greeks. They supplemented the alphabet with signs for vowel sounds, geometrized it and simplified it. The Phoenician letters, open to the left (H), were turned to face to the right (P) Greek capital writing * reached graphic perfection by the 4th century BC (ill. 5) The Greeks, like the Phoenicians, first wrote from right to left, and then came to the method boustro-phedon**, or "furrow". This method was spied on by farmers.
* The modern term comes from the Latin word capiialis chief. Capital letter is a letter in capital letters.
** From Greek. bustrophedon I turn the bull.
They reasoned something like this: the plowman, having passed the first furrow, does not return the bulls empty to the beginning of the field, but turns around and plows in the opposite direction. So they wrote: each subsequent line began at the end of the previous one (note: those who are not burdened with rules sometimes act like the ancient Greeks and our preschool children) There was perhaps a rational grain here. The modern reader spends a lot of time moving the “ox team” 40-50 times on each page and looking for the beginning of the next “furrow” of the line. In the 4th century BC, the Greeks move to writing from left to right.
Latin goes back to the Greek alphabet. In the 1st century, the formation of Roman capital letters was completed. A classic example of it on the famous Trajan's Column (2nd century) was first carefully drawn with a flat brush, and then cut into stone. Analyzing the text, scientists noticed: the slope of the axes in the letters "O" is different, a small error confirming the original handwriting of the font. Perhaps the great calligrapher deliberately made an inaccuracy, trying to give the strict inscription inner dynamics and strength. Creation unknown author received wide recognition. Exact copies of the signs of this masterpiece were found on the monuments of those times in Verona. The Italian publisher and typographer Giovanni Mardersteig suggested that in ancient Rome of the Trajan era there was a nationwide type standard for official inscriptions. Graphic perfection and readability, an organic connection with architecture provided the typeface of the Trajan's Column with a triumphal procession through the centuries and gave rise to many imitations. Our contemporaries also turn to the creation of the past (ill. 6)
Already in the inscriptions on the stone, there were two varieties of Roman capital letters: square (ill. 7) and rustic * (ill. 8). Many capitals of the first type are close in proportion to the square. This is a slow, solemn and very beautiful letter. Rusticism is characterized by thin long stems**, bold horizontal strokes and conciseness. Both options entered the life of the code.
For documents and everyday purposes, the Romans in the 1st-3rd centuries
used majuscule *** italics **** (capital characters) Gradually, because of the desire to save time, they wrote faster, more sweepingly, more smoothly. The main elements, as a rule, were drawn from top to bottom, and the pen, picking up speed, sometimes skipped the bottom line of the line. Over time, they probably noticed: the protruding parts of the letters serve as a kind of hook for the eye and make it easier to read. The descenders have evolved. Upper extensions were invented later, perhaps to balance the lower ones and to emphasize the rhythm of the line.
* From lat. rusticus rusticus.
** Stamp - a vertical stroke of a letter.
*** From lat. majusculus is somewhat larger.
**** From lat. cursivus running.
These elements are characteristic of the minuscule* italics (lowercase characters) formed by the 3rd century (ill. 9, 10)
The square and rustic style in the codex is gradually being replaced by the uncial that developed in the 3rd century ** This letter contains portable elements, but they are few and inexpressive.
Uncial 3-6 centuries sans-serif*** (ill. 11) Rounded corners. The pen was held at an angle of 30° to the line. Thin serifs and a zero angle of writing **** are the characteristic features of the uncial of the 6th-8th centuries (ill. 12)
In the half-uncial (another type of writing from Roman antiquity), there are more extension elements, they noticeably lengthened and gained graphic expressiveness (Fig. 13) “Half-uncial” does not mean at all that it is equal to half the height of the uncial. The name reflects the qualitative changes.
5th century The great Roman Empire fell. On the basis of Roman cursive, regional types of writing develop: Irish and Anglo-Saxon, Merovingian, Visigothic, Old Italic.
In the empire of Charlemagne in the 9th century, a new font was introduced, beautiful, readable and fast enough minuscule. Later it was called Carolingian (ill. 14). Initially, the same minuscules, but increased in size, appeared as capital letters in the Carolingian minuscule. In the 11th century, they were replaced by the Lombard type (Lombard Versailles), which developed from the letters of the Roman capital and uncial letters (ill. 15)
Slavic writing developed along a different path. We know two ancient Slavic alphabets: Cyrillic and Glagolitic (ill. 16, 17). The creation of one of them is associated with the names of Cyril (826/27-869) and his older brother Methodius (805/815-885), who were born in the family of a Byzantine commander in the port city of Thessaloniki. Methodius chose military career and at one time he even ruled one of the Greek-Slavic regions, but then he left the service and took up the sciences. Constantine (in monasticism Cyril) received a good education in the capital of Byzantium, Constantinople, having mastered many sciences and showing extraordinary abilities for languages.
The Moravians asked the Byzantine emperor to send teachers to interpret the books they had in Greek and Latin and to preach in an understandable language. Michael did not refuse, called on the learned men Cyril and Methodius and blessed them for a good deed. Missionaries began to develop the Slavic alphabet in 862.
* From lat. minusculus very small, tiny.
** Possibly from lat. uncus hook.
*** Serif stroke, the final stem.
**** The writing angle is the angle of the pen in relation to the horizontal line of the line.
At the end of the 9th century, Chernorizets Brave told about its creation in the legend “On Writings”: “Before, the Slavs did not have books, but they read and guessed with the help of features and cuts, being pagans. When they were baptized, without adaptation it was difficult for them to write in the Slavic language in Roman and Greek scripts... and so it was for many years... Then the philanthropic God sent them St. Constantine the Philosopher, called Cyril, a righteous and faithful man, and he created for them thirty letters and eight, some on the model of Greek letters, others in accordance with the [needs] of the Slavic language" 2
Now most researchers believe that the Glagolitic alphabet arose before the Cyrillic alphabet and that Kirill was its author.
The Glagolitic alphabet is distinguished by the complexity and originality of graphic forms.
The basis of the alphabet, later called Cyrillic, was the Greek statutory letter. The transmission of special sounds of Slavic speech was achieved by newly invented letters, the use of ligatures and those borrowed from the Hebrew alphabet Ts, Sh.
Cyril died on February 14, 869 in Rome. Methodius lived a long life full of vicissitudes of fate. He received the rank of bishop, was kidnapped by the Latin clergy and spent three years in prison, then again continued his educational activities.
In Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet was used, its two types: from the 11th century, the charter (example: the famous Ostromir Evangelion, 1056-1057, executed by the hands of talented masters) and from the 14th century, the semi-charter.
In the charter, in full capital letters, the letters are perpendicular to the line of the line; it has no abbreviations. A semi-charter is smaller than a charter; top and bottom callouts appear; different styles of the same letters are allowed. This letter is quite fast, with a lot of abbreviations.
In the Latin world of the 12th century, Gothic * writing is spreading (probably originated in the north of France around the middle of the 11th century, that is, 100 years before the corresponding style in architecture)
* Gothic from it. gotico (Gothic) This term was introduced by Italian humanists in the 15th century, trying to connect the barbaric, in their opinion, art of the Middle Ages with the German tribe of the Goths.
The letter, densely and evenly covering the pages of a book, was called a texture *
Gothic cursive appeared at the end of the 12th century, and in the 13th-14th centuries New Year's became the favorite handwriting of the offices of many Western European countries. Gothic writing, both bookish and cursive, had many variations throughout its finite nibs.
The rotunda** (ill. 20), which appeared in Italy in the 13th century, is notable for its pleasant roundness, the absence of kinks at the bottom of the lines, readability and speed of writing.
In the 14th century, with the interaction of book writing and clerical italics, a bastard *** (ill. 19, 21) arose, which spread to many European countries.
During the late Gothic period, many types of writing were formed in Germany. Swabian writing resembled a spacious rotunda. Chancellery **** was born and nurtured in court offices, where beauty
* From lat. texture fabric.
** From it. rotunda is round.
*** From fr. batard side, mixed.
**** From him. Kanzlei office.
handwriting was of paramount importance (ill. 23) In the 17th and 18th centuries, fracture* (ill. 22) was especially famous. She has not lost
attractiveness for the artists of our time. “I hope that even now the last word on the fraction has not yet been spoken,” Jan Tschichold noted.
Having lost its position only towards the end of the Second World War, the Gothic type is gaining popularity again. In our country, many Baltic calligraphers willingly use it in design work.
Renaissance. Time of rapid flowering of science and art. Advanced thinkers called themselves humanists** The titans of the Renaissance Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Petrarch, Cervantes, Shakespeare sang the beauty and greatness of man. That glorious time is characterized by an increased interest in antiquity.
* From him. Fraktur break, break. The term "fracture" is used as a general
the name of the Gothic script, and sometimes to designate a variety of Gothic book type.
** From lat. humanus human, human.
Calligraphers selflessly copied manuscripts filled with the Carolingian minuscule, mistakenly taking them for the originals of the culture of Greco-Roman antiquity. However, in the process of copying, they made a number of changes to the letter. The new typeface was named antiqua*
In the business circles of Italy, a fluent "trade" letter was used, humanistic cursive, which is also based on the Carolingian minuscule. Most of his letters were done with a single movement of the pen.
Lodovico Arrighi, Giovanni Antonio Talliente, Giambattista Palatino in Italy, Juan de Isiar, Francisco Lucas in Spain, Gerard de Mercator in the Netherlands and others along with architects, sculptors, painters glorified their time with outstanding calligraphic works and treatises on the art of writing.
The first handwritten textbooks of calligraphy appeared in Europe by the middle of the 14th century. They contained instructions and advice on various matters of skill, so necessary for a person who ventured to comprehend the secrets of the art of writing. There were also recipes with numerous variants of calligraphic styles without explanatory text. Here the student had to rely on his own ingenuity or use the teacher's advice.
In the East, statements about the art of writing beautifully have been known since the 1st century BC (China, Japan) Since the 7th century AD, handwritten textbooks have appeared (for example, Sun Guoting's "Guide to Calligraphy")
A rare master will dare to adapt the graphic features of the Chinese, Japanese or Arabic writing systems, for example, to the Latin or Russian alphabet. And yet the advice of the scribes of the East is instructive for any artist.
Yakut Mustasimi** taught: "The perfection of writing lies in the correct pedagogical education, repeated exercise and purity of the soul" 4
The famous calligrapher of the late 15th - early 16th century was Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi*** The master left us the famous Discourse on Writing and the Laws of Education (Mashhad, 1514), rich in interesting observations and recommendations. Sultan-Ali considered it possible to rewrite the manuscript when the graphics of signs, the ways of their connection and other features were carefully studied. To the comprehension of mastery, the author believed, leads to constant examination and copying of handwriting
* From lat. antiquus ancient.
** A native of Abyssinia, Yaqut Mustasimi lived for more than a hundred years, died in Baghdad in 1296.
*** Sultan-Ali Mashhadi was born and died in Mashhad.
Later, at the end of the 16th century, Mir-Imad Qazvini proposed another method of teaching fantasy. It develops creativity
Copying an original work properly is not easy. Ibn-Bavwab* tried for many years to master the handwriting of the famous Ibn-Mukla**, but felt powerless in this occupation. It is not easy to adopt the writing style of a famous master, but it is much more difficult to come to your own handwriting. Some ancient scribes, having learned to “exactly” imitate great teachers, became famous. They were praised. But constant copying did not refresh the ancient art. Genuine masters understood this and created, "inventing and finding."
A kind of parting word for the calligrapher is the reflection of Mir-Ali Khoravi *** from the capital city of Iran, Herat. “There are five virtues; if they are not in writing, being a master in writing according to reason is a hopeless business: accuracy, knowledge in writing, quality of the hand, patience in enduring labor and perfection of writing equipment. If there is a deficiency in one of these five, there will be no benefit, even if you try for a hundred years” 6 All five “virtues” are indispensable companions of success and a modern calligrapher.
* Ibn Bawwab died in 1022 in Baghdad.
** Ibi-Mukla was born and lived in Baghdad (886-939/40)
*** Mir-Ali Khoravi died in 1558 in Bukhara.
Eastern authors attached great importance to learning. You can learn calligraphy on your own, using textbooks, but manuals cannot completely replace an experienced master teacher. A visual demonstration of a variety of techniques speeds up the learning process. It is better to see once than hear ten times. Fair proverb. “... Teaching handwriting ... cannot be given behind the eyes ... the science of writing is secret, - Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi confidentially reported. - Until your teacher speaks in language, you will not be able to write it easily ... "
Teachers of writing were distrustful of textbooks, they knew: for greater effectiveness, authors sometimes use illegal tricks and tricks. This is confusing for newbies.
And yet history knows the names of self-taught geniuses who studied only from books. Among our contemporaries, this is primarily Edward Johnston, who rediscovered calligraphy at the beginning of the 20th century. Herman Zapf, Villu Toots, Gunnlaugur Braim and others mastered the heights of type culture on their own, using books, albums and ancient codes.
In Western Europe, during the Renaissance, printed publications devoted to calligraphy were widely distributed.
1522. Rome. The scribe of the papal office, the former bookseller of Arrighi, published the treatise "La operina" (The Little Book), a source of inspiration for many generations of masters of beautiful type (ill. 25) Arrighi explains the reasons for writing "La operina": "Begged, even forced by many friends ... I , my dear reader, I would like to give some examples of writing letters of the correct design (which are now called stationery), their characteristic features and features "
The calligrapher addresses the book to anyone who wants to learn how to write beautifully. Arrighi is benevolently delicate in advice. Offering to observe a distance between words equal to the width of the letter "l", he will stipulate: "Maybe you find it impossible to keep this rule, then try to ask advice from your eye and satisfy it, thus you will achieve the best composition"9 Or: "The distance from line to line in clerical letters should be neither too large nor too small, but average"
The treatise ends with examples for the exercise of the hand. Here is the text of one of them: “Everything will be completely done on time, if the time is distributed correctly and if every day we give the exact hours to the letters, without being distracted by other things.” It is useful for every calligrapher to remember this.
"La operana" is a masterpiece of cursive writing. The temptation to make a better book led to curiosities. Palatino did not find a better way to outdo his great compatriot than to write his book of samples "Libro nuovo" (New book. Rome, 1561) backwards. Maybe the hurt pride of the artist tried to call for help "otherworldly forces"? In those days, they believed it was worth, for example, to read a prayer starting from the end and you enlisted the support of the unclean ...
The author of several German printed collections of typefaces (ill. 26) Johann Neudörfer the Elder was born in Nuremberg. He refused to become, like his father, a furrier and devoted himself to the art of writing. At the age of twenty-two, the energetic Johann published the book "Fundament" (Fundament. Nuremberg, 1519), where eleven type samples were printed. Later came his "Anweisung einer gemeinen Hands-chrift" (Guide to ordinary writing. Nuremberg, 1538) and a work on the sharpening of a bird's feather.
Wolfgang Fugger, a student of Neudörfer the Elder, became famous by writing "Ein nutzlich und wohlgegrundt Formular mancherlei schoner Schriften" (A useful and well-founded formula for various beautiful types. Nuremberg, 1553)
Famous calligraphers of the 16th century were the Spaniards Juan de Iciar and Francisco Lucas. Juan de Isiar was known as a fanatical virtuoso engraver and contributed to the popularization of the work of Italian and German masters. The skill of the engraver led him to such a passion for decorative elements that he sometimes forgot about the letters themselves.
The work of the Spaniard Pedro Diaz Moranto is typical of the 17th century. He liked to weave intricately ornamental images of birds, sea monsters, and sometimes entire mythological scenes into letters (ill. 28). As an outstanding talent, Moranto was talked about in the early 1590s. The young calligrapher masterfully wielded a pen and wrote at a speed that struck the imagination of his contemporaries. “The devil himself leads him by hand,” envious people used to say. If not among the admirers of the artist himself King Philip II, who gave him his son to train, such glory could cost dearly. At that time, they did not hesitate for long, sending another victim to the fire. Around 1616, Moranto published in Madrid the first part of the book "Nueva arte de escrevir" (The New Art of Writing). The last, fourth part appeared 15 years later. Almost all tables (100) were engraved by the master himself and his son. Unbridled fantasy, artistry, compositional perfection, characteristic of the works of Moranto, delight the modern viewer.
"Exemplaires des plusieurs sortes des lettres" (Examples of many types of letters. Paris, 1569) by Jacques Delarue is one of the first printed treatises on calligraphy in France.
Collection of copy-books "Le tresor d'ecriture..." (Treasure of writing...)
published in Lyon in 1580 by Jean Boschin. He gives font samples for headings, titles, examples of cursive italics.
The textbook "La technographie" (Technography) was published in Paris in 1599 by Guillaume Leganeur. Its letters are close in proportion to a square and have rounded shapes.
In 1608, a collection of Luc Matro's copybooks "Les oeuvres" (Works) was published in Avignon. Contemporaries admired the creations of the Avignonian: "The hand of a mortal cannot draw these lines so accurately" (ill. 27) Unknown poet: "They say that perfection is alienated from extremes, but these rare beauties prove the contrary to me. Aren't these beautiful, inimitable strokes filled with an extreme degree of extreme, delightful perfection? 12 Luke Matro's strokes, light, impetuous, rich in musical plasticity, sang with inspiration the beauty of the amazing creation of the human mind - the letter, the alphabet.
The talented French calligrapher of the 16th century is a member of the corporation of teachers of writing, Louis Barbedor. He was one of the authors of the reference samples for the offices and considered them better not only than any previous letter, but also any other that may appear in the future. Addressing the inscriptions to experienced scribes who have undergone certain training, the French calligrapher gives examples of the execution of various types of documents in the appropriate handwriting.
A famous master in the 16th century in the Netherlands was Gerard Mercator, and in the 17th century Jan van de Velde, author of the treatise "Spieghel der Schrijfkonste" (Mirror of the art of type. Rotterdam, 1605)
The first-born of this kind of literature in England belongs to J. Boschen and D. Baildon. This is “A book containing divers sortes of hands” (A book containing different types of handwriting. London, 1571)
In England, from the last quarter of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century, about fifty albums and books devoted to calligraphy were published. The reason is the growing importance of English trading enterprises and the increased demand for clerks who knew how to keep the office.
In 1733, George Bickham decided to publish the book "Universal penman" (Universal Master of Letters. London, 1743). The master engraved more than 1000 samples of handwriting used in business correspondence. Jewelry work progressed slowly. Ten years passed before this edition finally fell into the hands of happy connoisseurs.
In Rus', until the beginning of the 18th century, handwritten books of writing samples were created. Since the 13th century, the so-called ABCs have been used. They were not accompanied by any information about calligraphy.
The parchment copy “The alphabet of the Slavic language and writing in cursive writing...” (1652/53) by the calligrapher Ileika (ill. 29) is magnificent. , and the daring recklessness of the Russian character. The “sinful Ileyka” was a great master! A masterpiece of world calligraphy, more than an eight-meter scroll of "Letters of the Slavonic Language" (17th century) is an inexhaustible treasury of inspiration for a calligrapher. Jewelery refinement, a wealth of writing techniques are combined here with lush ornamentation (ill. 30)
In the 18th century, the owner of a private Moscow printing house, A.G. Reshetnikov, created the manual "The New Russian Alphabet for Teaching Children to Read" (Moscow, 1795).
Typography, and later the typewriter, crowded out calligraphy. The fastest hand could not keep up with the machine-gun speed of an experienced typist. It took years to comprehend all the subtleties of beautiful writing. A typewriter can be mastered in a few months. Inspired and spurred on by the achievements of civilization, people did not immediately understand WHAT they had lost. Art of great artistic value fell into decay and died out. Fortunately, there were enthusiasts who managed to look back in the stream of the feverishly rapid run of time, carefully shake off the dust of oblivion that covered the masterpieces of the great masters of the past, and rediscover their unfading beauty to people.
England was destined to be the birthplace of modern calligraphy. William Morris (1834-1896) stood at its origins. Nature did not stint generously endow this man. Publisher, writer, artist, art theorist and prominent figure in the labor movement all happily combined in one person. While still a student, he began to study medieval manuscripts and incunabula and subsequently completed several richly ornamented handwritten books. In 1893, Morris published the most important theoretical work "The ideal book" (Ideal book. London), which had a beneficial effect on calligraphers and typographers around the world. Success has always accompanied the artist, and since the beginning of the 90s his name has been known throughout the continent.
Edward Johnston. Fascinated by the beauty and perfection of the manuscripts, the impressionable young man left the medical profession and devoted his life to calligraphy.
Morris's former secretary, Sidney Cockerell, drew the young Johnston's attention to the best codices of the British Museum (London). The “father of modern calligraphy” (as Johnston was later called) especially liked the old uncial and semi-uncial fonts. Enchanted by the power of handwritten masterpieces, the artist worked hard and selflessly.
By that time, the theory and practice of cursive type had almost been forgotten. Many thought: in medieval manuscripts, the contours of the letters are drawn with a thin steel pen and filled with paint. A careful study of manuscripts helped Johnston rediscover the basic principles of calligraphy: the shape and character of the letters largely depend on the pen, the width of the stroke is determined by the angle at which the tool is located to the line, the oblique cut of the pen allows you to make not only wide, but also the thinnest strokes. A tireless researcher, Johnston restored how to properly prepare bird and reed feathers for writing, gave recipes for making light-resistant ink, and conducted experiments on processing leather for writing. Many forgotten techniques and facts have again become the property of calligraphers.
In 1889, Johnston gave lessons in beautiful writing at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. Seven to eight students attend classes. The popularity of the lessons is growing. In 1901, everyone could hardly fit into the auditorium of the Royal College of Art. "Look into the realm of good writing" came from Germany and Anna Simons, later a famous calligrapher and teacher. It was unthinkable to give attention to each student, and Johnston decided to teach various techniques right on the board. “His letters and initials, freely written in chalk,” Simons recalled, “always bore the stamp of originality and naturalness, and at the International Congress on Drawing and Drafting in Dresden in 1912 they made a sensation and aroused boundless admiration”
And much later Johnston, when his health permitted, lectured at King's College. These rare days were a holiday for students. The demonstration lessons were indeed a very bright sight. The well-known English graphic artist, calligrapher, author of several books on the art of type John Bigs: “When I was a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, he gave several demonstration lectures in the 30s. The light and smooth writing with white chalk on a blackboard was astonishing.” Johnston, as a true artist, experimented with many historical styles of writing until he fully mastered the sum of the techniques. He first taught students the uncial and semi-uncial, but soon added the Carolingian minuscule, which later became his "main font" in practice and teaching.
1906 London. The experience of a practitioner and lecturer, Johnston summarized in the textbook "Writing and illuminating and lettering" (Scripture, illumination and embossing of letters). The book won him numerous followers and admirers.
Johnston's creative credo can be considered the words from the author's preface: “The evolution of letters was a completely natural process during which individual and characteristic types (letters) developed, and knowing how this happened will help us understand their anatomy and distinguish good forms from bad ones. » 15 The conclusions of the artist and the scientist are also characteristic of contemporary calligraphy. V. V. Lazursky: “Johnston’s work showed the path along which a modern type artist can achieve a lot if he has talent and diligence” 16
1921 In London, the Society of Scribes and Illuminators (SIS) is organized "The production of books and documents entirely made by hand" is the main task of the association. Edward Johnston is elected as the first honorary member. The activities of the Society had a beneficial effect on the practice of type in many countries, and above all, of course, England itself, the recognized leader in the art of beautiful writing.
In 1956, 50 years have passed since the publication of the book "Writing and illuminating and lettering" of the "calligraphic bible", as it is still called. The society organized a number of exhibitions in Europe and America. In honor of the anniversary, former Honorary Treasurer of the Society K. M. Lamb published The calligraphers handbook (The calligrapher's handbook. London, 1956), a collection of essays by members of the OPI, devoted to various issues of calligraphy and the handwritten book.
The centenary of Johnston's birth was celebrated with an exhibition of his work at the Royal College of Art and lectures at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London).
Today, the OPI brings together highly professional scribes. Many of them learned the craft from Johnston himself or from his students. But in recent years, in England and especially abroad, artists have not sought to follow the manner of the pioneer of modern calligraphy. This is natural. Johnston himself believed that the rules were only a step towards improving the craft.
This position is also taken by Soviet masters. Villu Toots: “We cannot say that classical calligraphy with a wide pen has outlived its purpose, but by no means does it reign anymore. In the hands of numerous performers, the academic foundation has changed, [became] sometimes barely noticeable, acquired a modern color. ” It is important, however, to remember Johnston’s warning: before you break any rules, you need to be sure that you understand them correctly.
The desire to invent their own font without fail leads the inexperienced to eccentricities: there are unjustified disproportions in the ratio of thin and thick strokes, gross distortions of alphabetic graphemes and other "innovations". Villu Toots aptly remarked: “Extreme is far from being progressive, although sometimes it makes such an impression.” But it is difficult to imagine the future of our font without constant research. Only a bold, enterprising, creative risk-taking artist can bring a twist to a time-honored craft. An indispensable condition for a healthy creative undertaking: it must be based on a serious classical foundation. “Only a tireless scientific study of the perfect monuments of the past can lead forward,” taught Jan Tschichold.
Interest in ancient manuscripts swept not only England. Rudolf von Larisch (Austria) and Rudolf Koch (Germany) devoted a lot of effort and talent to calligraphy
Rudolf von Larisch markedly influenced the art of type with his work, especially in German-speaking countries. Johnston was concerned above all with the revival of historical styles of writing. The peculiarity of teaching Rudolf von Larisch is a constant desire to raise the spirit of experimentation, develop ingenuity and artistic taste, awaken the creative ability of students. He sought to instill in students the understanding that the nature of the letters depends on the tools and materials used. Students worked not only with pens, but also with stylus, pens, and brushes. Letters were carved and painted on clay, plaster, wood, minted on metal, engraved on glass and cut out of paper. The artist himself successfully worked on the invention of new feathers. Rudolf von Larisch sought the coherence of a calligraphic work as a whole: the nature of the letters and lines, the overall compositional solution, everything should create an emotional unity.
Complementing each other, the methods of Edward Johnston and Rudolf von Larisch opened the prospects for a multifaceted approach to the problems of type graphics.
Anna Simons (Germany), one of Johnston's first students, was a talented teacher of calligraphy in Europe. In 1910, she translated Johnston's book "Writing and illuminating and lettering" into German. The textbook became widely known in Germany and provided invaluable assistance in the design of typographic fonts to Rudolf Koch, Walter Tiemann, Emil Weiss and others.
Anna Simons owned a rich collection of calligraphy masterpieces. The entire collection, unfortunately, perished during the Second World War from a direct bomb hit.
German master Rudolf Koch is recognized as one of the best calligraphers. Koch was born in Nuremberg in 1876. The young man wanted to become an artist, but the financial situation of the family did not even allow him to dream of higher education. After three semesters of art school, a long and unsuccessful search for a job in her specialty began. If something suitable turned up, the customers sought to quickly part with the newcomer. The more than modest successes of the young man shocked employers.
Fritz Kredel* recalls Rudolf Koch's attempt to make a poster for a bicycle company: “The sketch was placed on a chair. After a while, a chubby man came in with a gold watch chain across his waistcoat. He cast one cursory glance at the composition and burst into uncontrollable laughter.”20 The disgraced poster artist gave vent to tears.
* A student and colleague of R. Koch.
After painful disappointments and failures, Koch managed to get a job in a bookbinding workshop. Here he first tried to write with a wide pen. The results seemed encouraging. A little time passed, and, to the happy surprise of the novice calligrapher, his efforts were noticed by the publishers.
From 1906, Koch lived in Offenbach, working as a graphic artist in a type foundry (later known as the Klingspor type foundry). Having successfully developed several typographic fonts, Koch corrected his material affairs and, having opened a small type workshop, became a freelance artist. Here, among the students devoted to the common cause, many future celebrities worked: Fritz Kredel, Berthold Wolpe, Herbert Post and others. Teaching activity especially impressed Koch “I am none other than an educator. And, of course, I want to educate not just calligraphers, but people.”
In 1908, the art school in Offenbach offered him a class in type and calligraphy. Expanding the scope of beautiful letters, Koch transferred calligraphy to embroidery and weaving. The wallpaper was a success.
In 1934, the publishing house Insel (Leipzig) published his "Das ABC Btichlein". The illustrations were made by Rudolf Koch and Berthold Wolpe. His son Paul later hand-printed 100 copies of the book. One of them was used in the reissue of "Das ABC Buchlein" in 1976 (USA), which marked the 100th anniversary of the remarkable artist's birth. The album again made a sensation and captivates the new generation of calligraphers with freshness of feelings and ideas.
Hermann Zapf was born in 1918 in Nuremberg. A seventeen-year-old young man who dreamed of becoming an electrical engineer unexpectedly became interested in the art of writing. Zapf quickly achieved success. At the age of twenty, he became the artistic director of a printing house and taught calligraphy at the Offenbach School of Industrial Art, replacing Rudolf Koch himself in this post. Zapf is not only a world-famous calligrapher, but also an outstanding creator of typographic fonts, a book designer, and an outstanding wordsmith. He is the author of the famous book "Uber Alphabete" (On Alphabets. Frankfurt am Main, 1960)
Zapf is a great self-taught. Copying samples from the books of Edward Johnston, Rudolf Koch, direct acquaintance with the originals of ancient Roman inscriptions, a thorough study of ancient manuscripts in the libraries of Florence and Rome, natural talent and infallibly good taste led the German master to outstanding results.
An amazing fact: calligraphy, the artist's devotion to which is well known, saved his life. At the end of World War II, Zapf, who worked as a topographer, fell ill and ended up in the hospital. Without leaving calligraphic exercises and making friends here with an Arab, he immediately set to work on an unfamiliar script and, by the way, memorized one phrase from the Koran. Something like: it's not good when one person kills another. Soon the hospital was occupied by the British and French. The Allies let Zapf go home. On the way to Nuremberg, he was taken prisoner by two French soldiers of Arab origin. He was threatened with death. A few moments before his inevitable death, Zapf found himself and quoted the memorable lines. It sounded like a bolt from the blue. The stunned "servants of Allah" let the artist leave in peace. Many years later, a new Arabic typeface came out from under the hands of the famous calligrapher.
1950 Hermann Zapf published the book "Feder und Stichel" (Pen and chisel. Frankfurt am Main, 1950) of unsurpassed beauty. All tables are engraved on lead boards by August Rosenberg.
1955 Dresden. Albert Capra's first book "Deutsche Schriftkunst" (German Type Art) was published here, which became the beginning of a whole series of his fundamental works in this field of art. Among them are "ABC - Fundament zum rechten Schreiben" (ABC basics of correct writing. Leipzig, 1958), "Schriftkunst" (The art of type. Dresden, 1971, 1976), "Schriftkunst und Buchkunst" (Type and art of the book. Leipzig, 1982)
Albert Kapr was born in 1918 in Stuttgart, where he studied the art of beautiful writing with Ernst Schneidler at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1951, Capr has been living and working in Leipzig, where until 1976 he directed a special type class at the Higher School of Book Art and Graphics. Subsequently, the artist becomes its rector, founds the Institute for Book Design at the Higher School and manages it.
In all the works of Capra one can feel the subtle handwriting
the beginning, because, according to him own words, "only those branches on the tree of fonts that are saturated with the living juice of handwritten forms are able to bear fruit"
The art of calligraphy is extremely popular to this day in England. “A good typewriter always has a lot of work,” informed John Shivers, a member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, “they constantly order texts that require more of an artist’s hand than a typewriter”
Back in 1950, the British decided to supplement the school curriculum with the subject of type art, and the Society of Scribes and Illuminators developed courses for summer and Sunday classes. They also teach foreign students. In big cities, the training of beginner calligraphers is led by institutes of advanced training. Many, fulfilling a long-held dream, turn to art already at retirement age in order, according to John Shivers, “to create something with their own hands, and often their choice falls on the type. Type art is not just popular, it is super popular” 24
Albert Capr: "Calligraphy in England has become one of the most beloved graphic forms, and the best calligraphy comes to us from England" 25
In 1976, the classic work of the English scientist and artist Heather Child "Calligraphy today" was published. d.Calligraphy today) Collaborating with many scribes of the world, Child managed to give a capacious and vivid overview of the state of calligraphy in Europe and America. The book pleases with an abundance of illustrations: pages of manuscripts, certificates, congratulatory addresses, bookplates, headings and inscriptions, invitation cards, menus, announcements, posters are reproduced here. There are examples of alphabets, study tables, samples of experimental and abstract calligraphy. All this undoubtedly stimulated the creativity of both mature masters and novice scribes, ignited the enthusiasm of people who had not even thought about the calligrapher's craft before.
In 1984, the Society of Scribes and Illuminators organized the Calligraphy-84 exhibition. It was attended by members of the OPI from Belgium, Iceland, France, Yugoslavia and, of course, England. After England, the exposition was watched in the USA. Calligraphy-84 included everything shown in 1981, when the 60th anniversary of the OPI was celebrated, plus the best works from the next five years. In addition to the traditional school, they were attracted by the variety of modern trends, calligraphy in ceramics, glass, inscriptions carved on stone and wood.
Over the past two or three decades, interest in manuscript art has increased dramatically in the United States of America (primarily under the influence of England)
An outstanding event in calligraphic life was the exhibition of Latin writing samples "2000 Years of Calligraphy" (USA, 1965). The grand exposition covered the period from the 1st century AD to 1965. The suppliers of exhibits were not only museums and libraries different countries, but also numerous owners of private collections. The exhibition turned out to be fabulously rich. And here, as usual in many fairy tales, there was a queen. Elizabeth II presented two old manuscripts for display.
A beautifully illustrated catalog with detailed information about each work was released for the opening.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS
Chilled reed or reed stick (kalam*) is one of the most ancient writing instruments. The tongue ** was split for greater plasticity shortly before our era. Nobody knows how it happened. Perhaps, for the sake of curiosity, an unknown master tested an accidentally split reed blank and realized what benefits an unexpected discovery promises ... Later, at the end of the split, they began to burn a thin hole so that the reed would not prick further.
The great calligrapher of the East of the 13th century, Yakut Mustasimi, lengthened the tip of the reed pen and cut it obliquely so that a “voice” could be heard, like the voice of the Mashriqi blade. Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi: “And this Mash-riki, they say, was a man who worked blades of extraordinary good quality and elegance; whoever tested his blade, whatever he hit, cut it in two, but if he set the blade in motion, he hesitated, and a voice of extreme subtlety was heard. So, it is better that the end of the kalem be long and fleshy, and when you put it on a leaf, it would move and a voice would be heard.
* In the countries of the East, kalem or kalam.
** Sometimes this part of the kalam is called "legs".
The reed is plastic. In the working position, with light pressure, the tongues of the kalam diverge, and a characteristic creaking is heard.
In ancient times, kalam was moistened with saliva before starting work. The saliva helped hold more ink. A thin mesh was placed in the inkwell, the ink was touched through it with the instrument, and writing was done. The case moved slowly.
Then they invented, - it would seem, what could be simpler - an ink holder. This little record saves a lot of time; one refill is enough for several letters. The ink holder is filled with a special stick or brush. Don't forget to wet the inside of the tool's tongue. This will prevent drying ink from clogging the cleft of the pen, and it flows to the paper constantly and evenly. If you write by dipping the pen directly into the ink, then some letters are bold, others, when the optimal amount of ink in the ink holder is set, become thinner. Some modern masters achieve certain graphic effects by this: they find an expressive rhythm in the alternation of bold and thin letters. You can keep the pen full all the time. Then the beginning and end of the strokes, the transition from the main stroke to the connecting stroke are distinguished by softness and roundness.
Many craftsmen (Zhovik Velievich, David Green, Evgeny Dobrovinsky, Corina Meister, Charles Pierce, Paul Shaw, Jean Evans, etc.) prefer homemade reed nibs to the best branded instruments. Thankful material! A sharp knife and a little patience are all it takes to make a good feather. The reed is not durable, but it is rich in possibilities and is always at hand to create, invent, try ...
You can, for example, separate the tongue of the kalam, you get a double stroke (Fig. 82)
A pen with an asymmetrical split gives a kind of serif, left-handed or right-handed. Two splits increase the plasticity, softness of the pen, which, according to Giambattista Palatino, is especially useful for a beginner * and the ink flows freely, and there is no need to press the tool. With pressure, a slow and heavy handwriting could have been obtained.
From ancient times, tools were made from the feathers of birds: goose, eagle, swan, bustard, hawk, crow, wild duck. Feathers are collected during the molting of birds. Five in each wing, especially the second and third, with large and round barrels, are considered the best. Without preliminary preparation, due to the greasy stem and soft core, the bird's pen is unsuitable for writing: the paint does not drain from the pen, and the tongues sluggishly disperse even from light pressure. Take the feather of the left wing (it is more convenient for the hand), cut off the end and remove the beard so that it does not interfere with work. Wetting the barrel with water, vigorously rub the trunk with a piece of skin and, having scraped off the top layer, put it in boiling water with alum for 10-15 minutes (a teaspoon of alum in a glass of water) Now you need to place it in sand heated to 60 ° or gently roll it with an iron of the same temperature . The trunk, softened under the action of heat, can be immediately repaired, but the split is done after hardening, otherwise it will turn out to be uneven. The bird's feather, even sharply cut, glides freely in any direction without disturbing the paper.
The writing brethren always vigilantly monitored the serviceability of their supplies. With a razor-sharp knife, the master sharpened the tool with its inherent individuality. The beloved pen was jealously guarded by the scribe. Tired of copying the text, Russian calligraphers wrote on the margins of the manuscript: “Psalm is with a paw pen” or “The death of this feather.”
In 1548, Johann Neudörfer the Elder from Nuremberg used a metal pen. Quite quickly it won the sympathy of calligraphers, but it was expensive. In Russia, by the middle of the 17th century, 27 rubles were paid for a hundred pieces. The price was outrageous at the time. That kind of money could buy a bull and a ram.
An experienced calligrapher sometimes uses the most unexpected tool. Pointed nibs are now almost out of use, but calligraphers still use them, and sometimes in a completely original way. When S. B. Telingater was in Leipzig, students of the Higher School of Graphics and Art of the Book asked him how one of the most interesting works of the artist was made. Without wasting words, Solomon Benediktovich took a sharp pen and, firmly pressing the non-working side edge against the paper, wrote several letters (ill. 95)
Yakut Mustasimi, hiding from the Mongol troops plundering Baghdad, found himself without tools and materials. This did not bother the master. Tormented by enforced idleness, he dipped his index finger into the ink and wrote on the towel in such a way that everyone was amazed.
The Nizam of Bukhara worked with his finger with "such thoroughness and subtlety that the pen is powerless to describe it"
Donald Jackson, a scribe in the office of Queen Elizabeth II and the House of Lords, wishing to provoke American colleagues, dipped a spoon into a cup of coffee during a friendly conversation and wrote on the tablecloth in impeccable italics: "It is impossible to form a calligraphic group in New York." Paul Freeman, one of the future organizers of such a group, then took the tablecloth home, vowing that he would force Jackson to take back his words.
I could not understand how one of the best sheets of Villu Toots was made (ill. 96). I turned to the author for clarification, Villu Karlovich showed me something completely unsuitable from the point of view of classical calligraphy - an old, long-made and broken bird feather.
For a beginner, such experiments will only bring harm. In clumsy hands, an experiment can become empty magic. In the future, when the basics of calligraphy are firmly mastered, an inquisitive scribe looks for new tools and materials, achieves their most favorable combination and interaction, thereby expanding his technical capabilities in an attempt to comprehend the essence of beautiful writing. Great calligraphers of all times and peoples have been striving for this all their lives.
Modern craftsmen have a wide choice of wide-ended branded instruments: Speedball, Mitchel, Ato nibs from Blanckerts (in Frankfurt am Main) and others. The English pen "Osmiroid" (for ink) has several interchangeable nibs with great nibs. The German pen "Graphos" is filled with ink; after work, the channels of the writing rod and the reservoir should be thoroughly rinsed. Both tools are convenient in that the nibs are easy to replace during operation.
A complete set of wide nibs can be made from a set of Radish drawing nibs by cutting the writing discs in half with a sharp chisel. To make the pen thinner, remove a part of the metal along the entire length of the tongue with a thin file (needle file) and enlarge the hole in the body for its greater plasticity. It remains to grind the working surface on a soft touchstone, and then with GOI paste * The writing end must be absolutely accurate.
* The paste developed by the State Optical Institute (GOI) is used for lapping and finishing work.
When the pen disk is evenly pressed against the paper, this is the correct position of the tool. If you hold the pen “incorrectly” (the disk is at an angle to the plane of the sheet) and put a soft lining under the paper, such as felt, interesting nuances can be achieved in the design of the strokes.
For capital letters nice poster pens. I know well-known type designers who, having a full arsenal of calligraphic tools, prefer a poster pen. Preparing it for work is not much of a hassle. Having placed a hacksaw blade between the tongues, you need to grab them with pliers and carefully squeeze them to the thickness of the insert. Do the same again, replacing the blade with a razor blade. It remains to sharpen the pen on the touchstone, and the tool is ready.
For small letters, a regular fountain pen is suitable. The bulge at the end of the feather is chopped off or bitten off with side cutters and polished. John Howard Benson came up with such a wide-nib pen when he copied it on English language"La operana" by Arrighi.
The tool must be protected, washed often in water, and wiped dry after work. Byron MacDonald: "Remember, good work can only be done with clean tools"
From beginners you will often hear: “The pen does not write” or: “It writes badly.” A few words about the possible “whims” of the instrument: 1) the reeds are at an angle to each other (try to straighten them by grabbing them alternately with pliers), 2) the reeds are thin, sharp, cut or tear the paper (carefully round the corners of the pen) Sometimes the pen is working properly, but writes bad: 1) the ink holder is raised too high, and the ink is slowly coming to the paper (lower the ink holder), 2) the paper is greasy (wipe it with an eraser or a wet sponge), the ink or paint is too thick (dilute them with boiled water), 3) the paint dries up and clogs the split (when filling the ink holder, do not forget to moisten the inside of the split, wash the pen in water often), 4) the pen is covered with a greasy film (hold it over a match flame for a fraction of a second or wipe it with a piece of gauze soaked in saliva)
I'm not in vain meticulous in the details. A lot of time is wasted until you comprehend them yourself. Sometimes such problems discourage the impatient student for a long time.
A wide-ended felt-tip pen with a hard porous core is convenient in work. Remove the writing knot from a regular pointed felt-tip pen. After pulling out the rod, clean it with a spatula and install all parts in their original places. Such a tool goes nicely on paper, gives a clear stroke, allows you to perform a complex stroke in one continuous movement.
Sometimes two felt-tip pens are connected: wide and thin, black and green, brown and red, etc. They also resort to this technique: they write with dual tools, and then paint over the background with a brush. Fasten the vertically cut halves of the pencils. A simple trick, but sometimes it brings benefits - you can write small letters.
Peculiar handwritten fonts are created with brushes: flat, blunt, pointed, round. The brushes, especially the last three, are extremely mobile. It is difficult for them to write graphically the same letters, and it is not always necessary to strive for this. Picturesqueness, especially inherent in rapid writing, is as pleasing to the eye as clear, carefully executed letters. Clearly, a polished, readable font is necessary, for example, in the text of a handwritten book, and a catchy inscription is more appropriate on a magazine advertising cover. Everything has its place.
A blunt or round-tipped brush can be easily made from a pointed one. In the first case, its end is cut off with a sharp knife, in the second, it is carefully trimmed with small scissors or treated with a lit cigarette. They hold the brush like a type pen or in the Chinese way, that is, strictly vertically. When the Japanese or Chinese write small characters, clarify the details, their right hand rests on the back of the left hand.
Wash the brushes with warm water and soap, carefully “driving” the hair with the end into the palm of your hand. Hot water the rosin in the tube that binds the hairs is contraindicated, it will dissolve, and they will fall out.
Chinese artists use a wide variety of materials to make brushes. Sheep, goat, bear and even mouse wool is popular. The famous Chinese calligrapher and painter Qi Baishi preferred a brush made of rat whiskers wrapped in sheep hair, but it takes many years to comprehend such subtleties.
The thickness of the instrument is a matter of taste. Tall, of a heroic build, Willa Yarmouth prefers a thin bird feather. To Rein Mägar, even a clerical pen seems frail: “This is not for a man's hand,” and wraps it with several layers of insulating tape. Yet most artists and educators consider a 7-10mm pen to be the best. A beginner should work with such a tool. For a thin bird feather, if necessary, it is easy to make a special reed or bamboo holder of the desired thickness.
When it comes to drawing tools, calligraphers and many type designers rarely use them. "Do you use compasses?" once asked I. F. Rerberg. “I have it, but I don’t know where it lies,” the master answered *
Good, flowing, even-colored black ink can be prepared on the basis of an ancient recipe from special growths of light green color on oak leaves. They need to be placed in a two-layer gauze, squeeze the juice into a glass, add a little iron sulfate for greater saturation and stand in the light for 7-10 days. Such ink is suitable for bird and reed pens. Metal deteriorate from the action of vitriol.
In Rus', black ink had a brown tint. They were made from rusty iron (especially old nails were used) and gum. In Siberia (Krasnoyarsk Territory, 1930s) they wrote with soot. They got it from the chimney of a Russian stove, diluted it with boiled water, added a little sugar and it turned out well!
The American calligrapher Teresa Fischer, in order to prepare the so-called Indian ink, recommends putting several lighted wicks in oil and “collecting” the smoke by placing a convex dish over the “fire”. The soot is carefully swept away with a bird's feather and mixed with liquid gum 34
Modern "Rainbow" ink is fluid, does not clog the pen, but is poorly waterproof. This excludes editing the text with whitewash. You need to work for sure. In antiquity it was different. If the scribe was mistaken, it does not matter: with a wet sponge, the letters were easily washed off the papyrus. Sometimes this was done in a more extravagant way. In ancient Rome, mediocre poets were forced to lick their poems with their tongues.
In addition to black ink* and ink, calligraphers write with gouache, watercolors, oils and other paints.
Get the hang of preparing paint for writing the desired density. Let it easily escape from the pen, but reliably cover the surface of the paper, then it will almost not be necessary to refine the letters with a brush. Before writing with gouache, it is thoroughly mixed so that the glue is evenly distributed (it collects in the top layer), otherwise the letters are transparent and sticky. Thickly ground paints must be filtered through nylon or gauze folded in two or three layers, then small grains will not clog the pen. In the process, the paint in the bowl is periodically stirred so that it is the same in density.
In ancient times, from about the 3rd millennium BC, papyrus was the writing material. The swampy banks of the Nile are the birthplace of the amazing
* Black ink can be mixed with watercolor, such as brown or ultramarine, and get the desired warm or cold shade.
plants. Shuttles were made from its stems, baskets and mats were woven, excellent fabrics were produced. Even the bark did not go to the sandals, and the rhizomes of plants were a favorite dish of the Egyptians and a delicacy for hippos.
To prepare papyrus for writing, the soft core of the cane was cut into thin strips, tightly laid in two perpendicular layers, beaten with a wooden mallet, moistened with Nile water, beaten again, pressed, dried, glued, polished the front side with ivory or shell. The finished sheets were glued and rolled into rolls, sometimes up to 100 meters long. They wrote on one side of the sheet, where the reed strips were oriented horizontally and did not interfere with the movement of the pen.
Today, papyrus has become a rarity. All the more surprising is the report that flashed in the press about a small plantation cultivated in Egypt by just one person. And this is no idle entertainment. Resurrected papyrus is used to make paper! She goes to documents for the most solemn occasions and like hot cakes from artists.
Parchment was probably invented in the 1st century BC in the Kingdom of Pergamon. Animal skins were placed in lime, cleaned of hair and meat, stretched on a special frame, the remains of hair and meat were scraped off with a scraper, dried, polished, bleached... This durable, elastic material was universally recognized already in the 3rd century. They wrote on parchment on both sides.
In special cases, parchment is still used today. This material, rare in our time, is manufactured, for example, by the Konrad company in Altenburg (GDR)
Paper appeared in the 2nd century in China. Over time, it penetrates the West. In ancient times, paper quality did not differ. Writing on it was one torment: the pen got stuck, the ink blurred. In Europe, new writing material begins to replace parchment from the 14th century. It was then made from cotton rags by hand. Washed and crushed rags were soaked in a solution of slaked lime for bleaching, squeezed, soaked in water and washed. The gelatinous mass was scooped up with a special metal sieve. Part of the water left through the sieve holes, the remaining paper mass was shaken out, pressed and dried, glued with gelatin.
In Rus', until the 14th century, birch bark and parchment were used. To increase softness, birch bark was boiled in water and dried. The letters were squeezed out with bone or metal writing. Almost no ink was used.
A modern calligrapher has many types of paper at his disposal: whatman, laid, coated, torchon...
It is difficult to write on rough, grainy paper (for example, torchon). The textured surface is characterized by discontinuity, picturesque stroke. Quite a clear letter is also possible, if, using a hard pen, carefully “climb” each hillock and also slowly fall down.
Smooth, coated paper is good because small errors in writing on it can be easily eliminated by scraping. In general, they try to avoid corrections.
Calligraphers of the East corrected letters in exceptional cases, and only with a pen. Erasure with a knife was considered blasphemy: "Calligraphers are not surgeons!" A badly formed letter can no longer be corrected, it looks fake.
Once, having made a mistake in the text, the Dutch master Herrit Nordziy, without further ado, simply crossed out the unnecessary, and did it so elegantly, exquisitely that the correction adorned the manuscript (ill. 118)
Do not try to immediately get expensive paper Many modern calligraphers, even very famous ones, did not shun the simplest materials. Qi Baishi sometimes wrote on wrapping paper, Hermann Zapf on the back of cheap wall paper.
The text looks attractive on a colored surface. True, the pen strives to break the colorful layer, mixing the background color with the letters, but this can be avoided by correctly toning the paper. Liquidly dilute the gouache in a plate. Test a control swab for glue ( dried paint should not be smeared with a dry finger) If necessary, add finely grated dextrin or polyvinyl acetate emulsion (PVA) Be careful: re-glued gouache sticks and shines. Paint over the paper with a flat brush or cotton wool soaked in paint, changing the direction of movement from horizontal to vertical and vice versa. Beware of completing this operation prematurely, puddles that are invisible at first glance will dry up in spots or stripes. If you don’t stop in time, the brush tears off particles of drying paint from one place and transfers it to another.
They also use colored paper. It should first be wiped with an eraser, sprinkled with talcum powder or added to the gouache with which you will write, a little ox bile * Eating the fatty film characteristic of printing ink, bile provides an even coating of each letter. For certain graphic effects, a bold surface is also used. Then the stroke loses its clarity and the paint falls in an intricate pattern.
The imagination and fantasy of the calligrapher are largely determined by the material in which he works Goethe: "Only those artists are worthy of our respect who do not want to do anything beyond what the material allows them, but that is why they do so much"
* A preparation made from bovine or porcine bile, manufactured by the medical industry, is used. as well as a special wetting agent for watercolor, produced by art paint factories.

PRACTICE OF CALLIGRAPHY, WORKING WITH A BROAD PEN

The old masters argued: whoever does not learn to sit and hold the instrument correctly can give up on himself, he will never write well.
The first lesson in calligraphy: heads bowed in excessive zeal, bent backs, convulsively clutching a tool in the hand - all this nullifies the efforts of beginners.
Control yourself constantly: the back is straight, the left hand forms a fulcrum, taking part of the weight of the body, and at the same time holds the paper. The wrong position of the left hand often spoils the whole thing. Lower it, say, down the body will find support in the right hand and the freedom of movement of the writer will be violated. The right hand should barely touch the table! An experienced master can afford to work against the rules, for example, putting paper on his knee and sitting comfortably in an armchair. This is how the handwritten book of the contemporary Scottish artist Tom Gourdy “Handwriting Today” was made. It is clear that such a practice would only bring harm to a beginner.
The working posture of calligraphers from different countries and peoples may be different. The Egyptians "sacred" by sitting on the floor, putting
papyrus on a special stand resting on the knee of the right leg. The modern Japanese calligrapher prefers to kneel with the paper in front of him on a mat.
It is not recommended to work while standing, bending over the table - it is tiring, and there is nothing to count on success. Our ancestors acted wisely when they wrote at a music stand or desk.
It is desirable for a type designer to have a special music stand, at least a sheet of plywood or thick cardboard, one edge of which should rest on a small stand. The tilt of the music stand controls the speed at which ink flows from the pen. Do not forget to put a sheet of paper under your arm, otherwise the original will be greasy - all the work will go down the drain.
The pen is held like this: the thumb presses it against the middle nail, and the slightly bent index finger holds the middle finger closer to the pen, followed by the index and thumb. Hold the writing instrument lightly, freely. Tension usually comes from pressing unoccupied fingers to the palm. It is worth unclenching them, and the index finger will relax. There is no need to firmly squeeze the handle with three fingers if it is easily held in two: between the thumb and middle or thumb and forefinger (as, for example, they wrote in Italy in the 16th century) Check yourself: having suddenly stopped working, try to pull the tool with your left hand by the upper end it should slide freely. Look: is there a mark (dent) from the writing instrument on the middle finger? So you haven't learned how to hold a pen correctly!
For a beginner, it is best to take a pen with a width of at least 5 mm. Draw on paper, observing a constant writing angle of 30 °, a wide variety of lines that fantasy tells. Do it freely and naturally. Have fun; draw the sun, a human figure, a house. In a similar way, it is easier to feel the logic of a wide-nib tool: changing the thickness and shape of the stroke depending on the direction of the pen movement. Repeat the exercise, keeping the writing angle at 45° and then at 0° (the working plane of the pen coincides with the horizontal direction of the line). It is important to immediately learn how to vary the writing angle. This will help in the future to master the techniques of manipulating a wide-ended instrument.
One of the first difficulties is to be able to draw strictly vertical strokes. Don't try to automatically execute them parallel to each other * a small mistake and all the text "falls" to the side. That is why each subsequent stroke must be written, "forgetting" about the previous one, trying again to orient correctly in the plane of the sheet. Don't focus on the pen. Look at the end point of the movement. Do the strokes not come out perpendicular to the line of the line? Try to correct this shortcoming by changing the slope of the paper. Its most successful position is developed individually, in the process of practice.
Performing a downward stroke, move the entire arm with the elbow down, fixing the brush in one position. “Drag” the pen straight towards you, slightly leaning back with your whole body. Often draw long lines that exclude the possibility of a stationary position of the elbow. Watch your breath. "Exhale" strokes. Do not strain, allow yourself a little carelessness. Serfdom is the enemy of the calligrapher.
After the first exercises, try to increase the speed of work in order to finally get rid of the stiffness of movements. Back in the 16th century, Jean Lemoine advised those who want to learn the art of calligraphy to write letters decisively. Heather Child: “A certain speed gives the work rhythm and liveliness. A tortured letter will lack these qualities, no matter how carefully each letter is deduced.
And here are other opinions. Alfred Furbank: “The letters and words that the calligrapher writes, giving style, shape and grace to the inscription, are done at a slow pace to enable accuracy in design, since the appearance of the letter is more important than the speed of execution. A calligrapher, when he writes an official type*, will naturally strive to move forward at a satisfactory speed, but still will not move faster than what is necessary to carefully complete the strokes.
* IN official letter every letter is assembled from several strokes and in a strict sequence. In semi-formal, some letters are drawn with one continuous movement of the pen. The letter loses its clarity a little, but it gains speed and is more individual. In everyday handwriting, sometimes whole elephants scribble without lifting the instrument from the paper. These are unofficial (free) and most individual models.
“The exercises should be done carefully and methodically, despite the fact that the stroke is still uneven due to the slow movement of the pen. Speed, if it is appropriate to talk about it when executing a font, comes later, as if by itself, along with the stability of the hand.
Old textbooks of calligraphy advised to avoid both fast and very slow movements at the beginning. Both were considered harmful.
Special attention should be paid to overly hasty students: at first they act with some success, but without a strong foundation they quickly “run out of steam”.
If you are slow, try to work lightly and freely, without worrying about the results. This does not threaten you with constant negligence in the font, but it will help you to be liberated
So, the appearance of the stroke is more important than the speed of execution. Beautiful writing, however, requires decisiveness and a certain speed of pen movement from the performer, but these qualities are not an end in themselves. They are the result of persistent training and come with the stability of the hand.
It is best to start learning calligraphy with a simplified version of the Trajan's Column font (ill. 130). It is perfectly proportioned, relatively simple in execution, and perfectly adapted to a wide-ended instrument. It is also possible to give preference to the Latin alphabet for the following reasons: the student, quickly believing that the graphic features of the letters have already been mastered, writes two or three words, without looking at the sample; therefore it is useful to start with a text in a foreign language: willy-nilly, you have to copy each letter in succession.
The letter "O" is the most difficult and important letter in the alphabet.
Insufficiently clear understanding of the anatomy of "O" and its constructive similarity with "B", "3", "C" and other signs main reason distortion of letters, the graphics of which are wholly or partially built on the basis of a circle (ill. 128, 129)
Describe "O" around the rectangle b c e d, clearly aware of all the components of the movement of the hand when performing the left part of the circle (arc from a to b, from b to c, from c to d) and, accordingly, the right (from a to e, etc.). e.) This exercise will help to avoid a typical and difficult to correct mistake: beginners draw the stroke of the letter “O” immediately down or strongly take it to the side, and it must be directed to the side and down at the same time. Write the left and right semicircles smoothly, sending the pen to the paper and lifting it off the paper gradually, as if planning, like an airplane taking off and landing.
Enter "O" in the square ABCD, trying to bring its outer contour closer to the ideal circle. Having coped with this task, write the letter without a corrective square, mentally tracing all the points on which its left and right strokes are built. The centerline will help control the identity of the semicircles. Finally, write "O" without a centerline. Do not get used to the letter "O" of the same size. Change the line height and pen width.
Usually, letters are learned to write by subdividing signs with similar elements into groups (N, T, P, G, for example), but it is better to combine them into families based on width, proportions are more quickly comprehended and, as practice shows, beginners write different letters with great desire and success. stroke types.
On ill. 130, 131 tables invented by the modern English teacher Ralph Douglas. The alphabet is placed in nested columns, each containing letters of the same width. Note: in this font, the width of the cut of the pen fits 8 times in the height of uppercase letters, 5 in lowercase (excluding extensions) * The writing angle is constant 30 °, but in uppercase "M" (first stroke), "N" (first and third strokes) it increases to 60°
When mastering the nature of the font, it is useful to trace the sample. John Bigs: “To be of any use, tracing must be careful, careful, critical. You need to follow the contours, and you will discover a refined delicacy of forms that would almost certainly be hidden from you with just one look ... ”k9 This study work is done with a thin pen, ink or a hard, sharply sharpened pencil.
Having mastered the configuration of letters well, you can begin to write uppercase and then lowercase characters in alphabetical order with a wide-ended instrument, adhering to the parameters of the sample. Periodically check the proportions with a reference on tracing paper, combining the contours of the letters and analyzing the errors. Ink in this case is easy to smear,
* In practice, the ratio between pen width and line height varies freely.
it is convenient to use a pencil or felt-tip pen sharpened with a spatula.
Complete the Douglas table with Russian letters. An attempt to solve the Latin and Russian alphabets in one graphic way develops constructive and logical thinking. Please note: the horizontal strokes at "E", "Yu", "E", "B", "H", etc., are just above the optical middle; "R" - a mirror image of "I"; the writing angle remains constant, and only in “F”, “Z”, achieving the desired thickness of the strokes, they change it if desired (the pen is turned when writing left-sided diagonal strokes)
Serifs ennoble the Latin and Russian fonts. Serifs were used by the ancient Romans when they cut stone. The scribes also liked the innovation: it facilitates the flow of ink at the beginning of the stroke and serves as a good decoration.
Try writing uppercase and lowercase letters at 45° and 0° writing angles, observing the change in the proportions of thick and thin strokes and the shape of the letters themselves.
Now you can start copying the text, respecting the dimensions of the original. This is how Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi taught40. Many contemporary specialists are of the same opinion. Jacqueline Svaren: “It's very helpful to have samples the same size as your own work. Letters turn out much slower if you use a different pen size than that used in the model. 41 When the original and copy are identical, the pen width serves as a kind of module. And it is easy to check the proportions of letters with a standard on tracing paper. After completing the text in Latin letters, write any passage in Russian. Leave the font settings as they are.
Another type of writing that should be mastered is cursive. Cursiveness in calligraphy is determined primarily by the continuity of movement, the "running of the pen", and its fundamental characteristic is precisely that the letters (oblique or straight, uppercase or lowercase) are connected together or suggest the possibility of connection. Italics flourished in 16th-century Italy with Arrighi's treatise La operina.
The art of the great Italian has become truly accessible since 1951, when Benson rewrote Arrighi's book in English, achieving complete resemblance to the appearance of the original (ill. 132). imitate only the Arrigi font. But precisely English pages should be copied. The original source is printed from wooden boards. This introduced certain violations in the ratio of thick and thin strokes. Arrighi: "I ask you to forgive me, as the press cannot completely replace a live arm."
Benson's work makes it possible to take advantage of the great master's advice to a wide range of readers. It is important. Due to the lack of specialized literature, beginners often focus on "trendy" italic fonts, which sometimes hide a misunderstanding of the basics of beautiful writing or deliberate neglect of them.
The shapes of the various letters in Arrighi have much in common: "l" and "y" begin almost the same, "a", "c", "d", "g" are obtained from "o" and form an oblong, elongated parallelogram. Arrighi: "... cursive, or clerical, letters should have something from the long, and not from the round" 43.
Masters have always been concerned about ways to rationally connect letters when writing. Arrighi does not avoid this question either: (...) The master does not advise to attach the rest of the characters of the alphabet to the next letter, although he does not give a final solution to the issue: “But I leave it up to you to connect or not to connect” n. When studying the cursive of "La operina", it is useful to study the shape of the letters using the tracing method and write them with a wide-nib pen. Writing angle 45°
It is necessary to carefully and repeatedly copy at least one of the pages of the book (English version) Sometimes it seems to a self-confident student that he writes letters, if not better, then at least no worse than in the sample being studied. Copies must be kept. The time will come to get them and correct the mistakes. “Do not approve of self-satisfaction! Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi warned. “Strive not to become careless in your transfer letter, whether you do a lot or a little. The transfer must be made with full diligence."
Qi Baishi saw the purpose of copying not in slavish imitation of the original, but in the ability to capture the essence of handwriting and remain oneself. You can be sure this advice is not for a beginner. The student should copy in the most diligent way and go to his own solutions gradually. A beginner, according to Heather Child, must first follow the teacher completely, especially when manual dexterity is required. Until you have sufficient skill, you cannot freely experiment.
“He who does not want to be a student is unlikely to achieve mastery,” 46 warned Jan Tschichold.
Ideally, you need to know each type in such a way that you use it with unconscious ease.
One of the pages of "La operana" in Russian reads as follows: "Then understand that not only the five above-mentioned letters "a", "c", "d" y "#", "q", but almost all others are formed in this way. but an elongated parallelogram, and not a perfect square, since, in my opinion, cursive, or clerical, letters should have something from the long, and not from the round; the roundness will come from a square, not from an elongated parallelogram.” Rewrite this text, retaining the composition and calligraphic features of the English version. The task is not easy, but exciting and useful.
In our type tutorials, it is recommended to only stroke from top to bottom and from left to right, which is true on initial stage training, but in the future you need to get acquainted with other methods of work. Arrighi, for example, drew a horizontal stroke not only from left to right, but also from right to left. Of course, it is somewhat difficult for the pen to be retarded by the paper and springy. But if, having barely started to the right, then draw a stroke along the same line in the opposite direction along a fresh ink trail, the pen gets a run-up and slides more freely.
A well-prepared instrument, controlled by the sensitive hand of a trained artist, easily, like an experienced skater on ice, glides in any direction. The execution of individual letters in a continuous movement and a reasonable reduction in the separation of the pen from the paper increases the speed of the calligrapher, giving the letter liveliness and originality.
A sheet with a composition of letters by Villu Toots “Test of the pen” (ill. 141) I intercepted “on the way”: a table, a wastebasket. Villu Karlovic works fast. I failed to notice how many times the tool came off the paper. Six or seven, I think, no more.
Small letters are easier to learn in one go. In large size, it is much more difficult to write them out. With some experience, this is possible.
About capitals, Arrighi says: “Note, dear reader, when I said that all letters should be slanted forward, you must understand that this applies to lowercase, and I wanted your capitals to always be drawn straight, and strokes should be firm and without hesitation, otherwise, it seems to me, they will not have beauty "
Sometimes the "fluctuation" of the stroke decorates the calligraphy. When the Estonian master Paul Luhtein was working on the handwritten text of the book “The Estonian Liberation Struggle on the St. take up a pen, he went to the barn to chop wood. "The hand gets tired, - the artist smiles, - then he began to write (Fig. 226) A little noticeable trembling did not interfere - the letters became more alive. "I saw the pages executed by Professor Lukhtein at the age of 75. The precision of the eye and the firmness of the hand are admirable.
One of the most popular typefaces, which flourished in the early 20th century, is sans serif, or grotesque. In our country, it received its most vivid expression in the works of the constructivists Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. Courageously rude letters challenged the pretentious typefaces of the past, vividly reflecting the revolutionary pathos of the 20s. “We did not lick the faces of the overfed bourgeoisie with our brushes,” Rodchenko was proud. The sans-serif "captured" exhibitions, building facades, filled book covers, penetrated into newspapers and magazines.
Today, sans-serif (especially one of its varieties, the narrow grotesque) is often the only one in the arsenal of an amateur graphic designer. The reason for this one-sidedness is primarily in the well-known ease of implementation. Basic pen manipulation skills make it fairly easy to move on to chopped shapes. In addition, it is generally accepted that the grotesque, if not organically, then, in any case, painlessly interacts with any type of image, whether it be an application or a linear drawing, one has only to appropriately adjust the letters in boldness, height, etc. more original drawing expands the creative possibilities of the designer, but requires more tact, taste, and the ability to freely use the pen and brush. This, perhaps, partly explains the reason for the abuse of the "font of the century" *
The font is designed to create an emotional background even before the words are read, and, in any case, not to contradict the theme of the material being designed. The sophistication of Italian italics, appropriate for a story about the elegance of jewelry, is ridiculous for advertising a boxing match, and hardly anyone will come up with the grotesque to decorate the poems of A. S. Pushkin, E. Poe or S. A. Yesenin.
The more fonts in the designer's arsenal, the richer his possibilities. Considerable possibilities lie in the degree of finishing of letters. In one case, the artist, not content with the clarity of the strokes, corrects them with white, in the other he uses a rough brush.
Each calligrapher has a personal relationship with a certain font in general and with the graphic image of each letter separately. In the famous font of S. M. Pozharsky (ill. 168) "C" - good
* This is sometimes called a chopped font.
dear old man, resting in an armchair, "3" a beautiful woman, "M" an elegant, somewhat self-confident young man ...
Let us recall from Pablo Neruda: “The numbers are anchor-like, the fonts of Aldina are fine, like the sailor’s bearing of Venice ... like a tilted sail, italic sails, tilting the alphabet to the right ...” 51 The letter “V” belongs to the poet’s most glorious of words “Victoria”, E" a step to climb into the sky. "Z" - the face is similar to lightning.
N.V. Gogol described the work of a clerk-clerk as follows: “There, in this rewriting, he saw some kind of his own diverse and pleasant world. Pleasure was expressed on his face; some letters he had favorites, to which, if he got to, he was not himself: he laughed, and winked, and helped with his lips, so that in his face, it seemed, one could read every letter that his pen drew ”52
Bright as fire at night, the letters of one of the sheets of Villa Toots resurrect the spectacle that struck me in childhood, the puffs of flame blown by the wind, the thatched and reed roofs of the huts burning hot.
Jacqueline Svaren has amazing powers of observation. Of the lowercase "a", Swaren writes: "Imagine a small penguin with a straight back... and a tail moving to the right and upwards." You, of course, may have other, perhaps more accurate, associations.
A novice artist is sometimes eager to show all the studied fonts in almost every work, but it is difficult to bring them to a stylistic unity, to assemble them into a coherent composition.
The main thing in our business is compositional flair, ingenuity, the ability to avoid clichés and “successful” solutions. Inertia of thinking deprives the artist creativity, turns into an artisan, “... leads,” Telingater said, “to the desire to use ready-made, previously established solutions or straightforward analogies (May Day invitation card - a blossoming tree branch, a red flag, the number one; invitation card for a literary evening, an image of a book ) Of course, the use of such analogies cannot be considered shameful, but in each such case a creative invention that would rethink these elements in a new way is much more desirable” 54. That is why a good artist, according to the German calligrapher X. .
To an inexperienced designer, all parts of the text that he writes (for example, an ad, a poster) may seem equally important. Often he tries by all means to achieve an enhanced sound of each line, but the result is a boring, inexpressive work. In such advertisements, “nothing strikes, attracts attention” 55 It is as difficult to perceive such a text as listening to a bad speaker interesting content. Here it is appropriate to recall the character of Mark Twain: a priest who read a sermon so monotonously and boringly that “soon, many were already pecking their noses, despite the fact that it was about eternal fire and boiling sulfur ...” 56
A competent composition is like a well-oiled choir. Everyone strives to perform their part in the best way, but obey the leading melody. What if everyone tried to sing louder than the others? So in type work, unjustified competing centers distract attention from the main thing and can distort the meaning of information. One day I was shocked by the packaging of cookies: next to the captivatingly simple-hearted name “Hello”, it shone just as actively: “From premium flour.”
It is important to learn to single out the main thing, to be able to understand the subordination of the parts of the secondary material (both among themselves and in relation to the main thing). Achieve the correct accents in the text, using the font of the same parameters, only by varying the amount of interline spaces. If the option fails, cut it into separate lines, recompose the words all over again, gluing them on a piece of paper, and rewrite them clean. Again, return to the advertisement, type poster, solving the same problems, but in a different way, changing the font in terms of lightness * and density **, and let the line spacing remain the same. Write the text again, using both methods already.
* The lightness of the font is determined by the ratio of the width of the main stroke of the letter to its intra-letter clearance.
** The ratio of the letter's width to its height.
Even before our era, the Romans placed the so-called albums in strictly defined places. Often one could see a warning: “It is forbidden to write here. Woe to the one whose name is mentioned here. May he have no luck." In our time, information posters are also not hung out to anyone where they like, so it’s easy to do without the word “announcement”. Vladimir Mayakovsky was indignant: “What bureaucracy informs, informs, announces! And who will go to these calls? 57 Let's abolish some pretexts, let's give up the hackneyed "it will take place" and "the agenda". If possible, let's bring our text closer to the stingy-business tone of the telegram: “December 20, 16.00. Assembly Hall. Trade Union meeting”, etc. Familiar words, stereotyped expressions reduce the effectiveness of information. Laconically, if necessary, the originally composed text is perceived faster, saves the time of others.
When executing the text, sometimes you have to hyphenate in words. A grammatically correct transfer may be unacceptable to the artist. Word breaks in slogans look bad, it is impossible (especially in the main lines) when transferring, for example, MOSCOW into MOS and KVA, LOMONOSOV into LOMO and NOSOV, etc. But it happens that the artist deliberately breaks all the rules. Qi writes, and RK transfers, turns any letter upside down and puts it in an unusual place for the reader in the circus, everything is possible!
Knowledge of the basic techniques of compositional construction helps to work faster, more efficiently and find your own creative solutions.
1. Symmetrical composition: the centers of the horizontal lines are strung on one vertical axis, on both sides of which the letters are equal in size, configuration, color, and have the same “weight”.
2. In an asymmetric composition, several axes are possible. Row groups are anchored to them by the left, right, or middle. IN complex constructions lines sometimes do not adjoin the axes at all, and integrity, completeness are achieved by the ability to find a kind of center of gravity, balanced by the complex interaction of various fonts. In the "flag" composition, all lines adjoin one common vertical and end arbitrarily. This ingenuous technique was loved in antiquity. And now it is producing good results. It is difficult to anchor all rows to the axis with the right edge (reverse "flag" composition) This is achieved by various methods:
1) preliminary markup of the text (the width of the letters and the distances between them are marked with a pencil) - this method is most suitable for simple fonts (for example, a narrow grotesque); 2) you can sketch out the words on a separate sheet and, placing them above the top line of the line, focus on the draft; 3) the use of decorative inserts at the beginning, at the end of a line or between words, the use of strokes that help, if necessary, stretch the line to the desired length; 4) by entering external elements of letters from one line to another; 5) right-hand writing (write from right to left, starting each letter from the last main stroke)
In practice, several methods are often used at once.
You should not artificially stretch or compress the letters, trying to align the right edge of the text in one line - the naturalness of the layout is lost. If necessary, however, even experienced masters still write more freely or more neatly, but the distortions are very skillfully not hurting the eyes.
Interesting effects are achieved by a peculiar arrangement of lines. In ordinary business text, the lines are usually arranged horizontally. Sometimes the text is arranged both vertically and diagonally, in a circle and a spiral, portraits, figures of people are filled with letters, and everything should carry a certain semantic load. » A knowledgeable artist will file differently, since the Chinese switched to writing horizontally - from left to right.
It happens that the original composition drastically reduces readability. However, this is also acceptable. Not regretting the time spent, we enjoy tracing the lace pattern of the lines invented by Irina Guseva, admiring the artist's technical skill and emotional flair (ill. 151) This is a kind of illustration for a poem, an independent work of art.
Letter gaps, line spacing and the size of the margins are in a certain relationship with respect to each other. Condensed writing (convergence of letters and lines) involves a reduction in external elements, a reduction in the spaces between words. In this case, the margins are perceived as wider. When increasing the inter-lines, the extension elements are often lengthened, and large margins are required here. Changing the size, shape of a remote element or stroke, sometimes entails the need to rework the entire work or its individual parts.
In the art of composition, there are no ready-made recipes that can be completely and completely relied upon. Artists work differently. Some carefully think over the structure of the text, work it out in pencil and, strictly adhering to the solution found, use the pen. Others write on the fly, with a minimum of compositional calculations or without them at all, bravely rushing into the wilds of compositional surprises, improvising, inventing and finding. Japanese and Chinese masters never resort to marking: this could slow down the natural movement of the brush. They sometimes rewrite the simplest thing ten fifteen times, and choose only one option. It is distinguished by magical lightness, ease of execution, which cannot be achieved by circling pre-prepared lines. E. A. Gannushkin believes that in type “everything happens subconsciously, when the artist moves his hand over the paper, in accordance with thoughts that run far ahead” 58 Improvisation has always been a good helper for many artists, scientists, and poets. Pushkin, while working on "Eugene Onegin", wrote to a friend with surprise * "Imagine what a joke Tatyana played with me when she married the prince." Marietta Shaginyan did not even know approximately how the fate of the heroes of the novel "Mess Mend" would turn out. Every morning she hurried to get down to the manuscript, tormented by greedy curiosity: what will happen next?
Improvisation sharpens the compositional flair, develops and liberates the imagination. The world of spontaneously arranged letters sometimes gives unexpected results and stimulates new creative solutions.
Significant effects in calligraphy are achieved by using color. A novice type designer, when he wants to make a bright, festive thing, sometimes uses all the colors that are at hand. The expected elegance is not in sight. It is better to limit yourself to two or three colors, but pick them up perfectly.
A prerequisite for a multi-color composition is the presence of a dominant color, associatively emphasizing the theme of the work.
Effectively, as it was said, the font looks on a tinted surface. A type designer needs to know the table of optimal color combinations, where the clarity of perception of letters on a colored background is given in descending order: black on yellow, green on white, blue on white, white on blue, black on white, yellow on black, white on red, white on black , red on yellow, green on red, red on green.
Calligraphers also use the initial, ornament and stroke to highlight the text and enhance its emotional sound.
The initial * (or initial letter) appeared in manuscripts before our era as an ornament to draw attention to the initial parts of the text.
Modern calligraphers begin headings, paragraphs, and sentences with an initial. It is “drowned” in the text, displayed in the upper or side field, placed in the center of the composition, sometimes as a kind of illustration, distinguished by its original configuration, size, color, frame, stroke, etc. Proper use of the initial requires knowledge of the history of type art, emotional sense. The Old Russian initial letter is unjustified in the text of modern content, and the font of S. Pozharsky, in harmony with the lyrics of S. Yesenin, is inconsistent with the work of V. Mayakovsky.
Ornament * originated a long time ago. Even primitive people, performing various rituals, were painted with earthen paint and plant sap, indicating belonging to a particular tribe. Tattooing started from childhood. The ornament, covering a person from head to toe, was a primitive story about the main events of the past.
An ornament in type work (a poster, an honorary address, a handwritten book, etc.) is not only an ornament, but also a means of creating an artistic image. It should not contradict the theme of the material being drawn up. The ornament is decorated with a letter, a frame, it is placed inside the text, between words and letters, it is framed with pagination, etc.
The stroke in calligraphy has a special place. The desire to write beautifully dormant in any person, even in such as a certain Lazarus Norman (a character in A. Greene's novel "The Golden Chain"), spoiled
* From lat. ogpage decorate.
who wrote the book in twenty-four murals “with ponytails and comprehensive strokes” 59 To this, as well as to any other means of expression calligraphy, there are many requirements. “The stroke,” says X. Korger, “must not only look beautiful and spectacular, but must also be filled with movement, vitality, thought and sharpness that are invested in this work” fi0
A good stroke lives on paper reverently. This is not a curve drawn by the indifferent hand of a draftsman, but the mood, the soul of an artist, “creating,” as Yu. Ya. Gerchuk accurately said, “capricious and fragile beauty at the tip of his pen”
This decoration has a remarkable and pronounced ability to interact with the space around it, because they often ended a chapter in old handwritten books if it ended at the beginning of the next page.
A good stroke is sometimes overly frisky, but generally an obedient child of a letter. The nature of the lines, connections should have an organic connection with the font design. This is often neglected by beginners, forgetting that any decoration without proper relationship with the surrounding elements will only spoil the work.
193.
J. Pillsbury. Initial. Paper, gouache, wide nib, polished gold
Prince Myshkin (a character in F. M. Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot) that you can fall in love with him" 62
Many modern masters have moved away from classical calligraphy in search of new graphic effects. The new graphics of the letters also require their own stroke. A wonderful example of such a correspondence is the sheets of the "Old Estonian Calendar" written by Villu Yarmut (ill. 206)
Do not abuse decorative elements. Place them in exactly the right place. The basis of a good typeface is, above all, in the right form. A poorly written letter with foam of calligraphic excesses “cannot be sugared”. However, for example, Celtic scribes and decorators, flooding manuscripts with decorations, reached perfection. “But not a single scientist can tell exactly how to turn the surplus into great art,” 63 noted the American scientist and calligrapher Donald Anderson in this regard.
The stroke is usually made the same thickness as the letter, or thinner, in order to avoid rivalry between them. A knowledgeable artist usually avoids crossing wide elements (otherwise dark spots form), controls rounding, transitions of a thin line into a thick one and vice versa.
The stroke consists of the following parts: the stem (a qualitatively new continuation of the body of the letter or its external element) and branches (decorations emanating from the stem of the stroke) An additional stroke is an independent decoration. It is not a direct attribute of the letter, but enhances its decorative qualities. The components of the stroke are performed in a certain sequence or without tearing off the pen. Combine both methods of work.
It is very convenient to practice with a pencil sharpened in the manner of a wide-ended instrument. Many good examples must be studied and reworked until the fine arts submit to the writer. Experience is gradually accumulating, the stock of independently found solutions is growing. A trained artist with good intuition is able to find the right play of lines on the go. Quite often, this option turns out to be the most successful. But let the reader not get the impression that everything is always easy and simple for a professional.
...Far after midnight. A calligrapher sits behind a music stand by the light of a table lamp. A bird's pen glides swiftly across the paper. More and more new sheets fall on the table, on the floor, so they filled the whole room ... The master carefully reviews everything that has been done. Most of it is mercilessly destroyed. Armed with scissors, he carefully cuts out individual letters, lines and glues them again... Thus, one of the most brilliant calligraphic sketches of Villu Toots, sparkling with ease and freedom, was born. Such a work is performed often and in one breath, without corrections, but the price of magical lightness is years of constant, selfless work.
Once, an unknown art connoisseur approached Claude Monet, who quickly painted a landscape from nature, and asked to sell the sketch. The artist called a significant amount "But you only worked for half an hour!" exclaimed the astonished gentleman. “Plus 37 years of daily exercise,” Monet was not taken aback.
When the basics of calligraphy are mastered, it is imperative to get acquainted with the special techniques of manipulating the instrument (ill. 198). They expand the creative possibilities of the type artist.

I. Simultaneity of translational and rotational movement of the tool.
1 Rotation of the pen from an acute writing angle to zero (flat) a) the imaginary axis of the stroke passes through its middle (starting the rotation of the pen from point A, we get a two-sided serif), b) one of the sides of the stroke is oriented vertically
2. Smooth increase in stroke width.
3. Pen rotation from zero writing angle to sharp and further.
4. Smooth transition of the pen from zero writing angle to sharp in the middle of the stroke and back to zero at the end.
5. Repeating the manipulations of the previous paragraph, but in reverse order (from an acute angle to zero and again to an acute one)
When manipulating, the pen is held almost perpendicular to the plane of the sheet, rotating it with the index and thumb or index, middle and thumb.

II. The use of "ink wedge". I call an ink wedge the triangle of liquid paint formed between the paper and the working paper.
surface of the pen when its corner is raised. By raising or lowering the edge of the pen, that is, reducing or increasing the ink wedge, you can change the thickness and angle of completion of the stroke (if the required amount of ink is maintained in the ink holder and it is sufficiently fluid)
feather pen
1. Moving the stroke from the sharp corner of the letter to zero Starting from point A, lift the left corner of the pen, while continuing to move down until the right corner reaches the bottom line of the line. Try to lay the paint so that the stroke is completed strictly horizontally.
2. Transition of the stroke from the zero angle of the letter to the sharp Starting from point A, “turn on” the ink wedge by lifting the right corner of the pen.
3. Translation of the stroke from the zero angle of the letter to the obtuse one. Starting at point A, lift the left corner of the pen until the right corner reaches the line of the line.
In all the examples considered, the speed of translational and rotational movements, starting from the moment the ink wedge is turned on, is approximately the same.
4. Connecting strokes. Interesting nuances in the transition of the main stroke to the connecting stroke are obtained by moving the pen, smoothly (a) or sharply (b), to the left or right corner.
5. Performing a stroke with a gradual thinning or thickening. The movement starts at the same time as the ink wedge is turned on. The translational speed of the pen is much higher than its rotational speed.
Here are shown the most characteristic and, for greater clarity, exaggerated types of strokes. Virtuosos control the pen more sophisticated and finer. Having mastered the “rules of the game” well and having filled your hand, you will find your combinations of techniques and move on to creative solutions.
What are the basic principles of beautiful writing? The “father of modern calligraphy” Edward Johnston formulated them most clearly and succinctly: “Clarity, beauty, specificity. Simplicity, originality, proportion. Unity, refinement, freedom” 64 “The problem facing us is extremely simple,” the master believed, “to make good letters and arrange them well” 65 “Be true to the clarity, beauty of writing and the author” 66
Describing the work of the outstanding German master Herman Zapf, he convincingly defines one of the highest levels of calligraphy
V. V. Lazursky: “Zapf achieves in his calligraphic sheets a virtuosity that makes one recall the works of calligraphers of the Renaissance, when this art was at its zenith... The letters are sung under Zapf’s pen, many of his calligraphic sheets give the impression of musical to the ear, but to the eye. But never ... the beauty of the stroke does not turn into an end in itself for Zapf, does not obscure the thoughts and images that he wants to convey to people "67
The gradations in the assessment of calligraphy among the Chinese are peculiar and instructive. A good font is called “bony” (each letter has a strong skeleton and is well-built anatomically; the artist managed to “give strength to his strokes”) “Muscular” writing is most valued (strong skeleton, no “extra meat”) Letter “with a weak skeleton” ( few "bones" and an abundance of "meat") is considered "pig-like".
Note: even very tall and thin, but structurally weak letters cannot be called "bony". They are "pigs": shapeless, lethargic, anemic. Conversely, the boldest letters are "bones", if anatomically constructed flawlessly.
Any font, depending on the perfection of execution, is capable of performing in any of these qualities and in inept hands easily degrades into a “pig”.
The disadvantages include excessive smoothness of writing, softness of the line, tension in the movement of the brush, excessive pressure on the paper by the tool, carelessness and randomness of movements.
Appreciated by connoisseurs of work, where there is a delicate correspondence between the skill in the design of each stroke of the letter and, as it were, unintentional inaccuracies and "errors". Agree, a different sketch evokes more feelings than a scrupulously written work. Such a thing, if masterfully done, shows both a subtle understanding of form and the taste of a calligrapher. A beautiful surprise in art always pleases the eye.
Individuality is perhaps the most valuable quality of an artist.
A true artist does not look for beaten paths. Sergei Yesenin: “A canary from someone else’s voice is a pathetic, funny trinket. The world needs a song word to sing in its own way, even like a frog.
Much can be gleaned from the study of outstanding examples of writing, but the goal is one to master the skill and come to your own handwriting.

MODERN HANDWRITTEN BOOK
The first "books" written on clay tablets appeared in Mesopotamia and were kept in large, well-organized libraries. The repository of writing monuments, discovered in 1852 on the banks of the Tigris, contained 27 thousand tablets from the collection of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (7th century BC)
Originally "replicated" the works of famous authors in Ancient Greece and Rome. Several dozen scribes comfortably settled in the bright hall. One person, sitting on a dais, slowly and distinctly dictated the text, the rest wrote.
The work of a scribe has always been respected. Found time to improve in this art and the powers that be. The Byzantine emperor Theodosius II (5th century), resting from state cares, copied Greek and Latin manuscripts at night.
The medieval scriptorium was a large bright room. In deep silence, copyist monks worked for many hours in a row. It was not allowed to talk. Making books was sometimes like fighting the devil, only with pen and ink. And if he made a mistake or was at odds with punctuation, it means that he pleased the evil one, be kind enough to atone for sin.
Many books were fabulously expensive. And no wonder. The pages were decorated with miniatures and ornaments, and the bindings were embossed, carved, and sometimes precious stones, enamels, gold or silver. Fasteners, often made of precious metals, were attached to the binding. They cherished luxurious manuscripts like the apple of their eye, and, in order not to tempt their neighbors, they chained them to the shelf of the library cabinet.
After the invention of printing, the ancient art ceased to be a vital necessity, and people hurried to turn away from it.
In our time, the handwritten book (primarily printed) is slowly, very slowly, but returning to life, and the calligrapher has many opportunities here.
Let me remind you that the design of the poem "The Sea" by F. Tuglas (calligrapher Villu Toots, illustrator Evald Okas) won the highest award at the All-Union Book Art Competition in 1966 - Ivan Fedorov's diploma. Isn't it significant: the diploma of the first printer - for achievements in handwritten work.
K. Mister. Opening of a handwritten book. Paper, gouache, broad nibs
"O" of different widths in the same text. “Why this is caused by the spelling norms or the peculiarities of the handwritten original has not yet been sufficiently studied,” noted A. G. Shitsgal69 “O” is the most common letter of the Russian language, “the most popular”, according to the writer Boris Zhitkov. It is known that most of the typos and errors fall precisely on frequently repeated and graphically inexpressive signs. It seems that Russian calligraphers understood this, “diluting” in a certain rhythmic sequence a string of narrow “Os” with letters “Os” of a wide style*
Accelerate the reading process used in ancient manuscripts
* It is also possible that in this way the most ingenious scribes lengthened or shortened lines, achieving an even margin on the right on the page.
ligature book. N. I. Piskarev dreamed of using them even in typographic fonts.
They are attracted by the mobility and liveliness of handwritten forms, which make it possible to vary the graphics of letters and at the same time achieve a single ornamental rhythm of each line and the text as a whole; individuality, eye-refreshing novelty of a handwritten book (recall that the way from the design of a typographic type to typesetting cash desks takes us years, sometimes decades) Finally, I am far from advising to rewrite the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Modern calligraphers turn to short stories, fairy tales, collections of proverbs and sayings.
An excerpt from “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by A. S. Pushkin was rewritten by I. A. Guseva with a wide-nib pen (ill. 210) Compare it with any typesetting page of the poem. Is there any doubt what choice the reader will make?
Readability in our time is not always the only and main function of calligraphy. Sometimes it is relegated to secondary roles, if figurative interpretation of the text is in the foreground. Then we are talking about written graphics, type illustrations. This, it seems to me, can be seen on the example of the sheets for the works of E. Poe "Sleeping" (ill. 212) and "The Raven" (ill. 213) Repetitive, as if in a dream sounding, repetition of the same words, so characteristic of the poet's lyrics , is an attempt at a kind of emotional accompaniment to poems.
In many countries, a direction that is absolutely surprising for our time is gradually gaining momentum: a calligrapher creates a completely hand-made work (up to self-making paper), without even thinking about replication. Such exquisite things are made by order of lovers of rare books, given to friends or kept in one's library to please both guests and oneself, or for an exhibition.
The handwritten book is impressive even in non-professional execution. In the 1920s, it happened that writers and poets stood behind the counter, offering books of their poems, rewritten with their own hands.
A handwritten book is a great practice for a calligrapher. After the choice of a literary work is made, you need to think about the format of the book. Here are poems about high-rise buildings, about a new building, and this, say, about a hippopotamus. Of the two options: vertically elongated and horizontally elongated - the latter is clearly preferable for a story about a clumsy animal.
The most pleasant and simple page proportions: 1 2; 2 3; 3 4; 5:8; 5 9.
One of the main elements of the book is the title page. The name of the author, the title of the book, the place and year of publication are placed on it. The title occupies one page (single-page) or two adjacent pages (double-page). In the swing version, all material is placed on two pages so that the right side serves as a continuation of the left.
Avantitul (sheet before the title) most often duplicates the title of the work in small print, is occupied by decorative elements, a slogan or dedication, and is almost always desirable. A book without a title is like an apartment without a hallway: from the corridor you get straight into the bedroom or kitchen, bypassing the hall.
The first page, on which the text begins, is highlighted with a capital letter, headband, or drawn down. To determine the margins, the larger side of the page is divided into 16 parts. Two parts are left on top, three on the right, one and a half on the left and four on the bottom. On the spread of the book, the margins of two adjacent pages are three units. If you need to increase the area for the text, the same page is already divided into 20 parts.
Jan Tschichold spoke about the harmonious relationship between page and text sizes in a handwritten book in the study “Size ratios free from arbitrariness book page and type-setting strip"
Correctly found fields decorate the book. If they are small, the text is “stuffy”, cramped in the sheet; large - the text drowns in them.
When the last page of a book is not completely filled with text, it is good to finish it with a decorative element or a picture. In the old days, they did it even simpler: they wrote “the end” or lined up some kind of joke in a triangle like: “And I was there, drinking honey-beer ...” This was how the semantic and graphic completeness of the narrative was achieved.
It is convenient to fold a homemade book with an accordion. It's simple and beautiful. Cover the block with thicker and more appropriately colored paper, and the cover is ready. If your book is folded like a notebook, it's good to dress it in super or make a double cover due to special valves (bent ends). Do not fasten the sheets with wire brackets, a needle and thread will make this a much better job. special
effects are achieved by special preparation of the cut. Tear off the format of each individual sheet of the block, pressing it to the table with a metal ruler. Such a technique, of course, does not give the paper the illusion of hand-made, but it emphasizes needlework, the uniqueness of the work. A smooth cut can be painted over on three or two sides with a suitable color or rubbed with “golden” powder.
Effectively beat the paper cover with an imitation of embossing * The monogram of the author's initials is appropriate here, for example. Write the letters with a wide-tip tool on thick cardboard. Cut them out with a sharp knife and, placing them under the cover, carefully draw the paper along the shape of the relief with some metal, well-polished tool of a suitable size. If you first soften the edges of the template with a knife, the embossing will turn out to be rounded.
Modeling is usually started with preparatory sketches. Once you've found the bulk of text, single lines, headings, illustrations, drop caps, go through everything thoroughly in a miniature layout. When the work as a whole “adds up”, they develop the composition of each page in detail, estimate the font in terms of boldness, contrast, height, etc. It is useful to cut the text into separate lines, words, find the best layout option and paste the layout in full size.
Before you line the sheets, prepare a ruler from a strip of paper, where the distance to the first line and all subsequent page layout are indicated. The lines are drawn with a pen (for example, a blunt awl) or a medium-hard pencil. At first, lowercase letters will require four lines showing the height of the body and the boundaries of the extensions (upper and lower). Experienced scribes sometimes completely neglect the markup or get by with one line.
An ornament lives comfortably in a handwritten book. The wide-nib nib provides a harmonious balance of thick and thin lines. Artists have long shown a lot of invention and ingenuity in graphic decorations, achieving a holistic artistic appearance of the book.
It is tempting to illustrate the book yourself, but you can use the services of a graphic artist.
Hide your workpiece for a few days. If after a week or two there is no desire to make adjustments to the layout: change the amount of line spacing, the layout of the initials, decorative elements, revise the font settings, etc., start writing clean.
* Relief embossing, invented by the English engineer William Congreve.

CALLIGRAPHY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Calligraphy, according to Herman Zapf, is the most intimate, personal, spontaneous form of expression. Like a fingerprint or voice, it is unique to each person.
The sparkling stroke of A. S. Pushkin, the painfully refined handwriting of F. M. Dostoevsky, impetuous, full internal energy and the strength of the manuscript of V. I. Lenin will tell us about the personality of the writer and about state of mind during the creative process.
Letters exchanged between representatives of science and creativity during the Renaissance are now being accepted original works art. An example of this is the autographs of Michelangelo, Petrarch ...
Handwriting, personal font, a kind of diagram, a graphic formula of each person, "the geometry of the soul", as Plato said.
Beautiful, clear and legible writing is an essential sign of a culture of communication. Even during a normal conversation, we try to speak, if not beautifully, then at least understandably, moderately quickly, without whispering, without swallowing words and sounds. A saying of Alfred Furbank is often quoted, and it is so good that I refer to it again: “People want to speak not only clearly, but also with refinement and
euphonious grace. In the same way, you need to write: the letter must be beautiful. In other words, writing should be treated as an art.
Unfortunately, many suffer from graphic tongue-tiedness. Albert Kapr believes that many letters remain unwritten because we are embarrassed by our handwriting. In this sad confession (perhaps subconsciously) there are also major notes. Being shy is good. It is much worse when, with obvious pleasure, they give out such dashing scribbles.
The author of the famous "Alice in Wonderland", the writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll, in a small masterpiece "Eight or Nine Tips on How to Write Letters" stated: "Most of everything that is illegible around the world is simply written too hastily. Of course, you will answer: "I'm in a hurry to save time." The goal, to be sure, is very worthy, but do you have the right to achieve it at the expense of your friend? Isn't his time as valuable as yours? 73
Once, in a conversation with V. V. Lazursky, I expressed admiration for his handwriting. “I paint rather slowly, I'm not in a hurry,” the artist explained simply.
Other letters or business papers are completely unthinkable to read. They are trying to decipher them collectively, passing from hand to hand, trying to make out each letter, guess word by word, by meaning. But Sultan-Ali Mashkhedi taught: “Handwriting, which is known as clear, is an indication of good handwriting. Writing exists for the sake of being read, not for being helpless in reading it.
Owners of good handwriting usually observe the speed of work that is optimal for themselves. Having crossed the threshold of the speed limit, anyone runs the risk of turning letters into scribbles. It is believed that a reasonable writing speed to strive for is about ninety characters per minute.
I'll tell you the case. A well-known foreign calligrapher spoke at the international symposium. The translator began translating the report from the manuscript, but she began to make mistakes, stammer, and warned: "Don't expect an exact translation, the text is written in anti-calligraphy." The hall revived. The speaker, apparently deciding that he had let off some kind of good joke, also began to smile ... Later I was convinced that his handwriting was excellent, and the misunderstanding that had occurred was precisely the result of the prohibitive speed of writing.
Many masters and teachers see the root of evil in a sharp pen. Even John Howard Benson strongly advocated the use of a wide-nib instrument, because with a sharp pen we "... write quickly, can be legible, but almost exactly, without enjoying the perfection of writing" 75 A pointed pen, Benson believed, is largely responsible for the state of writing .
Opened in 1952 under the chairmanship of Alfred Ferbank, the Cursive Writing Society tried to introduce the use of a wide-nib pen in the school.
John Shivers, Fellow of the Society of Type and Illuminators of England: "The public believes, and I share this opinion, that learning Italian cursive from childhood can limit the deterioration of handwriting that is observed in our day, and instill respect for the art of type" 76
But time goes by. The inkwell and its inseparable companion, the pen, have fallen into oblivion, are perceived almost as eccentricity. Decisively displaced by the ballpoint pen, they found shelter in the post offices. Of course, the possibilities of a wide and even sharp pen are not available to a ballpoint pen. There is no need to strive for this. "Ball" is not a hindrance to beautiful handwriting. It all depends not on the tool, but on whose hands it is in! The graphics of the letters must correspond to the features of the tool used.
Now calligraphers have split into two camps: some are in favor of a wide pen in everyday life, others (the majority of them) are in favor of a “disgraced ball”. And there's nothing you can do about it. How balloon will not replace a modern airliner for us, so a wide or sharp pen cannot compete in everyday life with a ballpoint pen. Representatives of each of these areas have examples of both excellent and very mediocre examples of writing. How to be? There is no unequivocal solution to the issue here. As often happens, there is a golden mean in two seemingly mutually exclusive positions.
The formation of handwriting begins at school, and it would be important to start with calligraphy, or rather, with correct spelling: to study letter forms and the patterns of their formation with a ballpoint pen. Calligraphy in schools was canceled "ball" does not stain, ink stains and blotters have sunk into oblivion
And the blots were so picturesque! Note: sometimes the pen vibrates - only splashes fly, and the calligrapher of the old leaven is in no hurry to scold the instrument. Not only that, it will aim well and a spot or two will also plant it on purpose. One thing distinguishes such a master from a student of my school years: he knows in what place, where and when and under what circumstances an inkblot would be appropriate. This small digression is successfully illustrated by the sketch of the diploma for the graduates of the Tallinn type school, designed by Villu Yarmut (ill. 245)
It is advisable to introduce the subject of font science into the school curriculum, to acquaint students with the main types of font, to give the first skills of writing in the technique of a wide-ended instrument.
The famous artist and teacher Herrit Nordzey taught calligraphy to children aged eight to ten. Nordsay noticed with what pleasure beginners write with a stick of white chalk (in the manner of a wide pen) on a black board, and this became one of the teaching methods. In the end, everything that is done willingly brings good results.
It so happened that there were two or three left-handers in the group, and this is a difficulty for a calligrapher. The Dutch teacher, a great enthusiast of his craft, learned to write with his left hand, and only then, having won the trust of the children, allowed himself to convince the left-hander of the success of training.
In the exercises, the attention of the children was concentrated on the problems, and not on calligraphy. They didn’t demand impeccably clear strokes from the guys, but controlled the angle and inclination of the letter; allowed blots, but strictly followed the proportions of the letters, achieved an understanding of the logic of a wide-ended instrument. This is the method of John Biggs from England. During an apprenticeship, he believes, “the method of work, the process of thinking, is more important than the finished work.”77
“We don’t know,” says Herrit Nordsay frankly, “whether our children will write well when they grow up, but we are sure they will never forget that calligraphy contains very attractive features.”
The practice of a wide pen will facilitate the transition to calligraphic writing in design work in the future (how many schoolchildren can write an announcement graphically and compositionally competently? And students? And people with higher education?)
In the GDR, England and some other countries, beautiful writing competitions are already held for schoolchildren. An example worthy of emulation.
Beautiful handwriting in everyday life is not the lot of every master of writing: you can perfectly master official or semi-official calligraphy and remain quite helpless when you need to clearly and quickly fix the necessary information. And this is understandable: if the scribe for some reason did not have sufficient practice, such as taking notes, and did not develop fine coordination of small finger movements, where does good handwriting come from? And it also happens like this: handwriting is a feast for the eyes, but a person will take up a poster pen and show stunning bad taste
In any case, you should strive to follow the following tips:
1. Hold the pen correctly. Much depends on this, as in official calligraphy. In a small manual from the middle of our century, it is said that the pen should not be held tightly, but confidently and freely, like a living bird, which they are afraid to release and do not want to hurt. Effectively said, but the word “afraid” is alarming. It indicates tenacity. The master holds the "bird" easily and confidently, without timidity, as if he was born with it in his hand.
2. Everyday handwriting involves the linking of letters in words, but this does not mean that all characters must be connected. Tearing the tool away from the paper makes it easier to move the hand horizontally, reduces fatigue, and contributes to the readability of the letter.
3. One of the conditions for a clear and legible handwriting is the preservation of the optimal writing speed.
Working handwriting is individual creativity, and any experiments are legitimate here. Most type innovations, it has long been known, were born under the pen of ordinary clerks. The official calligraphy is conservative, following the exact form, rules and techniques of each letter. This is a rather slow and laborious craft. In ordinary handwriting, however, speed has always been a desirable quality, and random finds (let's take the extensions, for example) have become the property of not only handwritten, but also typographic fonts.
Passion for letter-creation exists even now. They write, for example, instead of "I" or "3" something resembling Latin "S", "V" instead of "F", etc.
After the reform of 1918, in the Russian alphabet, of the three characters corresponding to the sound “and” (“…”, “m”, “*y”), “and” remained as the most frequently used according to the old spelling standards. Russian and Bulgarian, the only alphabets built on Greek and Latin graphic bases, have lost the letter "...". Perhaps we did not act in the best way, abandoning the original "indivisible brick", which is part of the overwhelming number of letters of the alphabet.
Albrecht Dürer: “I will take the “i” as the first letter for the reason that almost all letters can be made from it ...”.
The use of “...” instead of “n” could have a beneficial effect on the readability of our everyday writing, where peculiar “palisades” are formed from “i”, “t”, “p” and elements of other letters, complicating the recognition of individual characters and making it difficult to read. This forces one to resort to special identification marks (superscript or subscript lines). They help to distinguish "t" from "silt".
The problem of “and decimal” (“...”) is not new, and it is tempting to return it to the “state” of the Russian alphabet. The writer Lev Uspensky is still, according to him own confession, is tempted to sign with "...". Such is the power of habit to a good letter. True, the appearance of a single single-bolt letter is irregular. A legalized “…” would drag along at least one more single standard, for example “…” (however, typographic fonts have already appeared, where the lowercase “t” resembles the Latin “…” (r)
Promises to improve readability and speed up writing another replacement (“l” to “...”) This technique is often found in the manuscripts of V. Ts. Lenin.
For the purposes of the experiment, I tried to use “…”, “…” and “…” in everyday handwriting. I do not consider this a bad example, but it turned out to be contagious. Students, especially in lectures, began to do the same. Attempts to read such records by the most diverse public, including schoolchildren, were successful. There were no difficulties or they dissipated after the first clarification.
Most professional scribes pay enough attention to everyday handwriting, seeing in it not only a way to fix speech, but also an excellent tool for training the hand and eye. Many people collect and analyze samples, transferring the most interesting finds into their work. Some type sheets by Herman Zapf, Villu Toots, Gunnlaugur Braim, Herrit Nordzey and others are nothing more than everyday calligraphy, sometimes enlarged.
Household handwriting, with the proper attitude, can turn into the most massive form of graphic art.

NOTES
(...)
INDEX OF NAMES OF EUROPEAN, AMERICAN CALLIGRAPHERS
Alexander I (Canada) 147 (ill.), 152 (ill.)
Alexander R (Canada) 99 (ill.), 186 (ill.)
Anderson D (USA) 243
Ankere K. (Sweden) 58 (ill.), 146 (ill.), 228 (ill.)
Arrighi J1 (Italy) 23, 24 (ill.), 26, 89, 129-132, 243
Barbedore L (France) 29
Becker A. (USA) 193 (ill.)
Benson J. X (USA) 89, 129, 130 (illus.), 131, 225, 227, 243, 244 Berry K. (USA) 53 (illus.)
Bigs J. (England) 7, 33, 58 (ill.), 63, 128, 233, 242-244
Bickham J. (England) 29
Blazhey B. (Czechoslovakia), 155 (ill.)
Bogdesko I (USSR) 66 (ill.), 67, 105 (ill.), 136 (ill.), 206 (ill.), 209 (ill.)
Bosenko G. (USSR) 196 (ill.)
Bowdene D (Belgium) 59 (ill.), 63, 134 (ill.), 135 (ill.), 153 (ill.)
Bowdene P (Belgium) 53 (ill.), 117 (ill.), 240 (ill.)
Boschin J. (France) 29
Brime G (Iceland) 7, 26, 48, 63, 119 (ill.), 177 (ill.), 185 (ill.), 198 (ill.), 241
Brand K. (Netherlands) 59 (ill.), 63, 72 (ill.), 133 (ill.), 163 (ill.), 178 (ill.)
Breeze K. (England) 47 (ill.), 119 (ill.)
Baildon D. (England) 29
Vagin V. (USSR) 67, 207 (ill.), 208 (ill.)
Weiss E (Germany) 35
Velde J. van de (Netherlands)
Veljevic J. (Yugoslavia)
Wolpe B. (Germany) 36 Wolf A. (USA) 94-95 (ill.)
Wood D (Australia) 63, 167 (ill.), 168 (ill.), 172 (ill.)
Woodcock J. (England) 48, 105 (ill.), 107 (ill.), 136 (ill.), 154 (ill.), 157 (ill.) Gannushkin E. (USSR)*01, 175, 243
Girvin T (USA) 170-171 (ill.), 181 (ill.), 195 (ill.)
Gray M (Canada) 220 (ill.)
Green D (USA) 78, 80, 176 (ill.), 211 (ill.), 236 (ill.)
Gulak V. (USSR) 67
Gurdy T (Scotland) 122 Gurskas A. (USSR) 67
Guseva I (USSR) 67, 145 (ill.), 175, 199 (ill.), 217, 222 (ill.)
Day S. (England) 48, 151 (ill.), 179 (ill.), 235 (ill.)
Delarue J. (France) 28
Deteric K. (Peru) 63, 144 (ill.), 150 (ill.)
Jackson D (England) 48, 63, 83, 230 (ill.)
Jackson M (Canada) 57 (ill.), 102 (ill.), 234 (ill.)
Johnston E (England) 26, 31, 32 (ill.), 32-36, 189, 242, 243 Dobrovinsky E 64-65 (ill.), 67, 78, 120 (ill.) (USSR)
Douglas R (USA) 126 (ill.), 127 (ill.), 128, 129
Duke E van (Netherlands) (ill.), 87 (ill.)
Isiar X de (Spain) 23, 28
Jonsson T (Iceland) 114 (ill.), 115 (ill.)
Kaasik A. (USSR) 67
Capr A. (Germany) 12, 39, 40 (ill.), 40, 44 (ill.), 73 (ill.), 139 (ill.), 225, 242,244
Kennedy P. (USA) 134 (ill.)
Kersna X. (USSR) 67
Kivihal X (USSR) 67
Kogan E. (USSR) 67
Korger X (Germany) 154, 182, 243
Koch R (Germany) 34-36, 37 (ill.), 68 (ill.), 242
Kratky L (Czechoslovakia) (ill.), 180 (ill.), 185 (ill.)
CredelF. (Germany) 35, 36
Kusik R (USA) 50 (illus.), 51 (illus.), 203 (illus.), 204-205 (illus.), 231 (illus.)
Lazursky V. (USSR) 7, 33, 71, 74 (ill.), 75, 189, 225, 242, 243
Larish R (Austria) 34, 35 (ill.), 35
Larcher J. (France) 10 (ill.), 63, 138 (ill.), 140 (ill.), 172, 173 (ill.), 219 (ill.)
Laurenti L. (Sweden) 166 (ill.)
Lausmae E (USSR) 16-17 (ill.), 62 (ill.), 67
Leganer G. (France) 29
Lemoine J. (France) 124
Liiberg S. (USSR) 67
Lindegren E. (Switzerland) 63, 242, 243
Lucas F. (Spain) 23, 28
Lukhtein P (USSR) 7, 61 (ill.), 67, 132, 137, 208 (ill.), 212 (ill.),
214-215 (ill.), 242
Mavrina T. (USSR) 86 (ill.), 97 (ill.), 110-111 (ill.)
McDonald B. (Eng- 7, 89, 243 li)
Maltin V. (USSR) 218 (ill.)
Mantoa R (USSR) 67
Mardersteig J. 14, 71, 75 (ill.) (Italy)
Matro J1 (France) 27 (ill.), 29
Meister K. (Austria) 78, 82 (ill.), 191 (ill.), 200 (ill.)
Mengart O. (Czechoslovakia) (ill.), 71, 76
Mercator Gde (Netherlands - 23, 29)
Missant F. (Belgium) 100 (ill.)
Moranto P D 27 (ill.), 28 (Spain)
Morris W (England) 31, 61
Myagar R. (USSR) 67, 96 (ill.), 101, 108 (ill.)
Neugebauer F. 48, 52 (ill.), 63, 135 (ill.), 158 (ill.), 221 (ill.) (Austria)
Yoidörfer I Senior 25 (ill.), 28, 80 (Germany)
Nordzey X (Netherlands), 112 (ill.), IZ, 226 (ill.), 233, 241, 244
Palatino J. 23, 26, 79(Italy)
Palmiste E (USSR) 67
Pao D. (Hong Kong) 96 (ill.), 190 (ill.)
Pertsov V. (USSR) 67, 213 (ill.)
Pillsbury J. 43 (ill.), 183 (ill.) (England)
Pierce C. (England) 48, 59 (ill.), 63, 78, 234 (ill.)
Pozharsky S. (USSR) 137, 162 (ill.), 178
Pronenko L (USSR) 83 (ill.), 88 (ill.), 117 (ill.), 118 (ill.), 141 (ill.), 201 (ill.), 202 (ill.), 216 (ill.), .), 243
Purik V. (USSR) 67
Reeveer P (USSR) 67
Rhys I (England) 48
Salnikova I (USSR) 67, 90 (ill.), 116 (ill.)
Saltz I (USA) 112 (ill.), 179 (ill.)
Svaren J. (USA) 129, 147, 243
Semchenko P. (USSR) 67, 164 (ill.), 182 (ill.), 184 (ill.), 185, 239 (ill.) Simons A. (Germany) 32, 35, 242 Smirnov S. (USSR) 71, 98 (ill.), 242
Stevens J. (USA) 152 (illus.), 156 (illus.), 166 (illus.), 191 (illus.), 193 (illus.) Stutman N (USA) 44 (illus.), 47 (illus.) )
Taliente J. A. 23, 71(Italy)
Telingater S. (USSR) 67, 80, 91 (ill.), 147, 243 Timan V. (Germany) 35, 67
Toots V. (USSR) 7, 20 (ill.), 22 (ill.), 26, 34, 48, 60 (ill.), 63, 83, 92 (ill.), 124, 132, 138 (ill. ), 143 (illus.), 146, 161 (illus.), 174 (illus.), 187, 192 (illus.), 200, 210 (illus.), 241-243
Toast R (Germany) 63, 160 (ill.), 169 (ill.)
Waters W (USA) 41 (ill.), 44 (ill.), 46 (ill.), 61
Waters Y. (USA) 56 (ill.), 86 (ill.)
Fatekhov V. (USSR) 67, 178 (ill.)
Furbank A. (England) 92, 93 (ill.), 124, 224, 227
Fisher T (USA) 101, 243
Fleus G (England) 192 (ill.)
Folsom R. (USA) 51 (ill.), 238 (ill.)
Forsberg K.-E 68, 69 (ill.), 71, 76 (Sweden)
Francesco da Bologna 71 (Francesco Griffo) (Italy)
Freeman P. (USA) 83 Fugger W. (Germany) 28 Hechl E (England) 45 (ill.)
Holiday P (England) 153 (ill.), 172, 173 (ill.)
Horlbeck-Köppler I 54-55 (ill.), 63 (Germany)
Hofer K. (Germany) 48, 71, 73 (ill.), 76, 94-95 (ill.), 106 (ill.), 229 (ill.) Zapf G. (Germany) 26, 36, 38 (ill. .), 39, 48, 72 (ill.), 76, 113, 148-149 (ill.),
189, 224, 241-244 Child H. (England) 40, 42 (ill.), 124, 131, 243 Chobitko P. (USSR) 67 Shivers J. (England) 39, 40, 227, 242, 244 Schindler V .(Czechoslovakia)
Schneider W. (Germany) 48, 102, 103 (ill.), 104 (ill.), 142 (ill.)
Schneidler E (Germany) 39, 70 (ill.), 71, 76
Show P (USA) 7, 50 (ill.), 53 (ill.), 63, 78, 139 (ill.), 181 (ill.), 216 (ill.), 232 (ill.)
Schumann G (Germany) 63, 84 (ill.), 109 (ill.)
Evans J. (USA) 48-49 (illus.), 78, 81 (illus.), 86 (illus.)
Yager N J. (USA) 242 Yakovlev Al-dr (USSR) 144 (ill.)
Yakovlev Anat. (USSR) 66 (ill.), 67
Yarmut V. (USSR) 67, 99 (ill.), 101, 183, 194 (ill.), 227, 238 (ill.)

"Calligraphy for All" by Leonid Pronenko will be of interest to both beginners and those who have long been interested in the technique of beautiful writing. From the very beginning of writing, the ability to write beautifully was valued, people spent many years making their handwriting truly beautiful. The rulers of states and institutions hired specially trained people who comprehended the science of calligraphy from childhood.

Despite the fact that in modern world increasingly used printed text, calligraphy is still very popular. The author of this book knows how to arouse interest in it, he wants to convey to readers that this is a special kind of art that can be admired in the same way as painting. The book tells about the history of calligraphy, how it developed. The author also says that so far the most beautiful is what is written with a pen, and not with a ballpoint pen or brush. Here you can learn how to prepare necessary tools and get down to business. The book is provided with a large number of illustrations that reflect how beautiful the art of calligraphy is.

On our site you can download the book "Calligraphy for All" by Leonid Pronenko for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.