Do you know what a pangrams is? Y'know, 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'? They're great for practicing calligraphy. And a lot of languages have them, not just ones that use the Latin alphabet. Decided to practice Rotunda some more and try out different inks and nibs- my medieval stuff is mostly going to be blackish and red, so why not use something more colorful (like glittery purple) for practice?
Anyway, technical things:
I primarily used an LC #5 Speedball nib, but swapped out for a Brause #4 because I was curious. I'd gotten a couple of Brause nibs because I heard how great they were, but had trouble with them, so I put 'em away and picked up my Speedballs again.
WELL IT TURNS OUT the reason for that is because Brause's lefty nibs have an angled tip while Speedball's are pretty much on the horizontal. A lot of lefties out there probably have the same crab hook writing posture as me, which makes learning calligraphy.... challenging. It hadn't occurred to me at first, but when you're using a chisel-like, angled writing nib, your posture will affect how the nib works on the paper- in this case, Rotunda's clean verticals were easier to make without contorting my wrist, but the swooping thin-thick curves were harder.
I still like my Speedball nibs better, cheap as they are, because I'm a lazy bastard and don't want to change up my entire writing posture. I will awkwardly curl my wrist to get those verticals, tyvm.
That said, when I get some fun money to buy calligraphy/project supplies with, I'm going to get some smaller Brause nibs to experiment with. One of the problems with the Speedball C's are that the nibs get clunky the smaller you go, making you have to go back to shape letters or apply more pressure. I dunno if I need to file down my nibs or just have a lighter touch...
Need to practice with my quill more, too. But part of me wants to work up muscle memory with the nibs first.
Pouring one out for any left-handed calligraphers out there.
