Chapter 10
Formal Manuscript, Foundational Hand, or Bookhand
In This Chapter
Looking at the height, pen angle, basic shapes, and proportions
Getting to know the lower case letters
Learning the capital letters
Using two sets of numbers \
Putting letters together
Varying the style
The alphabet in this chapter is known by several different names — Manuscript, Foundational Hand, and Bookhand, among several names. It’s actually a version of the Roman alphabet with many practical applications. It is not as formal looking as Roman and much easier to do. You can use this alphabet for just about any purpose.
This alphabet, as the names Manuscript and Bookhand indicate, was originally used for lettering manuscripts and books. The letters eventually evolved into many of the typeface designs we see in books today.
The name, Foundational Hand, comes from the fact that this alphabet has been a preferred, beginning alphabet with many calligraphy teachers. Although it is a popular, beginning alphabet, you should not underrate its value. You will certainly find many uses for this very versatile and beautiful style.
In this chapter, I cover the Manuscript letters, both upper- and lowercase and the numbers. Since this alphabet is based on shapes rather than strokes, I don’t give you a stroke-by-stroke description of how to do these letters. That is unnecessary. Seeing and practicing the letters in groups according to the similarities of their shapes is the best way to get you going with this alphabet. In this chapter as well as the appendix, I provide ample practice at writing the letters and putting words together.
Getting to Know the Manuscript Alphabet Basics
More than likely, you’ll discover that this is one of the easier styles to learn. The letters are very uniform in structure (see Figure 10-1) and the strokes are all very natural. It is an alphabet that requires no special manipulation of the pen.
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Figure 10-1: All the letters and characters in the manuscript alphabet. |
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In the sections that follow, I equip you with the info you need to begin putting pen to paper to do the letters of the Manuscript alphabet. The practice is easy to follow and should be fun. In hardly any time at all, you should see real success.
Pen widths
You can find out more about pen widths in Chapter 3, but for this alphabet, Figure 10-2 shows you the pen widths to use for the lowercase and capital letters.
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Figure 10-2: Pen widths for lowercase and capital letters. |
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Pen angle
One reason this alphabet is easy to learn, is you use only the 30-degree pen angle for almost all the strokes and letters (see Figure 10-3). (There’s only one exception, the lowercase z, and that’s pretty easy to remember.) A pen angle of 30 degrees is not as angled as the 45 degree angle used for Italic and Blackletter (see Chapters 6 and 8) and not so flat as the 20-degree angle used for most of the Roman letters (see Chapter 8).
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Figure 10-3: The 30-degree pen angle. |
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Trace over the zigzag design below. If you are holding the pen at the correct 30 degree angle, you’ll be able to duplicate the alternating thick and thin lines just as they’re shown below. Before you get started, review these points to be sure you make and maintain the correct angle:
For a right-hander, the barrel of the pen points back to the edge of the right- shoulder.
Left-handers need to figure out how the pen is held to make the zigzag design exactly as shown. That’s the pen position that you need to maintain.
Because of the pen angle, the verticals are going to be just a little wider than the horizontal parts of the letters.
The thinnest parts of the letter o will not be at the exact top and bottom but close to the 11 o’clock and 5 o’clock positions.
Basic shapes and proportions
The body of these letters is five pen-widths in height. The ascenders and descenders are each just three pen-widths above and below (see the section, “Pen widths,” above for more information). The body (the part of the letter that is between the waist line and the base line) is circular. These letters are based on the circle — there’s no slant at all to these letters. To draw these letters, you’ll use ten different basic strokes in different combinations (see Figure 10-4).
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Figure 10-4: Basic strokes. |
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You can practice the basic strokes for this alphabet in the space below. Trace over the strokes drawn in gray, copy in the blank spaces that follow the strokes that you trace, and remember the following:
Pull the pen toward you; don’t push it away. All the strokes are what are called “pull strokes” which means that you are basically pulling the pen toward you instead of pushing it away from yourself. Because of the “pull strokes,” this is an alphabet that can be done with a fountain pen as well as a dip pen.
Concentrate on keeping the sizes of the letters uniform, the strokes smooth.
Keep the letters completely vertical. If you learned Italic previously (see Chapters 4 through 6), you may have a tendency to slant the letters.
Avoid ovals; keep everything circular. This is a true “ball and stick” alphabet. Again, if you already know the Italic alphabet, you may have a tendency not to make the letters wide enough.
Maintain a constant pen angle. Don’t twist or turn the pen as you’re making the letters.
The Lowercase Letters
As with other alphabets presented in this book, rather than going through the letters in alphabetical order, I introduce the letters according to their similarities.
The round letters
The letters b, c, d, e, o, p, and q have a circle as a major part of their shape (see Figure 10-5). Circles may not be the easiest shapes to draw, but I start with these because the round shape is the shape that all the letters are based upon. Get this right and you should be able to do all the letters with ease.
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Figure 10-5: The round letters b, c, d, e, o, p, and q. |
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Follow these tips for making these letters:
Always do the left side of the circle first.
If you are left-handed, you may find that doing the right side of a circle first is easier for you. If it’s easier, do it that way.
Keep the strokes smooth and steady.
Letters that have the n or u shape
The letters u, n, m, h, r, and a are similar to each other, because they all have the u or n shape in them (see Figure 10-6). These letters combine partial circles with straight strokes.
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Figure 10-6: Letters with the n or u shape: u, n, m, h, r, and a. |
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As you practice these letters, keep the following tips in mind:
Watch the white spaces inside these letters. They should be symmetrical horizontally.
Be careful with the serifs. Make small curves to begin and end these letters. Don’t make these serifs sloppy or too big.
Make sure that the letters have no slant to them.
The top and right side of the a is exactly like the top and right side of the n.
The straight-line letters
The letters i, j, k, l, and t have a straight line as their main feature (see Figure 10-7). These letters either have curves at the beginnings and ends of these strokes or both. Some of the curves are small; some are large (like the ends of the l and t) so be careful to make these exactly the sizes that are shown here; please don’t overdo them.
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Figure 10-7: The straight-line letters: i, j, k, l, and t. |
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Here are some tips for making these letters:
Keep these long, vertical strokes straight and smooth. This is one place where a stroke that is not straight will stand out.
Keep the curved serifs at the beginnings and endings of the letters neat and small. Don’t be sloppy or haphazard with these.
Make the base of the l and the t circular.
Don’t make the k too narrow.
Learning the letters that have a v shape
The three letters v, w, and y are very similar (see Figure 10-8). Notice how the points where the letters sit on the base line have overlapping strokes. This overlap is important to the style of the letter.
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Figure 10-8: The v, w, and y. |
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Keep these tips in mind as you’re practicing these letters:
Make certain that the diagonal strokes (except for the serifs) are straight and not curved.
Keep the two sides of the w equal in width.
Keep the long stroke on the y straight except at the top and bottom.
All the other letters
I’ve lumped the five remaining letters together into one group. Each of these letters has similarities to other letters, but they really don’t fit with any of the other groups. These letters are f, g, s, x, and z (see Figure 10-9).
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Figure 10-9: Letters f, g, s, x, and z. |
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Tips for making these letters:
The g is a letter that may take a bit of practice. Make sure that the second stroke which resembles a 3 wraps around underneath the first stroke. Also, make the fourth stroke (the “ear”) horizontal, not angled upward.
Don’t forget that the pen angle for the horizontals of the z is 45 degrees.
Capital Letters
The capital letters for this alphabet are essentially a relaxed, less formal version of the Roman capitals. The strokes have a more casual and less geometric appearance than the formal Roman letters. These capitals, like their Roman parents, may be used as capitals with the Italic alphabet. The capital letters are presented here in exactly the same groups, based on their width, as the Roman letters. If you need to review how these letters are made, please refer to the chapter about the Roman letters (Chapter 9) where I describe the sequence and direction of the strokes you use to make these letters.
The serif on these capitals is sometimes called a “half-slab” serif. It is supposed to be only half as long as a regular slab serif (see Chapter 9). The half-slab serif is less formal looking than the regular slab serif on the Roman letters. It is similar in appearance to the serifs on the lowercase letters.
Letters as wide as they are tall
The capitals c, d, g, o, and q are circular in shape and are as wide as they are tall (see Figure 10-10). They are 8 pen widths tall which is exactly the same height as the ascenders in this alphabet.
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Figure 10-10: Letters c, d, g, o, and q. |
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Follow these tips as you practice these letters:
Strive to make the circles as perfect as you can make them. No ovals permitted here.
Keep the strokes smooth and steady.
If you are having difficulty with these letters, you may lightly pencil them in before drawing them with a pen.
Letters whose width is three-fourths the height
Ten letters are in this group (see Figure 10-11). They are a, h, k, n, t, u, v, x, y, and z. These are the letters of average width. For most people, these letters are some of the easiest ones to do correctly.
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Figure 10-11: Letters a, h, k, n, t, u, v, x, y, and z. |
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As you practice these letters, please remember:
Keep the width three-fourths of their height. Don’t make these letters too narrow or too wide.
Pay careful attention to the little serifs at the beginnings and endings of the strokes. The serifs really do exemplify that it’s the little things that count.
Hold the pen at a constant 30-degree angle.
Letters half as wide as they are tall
The capital letters that are only half as wide as they are tall are b, r, e, f, s, l, and p (see Figure 10-12). In some cases, this proportion may not look exactly right to you, but that’s probably because the letters that we see every day do not follow all the rules.
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Figure 10-12: Letters b, r, e, f, s, l, and p. |
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Follow these tips
“Brief sleep” is a memory aid for recalling the half-wide letters.
Study the small serifs on the e and f and make these carefully.
Keep the small “foot” serif at the bottoms of the r, f, and p short and horizontal.
The narrow capitals
The capital i and j are narrow letters, hardly wider than a single stroke of the pen. The j is really just an i with a short “tail” added onto the bottom (see Figure 10-13). In fact, the j was originally designed so people could distinguish between the consonant and vowel uses of the letter i.
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Figure 10-13: Letters i and j. |
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Tips for making the i and the j:
Make the vertical strokes straight and vertical.
Draw the serifs small.
The “tail” on the j is short and not curved.
The wide capitals
Two of the capital letters are extra wide. They are the m and the w (see Figure 10-14). The two widest capitals are m and w.
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Figure 10-14: Letters m and w. |
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Follow these tips when making the m and the w:
The two letters are not upside-down versions of each other. The sides of the m are slanted inward only slightly. The w has two sets of parallel strokes and the outside strokes are slanted quite a lot.
Keep the letters balanced so that one side is not noticeably larger than the other.
Be careful to make the serifs small. Don’t make the serifs so large that the sides of these letters are curved.
Make certain to include the overlapping strokes as shown in the examples.
Numbers
In this section, I show you two sets of numbers that go with this alphabet (Figure 10-15). Use the first set when you’re using capital and lowercase letters. Use the other set when you’re only using capitals.
Notice that the lowercase numbers are different sizes and some reach below the base line, while others extend above the waist line. But the strokes and their sequence are essentially the same for both sets.
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Figure 10-15: Two sets of numbers. |
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Tips for making the numbers:
The numbers that are to be used when you only have capital letters are the same height as the capitals.
The lowercase numbers have different sizes. The 1, 2, and 0 are drawn between the writing and waist lines. The 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 extend down below the writing line but do not touch the descender line. The 6 and 8 extend up above the waist line but do not touch the ascender line.
Putting It All Together
When putting all the letters together to create words, the letters should be spaced so they appear to have an equal distance between them (see Figure 10-16).
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Figure 10-16: Examples of spacing. |
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You cannot achieve this by simply spacing the letters in equal increments. In order to make the spaces between letters inside words appear equal, you will actually have to space the letters at unequal distances. The amount of space depends entirely upon the shapes of the letters. Take these tips to heart on spacing:
Two round shapes that are next to each other (like o and c) need to be spaced more closely together.
Two vertical shapes next to each other (such as a and m) need to spaced farther apart.
Words should have enough space between them to fit an o.
One way to test the spacing is to squint at the words so they blur into a line that looks gray. Another way is to turn the paper upside-down. If the spacing has been done correctly, everything will look even.
Variations
You can use this alphabet in a number of wonderful variations. One very attractive variation that is one of my favorites, involves simply drawing the letters narrower than usual (see Figure 10-17). There is no rule about how narrow to make the letters. You can determine how narrow you want to make the letters simply by sight. This variation has many practical applications and allows you to squeeze more letters into a space than the standard form of the alphabet.
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Figure 10-17: A narrow version is a very useful alphabet. |
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As you practice, follow these tips:
Although you determine the width by sight, the width needs to be consistent throughout.
Keep the serifs small and neat. Don’t be sloppy with these.
You can use regular width capital letters.
Another nice variation is to decrease the height of the body of the letter (the distance between the waist line and base line to four pen widths). This will produce a heavier, thicker letter (see Figure 10-18).
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Figure 10-18: A heavy, bolder version. |
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Keep these points in mind when you do the bold variation:
Because you have less height in which to draw the letters, you need to be careful that the shapes are drawn clearly and not squashed together so much that they look bad.
Again, make certain that you don’t make the serifs too large.
The ascenders are still three pen widths above the waist line.
