Appendix

Practice Pages

In This Appendix

Practicing Italic

Boning up on the Blackletter alphabet

Making letters with Manuscript

Unleashing your Celtic self with Uncial

Creating letters with Copperplate

Throughout this book, I’ve provided you with opportunities to practice the strokes, the letters, and combining of letters for all of the alphabets, but a little more practice hones your skill and perfects your technique. So, in this appendix, I provide you with ample space to trace and copy basic strokes, lowercase letters, and capital letters, as well as trace and copy words for all of the alphabets covered in this book. The more practice you do the better your technique!

Of course, although I don’t recommend it, you can write directly in the book — in fact, I’ve put all the practice on just one side of the page to minimize bleed through. However, enough practice for one of you may not be enough practice for another. So I suggest either photocopying these pages so you can practice as much as you like, or you can paperclip paper over each page to get in all the practice you can. Regardless of which route you choose, the word of the day is practice, practice, practice!

For the most effective practice:

1. Trace over the letters that are gray.

2. Draw the letters freehand in the blank lines that follow each line of gray letters.

3. Compare your freehand practice to the models in the appropriate chapters.

Be sure you check back to Chapter 4 for the Italic alphabet, Chapter 8 for Blackletter, Chap- ter 9 for Classical Roman, Chapter 10 for Manuscript, Chapter 11 for Uncial and Celtic letters, and Chapter 13 for Copperplate. These chapters will give you the measurements you need to follow when using your basic tools for calligraphy:

Calligraphy pen

Nib width

Pen angle

Height

Italic

Blackletter

Classical Roman

Manuscript

Uncial

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Copperplate