So, after using the William Mitchell nibs for a while, I fancied giving Copperplate hand a try.
I knew immediately this was almost a jump up to “Expert” level (bypassing my previous plan of trying out Blackletter), but I really, really liked the look of some English Longhand and Copperplate examples that are all over sites like Pinterest.
First on the cards was a nib upgrade. I saw a post on a calligraphy related forum from many years ago that listed a bunch of recommended “fine-pointed” nibs for writing Copperplate. So I went to an independent retailer’s site and set about an order of one of each of a few. Here’s what I ordered:
- Gillott 303
- Gillott 1950
- Gillott 2788
- Leondardt Point
As well as some other bits and pieces (impulse buys) – a Leonardt Storage tin, a couple of nice wooden pen holders (I somehow managed to crack one of the plastic ones I had originally) and a Zest-It Nib Cleaner pot. This last one sounded a good idea as until now I simply rinsed my nibs with warm water when I was done for the night, and dried them with some tissue & a microfibre cleaning cloth.
Well, how did go? Not bad… these (in the picture below) are all with the Leonardt Point nib, and I completely neglected to line up with any angled lines – partly because I hadn’t got a protractor handy, and secondly because I didn’t have any sheets with a 55degree slant on to use as reference. And at this point I was more interested in just making marks and getting a feel for the pen, rather than being accurate or correct. Not a terrible result though, I thought, for a first attempt at least.
These were drawn only using some Copperplate majuscules I found online with some guidance as to what order to draw the strokes, with no real pointers to anything special to look out for with each letter – this is where consistency falls down. When you find a good tutorial that goes through each letter and each stroke one at a time, you will then improve consistency as you gain a better understanding of the individual strokes, and how these are re-used in other letters.
At this point I set about two upgrades to my equipment before I went any further trying out the other nibs – get some angled guide paper, and look into an oblique paper holder!
Jim Scribbles 