lessons in ornamental penmanship

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Lessons in Ornamental Penmanship (Part 1) By Del Tysdal

As posted to the Ornamental Penmanship Group on Yahoo Compiled by Dr. Joseph M. Vitolo

Subject: A lesson on the 'corner curve' to practice

See the file I am loading. Practice this lesson on the corner curve as used on the small letter 'i'. Notice the 'x' that I put on the first letter as to the way NOT to make the curve. Notice the arrows on the other 4 letters to see the way the curve IS done. The next lesson will refer to the Madarasz page that Nick has posted. (See image below)

Script by Madarasz

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Refer to Nick's posting of Madarasz page, 'ome'

I am posting my analysis of the way that Madarasz wrote the word 'ome'. He probably did the 'o' in one stroke. The shade is somewhat darker than as used in other shaded letters (see the third down stoke in the small 'm'). This was an effect the penmen liked to used to even out the dark shade of the capital letter preceding and tie the first letter after that shaded letter for better visual effect. The down shade on the 'o' is wonderful. Look at it with the magnifying glass. It was slowly drawn with his forefinger, no arm movement. After the 'o' Maddy probably lifted the pen and slid the paper to the left to get in the right position to finish the 'm’ and ‘e'. Penmen lifted their pen and slid their paper often (every 3rd letter) so they would maintain the same slant of all the letters on a single line. (If the paper is not moved to the left, the arm will cause a significant change in slant from the beginning of a line to its end). Madarasz wrote the 'm’ and ‘e' with no additional lifts. Notice the lighter shade on the third stroke of the 'm', the equal distance between the two portions of the 'm'. However, he blew it on the low crossing of the small 'e'. He did not get enough lift from the third stroke of the 'm' to get a good corner curve. The crossing of the 'e' at its bottom is too congested. My attempt at this 'ome' is posted with comments. I had to write the letters 22 times before I got it right. Practice these letters and really get to know the feeling of how Madarasz wrote. The next lesson will be the word 'what', again in detail.

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The small 's' in sublime of L Madarasz

Study this letter carefully in the Maddy letter as it is such a unique form. Maddy came up with this form much like an artistic designer would create something new. No one before him had used this lovely style of letter and most viewers would not even notice how it was made. The arm moved the pen to the top of the 's' (a bit higher than a small 'i'). He used finger motion to bring the pen down slowly and cause the down line to disappear into the base line. NOTE: he did not connect the bottom to the upstroke. The 1/2 oval is put on with the pen without a lot of heaviness, just enough to cause the illusion of a closed letter. It is a marvelous letter form.

'sublime' from Madarasz page

On this word Madarasz lifted his pen 3 times: after the 's', after the second part of the 'b' and also above the cross line of the 'l'. The pen lifts were to preserve slant and accuracy. He used a lot of arm movement between letters but in letters there was precise finger motion.

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Madarasz way of adjusting the flange of an oblique

Put the holder in your hand with the right thumb on top. With the left fingers as shown, push up with the lower index finger and down with thumb to bring the oblique up. This will help the nib 'skate' on the surface of the paper rather than dig in. Photo shown in files.

Ornamental Penmanship exercise ala Madarasz

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Just made a post for practice: sublimity

The small 's' is higher than the 'i' form; each time Maddy lifted his pen he also slid the paper to the left. Notice the 7 to make the shade on the 't'. He used the curved end on the 'y' as it was easier than making a precise loop which had to cross exactly on the base line. And the curved end 'y' is just a bit of eye candy. The top of the 't' is just fun.

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3 Madarasz postings

I have made 3 files for Madarasz writing as to how he finished the first line of the full page. Notice the 'x' I used to show where he lifted the pen and also slid the paper to the left. Notice the small 't' and 'd': he often would write to the height of the 'i' in each of those letters, lift the pen, and come down from the top. Note the right side of a figure '7' which is the way he would shade the top: filling the form.

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Madarasz, line 2, 'Destroy'

On the second line of the Madarasz Page Writing, I refer you to the word 'Destroy'. When I practiced the exemplar that I posted to 'files' I made 5 lifts in writing the 1 single word. I got the best result by making the lifts marked with a small 'x'. Madarasz lifted after the capital D. He shifted the paper. Then he penned the e,s, lifted, slid the paper. He penned the 't' to the top of its 'i' section, lifted, perhaps shifted, then started at the top of the 't' and came down (no shade yet) and penned to the drop down of the small 'r'. He lifted here, shifted the paper, and did the 'i' portion of the r and through the 'o' with its shade. He lifted, shifted and finished with the y. The top of the 't' (and also d, p) were ususally done after the entire page was written. The top of these letters was '7ed'as shown.

Ins, Nibs and Madarasz The best nib used in the early 1900s was the Gillot Principality #1. It was also renamed the Zanerian Fine Writer and the F W Tamblyn #8(I think). It was a sharp nib which was also flexible to spread nearly 1/4 inch (but would ruin quickly at that distance). The faintness of line as achieved by the old boys was from lightness of hand on the paper and watered ink. The Korean inks (Madarasz found them) were supreme in that the ink was light but the shades were brilliantly dark and still are today (100 years later) if you ever see a real LM page. The little finger support as used in 'The Secret of the Skill of Madarasz' was a may to keep the hand from being heavy on the paper. His little finger would raise his writing hand off of the paper to lift the pen to the point of almost not touching the paper. Also the sharp pointed Principality #1 would have less chance of sticking into the paper with this little finger lift off effect.

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Ink Viscosity and Madarasz I do not know of a formula. Just have to add as much as it takes to make the lines lighter. Water will only make certain inks lighter, like Higgins Eternal that are water soluble. WC Brownfield told me Madarasz used a circular ink grinding bowl. When Maddy wanted a thicker ink he would leave the cover off. I have no idea as to stick inks to use. I have tried art stores and never found a great ink stick. I think the day of thick and thins and faint lines is pretty much over. Mr Brownfield also told me that Maddy would use thin inks when he did not want others to reproduce, re print his stuff. And that when his Principality #1s wore out he would use them for his fancy heavy shaded script work.

Lupfer, Madarasz and others and how they wrote Unless you see visually how these penmen wrote it is difficult even to imagine. That is why I think the days of thicks and thins, hairlines, grace and beauty are somewhat left in the past. And it takes years to get the feel of the feather touch.

The All Important Circle Exercises Every class had this exercise to get the arm 'warmed up' before we actually practiced on letter form. The ovals were made in either direction and you will notice one direction is easier than the other. Do these fast with control. I have started practicing roller skating again, after 40 years of not doing it. The other night I did 3,000 ovals like these skating in a single spot. That is the type of practice that makes for good results.

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Madarasz 'it, and' Posted to files is 'it, and' as I think Madarasz wrote the two words. I detect one lift and shift, after 'it,'. Notice and look at the lead-in to the small 'a' and you will see that there is a space just before the oval of the 'a'. He did the lead-in after the two words were written. I have shown same in my exemplar. He 'seven-ed' the small 'd'. Notice the continued smooth base line corner curves.

Madarasz: stopped to think Note the file I am posting with the same 'he stopped to think' title. At the top of the small 'n' there is a definite sharp corner. Other letters will show the corner top in many cases. This corner is made or created if the pen actually stops. When I wrote my exemplar I found that I, too, stopped, before coming down. Just for a momentary mini second to gather my visual as to just where I was going next. I enjoy reading the comments about 'lifts' but recall that I began these instructions with the explanation Mr Brownfield gave to me about regular penmanship and Pro Pen or Professional Penmanship. I have letters by other penman who lifted just as often on plain old 'Pro' business writing. Note some of Nick's postings and you will see lifts everywhere.

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Louis Madarasz/Edward C Mills: A comparison of how each penman formed their lowercase letter 'c'

The two penmen made the small 'c' entirely differently. Edward C Mills was the 'top' pro-business penman (Pro-Biz as Mr Brownfield described it. Note my exemplar as to how Maddy made his small 'c', over and a tip down, then lift and 'i' it out. Mr Mills did the leadin, lifted and full 'c' it out.

Madarasz and his Ornamental Penmanship, as well as others The comments made about Louis Madarasz's Ornamental Penmanship (OP) are interesting to read. When Mr. Brownfield first showed me how Madarasz wrote I was shocked, and more than a bit surprised. I even thought to myself 'he cheated'. Then Mr. Brownfield told me the difference between Pro Pen and Ordinary Pen--manship. Over his few years of writing, Madarasz did not make much money. He was always looking for something to do. I think he believed himself to be above all others in OP but yet he still had to teach ordinary penmanship to make a living. His ads were, are a bit egotistical (but true) of his own personal ability. Madarasz did not ever do much OP for commercial uses such as the engrossers who learned fast that OP was not a money maker. In his later years, he was selling partnerships in a squab ranch. He searched for gold in Nevada. Two weeks before he died he ordered a dozen Excelsior oblique penholders (I saw the actual order). I was told that he was hired to teach at the same school I taught at. But one the appointed day he did not show up. His cable gram said it 'is to cold up there' (as I was told but did not experience). So why did Madarasz learn to write his way and show that he was the very best ever. Why did Bach compose? So that we can talk about it 100 years later?

The Bloser post by Joe and Evan's assistance See the wonderful exaggerated small 's' in the three lines by Mr. Bloser. The line lifts high, then slowly down to meld into the base line without connecting to the lead-in. A half circle is filled to create the eye illusion that the bottom does connect. See the pointed 'f' a mistake; also the 'o' in yours, ouch: he might have thrown this away but someone

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grabbed it from the waste basket. The initial 'P' is wonderful. All in one stroke, no lifts, but maybe he filled the dark accent after.

Script by EW Bloser

Madarasz 'locality' before and after The top shows the lifts; the bottom shows how it looks after. Without knowing, the result looks penned in one stroke and it was done in seconds, not minutes.

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Madarasz: 'country and'

The 'x' marks the probable spots where he may have lifted his pen. The small letter 'r' was also used as a lift, just before the final down stroke of the 'i' portion and if not a lift at least a stop.

Madarasz: 'the world' Notice the lifts used to create his perfect letter forms. Also the spaces between the first and second parts of the 'w' and the last parts of the 'w'. Notice the shade on 'i' portion of the 'l' in world. He slowed his pen just before or at the crossing, pushed little finger down for support and drew the shade down carefully.

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Madarasz 'become a' Notice the top and bottom of the 'b' are the same width.

Madarasz: 'the world' 'x' marks the places he paused and slid the paper (probably). The swing top on the 't' would have been done after the line was written and may have been done after the entire page was completed.

Del Specimens

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The overall Madarasz page

View the entire document: I noticed the line endings were pretty much straight up and down (the right margin). Of course, to do this was not a simple task. You will notice on some lines he adjusted spacing between sentences to get the right margin even. On some lines he used an end line swirl to take up the space. I think he would have used a pencil first to see how a line would 'fit' into the space needed.

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Madarasz: 'void and' Posted my view of how LM wrote these 2 words in the full page item posted by Nick.

From the pen of Madarasz!

Analysis from the pen of Del Tysdal!

The cursive writing and Ross' postings and comments The page looks more non-Palmer as Palmer Method used a different style 'r'. The writing is marvelous to me and a perfect example of carefully done, not off hand, regular penmanship. It was not done fast at all. The upper loop letters are to exact in width and height to be done quickly. This page was done in the Madarasz style of carefully done 'perfect' writing. I really enjoyed seeing some real penmanship again, Ross, and thanks.

Posted OP Group by Ross Green (Modern Business Writing circa 1930)

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Forms of p-ship in today's schools There is one style; I shall not mention the name that I am not impressed with at all. Although the forms are readable and legible the end result is 'child like'. In a style of writing, there needs to be growth. Starting with block letters, then slowly into some form of drawing, cursive, then faster cursive, then into adult cursive forms and methods. To a 40 year old to be writing like a ten year old is not impressive at all.

E A Lupfer and his penmanship Over 40 years I have been able to see Mr. Lupfer's penmanship as it was done over his 50 years of writing. I have seen his beginning style circa 1907 and even a few years before. He went to Zanerian College of Penmanship and there Mr. Zaner suggested (I heard) that Mr. Lupfer go home as he could not do the good stuff. But he finished the school and went back to work in Reading PA as a meat cutter in a meat plant. Mr. Zaner called or wrote him to come to Zanerian and teach. He did so from 1909 to 1956. During this time he developed a skill level beyond his teacher's skill. I was able to see his handwriting in his later years, never seen by very many folks at all. Mr. Lupfer wrote to my teacher at a local business college in Fargo ND in the early 1970s. He, Mr. Lupfer, must have been sad to see that his writing skills were now child like again and those graceful full bodied skillful shades and small letters just were not there any more. He must have cried a bit every time he took up a pen.

From the pen of Earl A. Lupfer in his prime

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Methods of teaching penmanship in the classroom I was involved with classroom teaching of the Watkins Method which was really the Zaner Bloser method (which used Tamblyn instruction booklets). We taught 100 students per class 2 times a day. 1 hour in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon (the same students, twice a day). The process was to 'count' the strokes of a letter form and the students would work along with the count. A small 'i' was "up, down, finish" or 1, 2 3. We set copy for each student by sitting immediately beside each and demonstrating, commenting, suggesting. I think Palmer Method was taught the same way.

The finger motion and the arm motion I am using the word 'motion' rather than movement as the latter may seem to be a bathroom duty. When we taught arm motion p-ship we insisted on the arm doing all of the work. It was necessary to fool the students this way because if we had told them the fingers would be fine to use, the exercises would be all finger motion. So we emphasized the arm motion knowing that there would be enough finger motion to make it all work. If you went to your local school today and see a p-ship drill class you would probably go to the next school board meeting and tell them a thing or two. I think the currently used Methods of P-ship do not use the basic drills that we used in the 1970s. Those drills are out of date although effective. Correct me if I am wrong. Our schools have some sort of block letters to cursive in grades 1-6. Then nothing but a teacher’s individual comments if needed.

A good capital 'L'

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The Madarasz item posted by Nick Of course you can recognize the word 'instruction' is a filled exemplar for display purposes. There is no way to write the word the way it looks. He would have written it in regular copperplate style then filled the letters for the intended boldness effect. A great example of early advertising penmanship--to get the eye to read the words which might lead to a 'sale' of the item described.

Specimen by Louis Madarasz

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Louis Madarasz specimen posted by Nick, explosive (See image on previous page)

The L Madarasz signature on the bottom of the INSTRUCTIONS was created with lots of lifts and fills. He purposely wrote this style to attract the attention of the reader. Plain ordinary penmanship is lovely, yes, but does not really sell much stuff. You seldom see cursive penmanship in any advertising. It is too 'sleepy'. Thanks to Nick for the interesting post of LM items.

'sacred' by Madarasz and his small 's'

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How I Penned ‘Robert’: A difficult 'R' in Robert until you have done it 300 times

How to write Joe Vitolo

I am posting an image of the name ‘Joe Vitolo’ showing the pen lifts that I did use. Nevertheless, the signature took less than 10 seconds, if that.

Pen Lifts: Joe Vitolo, only 3 lifts

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OP signatures, how to Janine asked me to describe in more detail how the signatures are done. OP the old way was done with arm motion (movement). The forearm rests on the desk top with maybe an inch or two of elbow off the edge. The nib hits the paper as does the little finger nail. Nothing else rests on the paper or table top. Think of an orchestra conductor who flails his arms around and around and about. Now put his right arm on the podium and put a pen in his fingers. The arm still swings about but in a more limited range, an inch or two (even less), rather than a foot or two. Or think of standing at a blackboard and using your arm to write. Then sit down at a desk and do the same as at the blackboard, only smaller. The signatures are NOT drawn. They are written. If the pen draws the lines, the lines will be kinky from the finger or arm jiggles and jaggles of various nerves. The pen nib moves with controllable speed, not super fast and certainly not slow at all (some others do slow, but they get the shakes in the lines). A signature should have balance. Lines that cross each other should be at 90 degrees, perpendicular to each other, but if parallel not close enough to cause the eye discomfort. Lines to close together in the same plane cause the eye to shudder. Keep parallel lines some distance apart if you use them. Get the swinging lines to cross perpendicular as the eye can read the separation with ease. Try not to make a mouse nest of lines as they make signatures hard to read. You need, or should have, a bit of quick reflexes. You cannot create this reflex; you either have it or you do not. Madarasz was said by Brownfield to have 'quick reflexes'. Brownfield thought he had the same. This means that in doing writings with speed the eye may see a coming 'snag' and the mind quickly corrects the arm to make the proper figure without even thinking about what is occurring. A lot of signatures I write with no thought as to what the combination will be. I just 'wing' it. Other times my mind's eye has a view of the end result and how it all fits together. The old fashioned way to write signatures is to do repeat combinations of letters, ABC, ACB, BCA, BAC, CAB, CBA. After you do hundreds of these you will be good at it. I started in 1967. After hundreds of these are done, the arm itself creates its own 'muscle memory' (as Warner C Brownfield stated to me in 1967 and 1968). The redundancy of practice creates a memory in the arm. When things are flowing good for me, my arm has a smoothness that I can just feel and the confidence to do more of the same.

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Another answer about signatures The caps are all usually connected with no lifts if possible. Unless of course a cap has needed lifts like 'T F'. The old timers would spend hours trying to figure out how cap letters could be connected without lifts. Madarasz and F B Courtney were teachers for A N Palmer in Cedar Rapids, IA in 1893. They were both 'scratching' the nibs on adjacent tables. FBC did a signature that he was superbly proud of. He tossed the signature over to Madarasz and said to the effect 'match this in a day's of practice.' Madarasz did a quick signature and tossed it back and said to the effect 'match this in a year's practice. W C Brownfield told me this story in 1967 or so. Might be true.

Thin ink and faint lines, Madarasz W C Brownfield also told me this story: Madarasz found out that some folks were reproducing and selling his pen work in books. The prevent this he would lighten his lines to near faint with water so that the lines would not photograph (or whatever) so easily. Also when his Gillott Principality #1 or Zanerian Fine Writer nibs wore out he would then use those nibs for heavy shaded script until the entirely wore out.

To answer questions from OP Group members Janine and Nan about ‘Muscle Memory’

The 'muscle memory' comes from pages of practice (both sides). The forearm rests and moves on the table top. The flab of the underarm has slots of give for the movement. The old whole arm movement was when the arm is entirely off of the table. I seldom use that style other than for doves and eagles. I use Musselman Perfection #1 nibs, just as Joe Vitolo uses for Copperplate. One fellow in a class asked me how I learned to write OP. I said that I had worn out 3 kitchen tables. He said 'there are not enough of them for me.' But after 3 days and a ream of paper he was pretty good at it. I did travel and teach OP for a year or so and got reasonably good results in a three day deal. One fellow in Columbus OH was amazing and he did not ever do it before. Lightness of line or 'hairlines' comes from faster movement of the nib on paper and just lightness of touch. If the little finger slides on the paper, its level is a like a float level in a carburetor. As the lithe little presses down ever so slightly the fingers and hence the nib will rise up. Remember this--10 pages, both sides.

lessons in ornamental penmanship

Documents

small letter

madarasz way

maddy letter

madarasz page

word madarasz

capital letter

closed letter

madarasz study