Re: Written forms (was: Moi, le Kou)

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>Upstrokes are also supposed to be a pain when you're working with
>wide-nib pens that you dip into ink, or even the ink-cartridge type.  The
>ink just doesn't release smoothly when you drag the nib that way - same
>thing with a lot of fountain pens, though my impression is that recent
>designs have overcome this problem.  Of course if you're working with the
>kind of pen you use for copperplate, upstrokes just tear jagged holes in
>the paper.  Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about the fluid
>mechanics of the ink flow in Western pens, though I could tell you more
>than you wanted to know about that in a maobi (brush) ... :-)

When I learned calligraphy in middle school, we only did scripts that used
downstrokes and curves. No upstrokes that I can remember. The easiest,and
also the hardest we did was Old English style writing. Hard because you
had to keep the strokes evenly spaced, and the letters sharp. Easy because
it was all lines mostly. Coincidentally, i went out and bought some nibs
and nib holders for doing calligraphy. I have the wide chisel points, as
well as round tipped ones, and some drawing and mapping nibs also came
with the pens. It's harder than I remember getting the ink to flow well
without dripping. The mapping nibs are similar to copperplate nibs (in
that the tips are flexible), but you'll tear holes in paper if you try to
do copperplate with them (I would like to find some copperplate nibs to
try and figure it out).

____________________________

Yours truly,

Cesar Javier Jaime Garcia