Calligraphy

Help Desk: Edged pen writing for lefties

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You have taken the first best step by purchasing a left-handed nib set, which has a nib angle that slopes to the left (rather than the right) as viewed from the face of the pen. Alternately, you can use a neutral edged nib, which does not slope.

At https://handwritingsuccess.com/videos-gdic/ the author Inga Dubay has a video example of how you might consider using the broad edge pen (see screenshot). Note that the paper is at 90 degrees and the writing is done with the hand moving toward you. The advantages of this method is that the wrist can maintain a relaxed position, and that you can see what you have written without smudging the wet ink you’ve just laid down.

Even though the author is using a neutral (not angled) fiber-tip pen in this case, the rational is the same: broad edged pens like to be pulled, but not pushed. 

Using an edged pen can be a challenge at first for any writer. The two important aspects are

  • maintaining contact of the nib to the paper along the entire nib edge, and
  • maintaining the appropriate pen-edge angle with respect to the baseline (usually 45 degrees for lowercase and 15 degrees for capitals).

Regarding the first item above, as you draw warm up lines with the pen, you can experiment with rocking the pen back and forth gently and minutely to get a feel for how it is contacting the paper. Then, as you write, move slowly enough so that you can feel this contact throughout the stoke. Your eye will also provide feedback as you watch the line thickness and edges. You will also want to make sure that your hand is not directly over your writing, but rather that the pen slopes away from your hand as it would if you are using a monoline tool (see image).

Having said all this, you are doing the right thing by experimenting patiently. If there is one constant for left-handed writers, it is that they all eventually find what works for them.

Getty-Dubay Italic Celebrates 40th Anniversary Year

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Getty-Dubay Italic began in 1979 as the collaboration between two like-minded educators. Both Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty are artists, calligraphers and educators. They recognized the need for an alternative to the then-traditional system for learning handwriting. Getty and Dubay set about creating instruction books for children — all handwritten — that were soon widely adopted by schools. A handwriting book for adults came in 1991, as well as two instruction books on calligraphy. Today, Getty-Dubay Italic is in use in business and education throughout the United States and internationally.

Getty and Dubay have offered 170 Rx for Handwriting Success seminars for medical professionals across the United States, and also have presented at the World Health Organization in Copenhagen, Denmark and the International Patient Safety Conference in Florence, Italy. Each, as an artist in her own right, has taught handwriting and calligraphy as faculty in schools and colleges in the Pacific Northwest.

Getty-Dubay Italic has been featured in more than 75 journals and on television & radio including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and NBC’s “Good Morning America”.

Getty and Dubay have written eleven books to bring beauty and ease to the everyday act of writing. They began their mission in 1979 to provide a new, viable handwriting system for children with the seven developmentally appropriate workbooks that make up the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series.  These books and accompanying Instruction Manual are now in use in many schools and thousands of homes in America and abroad. From their decades of experience helping adults change or improve their handwriting, they created the self-guided instruction book, Write Now: the Getty-Dubay Program for Handwriting Success.

The legacy of their mentors in calligraphy, including that of Lloyd J. Reynolds, is in evidence in all their books, especially in their calligraphy instruction book for adults, Italic Letters. Dubay has also authored a calligraphy book for students, Getty-Dubay Italic Calligraphy for School & Home as a companion to the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series. Italic Calligraphy is the product of an unique program by Reed College to bring calligraphy into elementary school classrooms. 

Celebration of the 40th anniversary will include a vendor exhibit at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 2019 Conference in Chicago, Illinois, and many more events to come!

Ink in the Classroom

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Here’s a peek inside a classroom where Inga Dubay is guest-teaching calligraphy — the art of beautiful writing. Getty-Dubay Italic Calligraphy: for School & Home is a workbook that helps your class connect with centuries of cultural history, though language, pen and ink! Unlike handwriting, calligraphy is more contemplative, formal & expressive. Italic handwriting becomes italic calligraphy when you write with the edged pen, as this classroom of 4th graders is doing.

New Book!

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Our Latest Book —

After three years in the making, our new book, Getty-Dubay Italic Calligraphy: for School and Home is now available!

Fall in love with letters with this handsome, hands-on introduction to calligraphy for students of all ages. Renowned calligrapher Inga Dubay leads beginning calligraphers stroke-by-stroke to a mastery of beautiful handwriting. With the aid of online instructional videos and DIY worksheets, you’ll learn everything from proper pen hold to artful greeting card design. This book is also a companion to the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series.

Here’s more information about this exciting addition to our catalog!

New Videos

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New Workshop Videos

Back by popular demand, we now have live videos from our Handwriting Success Workshop in Portland, Oregon right here at handwritingsucces.com. Re-kindle your love for your own handwriting by following along with authors Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay. Just click on the resources link at the left to get started!