The way to hold a pen when writing English.

I think the first thing to practice calligraphy is to check the posture of holding the pen. I used to hold the pen in the wrong posture, and my little finger and ring finger would ache after writing for a while. It has recently been found that the focus of writing should not be on the little finger and ring finger, but on the "pisiform bone" near the outside of the wrist.

Then the font. I recently compared three basic English fonts in English copybooks written by different authors in three different periods: handwritten print, Italian font and circular font. Personally, these three fonts look similar to Chinese characters, and there are similar differences in stroke order and writing speed. But I don't know whether I should practice in sequence or write Italian or round directly. Personally, I plan to start practicing printing.

As for English writing, it seems that unlike Chinese characters, it pays attention to the roundness and fullness of glyphs and the consistency of parallel strokes (even round Chinese characters). I find it difficult to grasp this point, because people in China are used to writing with different strokes. Every horizontal line of "three" is not the same length, and the three strokes of "beard" have also changed. Anyway, I personally often write H like a broken chair, and N and U can be written like this if they are hard pens, so real English calligraphy needs to be dipped in pens.

One is a soft-pointed pen with a thin tip, which is mainly freehand and flowery, as shown in figure 1 (font: copperplate). This pen tip can be replaced by a cartoon pen tip that can be bought in China. I recommend NIKKO's soft G cartoon nib, and I will use it, because professional China can't get it at all, and this NIKKO nib is at least available in Taobao, and 7 yuan is very cheap.

The other is the more difficult flat tip, which is generally used to write Gothic fonts widely used in the Middle Ages. I have this nib, too. I bought it on Taobao. I brought it when I bought a vintage feather dip pen. It's easy to use. The font written is super gorgeous. Generally, you can buy a set for 40-50 yuan. There are five tips in it, three of which are flat tips with different widths. I bought an 80-year-old feathered one, which looks better.