Can you remember the last time you spent hours writing, so much so that your hand felt like it was cramping and your wrist was going to just give up and go limp?

That is how I felt this week during practice, I can’t quite put my finger on why. I have briefly put my alphabet of flowers on hold because of a commissioned piece I am working on. No real excuse, but enough of one for me to spend the usual spare time I have to work on the alphabet instead working on sketching out border patterns and typographic lettering stacks.

I doubt that it has any direct correlation but I like entertaining the idea that extra work is the reason for the pain. So now is the point where I insert the generic motivational quote for pain, okay I’ll spare you, but you know which one I’m talking about. Let’s get down to practice.

I’d say short of the first few times that I practiced while holding the pencil the “correct way” practice hasn’t looked this rough and awkward in quite some time. I Struggled all over the place, inconsistencies abundant everywhere. But you know if you aren’t critical with yourself and that same person is who is teaching you. Well then you really can only hold yourself accountable for pointing out your flaws and mistakes. A tough job to be the teacher and the student at the same time, however it must be done if I am to accomplish the goals I set out to. Overall I am happy with any practice I can get, I just need to focus more on my drills to get the wiggles out and my lines more consistent and properly executed.

I picked up a plethora of exemplars from Master penman Michael Sull and graciously shared by him and @marthascribes on her website easily accessed through her bio link on Instagram. Beware should you want these files there are roughly 6.3 gigs large and take a chunk of time to DL. Worry not if you’ve that high speed connection, I got all of the files in about an hour. I know it sounds like a long time, I was dilly dallying and not paying attention directly to them.. I need to start getting serious about these drill sheets if i want to improve my steady hand. Plus they look super fun to execute.

the minuscule “ow” is executed using the usual first three Spencerian principles. With a stroke count of 3,3,2, modified 2 for the dot, 1,2,1,2, modified 2 for dot. Fairly straight forward, except when my hand wouldn’t have any more to do with it. I persevered through the page with the exception of my wrist hurting but not in any fashion that is detrimental to my day to day work. So as grateful as I am, I just gotta keep reacting and doing hand stretches for carpal tunnel.

Happy Practicing.