The letter a

 

We will refer to two stem strokes on the a.

These are the strokes that are on the left and right side of the letter that are printed on your guidelines.

There is one sharp corner and two two curves that connect.

So, you are making something that is not a circle.

It is also not a football.

In Spencerian, the a looks like a teardrop - and we will not be doing teardrops at this point. 

Someday, you might switch to teardrops.

We are not really trying to make a PERFECT balanced oval.

We are maintaining a thinner, pointy-er bottom.

Most business styles will start you on an oval - but, I prefer you to keep the bottom a little narrower,

so that you are consistent with your triangles at the bottom. 

1-- a curved entrance stroke that joins the first *stem* of the a - at the mid-point (halfway between the baseline and the x-height -also called the waist-line)

2--dotted line shows that you can keep your pen on the paper and go up and over to point 4 (with a little curve) and then go back down, staying on top of the line that goes from 1 to 4.

I usually lift my pen and jump from the entrance stroke over to point 4, but it is entirely up to you. refer to the second a that is pictured below.

3-- shows that you may want a tiny bit of flat surface on the top of the letter. This is optional. The entire stroke can be curved - but you have to be vigilant that you do not lapse into something that is too rounded. You want to create some volume in the letter a but you do not want it too round. 

4-- is the point where the left side stem stroke starts - and I should have had an arrow pointing to that straight-ish part of the left stem right before you hit the base line and curve into 5

There are several different shapes that you can do on the a - and you have to choose the one that you like best. I prefer to start with more width at the top because it will help you with c-e-o

5-- is where you turn a fairly tight curved corner and head back up to 4. There is some secret curve so that it is below the slant of the join line. When you get back to the 4, you reverse direction and head straight down

6-- as you approach 6, do a tight curved corner and do your standard exit stroke from the letter.

7-- the exit stroke will have a tiny bit of scoop and it can blend in with the first stem stroke of the m - as long as you are creating a nice triangle

8-- when you get to 8, you reverse direction and follow the guide line down to 9

9-- here you start your journey to 10 - making an over-stroke that curves over the top of the orange line.

10-- make a tight curve as you go over the top and head down the second stem stroke of the m

11-- after you hit 11, reverse and make another hump to match the one you just made

That last stem on the m has a curve at the top and a curve at the bottom as it heads over to the n.

The i in aminah is missing, but you should understand the construction of i-n-m well enough to insert an i there.

12-- Notice that the branching-join stroke that leads into the 12 - can head into the first stem stroke on the n a little bit down from the top. 

13-- is a repeat of the first stem stroke of the a. Experiment with keeping your pen on the paper and go up and over and then reverse and go back down staying on the same line

-or-

lead into the first stem stroke - and then jump over to the top of the second stem stroke and make that first curved stem stroke.

The two groups of aaa show different ways of shading to identify what kinds of shapes you are making.

The first two are fine - notice what makes them different and the third one is way too round - losing the triangle.

The second group of aaa shows that the amount of triangle on the first two are fine and the last one is not good. Of those three, I think the first one is a little clunky - and would definitely go with the middle shape. The middle one looks a lot like italic because it has a lot of almond shape to it. A lot of business penmanship exemplars stay away from those almond shapes - but I recommend them highly if you are trying to obliterate ugly penmanship. They will grow on you and your decades of ROUND letters will automatically soften the angularity of the italic shapes. So, I hope you are not put off by the extra angularity as you learn the 26 letters.

Here it is all in one piece if you want to print it out.

Overstrokes and understrokes and joins

All of these comments are focused on the lines that transition between the stem strokes.

A stem stroke is anything that is drawn right over the top of a slant line.

They are all written from top to bottom and we call them a stem

because the strokes that take you back up are called branch strokes.

So - your transition from a stem to a branch should be graceful. 

It can be a little pointed - but it should not be a big scoop.

The branch strokes will give you both letters and joins.

On an m and n, the branch stroke has a subtle (secret) curve that gives a tiny bit of volume to the letter.

On the u - after you come down on the first stem and you have to go back up for the second stem

you put in a secret curve - to form that under stroke - that gives the u some volume.

The exit stroke at the end of a word will usually have a bit of under curve, like a u.

The shape of all of the letters is a parallelogram.

It tilts to the right.

All the down strokes (stem strokes) are directly on top of the slant lines.

All of the joins, over strokes and under strokes should go

roughly

on a diagonal - across that parallelogram.

Not exactly straight.

But with that secret bit of curve - either over curve or under curve.

Compare 3A above and 3B below to see the difference in branching

Look below at the difference in the two humps on the m.

Look at other m's that I did not mark up.

Below - notice what happens when you do not keep the main strokes on top of the guide lines.

That second mint is so compressed. That poor little n is squished.

That word *unit towards the bottom had a lot of nice space between the letters.

On the baseline, the tight curves are a little pointy - but if you have a choice between too pointy and a big wide scoop - it is much better to go with the pointy transition.