Training wheels - are not touching the ground

Training wheels do not sit on the ground with the two wheels on the bicycle.

They are up in the air - so that the learner can balance on the two main wheels - and they only need the training wheels if they are losing balance and tipping too much.

It is time to start making letters that are even in width and even in spacing.

Writing on top of the slant lines is a good way to educate your eye on EVEN WIDTH of both the LETTERS and the SPACES.

You need to be creating those consistent width of letters and width of spaces on your own. You need to start trusting your eyes.

This page shows how to use the slant lines as a guide to maintain the proper slant, but you do not put the stem strokes ON TOP OF each guide line.

To learn how to be CONSISTENT in the width of letters as well as the spacing - we have been using a technique where we FORCE all the letters onto the slant lines. This helps in the beginning - but eventually, we run into letters that just don't fit the grid.

m-i-n-u-l-t-h-y all fit the grid

the letter a wants to be a little bit narrower - and so will the c-e-o

So, it is time let go of putting the stem strokes on top of the slant lines and let your eyes do the proper spacing. Proper and consistent width of the letters as well as proper and consistent space between letters.

If you do not understand that the width of letters and the amount of space between letters SHOULD BE APPROXIMATELY the SAME -- then you need to review. This has to make sense. Most bad penmanship has letters that vary in width and are too close together.

Here is a close up of the top of the lesson sheet.

I cut off that last comment on the lower right. It says to keep the top of the r  flat.

The top line shows how we have been putting every single stroke on top of the slant lines.

Where I wrote - you will not be directly on the slant lines - you can see that those letters are not directly on the slant lines. However - the letters are consistent in their width - and the space between each letter is about the same as the width of the letters.

Just because I wrote words using letters that we are not yet learning does not mean that you should start doing those letters.

Stick with m-i-n-l-h-t-y-a- and we will add r.

The r is a very good example of a letter that is simply a bit narrower than an n - so that is why it is time to get off the slant lines. We will still want the slant lines on the paper to guide us. But we will not put stem strokes on top of the slant lines.

The r should be roughly 2/3 the width of the n. Half width is a little too skinny.

Most people do not have trouble going up to the waist line and then going over a tiny bit to make the ear. But the thing that often happens is that they make a very quick slope down and then make a narrow pinched r. I think the r looks much better if there is a tiny bit of a level at the top and then a very tight curve into the down stroke.

This is a matter of taste. But, I will keep mentioning it if I see r's that are really narrow with sloping tops.

Here is a close up of the bottom of the lesson sheet.

After you write the words - take a colored pencil and draw slant lines through the stem strokes. Then look at how consistent those colored pencil lines are. You can also use another color to fill in the triangles that are formed by the joining strokes -- 

You end up with a lot of stuff on the page and it can be confusing.

Another way to do this is to put your guide sheet under tracing paper - write some words - and then remove the guide sheet - and draw colored pencil lines over your stem strokes - so you can see exactly how consistent you are on your slant, your width of your letters, and the spacing that you have between your letters.

 

Practice without training wheels + 3 a's

Fold the top margin to the back so that your line to write on is directly under the line you already wrote and are going to repeat - only without the guidelines.

Try to maintain the same spacing of each word so that they are the same length.

Hopefully, it will be easy to maintain the slant even without the guide lines.

After you do one line, refold the paper so that you have a new line to write on .

Repeat each line as many times as you feel like it.

Then move down to the following lines.

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS:

as you keep folding down the paper, it will have so many folds that it will be crazy bouncy.

Each time to fold down, you will have to fold in the opposite direction to make the paper lay flat.

Or you can cut the line off.

BUT YOU MUST do something to make the paper lay flat.

You can not write on a bouncy surface.

It will not work.

Sorry -- this is tedious - but you really need to have the line you are repeating right in front of your nose.

We wil not do a lot of this -- it is just to gauge when you are starting to develop some muscle memory.

Below, I wrote the words, repeating your line - and it was clearly too big and wide to feel comfortable. For me to write comfortably, it will be smaller.

So, I wrote comfortably - and you can see that it is about 75% smaller.

You can also see on this line, I penciled in a top guide line - because the blue lines were too far apart.

You may do that if you wish -- I do not know how your printed guidelines compare to notebook paper.

The point is that it is somewhat un-natural to write so large - unless you normally write really large.

But, it is like body building. If you do not lift weights - you will not build muscles.

The exact sizes are not critical - feel free to find sizes that work for you.

Be vigilant about keeping the spaces between the letters and within the letters complementary.

Below are 3 a's. Hopefully, you can see that the middle one is better looking than the other two.

We can discuss further.

When it comes to a-c-e-o - you will be creating some ovals that are similar.

Each has something unique to define it, but they need to complement each other.

You do not want a big, fat curve at the bottom.

That starts to look like an ugly blob - or - as some people call it

*a full diaper*

You do not like that flat top on the a -- so go ahead and let it curve gracefully.

Just keep a little more space at the top.

The inside of the a is called a *counter*

You do not want a droopy counter.

The Spencerian a is wider on the bottom - but it manages to be a graceful teardrop shape.

We can talk later about why that shape works in Spencerian.

But for business styles, we want that oval to not be droopy.

Some of the business a's do look very oval - and there is not slightly more weight on the top.

So -- down the road, you can relax into a more balanced oval.

But, if you just try for a balanced oval - you will sometimes err - and get a bottom heavy.

If you try for top heavy, you will get some top heavies, and if you err - it will only be to the point where you have top and bottom equal.

You probably won't go all the way to bottom heavy.

And we are trying to avoid bottom heavy.

All your work on copperplate was time well spent and it relates to business penmanship in many ways.

The main way it differs is that it is not CURSIVE.

CURSIVE is also called running hand - and it is meant to be a practical way to write efficiently with graceful curves.

Business hands are more organic than copperplate.

Copperplate is very geometric - so, it takes more work to make all the components super symmetrical.

Business hand allows for more natural, flowing rhythmic movement.

At your age, you are going to blend all the different things you have learned into something that pleases your eyes.

All your hard work is mostly stomping out your bad habits.

The fact that you are sneaking in some prettier letters while you are taking notes is wonderful.

That is what we want to happen.

You can't make the bad habits go away 100% of the time. They are stuck in your muscle memory.

But, you can consciously over-ride them.

It's like a scar. You can cover it with makeup, but, it's always going to be there.