Learning materials

Most of the definitive works written on Spencerian and Ornamental Penmanship were published in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, with a few notable exceptions.  As a consequence there are some wonderful handwriting manuals out of copyright.  Look for Platt Roger Spencer’s, “Spencerian Penmanship” consisting of 1 theory book and 5 copy books.  This is the book on Spencerian script by the man who invented Spencerian script.  It is currently in print (and out of copyright as far as I know).  You can find it on Amazon.  “Lesson’s in Ornamental Penmanship” by C.P. Zaner is a personal favorite of mine.  It isn’t in print that I know of, but it is available as a PDF on the IAMPETH website.  I believe this one is also out of copyright.  I’ve spent a lot of time reading it on my tablet.

There is a ton of great learning material online.  If you want to branch out in the Zaner Bloser publishing family, at zanerian.com you can view “Lesson’s in Ornamental Penmanship” by P.Z. Bloser and E.A. Lupfer.  This is the most excellent guide to ornamental penmanship (basically a decorative form of Spencerian) I’ve seen online.  When you are feeling adventurous, you must check out “Lessons in Dashy Writing” by that pen wizard F.B. Courtney on the IAMPETH website.  Many, many articles and lessons, along with numerous Exemplars are available at zanerian.com and Iampeth.com

The definitive and free guide to Engrosser’s script has been published in serial articles on iampeth.com and in YouTube videos by Dr. Joe Vitolo.  He has a compiled and hyperlinked e-book available now for I-pad and android tablet at no cost.  The guidelines he uses in his videos are available for purchase at Paper Ink Arts.  Dr. Vitolo’s work is a must read.  Engrosser’s script is an extremely formal version of copperplate used in certificates and other engrossing.  The way he deconstructs the letterforms will help you understand both Copperplate and Spencerian on a deeper level.

Google Books is also an excellent source of free e-books on handwriting.  They have scanned copies of Gaskell’s Compendium of Forms, the book Legendary Penman Louis Madarasz taught himself from.  The Madarasz book is also available there.  Read it, you will be amazed.

Regarding contemporary study material, you may want to check out the DVD’s on Spencerian and Copperplate by Ron Tate available for purchase at Paper Ink Arts and John Neal, Bookseller where you will also find Michael Sull’s books and DVD on learning Spencerian.  Michael Sull’s work is considered derigueur.  He is probably the single best source of information on the history of American penmanship at the moment.  He has published two volumes on the subject.  He also taught a weeklong Spencerian Saga once a year. The Spencerian Saga was taught by Master Penman Harvest Crittenden in 2013.  Eleanor Winters book on Mastering Copperplate is available for sale far and wide, just about everywhere I’ve looked for a copy has it for sale.

Sadly the Zanerian Manual of Alphabets is out of print at the moment; its return is anticipated though.  This is THE book, the text book for the Zanerian College, that venerable school founded by C.P. Zaner and P.Z. Bloser, where E.A. Lupfer taught Bill Lilly, the man who has revived the traditions of the master penman over at IAMPETH.  If you find a reasonably priced copy, buy it.  It comes highly recommended by Dr. Vitolo, who has studied it extensively.

There are several more resources to cover, including some online offerings from university libraries.  I'll leave it for another post though.  You've got enough to get started with, and doing a little scrounging on your own won't hurt.

To wit:  use Google to find study material.  Searches on the following penmen will yield a lot of material: Gaskel, Madarasz, Zaner, Bloser, Courtney, Canan, Lupfer, Lilly, Sull, and Pat Blair (the Chief Calligrapher at the White House).  Lastly, if you are up for an adventure, and don’t mind using Google’s site search features to mine a website, buried somewhere among all the academic papers on algorithms and patterns (this guy is a mathematician) at luc.devroye.org is a treasure house of fonts, information on master penman, and pdf copies of whole handwriting manuals, etc.  Happy hunting.