Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is an excellent course in elegant nineteenth century longhand. I also brought the theory book. I am an artist by profession and I wanted to learn the beautiful script of the nineteenth century, but I immediately noticed that the different way you are taught to hold the pen made it, while more difficult, far more easy to control and manipulate your pen. I decided to completely change the way I hold my writing/drawing pens and to adopt this manner for all my work. This is hard and causes my hand to cramp up now and then but it is worth the effort. Maybe the Spencerian manner of holding a pen is of even greater importance than the writing! The covers contain extra instructions, also that you are meant to use these books with pencil. The paper will bleed through with fountain pens. I think that one needs a lot more practice anyway than just the booklets give you space and I find some letters more difficult than others so devote more pages to them. So I have brought the Clairefontaine french ruled exercise books. Look for the wire bound larger books, I found sellers with really good deals on the net. Clairefontaine paper is made for fountain pens and is a joy to use. It makes your writing easier too, to have proper paper. The French ruling is the perfect help. I am really enjoying the books, I am half way now, and my ''normal'' handwriting has improved noticeably. Another thing I really liked, and I don't know if it was in the theory book or in the instruction books, but in the end, after you mastered the lines and letters, you are free to develop further into our own style. To make the beautiful thick/thin lines you will need a flexible fountain pen, or a dip pen with flexible nib. A ''calligraphy'' nib will not give you the right effect and will not teach you the difference in pressure needed. That means a vintage pen or a very expensive modern gold flexible nib fountain pen, or, the only affordable modern flexible nib fountain pen: the ''Noodler's Ahab''. (this is a pen for people who like to fiddle with their pens). I love it, use it for sketching too as the difference in pressure and line is an important part of my style. I prefer the Ahab now for sketching as a flexible dip pen (besides the need for an inkwell and constant dipping), tends to snag very easily unless you have very smooth paper, which means you'd have to make your own sketchbooks. And the same goes for writing obviously. If you want to learn beautiful elegant longhand and learn a superior way of holding pens, I wholeheartedly recommend these books. I hope this review was helpful to you.