Illumination and Its Development in the Present Day

by Sidney Farnsworth

For practice any good smooth-surfaced paper may be used. Several of the well-known makers of high-class hand-made drawing papers make a special paper for writing and illumination.

A good fluid waterproof drawing ink should be used. Care should be taken to procure one that will not thicken either in the bottle or in the pen. It is a great fault with some inks that, although they do not seem to thicken very much in the bottle, they do so in the pen. When this is the case, good writing is almost impossible. One cannot produce good writing if one has to stop every little while to wash out one’s pen. Besides, when the ink is beginning to thicken, clear, sharp writing becomes impossible.

[Fig. 6] gives some simple exercises with the pen. It should be quite easy to understand the formation of the pen-strokes from this diagram. They should be practised over and over again until the strokes can be made very easily. It should be noticed that the pen is kept practically at the same angle all the time. It must be held as easily as possible. There is no need to acquire any special manner of holding it. Different people hold the pen in different ways and it is best for the student to find out which way is easiest for him to hold it to produce good writing. If the pen is held in a manner which may be correct according to a copy-book but which feels awkward and cramped for the writer, the writing produced in this way is bound to show evidences of this. If, however, the pen is held freely, and easily, it becomes almost a part of the writer himself, and there is a feeling of freedom about the writing that is entirely absent from that produced by the other method.

Fig. 6.

The strokes in the diagram were made with a turkey quill pen in exactly the same manner as described here. One of the most important things is to endeavour to keep the pen practically at the same angle all the time. If the pen is allowed to twist about in the hand, the distinction between the thick and thin strokes will not be sufficiently marked. It should be quite easy for the student to acquire this mastery of the pen without holding it in a vice-like grip.

For clear, sharp writing it is practically essential that there should be no ink on the back of the nib. A small piece of linen, free from fluff, should be kept for a pen-wiper, and the back of the pen should be wiped before commencing to write. The ink should be kept free from pieces of fluff or small hairs, as if these get into the pen it is impossible to produce good writing.

The exercise should be practised first with two ruled lines, then with one only. It is good training if, after this, the student will try his skill in writing without any lines at all. He should not sketch it in lightly first in pencil, but should start straight away with the pen.

The width of the nib should be approximately the same as the thickness of the thick strokes of the writing.

When the nib becomes blunt or uneven it should be carefully re-cut. When re-cutting the pen it is advisable not to cut it in too drastic a fashion. Cut it gradually, taking very little off at first and using only a very sharp knife. One of the best knives for this purpose is a surgeon’s scalpel, as, being made of hard surgical steel, it does not get blunt so quickly as the ordinary pen-knife.