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| During the early '20s to late '40s, books on showcard writing and hand lettering were fairly common. Unfortunately, the demand for hand lettering has lessened and finding good basic tutorials is difficult.
The images in this section are from a 1942 book by C.R. Havighorst called Simplified Show Card Writing. |
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Part 1: Basic Strokes | Part 2: Basic Alphabet | Part 3: Italics
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| Practice, practice, practice! Unfortunately, there is no magical wand here. You just have to put down thousands of strokes. The above group gets you started with the six basic practice strokes. The image at the top of the page illustrates how to hold the brush for show card writing. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Practice each stroke side by side about 60 times each, then move to the next one. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Circles and "O"s require two elements shown above and below. For the basic gothic letterstyle, the brush is twisted in the fingertips to keep the chisel point of the brush at the correct angle. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Besides the basic strokes shown in the top section, another group of strokes called "clean up strokes" must be perfected to complete a basic gothic alphabet. As the stroke is pulled, the brush is twisted in the fingers to create the "B" stroke in the gray box at the top of this image. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Once you master the basic strokes and clean up strokes, you will be able to assemble complete letters as shown below. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Part 1: Basic Strokes | Part 2: Basic Alphabet | Part 3: Italics
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| This page compiled by Mike Jackson, Jackson Hole, WY |
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