The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting: Cursive and Calligraphic https://www.amazon.com/dp/1626540381/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_GFHRGSPYNFEY1S59W3X9
I used this book decades ago, and it taught me both what is now my day to day handwriting, and enough calligraphy that I was able to make money doing invitations and dinner party menus for years. The reviews claim the quality of the printing has gone down but the content and practice sheets were top notch.
Hello, thanks a lot for your thoughtful answer!
I'm planning on learning italics. I'm probably going to buy The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting and once I get the hang of it I'll use the pen to write poetry or short prose. (for longer prose I'll still use the keyboard though). I might use it to do some brainstorming, which would involve some drawing. But I guess I could do that with a ballpoint or another type of pen if the nib proves to be inadequate.
I have acess to ink bottles here in my country, but I'll definitely do some research.
You've got a lot of options depending on how much effort you want to put into it.
Start with penmanship practice paper. A good source is https://www.printablepaper.net/category/penmanship (I like this site for quite a few things). Or you can buy books or download from other sites. The goal is to get your letters on a straight line and with even spacing and a consistent slant. Just getting that much down will improve how things look right off the bat.
If you want to learn new letter shapes, you'll need to get a book and work through it. I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/Italic-Way-Beautiful-Handwriting-Calligraphic/dp/1626540381/ref=sr_1_1 and still think it's the best I've seen but of course there are others. You practice right in the book, starting with a felt tip, and eventually with an italic pen.
Whatever you decide to do, you need to practice a lot. I will fill pages of just practicing every letter shape over and over again, and then two letter combinations to work on spacing. Part of this is changing whatever muscle memory you have so that you can just write without thinking hard about every letter.
Have fun.
Fred Eager is The Way. https://www.amazon.com/Italic-Way-Beautiful-Handwriting-Calligraphic/dp/1626540381
In the sidebar is Handwriting repair: The italic approach.pdf for something free/crash course. I just purchased The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting: Cursive and Calligraphic by Fred Eager to start learning Italic Cursive myself.
I always thought fountain pens were really cool. One of these days, I saw one in a local bookstore and since the price was good I just bought it on a whim.
I managed to write some text with it, but i still don't know exactly the type of nib and what's it most adequate for.
here are some images One is a close up of the nib and the other a demonstration of the thickness range: The A is written with the back of the nib, the b and c with the sweet spot (no pressure) ano then I increased the pressure with each letter until I felt the wrtittng wasnt going to get any thicker.
I hope this info is good enough to help identify the type of pen. The brand is called capricci and seems to be unknown.
Lastly, I'd like to say I'm looking to learn italic handwriting and that I'm thinking of buying this book. Maybe someone can give me some suggestions and also tell me if the pen I have is adequate for that kind of writing.
That's it, thanks a lot for your time, I really appreciate it! =]
Fred Eager's seminal work is the definitive volume on the subject. https://www.amazon.com/Italic-Way-Beautiful-Handwriting-Calligraphic/dp/1626540381/ref=pd_sim_14_1/132-2624008-7086028?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1626540381&pd_rd_r=6c27233e-6fa2-11e9-9f57-c98fbdd56605&pd_rd_w=LVDc1&pd_rd_wg=Sv8Vs&pf_rd_p=90485860-83e9-4fd9-b838-b28a9b7fda30&pf_rd_r=MTCV5R5Q65CA0Y0B5KQX&psc=1&refRID=MTCV5R5Q65CA0Y0B5KQX