(Part 2) Best products from r/Handwriting

For a fountain pen, I would recommend (not really calligraphy, but they do look fancy compared to ballpoints)

• Noodler's Nib Creaper: +Cheap. +Has some line variation. +Fun. +You can learn to tinker with the nib. -Not the best for new users to fountain pens (piston filler, you'l need to buy a bottle of ink too). -Not known to be the most consistent or most reliable. -Pretty low ink capacity. -Weird smell...
  
  
  
• LAMY Safari or Pilot Metropolitan: +On the cheaper end. +Reliable. +New user friendly. +Comes with ink cartridges. +Probably 2 most popular beginner pens. -LAMY has a triangle grip, so if your grip isn't "standard," it could feel weird.
  
  
  
• Jinhao (x750 or x450 are popular but they have a lot of other nice looking pens) +Fancy looking. +Really cheap. +Feels kinda expensive (heavy). +Comes with ink converter. -Bad quality control. -Need to buy a bottle of ink.
  
  
  For calligraphy, I would recommend
  
  
  
• Shaeffer pen set I started with an old, old set of these and enjoyed them very much. But they could be a little bit inconsistent sometimes.
  
  
  
• Pilot Parallel Pens. You don't need the whole set- I started with just the 2.4mm orange one and it is still my favorite.
  
  
  
• Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen The line variation that these provide are pretty clear. I prefer the hard brush.
  
  
  
• Speedball calligraphy sets are supposed to be good for beginners. I've never tried them before though.
  
  
  
• Colonial Oblique Holder I started with this and a Nikko G nib. Bought some walnut ink crystals with it- lasts a while even for small quantity.
  
  
  
  Edit: Like shugpug said, It depends what script you are trying to practice.

Wow I actually read about that in Jacqueline Svaren's Written Letters: 29 Alphabets for Calligraphers, but that book is nearly 40 years old so I wasn't entirely sure it was still a thing! It's both surprising and unsurprising at the same time. I'll have to look into that for sure.

Here it is, in the paragraph at the bottom-right. This is one of my favorite calligraphy books. Her italic is one of my aspirations. I have the nice spiral-bound 29 alphabets version, I heard the updated 33 alphabets version is just paperback and wasn't published as nice but still good enough. Definitely worth getting your hands on. I almost want another as a backup copy. Here are a few more excerpts. Good stuff.

Well I certainly wouldn't want to ruin my first impression of fountain pens, but as someone new to them, it does look a tad intimidating.
Is this what you were talking about? I do have a few questions, I hope you don't mind.

Are fountain pens refilled like rollerballs via ink cartridges?

What is this about cartridge converters?

Does being left handed affect how well I'd be able to use it?

Thanks for you help, I really appreciate it.

I’ve spent a good deal of time looking for the ideal ballpoint, with some degree of success. I began with gel pens. They have a great line, full depth of color, and just about any line width you might want. I like the Pentel Energel and Uniball Signo best because of the way they write and their grip thickness. But the ink takes a good deal of time to dry and the refills don’t last very long – in my experience. Zebra’s G-301 is a gel pen (a slightly different design than the F-301 ballpoint, so that the refills are not interchangeable). It writes well, but empties itself really quickly. I got less than 20 A5 lournal pages out of one before it quit.

For a ballpoint, I’ve ended up with the Zebra F-301 as my daily carry. It’s really too slim to me to write with for more than half-an-hour before my hand begins to cramp. Part of the cause of the cramping is that I have to press too hard with either a 0.7 mm or a 1.0 mm refill. I can’t use the 1.6 mm as it leaves blobs of ink on the page.

When I was using ballpoints to keep a journal (I’m now using a fountain pen), I standardized on a ROtring Tikki. It’s a ballpoint with a reasonably sized barrel and a rubberized coating where my fingers ride. It uses ISO G2 refills (not to be confused with Pilot G2 – very much not the same). There are many of these, and some of them have ink formulated to take much less pressure than standard ballpoint ink. Of these, I’ve tried the Schmidt 9000 series, the Schneider 755’s, and the Parker Quinkflow. Both the Schmidt and the Schneider blobbed for me -- but not always, and not in all colors. I think it’s a factor of the angle that I hold the pen: the more upright I held it, the less I got blobs. The Quinkflow did not blob. The line was a bit thin, and the blue was a bit light for my taste. I had settled for the black when I decided to try a fountain pen. I was immediately hooked, and haven’t looked back.

My at-home writing is all with a fountain pen now, but I carry the F-301 with a black 1.0 refill and do like it for charge receipts and short notes. This may be more information than you needed (perhaps I obsess?). If I can figure out how to add a photo to these comments I’ll put a journal spread so you can see how some of these pens look (when I used them). Good luck in your search.

Thanks for posting progress!! Everyone starts somewhere, and your writing does not suck by any means! Something that's helped me a ton is writing on nice smooth graph lined paper. Currently, these are my favorite. The graph lines help with keeping letters uniform and the smoother paper helps with the gliding of the pen, especially if you are using a fountain pen! :)

I did notice the similarity. I've been looking at the few difference "italic cursive" forms that are out there. I did get a copy of this Arrighi's Running Hand book but I think I need to pick up a more modern one as well to practice from.

However, right now.. I'm actually mostly focusing on basic American cursive. I'd like to be "decent" at both styles. I love how some of the flourishes can look in cursive for writing little notes, cards, letters.. I love the speed and readability of italic for work notes, meetings, journaling, etc.

yeah I probably should write on the line, I like the look of it off the line, and I knew someone who could do that and it would look like she was writing on a nice straight line a little above the actual line. it was beautiful and meant that the descenders from her letters didn't interfere with the ascenders on the next line.

As for my meal planning notepad :) It's the Knock Knock What to Eat notepad, it's got a magnet on the back so you can mount it to the fridge, I also have their All out of one on my fridge so I can quickly mark things off when I run out of them and use that when creating my grocery list the next week

No problem! This is my favorite. I should add that while they’re a bit more expensive than your regular notebook/notepad, they’re totally worth it. The paper is really good quality... and of course there’s the delightful dot grid! If you try them out, I hope you like them as much as I do 😊

I will definitely check those out, thanks! I'm a big fan of the beauty of Spencerian so something that comes close but is good at speed means I'm definitely interested. I may wind up switching from...whatever it is that I'm learning.

You may also like the Platinum Preppy, which draws a finer line than the Varsity. Found here!

Also, non-fountain pens that I love for scrapbooking and journaling are Pigma Microns available in several sizes found here. They are archival, which makes them amazing for what you're doing, and smooooth!

Another suggestion are the Papermate Flairs. They are felt pens and come in awesome colors. Found here

While I do love the feel of a rollerball and the quality of a nice fp, I've found that gel pens are absolutely wonderful for writing on even the most cheap quality paper, and able to be inexpensive enough that you won't worry about losing them.

I'd highly recommend checking out /r/pens! They are a community for all types of pens, whereas /r/fountainpens is more specific.

This is NOT what you are looking for, but my current gel pen of choice is the AmazonBasics gel pen found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010RLCVR6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474352288&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

These pens are cheap as dirt (they come in a pack of 50 for 9USD), and write great on my cheap as dirt notebook paper. This doesn't seem to fit your needs though because the pens are rather thin. But the point is that there are great choices out there!

Do you like a thicker line?
I personally really like the thinnest pens I can find, haha.
These gel pens I bought from Amazon write really clearly, the colors are bright, and they're really fine point. They're cheap, and took a while to arrive in the mail, but I love them.
Here's an image of a little scribble of colors I just did.

Here you go. Wow, that's pretty expensive compared to the US. For us it is $24 for you, it is £26. That would be $38 after currency conversion. It is an amazing ink, though. It makes nibs glide across the paper like you are writing with oil.

I started off with a Lamy Safari and have now bought 3. They are wonderful and last. They aren't a trophy pen but if you are a student and want to take pride in your work then this pen can take the beatings a backpack will give. After you are sure you like the pen I would suggest getting the refill converter so you can use bulk ink instead of the little cartridges. What kind of writing do you want to do with it? There are different nibs (tips) for different thicknesses/feed rates.

I'm guessing that copy is for your performances but not for others? If you give it to someone else, do it in pen. Check out some of Crumb's scores for some hand-drawn inspiration.

When you hand-draw scores you should use a ruler on all lines.

In the last measure of the excerpt you should use ledger lines instead of staff crossing in the LH, it makes it easier to read.

You should pick up Behind Bars to address several other issues with spacing, size of noteheads, etc.

From a composition standpoint, switch it up from using so many 3rds/6ths. Maybe check out some of Ligeti as well.

Keep it up!

Its a radioactive isotope that glows for something like 10-15 years. I first saw it on a compass, and some old watch hands, but they sell longer vials that people use for keychains. I thought it would be fun to toss one of these into a sample of that uranium ink to make it truly glow.

Pilot G2 is always a good pen. I also like the pilot precise V5. It is a roller ball pen, so it feels a little smoother than other ball point pens. I use fountain pens. Pilot Metropolitan or Lamy Safari is a great place to start out, but if you want to spend even less money the Platinum Preppy is a popular starter pen. In the long run a bottle of ink will be cheaper than a ton of disposable pens.

Well I found this but it is $43 which is a bit wild lol. I’ll check out art stores thanks! https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Notebook-Cover-11-75-Plain/dp/8862931956