The subject of Ornamental Penmanship

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has always held a fascination for lovers of fine and artistic handwriting. The magnificent works by the past Master Penmen from a century ago are remarkable not only for their beauty, but even more so, for the realization of the hand control and knowledge of letterform and design that was needed to create such spectacular examples of chirography. Today, in our current renaissance of activity in American Penmanship, the widespread interest in Ornamental Penmanship has attracted devotees and enthusiastic students from around the world. This is, indeed, a thrilling time to be a woman or man “penman”, and yet the term “Ornamental Penmanship” means different things to different people. Does the term refer primarily to making fancy Capital letters, or does “Ornamental” mainly identify with Flourishing of a non-lettering nature? Then, too, what references are available to learn the various techniques for a person’s hand to produce penmanship of an ornamental nature? What writing tools are the best to use? Questions; questions! In our program I will answer all of these and provide guidance in a thorough manner through instruction, detailed explanations, and demonstrations of all the techniques I have used in my nearly fifty years as a professional penman and lettering artist.

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I want each person who is reading this to know that you can, in fact, do all of the techniques that I will share. It will be a big help if you are already familiar with basic pointed pen calligraphy: Spencerian, Copperplate (English Roundhand), and/or Engrosser’s Script. If you are a Beginning Student in any of these three styles of penmanship, you are still welcome to join this program, but it will be to your advantage to increase your practice and skill in whichever basic style of pointed pen script you prefer. Familiarity in Spencerian is preferred so that you can have a greater understanding of curvature, negative spaces, and hand control in the various techniques that I will be presenting throughout our sessions.

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My goal is to provide my students with a comprehensive program. Ornamental Penmanship includes a strong knowledge of letterforms, but also an understanding about designing with letterforms and flourishing, knowing how to modify and extend letters, techniques of shading and artistic accents of decorative line work to create a sense of dimension in our compositions, and methods to have letters, words, border elements or flourishing visually present themselves significantly within a body of work. In a sense, you become both a painter and an architect with your pen and related tools. I will also share techniques in the use of color in our work, including the use of colored pencils, inks, pan colors, watercolor, and I’ll demonstrate the old technique of toning your composition with oil paint.

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Homework assignments will be in the form of “mini projects”, because the idea of knowing how to use your penmanship is just as important as knowing how to do your penmanship. I will personally review and offer comments and suggestions on each student’s homework for every instructional session.

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I hope that these thoughts I’ve shared offer a good understanding of this program. I expect my students to be diligent in their studies and practice and put their best efforts into completing each homework assignment. As a reference text, I strongly recommend that each student own a copy of my book, Sull’s Manual of Advanced Penmanship. And of course, additional handouts will be provided for each session. Please purchase a one-inch 3-ring binder in which you can insert the handouts and your homework assignments.

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I am very excited about this learning experience and the opportunity to help each student. I hope you’ll join us!

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Most respectfully,

Michael Sull

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Lesson 1 - Ornamental Penmanship: Foundations

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What is Ornamental Penmanship?

Scope of this Program:

Nature of Curvature and Negative Space

Movement and Pen Manipulation

Tools: Oblique and Straight Penholders,

Markers, Brushes, Colored Pencils,

Watercolor, Inks, Paper

Lettering Design: Traditional vs Artistic

Layout and Sequence

Composition Writing

The Place of Flourishing

Use of Color

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Lesson 2 - Capitals and Lowercase

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Lettering Design Specifics

Shading Techniques

Artistic Line work with Capitals

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Lesson 3 - Capitals: Alternate Letterforms

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Title and Logo techniques

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Lesson 4 - Superscription

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Monogram Design

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Lesson 5 - Flourishing: the Non-Traditional Face

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of Ornamental Penmanship:

• Traditional Patterns: Cartouche, Plume, Quill, Birds & Scrolls

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Lesson 6 - Artistic Flourishing Design

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Filigree

Letter & Composition Flourishing

Masterpiece Flourishing

Summation