Handwriting Thread!!

[aafrophone]

Okay everyone, this is your chance to show your Handwriting Skills. All you have to do write a paragraph or a few sentences (in Chinese) by hand. Then, Scan it, and upload it to here. Then you can be giving suggestions for improvement for your handwriting. Everyone should try it!

[yonglin]

is this thead for native speakers or for learners of chinese...?!

if you're looking for the former, there are already a good couple of threads about that around already.

if you're looking for the latter, i doubt your responses will be very interesting. a quote from a chinese teacher of mine: 欧美同学写汉字都写得像小学生一样. i don't think this is very far from the truth, although there are of course slightly better and slightly worse varities.

[lokki]

Ok, I'll have a go. Comments?

- Incidentally 像小学生一样 does not strike me as a particularly bad rating. I'd be proud to be at that level

[adrianlondon]

Oh that's cheating! That's not just something you knocked up using a Bic and a scrap of paper you had lying around, that's proper paint, brush and shufa stuff.

And it's pretty good! I did a few lessons of calligraphy and although some of my characters looked fantastic, consistency wasn't one of my skills.

[lokki]

that's proper paint, brush and shufa stuff.

Faber Castell "PITT artist pen" actually. One of those pens with a soft pointed tip that bends and adapts to pressure giving similar results as with a brush. Very handy for shufa. Sorry for cheating, though I take it as praise. But I'll run a scan of my "normal" scribblings as well a little later.

And thanks for the comment. I know what you mean about consistency. I guess this is another one of those things that ultimately boil down to the three familiar P's: Practice, practice and practice.

[bottledpoetry]

wow. looks like something I'd read off an instant noodle cup. Nice!

[skylee]

Also see this thread -> Requesting some handwriting samples

[shibole]

Have you compared the PITT artist pen against others? Mine in order of best to worst:

1. Pentel ColorBrush

2. Sailor Profit Brush Pen

3. Sakura Pigma Brush

The Pentel ColorBrush is the closest to the real 毛筆, with real hairlike bristles. The sailor profit has bristles that are a bit too inflexible and isn't as good, but you can fill it like a fountain pen with a converter (don't need to buy refills). The Pigma Brush really sucks as it has a felt tip, most similar to your PITT artist pen though hopefully yours has a better tip. The pigma brush tip seems to frey very easily.

Others I haven't tried yet:

- Kuretake Brush Pen (similar to the Sailor Profit, but no converter)

- Pentel Pocket Brush (synthetic bristles, no converter)

- Sailor Superscript (a fountain pen with a special bent nib)

- Other Chinese Calligraphy Fountain Pens similar to the Sailor Superscript

I get decent results with a normal fountain pen too. I really think people should learn to write Chinese with a normal fountain pen. Fountain pens are just cool regardless though as I can mix my own ink and fill them from bottles of ink.

BTW, the brush pens are called 軟毛筆 in Chinese.

[LiYuanXi]

I think it's a nice idea to start the handwriting thread so that new users like me (perhaps I am not so new but I disappeared for years!) can take part.

I will post up mine when I am free

[lokki]

Thanks shiluobote for that list of different pens. No, I haven't tried any of the other ones yet, but your info will come in handy when I do.

Here's a sample of my "normal" handwriting ("Pilot DR drawing pen"). It's just a scan of one of my daily exercises - I didn't sit down and write it specifically for this thread.

You can probably see that I am still at a stage where I draw each character separately and rather carefully and slowly, without the characteristic "flow" of handwriting proper. When I try doing it more quickly the result deteriorates very rapidly.

I'd appreciate suggestions on how to progress from this point on towards a more natural native-like flow in my handwriting. Comments are welcome.

[yonglin]

Just to illustrate my point, I'll post my handwriting sample too, which I personally find strikingly similar to that of say, lokki, or any non-Chinese person in my Chinese class (and... very much 像小学生).

No comments allowed. Essentially, I stopped caring about my handwriting about a year ago (i.e., a couple of months after starting to learn Chinese). And yeh, if I really make an effort, I am able to write my characters more neatly than this.

[shibole]

lokki: I bought this book and have been using it to work on my handwriting, but I don't know if it will help with a more natural "flow" or anything:

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Write-Chinese-Characters-Language/dp/0300057717/

I also bought this but haven't yet read it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887100333/002-9497840-7416007

[aafrophone]

here's mine i think part of it got cut off (extra credit to whoever can translate it!!)

[aafrophone]

sure Myriam, i pretty much use any 0.5mm lead mechanical pencil i have (sometimes i have to settle for .7mm lead...) the 0.5mm helps with writing small traditional characters ^_^

[muyongshi]

I use mainly mechanical pencil as well (something I learned in one of my first jobs- erasing is good and only pen for official docs...) and one of my teachers asked why do you always use pencil and it was hard to explain. Anyway, I found an awesome pen that when you wrote characters it did an excellent job and letting you see variations in pressure in the strokes and used that for awhile but then it disappeared...

[aafrophone]

Myriam I use this type of pencil to write. Could we have a poll on what type of pen / pencil we prefer using aafrophone?

um, because i don't know how to make a poll...

[shibole]

I'm still unsure exactly why, perhaps due to line width variation, but the book I mentioned earlier in the thread recommends the use of a fountain pen for learning to write 漢字 well.

(I'm a militant fountain pen fanatic in general though.)

[muyongshi]

I'm a militant fountain pen fanatic in general though.

That sounds scary...how militant are we talking?

[terrlo56]

Practice makes perfect!

[LiYuanXi]

I don't know why some people like to use pens with thickness 0.5 and above to write. I mean when you write a chinese character with such a thick pen, some words will become just a square patch of blue/black. I got that problem very often. Characters with too many strokes will end up look like a square patch of ink.