Looking For An Italic Font For A Left Hander

[Sammyo]

I have a friend at work that is struggling with an italic pen.

He is left handed and having trouble finding a comfortable writing position or font to use. I am right handed so I don't know where to start to help him. I am looking for any advice, links or examples that could help him. He has not asked me to ask, but I know that he is really interested in italic calligraphic handwriting and is having trouble finding a way to make it work.

Thank you in advance all for your help.

[Jon Szanto]

You might want to have him take a look at this book. I'm left-handed and found it useful in a number of ways.

[Sammyo]

That is awesome, thank you so much

[macmuse]

The picture on the cover of that book is a tad misleading perhaps. The book has recently been acquired in our house (2 lefties using pens here). I have altered my writing to almost all of the various identified lefty types depending upon what tool I'm using and what result I'm seeking.

My weekend revelation was that for regular fountain pen use I tend to be an upside-down writer, meaning that most of the time my fountain pen tip is pointing at me, not away from me. Depending upon the nib this will shift to angled (pushing the nib) rather than pointing at me.

I had been taught early on to do calligraphy holding the pen pointing toward the top of the sheet of paper. Not even remotely natural feeling to me for getting smooth strokes. This weekend I thought, "what the heck, lets try a calligraphy nib in the same orientation as my general fountain pen use". Voila! No more fighting to get the smooth strokes I remembered stumbling upon back in my high school and undergrad days.

Tell your friend to look at the general guidance (most of which is right handed) for the letter shapes but not to try to adhere to the stroke directions they insist upon as correct. Also, it's not assured that a particular nib will actually be lefty friendly. I've encountered at least one "stub" this weekend that did not accept a "push" stroke at all. Simply no ink flow... had to be a "pull" stroke for that pen to lay ink.

The attached photo is non-scientific, not a proper review and not precise calligraphy (was fairly quickly written, not designed and carefully done strokes), but perhaps it will give a sense of how at least a rotring 1.5 nib can perform for a lefty.
mohawk-paper.JPG

Should note, that's two pieces of paper - white and an ivory (ivory sitting on top of the white).

[macmuse]

So, here's the example of the nib that refuses to work if I hold the pen pointing toward me:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427313601.071731.jpg

It's a Stipula Paparazzi 1.1 stub. It absolutely refuses to write unless using a pull stroke. Otherwise I really like these pens. I regularly use the related Bon Voyage with a fine nib (unmarked, but I think it's a fine). All the practice above the pen on that page in is using the rotring 1.5 ArtPen.