For a long time, I'd forgotten how deeply pleasurable the discipline is of writing with pen (a classic black gel ink pen for me, I have no patience for beautiful and fussy fountain pens) on paper.

It also helps that I'd worked intentionally on reworking my handwriting in 2020 and am happy with what it is now. It's not vastly different from what it used to be. Maybe it was a trauma response due to it being 2020 and losing my father shortly before the COVID-19 outbreak in India, but I'd thought that I needed a change. Maybe I was being perfectionistic as always.

But I look at the pages of my diary now and, although I'm often anxious that my hand is being unsteady and unmotivated during writing, I feel assured of it all falling into place eventually. I feel marginally more confident in my own identity as an artist. Feeling that my circumstances since 2020, despite the excruciating emotional stress I'm still under, have only managed to distill me into a stronger and more poised, more real, me.

#RetreatPosting
#Handwriting

Apple Notes on iPad, writing with the pen, when it takes your handwriting and then re-inserts it every so slightly, but unnecessarily different. Definitely auto, but not refined. It can be switched off! In the tools palette, the … menu, look for the "Auto-refine Handwriting" switch. #iOS #handwriting #preference

#dailyhandwriting
#sylvin #surfneblin
21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.
Do all of the drills and pangrams and smell things you've missed

#acrylicpaintnib
#indiaink

Excerpt from my journal today. FPR #fountainpen Triveni with UltraFlex nib. Wearingeul "Dewy Starlight" shimmer #ink Iroful journal.
@penfount #handwriting #journaling #cursive

“When I draw comics and graphic stories, I need my #handwriting for dialogue, captions, and text. Traditionally, cartoonists would do all this #lettering by hand, but a lot of us just turn our handwriting into a #font.”

#Art / #automation / #Calligraphr <https://theverge.com/tech/634904/calligraphr-fonts-favorites>

I've been using the Surface Pen more lately (or trying to), and the thing I notice the most is how often it misses part or all of a stroke.

#Surface #handwriting #PenBasedComputing

#dailyhandwriting 23, Are you a cat person or a dog person?

I am a familiar person, and adore it when kindred spirits transcend species designation, regardless of fur, scales, or feathers.

So, I've written a little ode to familiars instead.

#dailyhandwriting 22, 10 green things.

Decided to go with minerals.

#dailyhandwriting 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Catching up with some new dip pens.

#dailyhandwriting
#geblin #sylvin
20. how is the month?

#acrylicpaintnib

#dailyhandwriting
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19. three stroke letters
(wrong again aefhi)

#acrylicpaintnib

rev. queen of pentacles
10 of cups
unwater of earth, manifestation of all stages of the cycle of water.

Following on the page from 18., some new colors have entered the mix.

My question now is, if acrylic paint is one step away from being awkward ink, is a nib therefore the most excellent small round brush? Is a nib the best painting tool for details? Will I make a second pen set reserved for oil paints?

#dailyhandwriting
#sylvin
18. lucky charms?

#acrylicpaintnib

8 of cups
rev. 4 of wands
splendor of gnomes, un-mercy of fire.

#dailyhandwriting
#sylvin
17. what would you do with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

#acrylicpaintnib

7 of cups
rev. 8 of wands
A lot of solar plexus.

This was trying some colors out. The drab purple mix I have been working with, a primary blue, and a quinacridone crimson. Both were just mixed with distilled water in their own containers, and applied with dip nib.

#dailyhandwriting
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16. Write the pangram "When zombies arrive, quickly fax Judge Pat"

#acrylicpaintnib

rev. 6 of pentacles
5 of wands.
Ascending numbers again. Strife