Thread: Russian Calligraphy, anyone?

I love writing in calligraphy in English and have started playing around with the Cyrillic alphabet. So far, I've been in the basics and have only been using my calligraphy markers. I have not yet tried it using ink. But after writing this, I think I'll have to go dig out my nibs and play around some more!

Does anyone else on here write in calligraphy? Do you have a favorite alphabet?
I'd love to see some pics of other's writing!

DSC_3449.jpg

Где-то так.

Very very nice and beautiful. I couldn't do that

По-моему букву "б" в спасибо, все таки, стоит писать вверх (а если это просто декоративная завитушка, то расположена она не очень удачно)

Как писать каллиграфически-Международная выставка каллиграфии

Thanks for all the links!

pushvv, I don't quite understand what you are trying to say about the "б". Should I have brought the top part up farther?

It-ogo, I was able to pick out some alphabets from there, and I look forward to giving them a try.

Lampada, That website looks interesting! I'm busy exploring it right now.

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

Does anyone else on here write in calligraphy?

Of course, I do And the most of Russian adults do so as well.
In Russian elementary schools, all children learn the handwriting as we call it. It is just mandatory here. And we quite rarely use the "block" letters (printed style) when writing by hand, since the handwriting is easier and allows writing much faster.

And yes, your б is unnatural a bit, although it is understandable.
What you actually need is this article: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%...B2%D0%B8%D1%82.

>>And yes, your б is unnatural a bit, although it is understandable.
It is understable because it has context, you know that it is б and nothing else. Also with the line which is under the word this letter could be д as well, without this line it looks more like o. IMHO б should look like б.

Мне показалось, или в вики на картинке написано "Цыфры"?

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

Of course, I do And the most of Russian adults do so as well.
In Russian elementary schools, all children learn the handwriting as we call it. It is just mandatory here. And we quite rarely use the "block" letters (printed style) when writing by hand, since the handwriting is easier and allows writing much faster.

And yes, your б is unnatural a bit, although it is understandable.
What you actually need is this article: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%...B2%D0%B8%D1%82.

Yes, it is. This is very close, almost the same, what they tought us in first/second grades.

Originally Posted by pushvv

Мне показалось, или в вики на картинке написано "Цыфры"?

Ну, как я понял, это старая норма. Там и ять, и фита есть ещё.

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

Of course, I do And the most of Russian adults do so as well.
In Russian elementary schools, all children learn the handwriting as we call it. It is just mandatory here. And we quite rarely use the "block" letters (printed style) when writing by hand, since the handwriting is easier and allows writing much faster.

And yes, your б is unnatural a bit, although it is understandable.
What you actually need is this article: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%...B2%D0%B8%D1%82.

Really? I'll have to admit I'm surprised! You probably know that it is not something that is required here. Sadly, more and more people here are surprised when someone can even write in cursive. And, they assume that one must have an amazing amount of patience to write in calligraphy. It simply takes some practice.

pushvv - I don't see how the line underneath could look like a 'д'... but I'm not Russian. The line under 'спасибо' is simply a flourish. Should I just give it another try and post it?

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

Really? I'll have to admit I'm surprised! You probably know that it is not something that is required here. Sadly, more and more people here are surprised when someone can even write in cursive. And, they assume that one must have an amazing amount of patience to write in calligraphy. It simply takes some practice.

Yes, really. It is not only required in schools, it is the only way children learn writing. And it is the only way ~90% of adults use for daily purposes (90% is just my guess, of course).
Moreover, when we learned English at school (4th - 10th grades, I had English as a foreign language class), we used the same cursive style to write English letters. And we did not know they are not frequently used.

Yes, I am aware of the fact cursive writing has become uncommon at least in the US (I am not sure about the UK though). But believe me, when I learned first time about that fact (that you do not use cursive), I was as surprised as you are now 'Cause it would take for me ca. twice longer to write in block letters as compared to the cursive, where all the letters are joined into a single line within a word boundaries.

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

pushvv - I don't see how the line underneath could look like a 'д'... but I'm not Russian. The line under 'спасибо' is simply a flourish. Should I just give it another try and post it?

He means there is another (alternative) common way to write "д", as well as for some other letters. But I do not think you need to bother with alternative writing styles right now. As to me, I can recognize them of course in other people's writing, but I do not use them by myself (I only use the standard style, basically as in the picture from the link I provided).

The main problem in your writing is "б". Both capital and small letters are unusual. It took time for me to recognize "Бог" because of the way you wrote the capital "Б".

A minor problem is also with your "в" in "благословит". This letter is much better, but please note the bottom ring should be just a ring without an outstanding straight line. The whole letter is written as a single stroke anti-clockwise, starting from the upper ring and continuing with the bottom ring.

All other letters look good
BTW, your writing is beautiful. Mine looks much more ugly

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

Yes, really. It is not only required in schools, it is the only way children learn writing. And it is the only way ~90% of adults use for daily purposes (90% is just my guess, of course).
Moreover, when we learned English at school (4th - 10th grades, I had English as a foreign language class), we used the same cursive style to write English letters. And we did not know they are not frequently used.

Yes, I am aware of the fact cursive writing has become uncommon at least in the US (I am not sure about the UK though). But believe me, when I learned first time about that fact (that you do not use cursive), I was as surprised as you are now 'Cause it would take for me ca. twice longer to write in block letters as compared to the cursive, where all the letters are joined into a single line within a word boundaries.



He means there is another (alternative) common way to write "д", as well as for some other letters. But I do not think you need to bother with alternative writing styles right now. As to me, I can recognize them of course in other people's writing, but I do not use them by myself (I only use the standard style, basically as in the picture from the link I provided).

The main problem in your writing is "б". Both capital and small letters are unusual. It took time for me to recognize "Бог" because of the way you wrote the capital "Б".

A minor problem is also with your "в" in "благословит". This letter is much better, but please note the bottom ring should be just a ring without an outstanding straight line. The whole letter is written as a single stroke anti-clockwise, starting from the upper ring and continuing with the bottom ring.

All other letters look good
BTW, your writing is beautiful. Mine looks much more ugly

Thanks for the pointers...I'll have to give it another try and then see if it is better.

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

Yes, really. It is not only required in schools, it is the only way children learn writing. And it is the only way ~90% of adults use for daily purposes (90% is just my guess, of course).
Moreover, when we learned English at school (4th - 10th grades, I had English as a foreign language class), we used the same cursive style to write English letters. And we did not know they are not frequently used.

Yes, I am aware of the fact cursive writing has become uncommon at least in the US (I am not sure about the UK though). But believe me, when I learned first time about that fact (that you do not use cursive), I was as surprised as you are now 'Cause it would take for me ca. twice longer to write in block letters as compared to the cursive, where all the letters are joined into a single line within a word boundaries.

I wanted to add that there is, I think, a reason it is not commonly used: I see it more and more that many do not know how to hold their pencil/pen correctly and I imagine that this would make cursive or anything else very difficult if not entirely impossible.

All other letters look good
BTW, your writing is beautiful. Mine looks much more ugly

I always thought it was an American thing to undervalue one's own talents...

I gave it another try... see if this "б" is any better. I tried to use some of the alphabet sets that I looked up as examples. I had a very difficult time, though!
SCAN0793.jpg

And, on the side, I tried writing it different ways, and was wondering which way I wrote "б" is best... I did cursive first, and then printing. I'm open to any pointers. (I'm sorry that the scan didn't turn out too well, but I think it is clear enough.)
SCAN0794.jpg

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

I gave it another try... see if this "б" is any better. I tried to use some of the alphabet sets that I looked up as examples. I had a very difficult time, though!
SCAN0793.jpg

Brilliant!

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

And, on the side, I tried writing it different ways, and was wondering which way I wrote "б" is best... I did cursive first, and then printing. I'm open to any pointers. (I'm sorry that the scan didn't turn out too well, but I think it is clear enough.)
SCAN0794.jpg

OK. Here is my opinion:
first section - I like #3 more;
second section - #3 and #4 win (but if you wanted to imitate the printed typeface, than #1 and #2 look more lile printed. However, we do not use printed shapes in handwriting, so that #3 and #4 seemed to be more natural);
third section - again, #1 and #2 remind printed letters, but #3 and #4 are more natural since it is obvious you wrote them by hand.

However, the way you wrote "б" above was the best one (where I put "brilliant")!

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

I always thought it was an American thing to undervalue one's own talents...

And it's very Russian in fact

Haha, no it's a British thing: Understatement... not so American, lol... Americans believe in confidence! As for Russians, I think they just say it as it is.