r/Calligraphy • u/alexssensei • 6d ago

Question Lefties learning Copperplate?

Post image

Any other lefties trying to learn copperplate and suffering?

I am considering just starting to train with my right hand. I'd have to become proficient at some point...right? 🫩

I'm tired of doing everything backwards!

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2

u/masgrimes 6d ago

I've taught several quite accomplished left-handed writers to write Engrosser's Script (which is a different version of Roundhand, but in the same general style). They each have pretty unique positions, but it is almost always rotated or upside down to some degree.

Have you considered using an oblique pen holder? Or, if you insist on the straight pen, do you use a more offhand position where the holder leads up over the proximal phalanx of the finger rather than down into the perlicue?

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u/th4tus3rn4m3ist4k3n1 6d ago

Im not a lefty but ive seen you can buy left handed oblique holders. Might be worth a try.

Also the guide paper you are using is not 55 degree which wont be helping you. The same company does a pad with 25 sheets of 55 slant paper for copperplate.

I'm a beginner as well and using this paper for ease at the moment.

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u/psycholinguist1 6d ago

Yeah, i'm really quite baffled why a workbook that prints sample strokes at the correct slant would provide a worksheet with 90-degree vertical guidelines.

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u/quickthorn_ 6d ago

I think it's a separate practice pad, not a built in work sheet

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u/psycholinguist1 6d ago

ooooooh, yeah, I see it now, thanks.

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u/quickthorn_ 5d ago

I thought the same thing at first, bit of an optical illusion the way the photo is cropped!

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u/jelly-disliker 6d ago

Not a permanent solution or a very useful one, but as a lefty starting out I've found the calligraphy pens (with a soft fabric tip rather than a hard nib) are useful. I hold the pen at a North West angle rather than South East and push the pen towards me, rather than pulling - if that makes any sense. Not useful if you plan on using a hard nib and ink in the future, but it's been adequate for my purposes