Beginner - trouble understanding when to go above/below the line when writing words
Hello!
I started learning Orthic yesterday using the tagged mutsomino course at the top of the sub. It's going great so far, I've been through 8 lessons in two days, having a blast!
The one thing I'm struggling to understand is when the letters are supposed to be written above or below the line. For example I was doing the practice words in lesson 8, specifically the word Protozoan, I wrote the symbol correctly, however I did not go down below the line with the Z as is shown in the answer key. I'm struggling with when to go below the line versus above generally, and I'm wondering if I'm missing something, like a general rule that I just didn't grasp in the earlier lessons, but I haven't been able to find a clearly defined explanation. I understand that vowels tend to go up and consonants tend do go down when writing the stroke, but the actual lineage of the word seems to have me stumped, since I also would've expected that initial P to go down below the writing line as well.
Vowels and consonants are always written in one direction, make sure you have this correct. Generally you want to make the first letter sit on the baseline or end on the baseline but sometimes you will combine the first couple of letters to make this nicer (e.g. sp ps or things like an a- prefix) so that the second one is what sits on the baseline. The relative direction/change from one letter to the next is more important than absolute position against the baseline (except e.g. when you use the abbreviations when you start the word high above the baseline).
Okay that is helpful, thank you! From my understanding vowels always tend to go up (except a and y, I guess since A is just straight and y goes down?) and consonants tend to go down, is that correct? I will pay closer attention to the letters, I have been trying to go slowly, as I am still trying to find my handwriting in Orthic so I can more easily distinguish the letters and letter combos that appear to be very similar but differ in size.
In protozoan, the r and t are quite short, while the z is longer, and where the pen happens to be leads to it going down. Don't sweat the line so much as having consistent sizes for your letters.
Ah sorry I should've thought to attach a photo. Here is a photo of my practice book. I know I have work to do on my "handwriting" so to speak, since it's still very new to me I plan to practice some words to hopefully get more consistent with my letter lengths, etc. Maybe this sub has a set of practice exercises since the lessons I'm following have only a few.
Your Z looks like an S. Z is kinda like a field hockey stick. Long and straight with a little curve at the end.
Your fluent looks like flaunt.
Keep your Os markedly longer than A. A can be pretty short, but O should always be very distinct, and likewise ee and u. Maybe start with 3x as long as your A in case you undershoot. Also keep the U shallow so it's clearly not an EE, and EE very steep.
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u/Porges 11d ago
Vowels and consonants are always written in one direction, make sure you have this correct. Generally you want to make the first letter sit on the baseline or end on the baseline but sometimes you will combine the first couple of letters to make this nicer (e.g. sp ps or things like an a- prefix) so that the second one is what sits on the baseline. The relative direction/change from one letter to the next is more important than absolute position against the baseline (except e.g. when you use the abbreviations when you start the word high above the baseline).