Faster than a speeding bullet, you could become a celebrity. Whether sought after or not, the 24 hour news cycle could turn your world upside down in a New York minute. Don’t “pshaw” me. You know it’s possible.
If it did happen and someone asked for your autograph, would you panic or be at ease? Want to spruce up your writing before the clock on your fifteen minutes of fame starts? It might be easier than you think if you just do it one letter at a time. That’s how I did it and it couldn’t be more simple.
Start with a letter that you use frequently like a capital letter in your signature. Next it’s time to pick a style for that letter. Check the links under Calligraphy & Penmanship in the sidebar for some beautiful examples. Or you can start where I did with Getty-Dubay.
Once you’ve found a few styles you like, test them. Fill a few pages until one style emerges as both suited to your hand and your sense of what makes writing attractive.
“Skill to do comes of doing.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
For some folks the next step may seem difficult or boring but do press on. Use your new letter until it comes naturally. Filling pages with it is the only way to make it yours. It can be a relaxing activity once you get past the newness.
Then just keep adding letters one at a time and before long you’ll have a legible and attractive signature.
Practicing Letterforms
Don’t get discouraged if it seems you will never get it right. First of all, there is no “right” – only what you like. Second, keep in mind that it took you years to learn to write way back in your personal dark ages. Learning to write your signature a new way will take mere hours in comparison. All you are doing is modifying/improving a skill you already have. It’s simple. Really!
There is one shortcut I discovered as my dissatisfaction with some letters threatened my plans: Find strokes common to several letters. Work on that one stroke and then build other letters around it. Here is one that worked for me. The first stroke is the one with which I started. I only saw it as the letter “T” at first but a little experimentation proved it was far more useful than as just a single letter.
Letters That Have Something In Common
So there you have it. Start with a single letter and build from it until you have a signature that suits you. Do it for you but don’t be surprised to earn the occasional compliment for your eye-catching autograph. Fans love that stuff!
Inkophile
