Modern Lettering; Artistic and Practical. a Course for Artists, Architects, Sign Writers and Decorators the Construction of Pen and Ink Designs for Commercial Uses Advertisements, Letter Heads, Business Cards Memorials, Resolutions, Etc

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...the exception of A, M, N, V and W, whose body lines are brought together to a sharp point, as in the French Roman. Another deviation are the slanted serifs of letters C, E, F, G, J, L, S, T and Z, necessitating contraction of the curved parallel lines at the ends, in order to make the connection for the point. The spurs should be made sharp and short, and all be of equal proportion. Roman Italics, (plate 14). After the construction of the Modern Roman letters has been mastered the Roman Italics offer no difficulties to the student. Instead of dividing the drawing paper into squares composed of horizontal and vertical guide lines, as for Modern Roman, the guide lines are run in diagonally, giving them the slant required by the Roman Italics. They should be placed at an angle of about thirty degrees, so as to form diagonal parallelograms of a width of three quarters their height. The curves of the letters of this alphabet may be drawn freehand, using the writing pen, and only Ornamental Roman the straight lines made with the ruling pen, guided by the T-square and triangle edge. Mechanical construction of the curves can be resorted to in extreme cases, if the letters are very large, but this style of lettering never looks well except when done with a light and graceful swing, and by using the instruments for their construction they are liable to become stiff and awkward in appearance. For these reasons it is not advisable for the student to attempt the reproduction of the Roman Italics until a certain manual skill and confidence has been acquired, which cannot fail to result after all the previous alphabets are mastered. The Roman Italics should be studied and practised in lead pencil first. The method of construction is as follows: After sketching in the lett...