SPENCERIAN WORKBOOKS - Worth It? || Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship Review

In this video I review the Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship workbooks as a way to learn Spencerian or improve your handwriting. I've been using them for a year and have collected my thoughts together of how I feel about them.

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My YouTube channel:
I put out a video once a week here on YouTube around penmanship and calligraphy.

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[mariekatherine]

Absolutely worthwhile! As a teen, I found several of the workbooks, already completed, in an abandoned house in New Hampshire. I taught myself and my teachers in grade 8 were very impressed, possibly jealous as some of them could barely print!

[TheTravellingObserver]

In addition to other millions things that you got right, the most impressive feat you have acheived is that you have gotten the part absolutely right where most you-tubers mess up completely-that is, choosing the correct music, the right melody and the right volume- not too loud, not too low- just the right kind of music, in the right amount and volume.
I hate the videos where they play loud disruptive music while they talk. Yours is the only one I have thoroughly enjoyed. The music never interferes with or distracts from your speech, in fact complements it.
Awesome job!!!
And of course your explanations and tutoring is awesome too.
Thanks a lot.

:-)

[riggs]

This is fascinating! In my career I have come across a few old Business letters that were written before typewriters. I noticed that they all had this same script. It was Elegant yet legible. I am so excited now to know it has a name and it’s some thing I can learn. Thank you for sharing this information!

[havefundrawing]

I'm getting high looking at the workbooks. I guess these books are for me! I love repetitive drills lol!

[philipjacobsen]

i find that i can "draw" spencerian quite well. i have allways been drawing a lot and i can control the pen well. however learning the arm movement has really humbled me. its like learning to walk again. im writing like a todler

[rppdx]

I just purchased these since my cursive is atrocious. I think what I'm going to do is go through half of all the exercises in every book. When I finish, I'll go back and do the remaining half...I think this method might help reinforce the skills much better.

[glennakendall]

My mother took penmanship from these books in the early 1900s. My sister used her old book in the 50s and has beautiful perfect handwriting. I love these books, but I have not progressed. I really think you have to be somewhat artistic to write like this.

[IGoofed]

Very well done video, I wasn't sure if I wanted it but immediately bought the set after watching this. Thank you!

[watteau]

I started these books and lost my confidence on p. 13, the small letter "r". One big thing that bugged me was that all the samples and lines were set at 5 mm for small letter height, which is quite large, because most handwriting of small letters is done at 2mm (try it yourself). So I kept thinking, "Even if I get through all these books, I'll learn how to write large Spencerian script, which is not very useful for my letters and correspondence." The book doesn't address this at all, so I guess we're supposed to assume that after months of training this way, all of a sudden we can
"downsize" from 5mm to 2mm without any difficulty. So that bothers me. But it still is a beautiful script and worth imitating. And congratulations on staying dedicated and going so far! I see you have an angled nib-holder, which is great for shading. You are an inspiration to us all!

[Ari-ryks]

I got these from Amazon last year but haven't gotten around to starting them yet! Whenever I looked through them when they arrived I will admit it seemed pretty full on with the technical descriptions. How long did it take you to really start to pick it up?

[drawdownwind]

Great review, thanks.
Just received my books and ready to roll!!

[brettcody]

Thank you so much! Way encouraged to keep pressing on!

[bradwalton]

I was taught a form of Spencerian in primary school back in the 1960s.

[laurielyon]

VERY nicely presented. I’d never heard of those books but they’re worth investigating. And if that was an example of you using that pen, your time has been well spent.
Also……..nice choice of background music! Wonderful match. It appears you’ve trained your ear somewhere along the road. Too many presenters haven’t figured out that music should compliment the message, not intrude upon it.
Gosh……..I’m thinking about proposing marriage…………….😉
Keep up. The great work.

[KevinChen-ohyq]

I'm always shocked to find that I was the only person that writes in cursive in the entire grade level (except the teachers ofc) and I'm seeing if I can switch to spencerian after sticking with D'nealian. But my hand wouldn't budge and now my handwriting is sort of a hybrid now. Good luck changing your way of writing ! :)

[Nahids]

Hi! i have been considering buying these copybooks and the theory book a while now! And i was wondering how long did it take for you to have an elegant handwriting by practicing with these books? :)

[cortesetcetera]

Thank you very much for the recommendation. I have just come by this book; however, I thought that it was not practical at all, just by leafing through it online. Your video changed my perspective. I will definetely use it to practice my handwriting!

[sayrewilkin-dalby]

Your accent is very interesting! It seems to flip back and forth between British and American pronunciations. The new "mid-Atlantic" :)

[maurolimaok]

Hi. Watching the video again, but now I got myself the books, by Amazon, here in Brazil. Could your make a video "differing" or comparing, the hand movement with the whole arm movement in Spencerian? I'm a little (to much) lost in here. Thanks!

[francescomontanaro]

ciao, I lost the page 16 of the fourth book, would you please show it to me?