Gothic Calligraphy with Instructor Dan Nelson: Letter "S"

If this, by any chance, is the first letter that you're watching in the Gothic alphabet, then I want you to understand that I'm going to do something very different from all the other letters. If you've already seen a bunch of the other letters, then you're going to know I'm doing something very different. In between shots, we're on the letter S, by the way, and while we were getting ready to shoot the letter S, I did some practice. The S is, in some ways, the most difficult letter because there's nothing straight and measurable about it. It's all curves. So I said, well, I better get ready to do this because it's kind of tricky. So I took my double pencil tool and I started drawing this S and, no, that's not right. And that one's pretty good, although something's going on up there. And while I was practicing, so I used my guidelines and I was drawing and drawing and not only trying to get a good S, but also trying to figure out what kind of verbiage, what kind of words can I use to describe to you how to get a good S. And then after about a page or two, I thought, you know what? It would be a good idea if I just showed this to you because I want you to understand this is how calligraphers work, okay? I don't want you to think that we and that someone like myself, I'm not, by no means am I a master calligrapher. Well, why am I teaching this series? The reason is if I may, because I'm a pretty good teacher, but this is what calligraphers do. This is what you'll be doing. You'll be doing the letter S again and again and again, not so that you get irritated, but I hope that you're relaxed and having fun and you try it again. You try to do it better and better and better. And then, as you see down here at the bottom, I did a couple with a pen. This one's too wide. This one's too skinny. So we're going to try to get it just right when I'm on camera, okay? So let me now proceed then to describe to you how it is we do the letter S. And I have tried to come up with appropriate verbiage. Let me get a piece of tape so my two pieces of paper aren't sliding all over the place. There we go, okay? Can you see my guidelines up here? So let's go to our double pencil tool. And I'm going to use a couple of measurements. The first is roughly one nib width below the top line. You're going to draw an S curve. Now, the shape of your S entirely depends, almost entirely depends, on this very first stroke. So this is the one you're going to practice over and over until you get it right. You're doing an S curve, and the essential trajectory angle of this S curve, as far as I can tell, is about a 45 degree. Got it? That's like that angle right there. That's about the angle of that curve. And I recommend doing the lower curve first and then the upper one second, at least if you're right-handed. If you're left-handed, you could go the other way. But if you're right-handed, then you can see the first stroke while you're doing the second one. Does that make sense? If you do the first one, the top one first, then you do the second one, you're blocking your view. I can't see my first curve very well because my pencil and my hand is in the way. Does that make sense? So first thing I want you to know, first thing, second, third thing, who's counting, is, okay, one nib width down. One of the key things I want you to know is you do the bottom curve first, roughly a 45 degree angle, and a little hook there. Likewise, stopping approximately one nib width above the baseline. You got that? So I'm starting a little bit shy here, ending a little shy there. Now my second stroke is actually going to go all the way from the top line, and it runs exactly parallel to the first one, and comes down, and likewise goes all the way down to the baseline. That's pretty easy. If you get the first one down, the second one is pretty easy. Now here's the funny thing about the letter S. There are just too many dang lines in there to fit inside the space that it's allotted to it. So we are going to cheat. The letter S, almost has an ascender, almost has a descender, or not quite. We're just going to violate the top line just a little bit because we can't quite fit everything in the space allotted to us. So we're going to draw a stroke. You see I'm going, here's my top line. I'm going about one nib width above it to get that top curve in. And it's a fairly short curve, doesn't come down very far. Don't go too far. And then you add just a little hook, a little barb right there. Now I think the reason for doing the S curve in this order is because you want that bottom stroke to be in the right place. And here's how you know if the bottom stroke is in the right place. You see my first stroke comes to that point, right? I want to make sure that this bottom stroke goes just a tiny bit beyond that tiny bit, maybe less than the nib width, and then curves up and joins that very first stroke right there. Now you'll notice I'm also violating this. The S just can't quite squeeze in the space allotted to it. So it goes a little bit high and a little bit low, but because they're curves, you'll notice they won't irritate the viewer. I think most people wouldn't even notice that that S is too tall. That's just the way it is. We're almost done with the letter S, and this is a really important element right here, that a little bit of this curve goes outside of that. Otherwise, it's going to look like your S is about to tip over to the left if it's not out there far enough. Okay? Then the last stroke is quite simple. Starting here, you go up at an angle. It's simple, but it's not like any other stroke we've done in the Gothic alphabet. Starts out straight up and then very gently curves, so it's getting wider and wider as you go along. Then the very last thing you do is you add... Again, we're holding our pen at just a little bit beyond the three. We add an angle like that, and if you want a little barb there, that's fine. That's the letter S. Let me do it again. You see now why I was practicing, don't you? Can you see my guidelines there? So I'm starting about one nib width down from the top one, 45 degree angle, but the whole thing is... It's curved at both ends, so it's not just a perfectly straight line. Second curve is easy. Starts at the top, runs parallel to the first one, and comes all the way down here to the baseline. Right there, I intersect the baseline. Got it? Top stroke, I violate. I go above the top header just a little bit and stop about there and add a little barb there. This stroke, and here's where I want to make sure I start over here far enough so that I go just a little beyond that, and then long curve, as long as it needs to be, to gently come in and line up with that first stroke. Do you see? So when I'm doing this, I'm watching. I'm sort of over here. I'm watching the end of this, and I'm going, okay, got it. Got to line up. Got to line up. Got to line up. Got to line up. There, we made it. Got it. And then the last stroke is fairly simple. A long curve up there, and then an angle. And that's, whew, that's a gothic S. Do we dare try it with a pen? I think we do dare. Let's do pick it up. Let me get another piece of paper and try it with a pen. So here are my guidelines for a pen, and again, I'm going to get a piece of tape so my paper isn't wandering all over. Dip my pen. By the way, some of you know that you don't always have to dip a dip pen. You can also have a brush with ink on it and brush ink onto the pen. That's a very good technique. We'll talk about that perhaps some other time. Now, the first stroke, starting one nib width down, coming down at about a 45, and stopping about one nib width above the baseline. Second stroke then is pretty easy compared to that one. Parallel to the first one, coming all the way down to the baseline. Third stroke up here at the top goes above the top line and is fairly short, very easy stroke with a tiny little bit of a barb there. Third stroke, again, here's why we want to make sure it comes up just a little bit beyond that. A little beyond, and then long enough to meet our very first stroke. That's not bad. And then this stroke, she gets a little wider as you go to the top, and then, there, that's the letter S. Let's do that again. 45 degree angle, stop there, parallel to the first one, down to the baseline, top curve, hook, bottom curve, long to meet there, and then final stroke there, and bonk. That's the name of that, the bonk. We just named it. It's the bonk digit, the bonk mark on the letter S. Whoo, very good. You got that? Now, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, we now have to tackle the, we now have to tackle the, sticky tape, don't you love it? We now have to tackle the lowercase s, and here's my guidelines for lowercase s, and yes, even though this tape is giving me wonderful fits, I'm going to use it again, because the lowercase s, alas, is probably the most complicated of the lowercase letters. Starts out easily enough, angle, just like that. Yay, we know how to do that. Then you come down, and the question is, how far down do you come? Man, a little bit below halfway. And then holding your pen, make sure you're holding your pen at the three point something angle, you're going to do a straight angle up like that. How far? Well, just long enough so that this curve can intersect with it right there. Got it? And we're not done yet. Now we're going to do another curve, very much like this mirror image of an apostrophe. I need to come up with another name for that, don't I? Mirror image of an apostrophe is too much of a mouthful. Same curve there, and then another curve down here goes just a little bit below the baseline, because alas, the lowercase s, just like it's papa or mama, can't quite fit in the boundaries allotted to it. Then a vertical and an angle. There's the letter s. Got it? Sure, you say. Let's do that again. Start simply enough at the top. Angle. Vertical. And we could do this all in one stroke, perhaps. Angle, the length of the letter. Curve. Curve. Now, this is not long enough, so I come back. Curve and vertical. There we go. Wow. Now, see, this is a little bit too hot long up here and short down here. This is a better shape. Let's fix that when we go to the pen, shall we? Will you allow me to do that? So, as you can imagine, I would be practicing a whole bunch of s's, just like you're going to do, to make sure I get it right. So, here's my guidelines for the letter s. Start at the top. Angle. Vertical. Let's try this way this time. Curve, and then do my long angle. And I go, oh, that's not going to work out right. So, let's do it again. Angle. Vertical. Curve. Angle. Curve. Curve. Straight. Angle. Well, that's close. I could go in here and fix this. Do you see the idea? And again, I want you to have a realistic appraisal and understanding, so that when you're doing your practice, you understand that there is nothing strange that's happening to you. You're not messing up. You're not hopeless. You're just like all the rest of us. We would practice and practice this until we get it just the way we want it, and then be able to knock out a perfect s every time. Got it? There. That's a pretty nice s right there. Let me do one more time. Let me do that again. Angle. Straight. Curve. Angle. Bring this down until it meets. Curve. Straight. Curve. Angle. That's a nice shape. It's not bad. It's a little bit sloppy, but I'm going to let it go with that. You got the idea? I'm going to do exactly what you're going to do. We're going to practice it again and again until we get it just right. I've given you the structure and the bones to go by. Of course, attached to your document there is a good sample of one of my s's. We're going to practice and have fun doing it. Let's keep on.