Your handwriting

More on cad, not so much now, as I am not up to date, but then, say early and mid nineties...

well, even recently, I've found stuff going way off when it goes off. Lines curving way out of whack. I always check...

Back in LA, I was one of the folks pulled in to review students in our program as they went through portfolio reviews in different years.

Let me make an aside that people tend to assume the person with the best graphics is the whiz on style and substance and that can follow but... not necessarily. Some of the people with hand eye coordination can jump into facile-ness, and some people who are slower can have thoughtful ideas. A stupid idea promoted slickly is still stupid. A good idea promoted clumsily is often overlooked.

Anyway, in the transition years, general graphic savvy tended to go down hill as people got preoccupied with the computer. Simple layout on page suffered.
I tell ya', go look at some early folks' pencil drawings - you could cry.

I tried to photocopy some pages of a set of drawings we got in from (can't remember.. might have been the fifties) on some low income housing. Gorgeous drawn details.

What am I saying, there seems to be a net loss, for penmanship, drafting abilities such as line weight, sense of page, well.... elegance.

and, I am guessing, there is a loss for being able to draw ideas on a scratch pad on site. I am not sure of that, but guess.

So, grand duke, what can I say... consider also beginning drawing in an art class environment, to add some dimension.

Oh, g.duke, I forgot the most important thing, I did like your handwriting. Complex rhythm, verve. Not a neg like you see it.

I see I sound like a nostalgic sissy. I know anyone coming in now needs to master cad and get ahead on it. In any case, it's a requirement for the boards. I think it would be enriching for that person to be able to hand draw - I won't say hand draft, although it doesn't take as long as one might think to be able to do it, and appreciate its virtues. The two would be additive.

Thanks for the vote in confidence in my writing, ossobuco. I had to go to bed when you started posting the above, so I've not had chance to respond 'till now. I hope people don't think we've dragged the topic too far off-track, but I can see a link between the discussions of handwriting vs. typing, and that of pencil & ruler vs. CAD. I'd love to see some old drawings. Even if they have been largely replaced by CAD, they are pieces of history and heritage, and a reminder that we should not take computers for granted as being "the best" - quicker and cleaner, yes, but better? I'm not sure.

As far as an art course goes... well, I've been scared away from drawing/painting since school, as the teachers spent most time encouraging the really good kids (which is okay to a point, nurturing geniune talent etc), and everyone else got left to their own devices most of the time. I do have some artistic outlet in that I play tabletop wargames, which involves assembling and painting hundreds of 25mm models of men with swords. I'm just about competant enough to "get by".

A number of people have commented that too much typing has altered their handwriting for the worse, and I fall into that category, so perhaps a calligraphy course might help us all rediscover "the of pens"?

i had a year's worth of mechanical drafting in high school.
5 years later i found myself at a drafting board, working with my dad at a (then) large engineering firm in NYC.
i started at $8/hour

i would've gone into a different line of work if it wasn't for CAD, which i first got my hands on in 1988. i really enjoy it. i use both autocad & microstation. at my last job i did 3D modeling of cable trays & duct banks in power plants. we would have these design review meetings which were essentially "walk-thrus" around the plant, looking for clashes and such.

Tell me YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY You Cryed?
Hows this ?

For beauty, algis, for beauty. I've been known to tear at the sight of some paintings too. (Known to myself, that is.)

An earlier sample...
George

wow!





i love the range of scripts we're getting
everyone quite distinct, even within some of the locational/generational similarities

I wish I had somewhere on-line to store stuff, so I didn't have to post it to the AK gallery. I imagine Jespah and the other mods would get pretty tired pretty quickly of approving multiple samples of my handwriting! If I could, then Sozobe's idea of having a conversation entirely by handwriting is very cool indeed.

No help yet, littlek, for poor, pathetic, realjohnboy, My plan is this...
could one of yall fax me at 434-293-8351 with your fax number. I will respond, via fax, with a sample of my handwriting which can be added to the collection through yalls expertise. I will not sell your fax number to any of my Nigerian friends.
And you get a free story: I left my house at 6:15 this morning for the 10 minute commute to my shop. I got as far as the Mormon church and noticed a box turtle in the middle lane of five. I stopped; there was no traffic. I picked it up and paused for a second, wondering which side of the road it wanted to be on. I chose the right side because that was where my van was and that was where the larger field was. I hope I didn't piss it off. Thanks, rjb

I'd love to help RJB but I think the international fax tariffs would make it prohibitively expensive! Hopefully someone Stateside can help...

as an aside, Grand Duke, I saw a link in the architectural news letter I get that you might like to see - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1318881,00.html

That was really cool, osso. Thanks very much. Leeds is only 20-odd miles from here, and does indeed have some crazy buildings all next to each other. It's also where Col Man and Kev are from - I'd like to know what they think of it. What's your opinion of buildings like this (cool looking, but towering above the rest of the city)?

EDIT: I like your pond! And you have very straight uprights in your letters - is that a legacy of drafting, do you think? :wink:

Well, it's probably a legacy of age, and the functionality of writing for me - I write much faster than I used to. I also print much faster than I used to.


My handwriting and printing decomposes. I can start out writing a letter, say to an older cousin back east, using my very best penmanship. I can only keep that up for a paragraph or two, at most a page, and then the old Palmer Method fails and I go into my slash routine seen above.


On the buildings, I have mixed feelings. I can see where those are exciting buildings. But I love older architecture and I gather the city is generally at a lower height... and these buildings are certainly not in scale.

On the other hand, cities replenish, and to the extent that some of the best old neighborhoods are saved and the replenishing happens more on the outskirts (which I gather is what is happening in Leeds) then I see the reenergizing that occurs as useful to a city.

I am, as I said, betwixt. I cringe at some examples of adventurous buildings tucked in next to centuries old museums... At the same time, I see the reason for many contemporary architects complaining about mediocre attempts to recapture the past in what are many new boring buildings with little bits of old fashioned "icing on the cake".

That is very annoying. Here in medieval York, there are some beautiful buildings (not least of which the Minster) and some down-right shocking stuf from the 60's and 70's (like a game of "How many shapes can we mould concrete into and pebble-dash?"). But at least they stand out, unlike the new brick-builds with fake keystones above the windows and that line of different coloured bricks that sticks out (can't remember the technical term) in "homage" to the Victorian and Georgian buildings. Boring indeed.

There's George! I hope all is well in Stoneham.

wow, soz, cool!

RJB, I don't have a fax machine for you to send to. Sorry. If no one else here picks up the ball, I'll see if I can use my sister's fax for your writing sample. Idealy, someone else will help because I only have the option of photo'ing the fax of your writing and that is just not going to be good.

The town is dealing with some serious grief. At one of the elementary schools, a car jumped the curb and pinned some children and adults to a low wall. One 5 year old needed to have a leg amputated.