“The thing is never about the thing.”
– Unknown
Before we get into the actual letter forms of traditional penmanship, it is important that you understand what penmanship is actually about.
Lesson Summary
- As you learn more about penmanship, what you once thought looks “good” will not look as good to you.
- This is because you are training your eyes and increasing the resolution of your perception.
- The only way to get better at something is to perceive your mistakes. The only way to perceive your mistakes is to increase your resolution to the point where it can perceive your mistakes.
- There are two kinds of perception in penmanship: idle and active.
- Idle perception is the ability to perceive when reviewing a piece of writing after it was written. You can use time and tools to enhance the resolution of your idle perception.
- Active perception is the ability to perceive while writing. This type of perception is happening in real time and therefore has a more elusive quality. You can use tools like drills and guidelines to train your active perception.
- Learning anything at a high level requires a deep dive into the truth of whatever you are learning.
Exercise
Think about a skill that you’ve spent a lot of time learning. How did your perception of your results change as you increased your ability?