There was a lot of discussion lately about the handwritten characters. So I thought I'd share a few tips.
These may sound really obvious but for those that couldn't draw to save their lives, it might not be so obvious. Once you note these points I think you can improve the form and balance of your handwritten characters easily :
- The most important thing to observe is that even in the kaisho style, which is the more "squarish" style in calligraphy, most horizontal and vertical strokes are slightly slanted. Try slanting all your horizontal strokes slightly upwards as you go to the right, and you will get an immediate improvement over something that's too square and symmetrical. This looks especially nice if you do a little slanting of the top stroke on the "hoods", the "moon" （月）, the strokes inside the "moon", the top stroke of "can" （可）, etc. This adds expression to the character, just don't overdo it.
- Note how all horizontal lines are slightly curved. For example in the character "three" （三）, the top line is slightly curved with the extremities pointing up, while the bottom line is slightly curved with the extremities pointing down. The same goes for "two" （二）. In some characters the curve is barely noticable, but it is still curved.
- Note how boxes often have the top side longer than the bottom side. I think this is always the case for "mouth" （口）. Try drawing all the "suns" （日） with a slightly longer stroke at the top, and the characters will imediately look a little better. This also happens with parrallel lines such as the top-most and bottom-most horizontal strokes of "car" （車）, or "jewel" （王）. The top of a box is often slightly slanted while the bottom of the box is nearly horizontal.
Other tidbits:
- In "tree" （木）make sure that the 3rd and 4th strokes do not go down too far, if they go down as far as the "trunk", then it looks bad. If you keep those strokes slightly shorter, it gives a nice balance to the character (imagine an invisible circle around it).
- In calligraphy there is also "contrast" : this is the variation of thickness of the strokes. If a character has all strokes thin or all strokes thick (regardless of the presence of "hooks"), it will be boring because it has no contrast. You can not reproduce this fully with a ballpen or pencil. It works to some extent with regular pencisl (not mechanical ones). You could also get your hand on some fudepens, ink pens with a brush tip. If you like drawing you will almost certainly enjoy the reviews twice as much with a fudepen
Interestingly, in calligraphy, the hiragana are as difficult if not more difficult than the kanji !
These may sound really obvious but for those that couldn't draw to save their lives, it might not be so obvious. Once you note these points I think you can improve the form and balance of your handwritten characters easily :
- The most important thing to observe is that even in the kaisho style, which is the more "squarish" style in calligraphy, most horizontal and vertical strokes are slightly slanted. Try slanting all your horizontal strokes slightly upwards as you go to the right, and you will get an immediate improvement over something that's too square and symmetrical. This looks especially nice if you do a little slanting of the top stroke on the "hoods", the "moon" （月）, the strokes inside the "moon", the top stroke of "can" （可）, etc. This adds expression to the character, just don't overdo it.
- Note how all horizontal lines are slightly curved. For example in the character "three" （三）, the top line is slightly curved with the extremities pointing up, while the bottom line is slightly curved with the extremities pointing down. The same goes for "two" （二）. In some characters the curve is barely noticable, but it is still curved.
- Note how boxes often have the top side longer than the bottom side. I think this is always the case for "mouth" （口）. Try drawing all the "suns" （日） with a slightly longer stroke at the top, and the characters will imediately look a little better. This also happens with parrallel lines such as the top-most and bottom-most horizontal strokes of "car" （車）, or "jewel" （王）. The top of a box is often slightly slanted while the bottom of the box is nearly horizontal.
Other tidbits:
- In "tree" （木）make sure that the 3rd and 4th strokes do not go down too far, if they go down as far as the "trunk", then it looks bad. If you keep those strokes slightly shorter, it gives a nice balance to the character (imagine an invisible circle around it).
- In calligraphy there is also "contrast" : this is the variation of thickness of the strokes. If a character has all strokes thin or all strokes thick (regardless of the presence of "hooks"), it will be boring because it has no contrast. You can not reproduce this fully with a ballpen or pencil. It works to some extent with regular pencisl (not mechanical ones). You could also get your hand on some fudepens, ink pens with a brush tip. If you like drawing you will almost certainly enjoy the reviews twice as much with a fudepen
Interestingly, in calligraphy, the hiragana are as difficult if not more difficult than the kanji !
