IAMPETH 2026 - Shaded-Base Spencerian - Nina Tran

ALL SKILL LEVELS | SPENCERIAN

Shaded-base Spencerian is an amalgamation of the Spencerian Abbott Back Hand and the Zanerian Eccentric Shaded-base Penmanship -- hands developed during the Golden Age of American Penmanship (1850-1925). This era, hallmarked by Spencerian, Ornamental Penmanship, Business Writing, Engrosser’s Script, Offhand Flourishing, Engrossing, and showcard lettering, is an exhibition of the American spirit and creative, artistic expressions. Atypical from forward-slanting point pen scripts with its shades running along the sides of their letters, Shaded-base Spencerian is slightly back-slanting with its thick strokes rising and running along the baseline like waves. What could be more fun to write than this visually stimulating and broadly adaptable script! In this class, we will walk through the development of Shaded-base Spencerian, find our writing zone, learn the proper pen hold and paper angle for this script and write the minuscule and majuscule letters.

CLASS SUPPLIES

• Flexible pointed pen (e.g., Hunt 101 or Zebra G; note that the more flexible the nib, the easier it will be to create thick shades)
• straight pen holder
• ink (e.g., sumi, walnut, iron gall, etc.)
• marker layout paper (e.g., Borden & Riley Boris #37 Marker Layout, Canson XL Marker or Pro-Layout, etc.)
• mechanical pencil
• eraser
• ruler
• 3–4 paper clips
• 3–4 inches of low-tack adhesive tape (e.g., artist’s tape or washi tape)
• a small container of clean water
• 3–4 sheets of paper towels