I cracked it regarding the ink blotting on the paper I was using (printer paper), so invested in a pad of bleedproof paper. I'm MucH happier working on it. Tho I do have a bit of a problem smudging words - the ink tends to sit on top of the paper for longer, and take longer to dry.

I've re-written the top half of the page - all of the section I've worked on so far during the first 4 script practises :-

The original page looks like :-

I was reading Drogin, and when he is talking about Early Gothic he says :-

(page 54). (It doesn't seem to want to be any bigger)

Thinking of them in this way (a way to get back up to the top of the line) has helped me in writing them.

It also occurred to me that they have a use as a space filler (which I talked about last post) and to help identify letters like 'u' and 'ii' and 'n'. The tick being on the left hand side at the start of the letter is a dead give away.

I'm going to make an executive decision here. I think the tick attached to the bottom diamond of an 'r' looks silly. It crosses across too much empty space. I want to do one at a more acute angle, heading up towards the point of the bow of the 'r' rather than trying to reach the next letter

My ticks tend to be too vertical in general. When i go to write the next letter, I find that it's bottom diamond won't connect with the last letter's tick, coz the tick is too high at that point.

I noticed, on the first line of the Bedford P page, that the scribe has written the 'o' so that it's bottom didn't quite meet the baseline. So he added a cute little cheat.

A little squiggle.

I was also looking at Knight's script analysis of the Bedford P, and was glad to seeing the following comment :

(Gothic Scripts - D4)

The interesting bit being "the LOWER diamonds to be elongated to a point".
I was thinking the upper diamonds were elongated as well, but never succeeded in getting them so.

Another thing stated somewhere (in Drogin?) is the trick of covering the top half of the letters, and seeing what the bottom half looks like. It should be all verticals and diamonds, with the occasional quadrant, and the occasional 30 degree quadrant (eg for the bottom of an "o"). It should look regular, to give the 'textura' or 'woven' pattern.
There's also the trick of turning it upside down and looking for the pattern then.

I haven't got it perfect yet. Something to aim for, tho I don't know if perfection is actually achievable.

Still have to watch the width (counterspace) of my letters - a (version 2), d, p and o in particular.
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