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  • Emulating My Grandmother’s Beautiful Handwriting (Includes Free Worksheet)

    by

    Lindsey Bugbee

    , ,

    I recently came across a few examples of my grandmother’s beautiful handwriting. Seeing her penmanship inspired me to pay more attention to my own cursive, and I made a printable exemplar and writing exercises in case you want to do the same!

    Emulating My Grandmother's Beautiful Handwriting (Includes Free Worksheet)
    I wrote this recipe using letterforms inspired by my grandmother’s style.

    My paternal grandmother, Estelle, had beautiful handwriting. Every time I come across one of her cards in my sketchbook, her flowing, elegant cursive inspires me to pay a little closer attention to how I write! In this article, I’ll provide you with an analysis and an exemplar + worksheet of her handwriting so you can write lovely letters, too.

    Meet Grammy and Her Beautiful Handwriting

    Grammy Estelle, pictured on the left, below, had a traditional upbringing in a rural western Kansas town. Her mother was a schoolteacher, which might have influenced Grammy’s attention to her penmanship.

    Grammy passed away in 2015, but her handwritten notes and cards live on.

    In my grandmother’s case, her writing encompassed her personality: it was consistent and classy without being over the top.

    Handwritten Card
    Grammy wrote this Christmas card greeting in 2003.

    Characteristics of This Cursive

    For today’s article, I observed three short pieces of Grammy’s handwriting to come up with letterforms and catch trends. The exemplar that I came up with isn’t totally accurate because I don’t have examples of every letter, but my exemplar does a good job of capturing the general style.

    Playing with Grammy's Handwriting
    I experimented with — and vetoed — a lot of different letterforms based on the handwriting samples that I have.

    As I wrote, I made several observations about Grammy’s writing style. Here’s what I noticed:

    • It’s fairly angular; there are a lot of pinched ovals, but no circles
    • She rarely picked up her pen in the middle of writing a word
    • She favored closed loops; letters like “o” and “a” don’t have an opening at the top
    Handwriting Observations | The Postman's Knock
    I made observations as I wrote, and I tried on Grammy’s writing style at the bottom of the page.

    How to Have Handwriting Like Grammy

    For today’s article, I made a printable exemplar and worksheet based on my grandmother’s writing. On that printable, you’ll see an alphabet exemplar, examples of phrases, and letter practice. Trace over the letters with any pen or pencil to try on this new handwriting style!

    Once you’ve filled out the worksheet, you can decide what aspects of the handwriting you’d like to incorporate into your own handwriting. For example, I feel like my own handwriting is a little too loopy sometimes … I like the sharper, more angular look of Grammy’s letters. Also: I think her “G”s are fabulous! I normally write “G” with a descender, but I am going to try using “G”s that look like hers from now on.

    I also notice that Grammy’s cursive is nice and spread out. Letters don’t look cramped or crowded, which is something that I know I need to work on with my own cursive!

    DOWNLOAD THE FREE WORKSHEET

    Implementing the Writing Style

    Once you’ve practiced a bit with the worksheet, try using the new handwriting style to write out a note, a list, or a recipe. Keep the Grammy’s Handwriting exemplar at hand, and reference it often as you write. I know that you’ll find, just as I did, that some of your own style invariably creeps in! Still, even with my handwriting habits affecting the outcome, I was happy with the example that I came up with.

    Emulating My Grandmother's Beautiful Handwriting (Includes Free Worksheet) | The Postman's Knock
    I used the Grammy’s Handwriting Exemplar to write out one of my favorite short recipes. I love the casual, elegant effect here!

    It can be intimidating to try to write in a new style because our penmanship arguably reflects our personalities. That begs the question: can you really change your handwriting? The answer is yes — and you’ll see your own handwriting style punctuating the new style, which gives you a fabulous new hybrid! If you’re interested in reading more about handwriting and cursive, check out these other articles on TPK:

    Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

    Warmly,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock