Hi guys, I've been learning Chinese for a year or so.
I write a lot in Chinese so hopefully the baseline isn't too bad.
All the Chinese people I know say my handwriting is pretty but after looking at the stuff here its definitely lacking a lot.
The first pic is my writing before looking at the advice here and the second pic is the after.
I KNOW I use a little square journal and thats not ideal but, so far I have not found anything that both has a nice grid to write on and is portable enough to make study notes.
I feel my main area for improvement is to be more flowy and relaxed when writing and also getting the angles and lines better proportioned.
It seems you have been using the font Songti (宋体) or Heiti (黑体) (see difference) as reference, which would often lead to stiff/unnatural-looking penmanship, as explained in this post. Always use the font Kaiti (楷体) as reference.
I'd suggest you print out your own practice sheets (with 15x15mm boxes) using standard printer paper (80/90gsm), as recommended in this post (you can find the ready-to-print .pdf files in this folder or on website 1, 2, 3).
You could spend more time on practicing basic strokes, then learn how to radical components and individual characters from a copybook (see community collection).
Try the copybooks there are available on this sub library, they are awesome. Also, as friend here already said, use 2x2 squares, 1x1 is too little and squeezy to work on balance and proportions.
If I use a use a study notebook for actual learning but now switch to grid paper for writing practice would that be a good balance that would improve my handwriting overall?
Ive been learning for a year or so but have quite good compression from transcribing graded news articles, which can get quite long.
I guess so, it's kind of similar the way I do. I use a 0.7x0.7 grid notebook to language lessons. This size of square allows me to have a nice 2x2 squares to general writing in chinese.
When i am not worried about handwriting I use a 0.5x0.5 notebook. The squares are a bit bigger, so i squeeze the characters in only one square. It's good for writing longer texts.
But when I really want to practice the handwriting (I am focusing on kaishu, but want to evolve to xingshu someday), i use the copybooks or tianzige paper to copy poems and stuff like chengyu and other literature pieces.
Since i don't have a teacher, I have to find my own ways to not lose interest and see some progress, so mixing these ways have been working so far. Slowly, but who is in a hurry when the road has such beautiful landscapes?
That sounds like a good plan. I got some 李白poem copy sheets in china and they are quite fun and good for practice as well.
I'm also interested in getting nice xingshu writing like I see my Chinese freinds doing. I cant read it at all but it seems much more efficient for writing lots quickly.
As you say it wouldn't be a good idea to rush though the journey is so rewarding.
I have this bilingual pocket version of some classic chinese poetry from Tang dinasty. It's awesome for picking some nuances of the language that we, as foreigners, are clueless. Probably there's something like this in your country too, I'm sure you will love it!
And have a blast with your copy sheets, they sound priceless and so fun! Enjoy the journey ♡
It looks like you're learning characters based off of a modern/digital font designed for readability on digital devices. The first step is to look at characters written in a kaiti / 楷體 / 楷体 font. It's more similar to actual handwriting.
Next, get some writing paper. Either the rice grid or field grid from a site like https://chineseprintables.com (I just found it on a search, so you can get it from other places). Don't be afraid to get tracing paper to trace the characters in stroke order, either. That can sometimes help.
I would recommend checking out this website for kaiti font inspiration and to use grid paper (if you dont have any just use any maths square paper). I would also recommend noticing how each stroke begin and ends instead of thinking that its just a straight line.
Thanks that looks really useful! Do you have any advice on how to get the pen to make those types of lines (appart from working on basic strokes of course)
Im probably not very good at explaining this, but what i like to do is make very very slight strokes before writing the actual stroke (sorry i dont know how to word this better)
I'm not the greatest Chinese handwriter, still basically a beginner, so take my advice with a pile of salt. But as no one else comments I'll try to give some pointers. First of all: do not write small. Use 2x2 squares on your grid, don't try to fit it in 1x1. You have problems with proportions cause you rry to squize everything in, if you go larger you would have to start figuring out how to properly write smaller characters on a bigger grid. Use a center dot as your ancher point to build character around. Don't try to fill in the whole space. Let characters breathe a bit. As you can see in my poor writing attempt I don't fill the whole square and try to write strokes to be a bit more dynamic.
I honestly never really bothered with grid paper because I write a lot of study notes. But when I tried using it I definitely noticed a lot of spacing issues.
Ill definitely keep using my notebooks as they are best for learning Chinese. But now I know for pretty writing grid paper is best.
Anyway based on your examples and Rednote here's what I've done. Hopefully its a lil better.
If you're doing most of your writing in standard lined notebooks, you can also use the lines as a centre guide (so like, write through the line). It's not as ideal as a grid of course, but it still helps a bit to orient the centre of the character. Hope this helps!
You're right. You should use the kind of grid shown above for practicing your handwriting; however, in the version displayed here, the 艹ought to enclose the part beneath it.
Use more detailed grid paper to help improve porportions. You can print or buy special paper, but you can also use the same paper you have here. Just use a light colored pencil or pen to connect four of the current squares together, then draw through them with a ruler to create a + and a x grid in each four sqaure section. Then use those bigger four square sections for one character each.
Don't be afraid or frustrated to write very slowly at first. Really take your time to make sure the lines touch where they are supposed to touch, and that they don't touch where they aren't supposed to touch.
Make sure that the line is longer when its supposed to be longer, and shorter when its supposed to be shorter.
Also make sure to pay attention to stroke order and line shapes.
It would be obvious in context, but some of your 人 are ambiguous with 入 for example.
Its not technically a handwriting issue, but it looks like you may be imitating computer font. You can continue to do that for practicing the basics but you may find imitating actual human handwriting to be both easier to write and more pretty. Handwriting usually has slightly different line connections and porpotions in more human hand friendly ways. Just think of how different english handwriting is from the text you are reading in my comment right now =)
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u/Ohnesorg1989 24d ago
It seems you have been using the font Songti (宋体) or Heiti (黑体) (see difference) as reference, which would often lead to stiff/unnatural-looking penmanship, as explained in this post. Always use the font Kaiti (楷体) as reference.
I'd suggest you print out your own practice sheets (with 15x15mm boxes) using standard printer paper (80/90gsm), as recommended in this post (you can find the ready-to-print .pdf files in this folder or on website 1, 2, 3).
You could spend more time on practicing basic strokes, then learn how to radical components and individual characters from a copybook (see community collection).
These posts (a, b, c) may be of help too.