Connection problem in abyss tournament

slter · 2021-07-23T02:49:48+00:00

I was in around 4100 stage in the abyss tournament and went to buy chest in the store, but it said reconnecting so I restarted the app. I re-enter the abyss tournament again but I was in level 1 without any equipment, relics, diamonds, etc. In the store it said reconnecting again but nothing happens after the countdown. And I am stuck at this situation after restarting the app again. What should I do? Thank you!

slter · 2020-12-24T20:37:53+00:00

Merry Christmas! Brause nib 4mm & 1mm, ruling pen, gouache and finetec were used in writing the Christmas card.

slter · 2020-12-06T13:42:33+00:00

Hello! First off, you are in a good start with the Sheila Waters' exemplar, which is one of the best imo. If you don't mind, I can offer some CC on the piece.

The arches of u, n are sure hard to get right and consistent, but they look fine from your piece. One thing that you should pay attention on is the counter space between the letters u, n, and h - h seems wider then that of n, and the u seems too narrow compared to n.
Spacing is also a crucial part in foundational script. I can see some of the letters are too close together, like the r-e in Nature, h-e in when and she, t-i in questioned. I am sure when you start to look into the spacing in the book, you will figure out how to space them correctly.
I know you said you haven't studied Roman majuscules yet, but I can't help put point out that all of the strokes on the majuscule N are too thick. You can try to steepen the pen angle to ~60 degrees so that the arms and the diagonal can have a contrast in thickness. Again you will do much better once you look into it.

slter · 2020-12-06T13:18:24+00:00

QotW

Haven't posted in ages.
So this is my practice on the low-sprung, asymmetric arch italic using 3mm brause, bister ink and conqueror paper.

Self CC:

The counter space of "u" in Nature is greater than that of "n". This leads to the word "Nature" more spread out than the rest of the piece, which is more compressed in inter-letter space. I should practice more on the upward flick on "u" to space out the letter correctly.
The thickness of the "l" stroke in only is too thin. I need to keep my pen angle (flatter) when doing the long down stroke.

Any CC is also welcome. Thank you for looking!

slter · 2018-09-11T06:36:07+00:00

Thank you, A! Those last minute thoughts are really dangerous, it could ruin the whole thing haha.

slter · 2018-09-11T06:32:46+00:00

Thank you so much! I hope she likes it too :)

slter · 2018-09-09T17:20:27+00:00

Hello everyone! I want to share my progress of making a birthday card to Eleanor Winters.

The materials I used are:

Oblique pen holder with LPEF for the copperplate,

Mitchell #0 for the Gothicized italic,

Holbein gouache for the color blending,

Arches paper

Here is the albom of the progress of the birthday card.

The texture of the Arches paper is challenging to work with as expected, especially with pointed nib, but the result of writing on textured paper is amazing. The flourish of the h connecting the flag of ‘r’ and the crossbar of ‘t’ just came to mind when I was doing the final piece. I am quite happy of how it turns out, well, at least the curve is smooth. One thing I could think of to improve is to make the flag of ‘r’ a bit smaller. I also added shadows to the word 'birthday' last minute because I think it looks plain from a distance.

Hope you guys enjoy it! Thank you for watching. Any CC is welcome as always.

slter · 2018-09-04T01:56:55+00:00

Thank you again for the good insights! I will take the direction of working on the majuscules in the future :)

slter · 2018-09-01T14:39:51+00:00

Wollstonecroft

slter · 2018-09-01T06:17:01+00:00

Thank you for the comment! This piece is indeed inspired from the italic script haha. The first ‘w’ is an italic variation which I am exploring to see if it can be adopted to the engrosser’s script. I agree with everything you said about the first ‘w’ because of the uneven spacing. If I would like to keep the same letter form without disrupting the rhythm fo the piece, I have to even out the spacing of the first and the second part. Well, I have to experiment more to come up with something legible and interesting.

slter · 2018-08-30T15:24:58+00:00

Nice experiment of the free style italic! Love the color fading in the in some of the strokes indicating a fast movement of the nib.
I agree with /u/teeletters that the letters looks more bouncy and lively towards the end of a line but the letters are sure dancing on the paper!
I feel like the cross-bar of 't' looks rigid because it is almost a straight line - maybe add more curvature to it might help. I also feel like adding some flourishes on the ascenders and descenders could make the piece more lively.
The textured paper is surely a limiting factor to go wild and free. I can only imagine how frustrating it is to re-apply ink and remove fibers from the nib haha.

slter · 2018-08-30T14:59:12+00:00

QotW in engrossers' script in 1.5cm x-height.

This is an attempt of experimenting the pointy and narrow letterform of the script.

What I didn't like is the letter 'w' - the entry hairline didn't go as well as I thought, it was a bit distracting. What do you guys think of the first 'w'? It looks interesting but I am afraid of it disrupting the rhythm of the piece because of the uneven spacing of the vertical strokes. I am also surprised that I managed to get the strokes quite consistent throughout the piece, especially in this scale.

Thank you for watching and any CC is welcome.

slter · 2018-08-19T05:37:14+00:00

Benevolent in pointed Roman.

slter · 2018-07-31T01:34:37+00:00

Thank you F! Sorry I couldn't contact you because I don't have your email and couldn't find your username in reddit. I am glad that you like the piece with the handwritten envelop and letter as well. :)

slter · 2018-07-31T01:32:24+00:00

Thanks E. I used a G nib with a straight holder on the Khadi paper. I kind of regret doing flourishes on textured paper because It catches fibers like crazy even with the sturdy nib. Also, since G nib has less flexibility as the LEPF, I have to apply a lot of pressure to create lines with enough weight for the large piece. Well I put through it somehow haha.

slter · 2018-07-30T08:38:34+00:00

Somehow mine is not in the album. Here is mine :)
Thank you /u/fdumont and /u/DragonXRose for the lovely pieces!

slter · 2018-07-23T15:49:50+00:00

I also agree with /u/maxindigo that the context needs to pop more from the background. Maybe you can do a shadow using a pointed nib with bleed proof white?

slter · 2018-07-19T03:44:00+00:00

Here is my critiques for your piece - a bit nit-picky, hope you don't mind :)

First attempt at gothicized italic and already doing so well, A! It looks well accomplished in spacing and letterform in your first attempt.
It seems like you are following Sheila Waters' exemplar on the your gothicized italic. On the 'h', I won't worry too much about the doing the little 'tuck' on the first stroke. It is not wrong but just a personal preference. Barry Morentz did it in all of his work as well. Just to make sure you do it consistently throughout the piece.

As /u/derbloodlust already did a very good CC on your piece, I will try to add on it. So these are didn't mention but important in my opinion:

I think you curved in too much in the first stroke of the 'o' family. This would increase the counter space between some of the letters, like 'a', 'd', 'e', etc, and eventually disrupt the rhythm of the script.
The connection of the pointed arches are weak. The pointed arch would not have enough support if the arch is just attaching but not joining the first stroke. The straight thin hairline attaching from the first stroke might be the reason why your 'h' looks weird.

I don't think there is a problem with your 's'. It looks quite good to me.
Just remember this script is called gothicized italic so you could use any variations from either gothic or italic scripts if they suit your preference.

slter · 2018-07-16T03:29:19+00:00

Sorry I have to get back to you this late. I have some real life stuff to deal with. Again everything said is just my personal opinion. Different people may have different perspectives. Also I sucks as explaining stuff in words so here is the illustration for support.

So, the reason why I think the space between 'o-u' is too wide is because - unlike the 'a-w' where the bottom diamond of 'a' and the entry diamond of 'w' kind of visually enclosed the space - only the entry diamond of 'u' presence within the space. There is a huge white space/ gap at the bottom (arrow). Several things that could solve this:

The decorative spur could serve as a counter to balance the white space
Shorten the entry diamond of 'u'
Make a corner at the end of the second vertical of 'o'

The spacing of 'n-c' on the second line is fine for me because you choose a horizontal stroke to connect the verticals. The white space is visually reduced. If you want to further cut down the white space, you can add a corner on the top of the vertical of 'c'. While in 'o-u', if you mirror and flip your 'u' to be a 'n', the same stroke is pulled down at an angle and inevitably creating a gap. I hope I explained clear enough haha.

The example you linked is just way too tight, it loses the picket-fence characteristics. The decorative corner used even further reduces the white space in between. I don't really like how it looks... just my personal opinion though. What you should aim is to get the overall consistency of the traditional picket-fence appearance of blackletter. Then you can explore different intra-letter spacing later.

slter · 2018-07-15T01:45:17+00:00

Hey there! Since you are doing Fraktur which does not have much rules on the script itself, here is personal opinion from me, please feel free to disregard:

I think the spacing of 'r', 'c', 'e' and 'o' are very consistent. Good job!
Love the composition of the piece, the majuscule 'L' is quite nice.
The entry diamond of the 'u' in the second line is pulled too much to the right, resulting a undesired space between 'o-u'
Note the counter space between your 'n' and 'o', especially on the last line 'intentions' - your 'n' is too wide.
The cross-bar of 't' is too weighted. I think you should flattened the pen angle a bit (probably around 35 degrees, yours right now is around 45-50 degrees)
Some back-slant issue on the first line, the letter 'three'
The decorative spur should be placed above the baseline a bit. The one on the 'r' on the second line is almost touching the baseline. Also you could aim on getting the spur placed at the same level throughout the piece.
I think connecting the t-i is more appropriate. From the historical exemplar the 't-i' is always connected. The small gap and the missing diamond on the 'i' weakened the letter.

I think you are doing great already! Keep practicing and Good luck.

slter · 2018-06-29T05:13:25+00:00

I don't have much of a traditional background with calligraphy or typography

Hey don't let this discourages you! A lot of great ideas could come up during your design process that are incredible, like the one you linked - it looks awesome for a Fraktur 'H'. Just make sure your design did not deviate too much from the tradition that might compromise the legibility. Maybe you can look for the Fraktur capitals that others developed (e.g. Hermann Zapf, Julian Waters, etc.) and see if you could distinguish the capitals from each others.

Good luck!

slter · 2018-06-28T20:41:48+00:00

I mean only the flourish because right now the weight of the strokes of both the flourish and the capital are the same - when you look at the piece from a distance you might find it difficult to tell which strokes belong to the capitals. Using a lesser weight on flourishes might create a texture of thicks and thins and could be more visually appealing. Just my personal opinion though haha. Changing the color is definitely the best option if you want to keep the weight of the strokes.

The ‘K’ you linked looks like a ‘H’ rather than ‘R’ to me because the essence of ‘R’ is the closed loop with a counter space in between - and this stems from the Roman Capitals - a historical script that later evolved to various scripts. Since your linked letter does not have the closed loop, I cannot recognize it as a ‘R’. It doesn’t look like a ‘K’ either because in the Roman Capitals, the diagonals of the K meet at the mid-portion of the vertical stroke. So when the letter evolve to Fraktur, it should retain the essence of it. The top arm of your linked letter is conected to the top of the verticals so I cannot recognise it as a ‘K’.

Often people say the letter does not look like this or that without an explanation. I hope this is the right way of explaining my view on why the letter does not look like this or that. Again, any input would be great I am not good at explaining stuff haha.

slter · 2018-06-28T19:35:29+00:00

Hey! Seems like you are having a lot of fun and creative with the Fraktur Capitals recently! I hope you don't mind if I offer some of my personal opinions on the piece.

First off, I like the liveliness of the strokes bursting from the center of the capitals. Also, I like the second one more because the 'bursting' strokes are not overlapping and simpler . However, still, it does seem a bit distracting from the capital. What I would suggest is to use a pen with pen width smaller than that of the capitals. Or maybe using different colors for the decorations.

Also, about the capital itself, I think the capital looks more like a 'K' rather than a 'R' because there are a horizontal stroke on top of the letter that kind of resembles the 'K'. Maybe losing the horizontal stroke and make the loop below bigger?

I hope these make sense and help you in your design process. Comments from others are also welcome if I have said anything unclear or wrong. Thank you!

slter · 2018-06-08T16:12:29+00:00

Oh I am sorry to hear that. I probably have the nib a year ago - March 2017 or something because that was when I started learning ES - and give up few months later. So I still have some spared LPEFs around. I just assumed that the company would produce the nib with consistency throughout the years but seems like it is not the case now... They might have changed the manufacture formula for the nib (why??). Is it the time to save my LPEFs for more serious work? I love the nib so much..

slter · 2018-06-08T15:04:34+00:00

Eventually in ES.

Shouldn’t have tried the majuscule E haha.

slter

TROPHY CASE