Tuesday, February 5, 2008

My mind has switched on...

Once I am awake enough to start thinking about my day I might as well get up because I will not get back to sleep anyway. At least Idon't have to do the presentation for AHAF after all so that is one thing off my list.

Thought of doing something on baselines but I did do some on it before. Different teachers and different groups say to measure the baseline differently. One method is to put a ruler under the first and last letter of a sentence and draw a pencil line. Then you can easily see if the writing follows a straight, bouncy, concave or convex line. You also can see if it goes up or down across the page. Another method is to measure the baseline of each word in a sentence. Some teachers claim you should take 100 measurements of a handwriting between the slant, the margins and the baseline. I don't know that I ever took that many measurements of a writing but the more you take when you are new the better your eye will get at gauging the slant etc without measuring. This is especially helpful when doing quickies for an event when you don't have the luxury of measurements. Indeed at an event you barely have time to contemplate what to say let alone to take measurements and weigh traits against each other. However, if words start at the baseline and go up so it sort of looks like each word is a balloon about to fly off the page the writer is having a hard time keeping his or her feet on the ground. Another way of looking at the baseline is from the lower zone. Do the lower zone loops come back to the baseline?If not then the writer is frustrated by something and does not carry out projects. It is a form of procrastination. Does the lower loop come up and cross the baseline in such a way that it cuts into the middle zone of the letter? There is a trauma to the ego involved here. We can't tell what just that something has happened. Does the lower loop come back to the baseline go thru it and into the upper zone? This person wants attention and may do good or bad to get it. If the lower loop comes back to the baseline or just above but curves downward they are able to complete projects etc but something in their life is making them unhappy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Carole,

I have always confused in measuring the baseline properly until I read your Blog about baselines. You have explained all the complications in a very simplified manner. All the Blogs speak about the immense knowledge you have about the subject. I am really pleased to get associated with you.

Cheers,
Manu Sharma
Handwriting Analyst.
India