Yes, I know all the students who go to famouse school do beautiful calligraphy, but it always depends on who their teachers are, every teacher has their own style and opinion about what is the best ‘italic’ or ‘foundational’, there is no one style that is the ‘correct’ or ‘best’ style. Only Roman Capitals follow one style, from the Trajan Column.
I love Donald Jackson’s italics, it is soooo beautiful, but I cannot do his style. Some students prefer Gaynor Goffe or Sheila Waters or Sue Hufton or Irene Wellington or Tom Gourdie or ??? They all have very different styles, which is VERY confusing for students. I think that if you remember these basics — a pen angle around 35 to 45 degrees, about 5 pen widths high for the small letters, a slope of between 5 and 10 degrees, and it is all based on an ‘oval’ letter O.
Every student should develop their own style based on these basics, they should look at as many good examples as they can find, and choose the letters they like the best, we don’t want everybody’s italics looking the same, it would be tsumaranai !!!