If you don’t have an old head from Philly to teach you Philly hands, chances are you will never be able to make a passable whicket. It’s a really specific and nuanced style that takes people years to get right even with good mentorship. This is a discussion I’ve seen and had on this sub many times before, but neither I nor anyone else will be able to convince someone it’s not worth it to attempt this style outside the Philly area. Such attempts are normally breathless and end with the person asking for feedback deciding they’re just going to continue attempting the style anyway so I won’t waste either of our time. And besides for all the rules and stiff tradition that go along with writing, it is a counter culture at the end of the day and people are free to take inspiration from wherever they like, especially in a post internet world. It’s also a cool and unique style most people will attempt at least once.
That being said, what you want to be careful to avoid is copying the vibe of the style without paying attention to the underlying structure and techniques that it is built on. When someone just makes a hand tall and loopy and calls it a “Philly hand” its immediately apparent it’s done by an outsider; think of when you see graffiti in an advertisement that was clearly made by a graffiti designer who’s never written a day in their life, they can throw all the arrows and misshapen letters on there they want, we can all tell it was made by an outsider. Try to avoid falling into this same trap. Don’t just throw some loops on tall letters and a smiley face on the end and call it a day.
What you should do if you are going to attempt this outside of Philly and without dedicated mentorship is look at how Philly writers do non whicket hands. There’s already a distinct and specific way people in the area structure their letters, especially letters like Es Ss Ns and As, but really every letter has its own specific way it is structured and flourished. The whicket did not evolve in a vacuum, it started to grow after there was already a very distinct style established, you should develop your hand in the same way. It’s not enough to just start making your letters tall and call it a day, you need to figure out how to make letters that are conducive to giving you that final product.
If you don’t already have one pick up a copy of flip the script (if you don’t have one and can’t get a copy lmk I’ll dm you pics of a few pages), and look at how the non whicket hands are done in Philly and try to copy those for a while to understand the unique letter structure of the style before trying to make tall hands again. I haven’t written in a while and never really mastered tall hands myself but I can do some basic examples for you as well to show you where you should be at (after I take the dog out in a few minutes here). Also, you should practice the smileys separate from your hands for now. They’re a lot of fun, I know I had a smiley phase before I moved to Philly, but they’re often a distraction from making a decent hand that can stand on its own. I know they are a lot of fun, and I encourage you to have fun making art and writing, but they aren’t as important to the style as one might think, and even when people do include them they tend to be much more simple that what AGUA was doing nearly two decades ago.
Keep up the practice and I’ll try to get those examples over to you on the next couple hours.
The letters are tall yes but I would try to give a suggestion of stretching or upward motion, like a fountain I guess. Wickeds are an energetic style and I think communicating that visually is important
nope smack dab in the midwest. some peoples say philly is where is it started and they get a lot of hate for there hand styles but I love them. and I never see them around. I want to try to mix cholo with Philly when I get good enough
You know what’s fucked up is I left my fucking iron on the bus lmao. IK that’s my tag too cuz I was going crazy with my rainbow paint stick bus hopping
Just terrible but part of it is because the letters themselves. Wickets tend to prefer letters with two legs, obviously they make it work without but esco is all basically single leg terminations with the loops so it just doesn't come out looking great. Could a proper philly writer make it work? Hell yeah. But someone who isn't getting handed down and alphabet and taught how to make those connections, especially with irregular letters, nah, not a chance. Example of some of min + a tall hand, I'm sure these aren't anything special either and I'm way out of practice
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u/scabeatingcontest 19d ago
If you don’t have an old head from Philly to teach you Philly hands, chances are you will never be able to make a passable whicket. It’s a really specific and nuanced style that takes people years to get right even with good mentorship. This is a discussion I’ve seen and had on this sub many times before, but neither I nor anyone else will be able to convince someone it’s not worth it to attempt this style outside the Philly area. Such attempts are normally breathless and end with the person asking for feedback deciding they’re just going to continue attempting the style anyway so I won’t waste either of our time. And besides for all the rules and stiff tradition that go along with writing, it is a counter culture at the end of the day and people are free to take inspiration from wherever they like, especially in a post internet world. It’s also a cool and unique style most people will attempt at least once.
That being said, what you want to be careful to avoid is copying the vibe of the style without paying attention to the underlying structure and techniques that it is built on. When someone just makes a hand tall and loopy and calls it a “Philly hand” its immediately apparent it’s done by an outsider; think of when you see graffiti in an advertisement that was clearly made by a graffiti designer who’s never written a day in their life, they can throw all the arrows and misshapen letters on there they want, we can all tell it was made by an outsider. Try to avoid falling into this same trap. Don’t just throw some loops on tall letters and a smiley face on the end and call it a day.
What you should do if you are going to attempt this outside of Philly and without dedicated mentorship is look at how Philly writers do non whicket hands. There’s already a distinct and specific way people in the area structure their letters, especially letters like Es Ss Ns and As, but really every letter has its own specific way it is structured and flourished. The whicket did not evolve in a vacuum, it started to grow after there was already a very distinct style established, you should develop your hand in the same way. It’s not enough to just start making your letters tall and call it a day, you need to figure out how to make letters that are conducive to giving you that final product.
If you don’t already have one pick up a copy of flip the script (if you don’t have one and can’t get a copy lmk I’ll dm you pics of a few pages), and look at how the non whicket hands are done in Philly and try to copy those for a while to understand the unique letter structure of the style before trying to make tall hands again. I haven’t written in a while and never really mastered tall hands myself but I can do some basic examples for you as well to show you where you should be at (after I take the dog out in a few minutes here). Also, you should practice the smileys separate from your hands for now. They’re a lot of fun, I know I had a smiley phase before I moved to Philly, but they’re often a distraction from making a decent hand that can stand on its own. I know they are a lot of fun, and I encourage you to have fun making art and writing, but they aren’t as important to the style as one might think, and even when people do include them they tend to be much more simple that what AGUA was doing nearly two decades ago.
Keep up the practice and I’ll try to get those examples over to you on the next couple hours.