learning to write

[kentaku_sama]

Ok so I've been messing around with japanese for like 3-4 years but have never really gotten down to studying it. So now I shall get serious because my goal is to be able read japanese books, websites without help and speak fluently. ^_^

Even though I can write to fair level and have mastered hiragana and katakana I still can't write them as nice as I want them I want my writing to look awesome so I want to devote alot of my time to writing. Most people I've heard say you don't need to, but I'm an artist so I think of handwritten japanese as an art form. The problem is I don't know how. I've tried but my writing doesn't look that great. I love the way it looks when natives write japanese vertically with a nib pen and use a semi-cursive style by joining lines that aren't connected going down the page. It looks so cool. How do I learn to do that? I've tried Google but really can't find anything. I want my writing to look like semi-cursive and nice looking. help appreciated ^^

[astaroth]

Taking a course in shodou could be a really good start, but likely you won't start by writing (semi-)cursive 行書 or cursive 草書, instead you'll have to master 楷書, regular script, properly before attempting the other two.
You can look in your area if there are any course on Japanese calligraphy, or trying from a book, but this latter path is much much harder to take.

[hyperconjugated]

Few penji related websites with instructions:

http://www.geocities.jp/ki07ji/
http://www.pclike.net/akiakane/pen/pen_f.htm

[kentaku_sama]

These websites are great! Hard to understand though because I'm having to use Google to translate. Off to practice!