One day I'll be good enough to actually finish a project, but until then I am trying to learn by making as many mistakes as I can, as quickly as possible. (If there are better ways to improve, please let me know!)
In previous projects I've just been pushing points around on the screen, but for this one I started by drawing on paper and scanning, and then tried to make widths and curves regular across the glyphs. I haven't found many fonts like this - I've looked at other humanist sans, but there don't seem to be many as contrasty. (David Bergsland's Brinar is the most similar I've found, or, dare I say it, Papyrus.) Maybe there is a good reason for that, though...
Comments
Also pay attention to the terminals; the exit stroke of the e and g are flicking up a bit in a playful manner while many other exit stroke are straight-laced and there isn't so much playfulness in other places where it could be found. The exit of the s also flares in an usual way.
The stroke flow of the tail of the g is awkward, your Callipers plugin could help
With ‘Humanist’ you refer to the broad-nibbed origin of the model, I presume. In that case it would make sense to explore a bit more the related contrast flow IMHO. I quickly wrote down an example for reference.
Perhaps playing with the LetterModeller application will help you also a bit, as Dave suggested. For the rest, sans serifs are difficult stuff and serifs are more than elements that just can be removed. Please read my brief comments on this subject here.
Best, Frank