Designing Flourishes

Good flourishing is not the result of “happy accidents.” Flourishing is most effectively employed in a systematic way, instead of relying on spontaneity. In this class, we will go over the basic rules and principles of designing the flourished line.

We will examine high quality flourished work, learn how to identify basic elements of well-executed flourishes, dissect what makes good flourishing pleasing to the eye, and combine the elements to create our own designs. As we go through exercises, we will cover methods of combining flourishes in a visually pleasing way, with particular emphasis on white space and hot spot control, scale, intersecting angles, smoothness, and rhythm. Ultimately we will learn how to attach flourishes to letterforms and incorporate them into your compositions.

Level of difficulty: Beginner to intermediate (no calligraphy experience necessary, but students must have some familiarity with letterforms)

Material List:

• Grid paper

• Tracing paper

• Layout bond paper (Borden & Riley #37, Canson Marker Layout, or Bienfang Graphics 360)

• Ruler

• Pencil and sharpener or mechanical pencil with refills

• Eraser

• Tape (artist’s or masking)

• 1-2mm chisel tip marker or pen (e.g., Sakura Pigma calligraphy markers, Zig calligraphy chisel tip markers, chisel tip fountain pen, etc)

• 1mm or smaller chisel-edge dip pen nibs with ink, plus any flexible points you are comfortable with

• (Optional) Any existing flourishing design that you would like to improve