FLOURISHING WORKSHOP

On the 23rd June Marg gave a workshop on practical flourishing Italic, Copperplate and Spencerian scripts.    Report by Marg Peachey

A flourish is a decorative touch that breathes life into words.  It energises a page and makes your letters truly unique.     Linda Hutchinson – 3rd Manual for the Calligraphic Arts

A flourish is the ornamental embellishment of a letter or letters.                    Diana Hardy Wilson – Encyclopedia of Calligraphy Techniques

Flourishing can be attached to letters to on ascenders, descenders, double letters, end of words and capitals.  

Flourishes should not be tight (like a spring) and have a nice lot of space in their counter shapes.  They should not obscure or 'bash into' other letters.

Practise / warming up is important before executing a flourish so that it looks as though it belongs.  It becomes part of a letter and not an 'add on'.  They should flow freely and be incorporated into the whole design.  Strokes supporting a flourish should keep their integrity within the x height margins.

At the end of a flourish the pen can just stop or the nib manipulated to produce a stylish, but not excessive, finish.  Less is more with flourishes and should be limited on once or twice in a word.

 Where else to find some flourishes but other calligraphy society's logos!!

I hope everyone learnt a lot.  

I noticed that some of the basic principles of lettering need to be revised.  Will leave that until another time but it has to do with the shape of the mother letter, O.  Both copperplate and italic are cursive scripts which makes this shape all the more important.