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Flourishing

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Want to elevate your calligraphy with flourishing?

Here’s a handy page of articles, free guides and more to get started with flourishing!

What is flourishing?

First of all, a flourish is simply an ornamental stroke or a decorative detail.

Adding flourishes can make your calligraphy look more polished or fancy. You can use different types of flourishes to create different moods and styles — intricate and Victorian, or simple and classy.

There are 3 main types of flourishing.

Calligraphy
flourishing

Where strokes of the letters are pulled and extended to form beautiful lines and curves.

This is what I’ll be focusing on
in this page!

offhand
flourishing

Where flourishing is spontaneous and created without pre-planning or drafting. Most commonly seen in quills, feathers and birds.

calligraphic drawing

Where flourishes and/or text are arranged to take on shapes such as faces and animals.

As for what supplies you’ll need, just use whatever you’re comfortable with for calligraphy!

Straight holders are usually recommended for offhand flourishing, but both straight and oblique holders work for calligraphy flourishing.

You’re pulling and extending the strokes of the letters naturally to form flourishes, so whatever holder or nib you use to write the letters work fine.

rules of flourishing

As with learning any new skill, let’s start with the theoretical rules and principles.

I go through the following rules in more detail here.

First, and most importantly, create ovals —

This one simple rule is the first step to drastically improving your flourishes.

Create ovals. Not circles, not squiggles, not loops.

Best if these ovals are either horizontal ovals (like the top example), or slant ovals parallel to the slant line at 55° (like the bottom example).

Creating ovals when flourishing ensures that flourishes look harmonious with the letters. After all, the Copperplate alphabet is based on the oval!

Avoid crossing two shaded strokes —

Hairlines can cross hairlines and shaded strokes.

But avoid crossing shaded strokes with shaded strokes.

Doing so creates a hotspot which looks visually heavy, and overshadows the letters. There’s also the risk of pulling ink if you’re using a viscous ink that doesn’t dry immediately.

Cross lines at right angles —

When crossing lines in flourishing, try to cross them at right angles.

This is a simple trick to help open up your flourishes, making them look less squeezy or tight.

Give your flourishes room to breathe!

flourishing spots

Now that you’ve learnt the basic rules of flourishing, let’s look at where exactly to flourish.

To start off, keep to these 5 flourishing spots in lowercase letters.

Crossbar of letter t
Descender loop
Ascender loop
Exit stroke
Entrance stroke

Most letters will have multiple flourishing spots. For example:

Letter a
entrance stroke
exit stroke

Letter t
entrance stroke
exit stroke
crossbar

Letter h
entrance stroke
exit stroke
ascender loop

Letter f
entrance stroke
exit stroke
ascender loop
descender loop

However, you don’t have to flourish all the spots in a single letter.

In fact, it’s probably a good idea not to! Remember that less is more in flourishing.

The purpose of calligraphy is to convey meaning and beauty through written text, so flourishes should never overshadow and affect the readability of the text.

(Uppercase letters are a lot more complex, and it differs from letter to letter. After all, even the standard uppercase alphabet has more variations than the lowercase alphabet! Generally, capital stems and exit strokes in most uppercase letters can be flourished.)

examples of Flourishes

Let’s look at some examples of flourishes you can use in any of the 5 flourishing spots listed above.

Flourishes have endless variations, and it’s good practice (plus a fun challenge) for calligraphers to see how many flourishes they can come up with for one letter.

But when there are endless possibilities, how do you even start?

I suggest starting with simple ovals. It’s as easy as extending strokes to create horizontal or slant ovals. Flourishes don’t always have to be difficult or intricate!

Notice how these flourishes correspond with the 5 flourishing spots?
From left: crossbar of letter t, ascender loop, descender loop, exit stroke, entrance stroke.

Once you’re comfortable with simple ovals, you can start trying more intricate flourishes like pretzel and doughnut flourishes.

Pretzel flourishes are made up of a horizontal oval overlapping with a slant oval.

Doughnut flourishes are made up of a smaller oval within a larger oval.

Categorising flourishes into such structures, or what I call flourish families, has helped me to learn, practise and experiment with flourishes.

It’s also how I manage to come up with endless flourishing variations for any letters.

If you want to read more, here’s an article outlining the flourish families framework!

struggling to get smooth lines?

If you’re struggling with jagged or shaky lines, or your pen catching on paper when flourishing — don’t worry. These are very common beginner struggles, and are part and parcel of learning!

Remember to keep a light touch. Hold your pen holder with a light grip, so the nib is barely gliding along the paper surface.

Very often, jagged lines in flourishing are because you’re finding it difficult to stretch your pen that far, especially if it’s a larger flourish. It’s difficult to maintain smooth lines when you’re already at the far end of your range of motion.

What this means is that you need to be comfortable with using finger, wrist and arm movements.

More importantly, you need to be comfortable with switching from one movement to another seamlessly.

Let’s take a look at this example, where the exit stroke of letter a is extended to form a large and intricate flourish.

Write the entrance stroke, oval and underturn using finger movement.

After transitioning to a hairline in the underturn, switch to wrist or arm movement seamlessly, and without lifting the pen.

Generally, the larger the flourish = the larger the range of motion you need = switch up to wrist or arm movement.

In this article, I’ve explained and demonstrated finger, wrist and arm movements.

You can also get my free drills worksheets to practise these movements!

free resource —

Calligraphy Drills Worksheets

Simple calligraphy drills and exercises that help you to master pressure and release strokes, and build muscle memory for wrist & arm movement!

Put these into practice

Make sure to download my free PDF guide on the Basics of Flourishing.

This comprehensive beginner’s guide includes several flourish variations for lowercase letters that you can use, plus traceable templates to start practising!

free pdf guide —

Basics of Flourishing

A complete beginner’s guide to flourishing!

You’ll learn basic rules and principles, simple variations for lowercase letters, and how to flourish a word or a phrase.

ready to learn more?

And when you’re ready to improve your flourishing even more, check out Flourishing the Alphabet.

You’ll learn how to flourish the alphabet confidently in this self-paced online course. It includes over 20 hours of videos and close to 150 pages of handouts to support learning at your own pace and convenience.

Using the flourish families framework I mentioned above, you’ll build up your own library of endless flourishes for lowercase and uppercase letters!

online course —

Flourishing the Alphabet

New to calligraphy flourishing?

In this self-paced online course, learn the ins and outs of flourishing — where, how, when to flourish and more!

Learn how to flourish the alphabet confidently, and come up with endless flourishes for lowercase & capital letters.

Related Resources

Free Resources

Calligraphy Drills Worksheets

Simple calligraphy drills and exercises that help you to master pressure and release strokes, and build muscle memory for wrist & arm movement.

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Worksheets

Simple Flourished Majuscules

Elevate your calligraphy with a touch of flourishing while keeping it simple and classy! Perfect for calligraphy and flourishing beginners, this set of worksheets will show you how to write the classic Copperplate majuscules with a little twist. With a clean and flowy look, these majuscules also pair well with modern scripts!