What Are The Rules Of Calligraphy Flourishing?

How did you start learning calligraphy flourishing? 

I started by imitating and practising flourishes that I saw on Instagram. But my flourishes didn’t turn out as beautiful and I thought it was a matter of practice. After sheets and sheets of practice, my flourishes still looked wrong.  

Does this sound familiar to you? Or is this what you’re currently struggling with? 

My first advice to calligraphers who want to learn flourishing is – learn the basic rules and principles. 

Just like how any calligraphy script has its own rules to follow, there are rules in calligraphy flourishing. Once you learn these basic rules, it’ll be easier to analyse flourishes, understand why and how they work, and recreate them with less confusion or frustration. 

This blogpost will cover the four basic rules of calligraphy flourishing that will easily take your flourishes from ‘meh’ to ‘this looks good’! I’ll also demonstrate each rule with examples from my beginner days of calligraphy. If your flourishing looks like any of my early examples – here’s how you can improve! 

The four rules of calligraphy flourishing are:

• Avoid crossing shades with shades
• Create ovals
• Cross lines at right angles
• Look at negative space

Avoid Crossing Shades With Shades

Hairlines can cross hairlines, hairlines can also cross shaded strokes, but avoid crossing shaded strokes with shaded strokes. 

Crossing shaded strokes creates a hotspot which looks visually heavy. You also run the risk of pulling ink if you’re doing pointed pen calligraphy.

Let’s take a look at two real life examples of this rule.

This flourished capital A has several problems – the most obvious being the lack of stroke transitions in the capital stem, making the letter look very visually heavy. But for the purpose of this blogpost, let’s look at the flourish on the bottom right corner of A. 

See how the shaded stroke of A extends beyond the baseline and crosses the shaded stroke of the flourish. Compare this to the corrected example, where I’ve transitioned the letter A to a hairline before the baseline. This makes it easier to add shade to the flourish without crossing any other shaded stroke.

This second example has the same problem. See how the shaded overturn of h extends beyond the baseline and crosses the shaded stroke of the flourish. I fixed this simply by making sure that the overturn of h transitions to a hairline before the baseline. 

That being said, you don’t have to add shade to flourishes! If you prefer, flourishes can be all hairlines too, making it even easier to follow this first rule of calligraphy flourishing.

Create Ovals

The Copperplate script is based on ovals, so in the same way, create ovals (not circles) with your flourishes. Ovals that are parallel to the baseline (0°) or slant line (55°) make for more elegant flourishes that are in harmony with your letters. 

Let’s take a look at two examples.

See how the left side of the flourish looks more like a squiggle. Compare this to the corrected example, where you can see two distinct ovals sitting on top of each other. This makes the flourish look more elegant and intentional, instead of being a careless afterthought. Notice how the ascender loop also sits more horizontally in the corrected example. 

This second example has the same problem and solution. While there is a distinct oval extending from the underturn of u, notice how the rest of the flourish doesn’t have clear ovals. The corrected example has two distinct ovals sitting next to each other, and both are parallel to the slant line. Notice how the centre loop forms a small oval too.

Cross Lines at Right Angles

Cross lines at right angles. You don’t have to be too precise about the angle, just remember not to squeeze the flourishes too tightly. Giving flourishes space to “breathe” makes for more elegant flourishes.

Let’s take a look at how this rule can be applied.

Look at the right side of the g flourish and notice how the lines are crossing at acute angles. This squeezes the flourish tighter together. Compare this to the corrected example, where the lines cross at right angles. The flourish naturally opens up to create more space. I’ve also opened up the flourish on the left side of g, giving it more room to “breathe”. 

In this example, I’ve simply opened up the flourish to occupy more space within the lines. The corrected example looks more elegant with flowy lines, instead of looking constricted and tight. 

Look at Negative Space

This is a similar point about allowing your flourishes to “breathe”. 

Be conscious of negative space – both within the flourishes, and between the flourishes and letters. Having sufficient space inside and outside flourishes helps with visual balance overall.

By this point, I hope you notice the problems in these two flourished quotes – shades crossing shades, squiggles instead of ovals, and tight flourishes that are too small. But also notice how a lot of the flourishes are too near the letters. The small spacing between the lines means there isn’t a lot of space to let the flourishes “breathe”, so the composition looks tight and constricted as a whole. A simple fix is to increase the spacing between the lines. 

Want To Learn Calligraphy Flourishing? 

I hope the analysis and breakdown of mistakes I’ve made have helped you to visualise these rules, and better understand how to apply them in your own flourishing practice!

If you want to learn more about calligraphy flourishing, check out these blogspots:

• Start flourishing easily, by warming up and practising with a pencil
• Where to flourish in letters, words, and multiples lines of text
• Tips on how to balance white space in longer texts

You can also download my free Basics of Flourishing PDF guide, which includes printable worksheets to learn and practise: 

• Simple flourishing variations for lowercase letters
• How and where to flourish in a word or phrase 
• Bonus exemplar for flourished uppercase letters  

Happy flourishing!