Flourishing Tips

My Fearless Flourishing online course opens next week - so wanted to share a bit of my journey here!

When I first started my pointed pen calligraphy journey back in 2014, I quickly fell in LOVE with flourishing and the 'fancy loops'..but had no idea where to begin or how to flourish! If anything, whenever I tried to copy someone or imitate something I saw in a book, it looked awkward and off. But I was determined to figure it out and over the past 9 years...I began to practice, study, and my flourishing evolved to what it is today :)

2019

2021-2023:

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When I first started, I had fears and uncertainties of where to place my flourishes and mainly copied from others/books/etc. Niney years later, now that I have a strong understanding of WHY and HOW to flourish... I am really enjoying the whole design part of flourishing. I am able to make thoughtful decisions on where to place flourishes, what to avoid, and how to make the whole composition flow. 

Couple of things to keep in mind when flourishing:

• Don't skip the basics! Remember that flourishing exists to enhance the beauty of the basic letterforms, not replace it. 
• Cross at nearly right angles (90 degrees) 
• Keep negative space in mind as you flourish so that the lines are well balanced and not converging or diverging
• Whenever you have a 't' next to another ascender like l, b, h... see if you can combine them so that the flourish can also function as a crossbar to the 't'
• Visualize embedded ovals throughout your entire piece! That will help you to avoid making your flourishing too round or angular

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One of my students, Nia requested if I could flourish her name Nathania...so here are some visuals to take you through my thought process!

Hope you found this helpful! 

If you want to join my comprehensive flourishing online course, you can find details and join here: https://www.logoscalligraphy.com/fearlessflourishing

Younghae