February 27, 2012 - Copperplate Class #6 at Sinai Temple

Today DeAnn had us practice flourishing.

The thick strokes of the flourish should be thinner than the primary stem stroke.

Remember: Flourishing is BIG.

Rehearse flourishing before you write it.

Flourishing text: try writing words without ascenders and descenders (see below, in black). Then come back and put on the flourishes afterward (see below, blue ink).

If a flourish doesn't work, try again.

You never know what’s in the sentence below; you want to avoid descenders and ascenders clashing and creating a dark spot.

Typically, you know what’s above as you’re writing.

HOMEWORK: Practice flourishing capitals and also writing text and flourishing it. Try various flourishes even if it looks stupid.

February 13, 2012 - Copperplate Class #5 at Sinai Temple

Today DeAnn demonstrated alternate capitals. The handouts were different versions of more flourished Copperplate capitals.

Review:
Capitals and stroke #5 are from ascender to base
Stroke #6 goes down to the descender
Lowercase d, t, p go halfway to ascender or descender

Flourishing: better that it’s too big than too small

Start thin, then get thicker.

Come back into itself.

Alternate Capitals:

Intead of the terminal dot, consider making an oval.
Or 2 ovals with different orientations.

When flourishing, beware of crossing strokes:
Thick over thin = OK
Thin over thick = OK
NEVER thick over thick – this creates a dark spot, which is bad.

If you’re about to cross a thick on a down-stroke, artificially make it thin with no pressure.

Elements of Flourishing are: Oval, Figure 8, Circle.

Flourishing is not just happenstance. You have to think about it. DeAnn sees it in her mind’s eye before she actually starts writing.

PLAY with flourishing capitals. Circle the ones you like on your practice sheet, then make one sheet with all the ones you like. Try making a whole alphabet with your favorite flourish.

HOMEWORK: Practice writing Capitalized flower words. Then write poetry or text.