Practicing Calligraphy Flourishes

Flourishes are decorative elements that are connected to a single letter or even a long word. Flourishes can be connected at the beginning, middle, or the end of a word. They add character to the letter and gives the letter more attention and detail. If you are a beginner with flourishes Taylor suggests tracing over the example ten times to get this down right, and then free handing the design. Tracing another design over ten times and free handing that design, that outcome will be just perfect (36). I am not so sure this process will work for me knowing that I do not pick up on things like these very easily.

As Taylor had shared his technique in this book, I had tried this process to see if this method would work for me. "As you can imagine, we were all horrified. It's easy, he said, and smiled. An eight year old child can do it! And he made us point at the board and follow the line many times with our finger, then draw a letter. Can you do one? I've shown you where to start and what order to do the strokes. Try the carefully x 10 (in mid air, if you wish), one freehand, trace x 10, freehand, trace x 10 method and see how close your last one is to mine when you again write it freehand. Be proud of yourself when they become easy" (Taylor 36). When I was practicing with this method my letter had came out about exact the same when i was tracing over the letter the first ten times. After I was done tracing the letter for ten times I had started to free hand the letter. My free handed letters are on the left of the picture and the traced ones are on the right of the picture. I am not sure how this method works for me looking at the picture something looks missing from my hand drawn piece. This method might work better for some people than others.

What is your opinion on this method?

 Taylor, Peter. Complete Calligraphy. Heatherton Victoria Austrailia, Hinkler
     Books, 2013. Print.

Laying Out Your Calligraphy

I would never think to place 1 1/2 margins on a piece of paper while doing calligraphy. If a calligrapher decides to make their calligraphy very artistic they will come across all the ideas for layout, design, and skill. Calligraphers will create margins to help with the spacing and lettering to make their art look impressive (54). When I was tracing out my letters for my first blog I was free handing and guessing the space between the letters because I did not know how far apart to place them. The second time around I drew the 1 1/2 inch margins and I had carefully spaced out the letters apart as best as I could from each other to help give them space.

The layout could be used for poems, texts, and invitations. Taylor suggests the technique of creating a 1 1/2 border to please the eye. "The design and layout of a page or piece of calligraphic artwork is as personal as a painted picture, but calligraphy written on a single sheet, or a page of a book, always looks more impressive if you leave generous margins. It's hard to plan the size and spacing of lettering when you are given a sheet of paper and asked to fit a text into a particular area. Neither beginners nor professionals enjoy working this way. It's much easier to write on a larger piece of paper and trim the margins later to what you think looks nicest  (probably equal-sized boarders on the top and sides, and about 1 1/2 times that size on the bottom)" (Taylor 55). I feel that this technique did not work for me as best as my first technique. The boarder had limited me to my side space on the paper and I think that was my cause to write my letters smaller. I feel that not all techniques work for people and to do your best you need to find the technique that works best for you.
Do you work better with techniques or no techniques?
Taylor, Peter. Complete Calligraphy. Heatherton Victoria Austrailia, Hinkler
     Books, 2013. Print.

The Techniques Of Calligraphy

As you may already know, calligraphy is the work of art, there are not many rules to art because art is what you create with your mind and your expressions. To calligraphy there are a few different techniques and strategies to help you get started to design and create your letters. I have never tried calligraphy before because I always thought that calligraphy would be too intricate for me. Peter Taylor gives his advice that calligraphy does not have to be a beautiful end result, the beauty of calligraphy is the character you give to it and the technique you use (5). Often when I try to draw a piece of art I will erase and restart because my piece does not satisfy my level of liking. Peter's words had helped me write out these letters because I was not thinking about how my piece looked, but how I was applying the technique to my piece. In this picture below I decided to use a pencil instead of a calligraphy pen or a sharp angled marker because I like how the pencil went on the paper well. 

To improve your calligraphy skills a technique to try as Taylor mentions is the writing board and surface area. "Some people buy fancy hinged constructions for their writing board or prop it up on paper covered bricks, but I'm sure most calligraphers are like me and have the bottom edge in their lap and by moving closer or further away from the table, can alter the board's slope" (Taylor 6). As I was writing each letter of the alphabet down on my paper I had my clipboard attached to my sketchbook while the bottom part of the board was off the table and closer to me, and I had the top part of my sketchbook on the table as I was tracing each letter up and down on the table. This technique had helped my calligraphy letters look better in the end because this had made the dark details of my letters stick out which was made the letters easier for me to draw, and gave the letters more attention then they would have if I had drew them on just a flat surface.
What is your favorite calligraphy technique?
 Taylor, Peter. Complete Calligraphy. Heatherton Victoria Austrailia, Hinkler
     Books, 2013. Print.