Looking for templates for an upcoming flourish workshop, any advice ?

[valerie a.]

Hey guys, hope everyone is fine and ready for Easter weekend! I'm so glad i finally found a calligraphy group in Paris and i already signed up for two workshops. The first one is about "Arabesques" (which is one of a few French terms for "flourish", but also used in ballet vocabulary, how nice it that?  and the teacher invited us to come with a few templates we'd like to study. What do you think? Any advice for an absolute beginner in this matter? Thanks 

[Bianca M]

I've always loved the word "Arabesque" (11 yrs ballet)- I love the application of it to calligraphy! I wish I had some good advice for you, but, mostly I just want you to share your work from the class. 

I have this book (click to see on Amazon):
but don't reference it much since it's pictorial (beautiful, but I don't do it myself). Maybe there is some additional work on iampeth.com that might be suitable?

Happy Easter!

[evjo]

Ooh - I wish I could take that class with you.

I like Daniel Ames's work, which you can find if you do an internet search.  There are examples on the IAMPETH website.  I also really, really like the ornate flourishing that Felicia Tan does; her FF name is Faeleia.  Check out her instagram.  Yummy.

Some flourishing doesn't interest me - traditional flourishes of feathers, for example.   

Look for the style that makes you obsessed enough to practice endlessly.

[Bianca M]

Oh, Evjo, yes! Ames... now if only we could get our hands on his Book of Flourishes!

[Estefa]

For classical Copperplate flourishes I'd still go for "The Universal Penman" (G. Bickham) – it is full of fantastically flourished versions of capitals, plus a lot of flourishing that goes around the text. Wonderful resource.

For even older exemplars, search Flickr for Van den Velde. Looots of flourishing!

[valerie a.]

Thank you all for your input! I've been doing some research on the Internet and found a few pretty interesting things. I must organize the stuff because most of it is way too difficult for a first, but i should use some more "foundational" flourishes for the class. I'm getting more excited about it as the day comes nearer