Ps-- about flourishes... (for me, thinking about it this way is helpful, but maybe not for others):
I think beautiful flourishes are the calligraphic equivalent of the tour fouetté in ballet
...meaning they'll be done beautifully when all the basic, component parts of *one* turn are mastered. In the case of calligraphy, that's the oval...
Flourishes are "advanced"-- they're something it's hard to imagine doing when we just begin a discipline, but which grow out of a lot of practice, and a trained body and eye. Any calligraphers struggling with flourishes (myself included!) should take heart-- I think we're in good company!
My yoga teacher always said about advanced postures and students' questions about them: "Do your practice and all is coming".

But in the meantime, I struggle too! Sometimes I have to throw out an entire envelope that is otherwise completely acceptable, because I got confident (or cocky?) and make some kind of ill-considered flourish that I couldn't properly execute, and didn't add anything to the design. Very easy way to make competent lettering look amateurish. I think restraint is pretty important in flourishing... the negative space around the flourish has to be considered as much as the form itself.
Anyway, happy practice, all! I'm off to do Estefa's drills.
