… of course those stroke have no rule, but how I can get sort of sense on come up with those style?
Greetings,
@Miranda_J -
First, I will offer my disclaimer that I still consider myself at the beginner stage of learning Spencerian — especially flourishing! But I do feel qualified to offer my personal experience that may be helpful:
I, too, have been very interested in those “exit flourishes,” and I want to develop the more ornamental style of OP (ornamental penmanship) Spencerian script.
What I have learned, so far, mainly by examining many different examples of historical documents and penmanship manuals of the time, that flourishes are very much a matter of the penman’s personal taste. But in addition to the vast variety of flourishes to be found, I have seen that many are similar, or appear to have been influenced by a certain “standard.”
As you say, “there is no ‘rule’” and I completely agree! The only restriction, if there is one, is to strive for flourishes that are as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Yes, what pleases one person may be different for another (“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”) but there are common practices that will support this: a sense of balance, choice of shading options, preserving the legibility of the text, etc.
How to go about coming up with the flourishes? What has worked, is working, with me is to find lots of examples online or in books of the variety of treatments. Discover for yourself which suit your personal fancy and appear the most interesting or beautiful to your eye. For me, I tend to enjoy the more restrained, or downplayed flourishes. For another person it may be the more ornate, the better! Nobody can decide this for you. I make screenshots of those that appeal to me and capture them in a single Word document or whatever software tool you have available for future reference. Besides finding what you like, you will likely begin developing a “sense” of how different flourishes are used under different conditions or needs. From there you will have a great start for not only understanding “how it works” but “what will work best for you.”
I could provide links to some great online sources, (many can be found on the forum) but instead I suggest this Google search:
ornamental penmanship archive.org
Archive.org is an AMAZING resource for free downloads and/or loans of some remarkable penmanship content! With the above search you will find a number of the best copywrite free original textbooks from “The Golden Age of Penmanship!” Besides finding many examples of flourishing treatments, you will also find lessons on how to create them!
I won’t go into how to learn to make them here — plenty of resources on this very forum for that! As a beginner myself in flourishing, though, I will say that some basic “figure 8” drills have been most helpful for developing skill in making smooth lines. From there, for me, it has been mainly a process of copying the flourish I want to learn, FIRST IN PENCIL, many repetitions, and comparing my attempts closely with my exemplar. Also helpful is to just learn one or two simple ones to begin, and start using them often until they become very familiar before adding another to the repertoire. Having a solid foundation first will make every subsequent flourish all that much easier to learn! It isn’t a race … begin slowly.
Hope this helps, and wishing you best of success in your and/or your children’s progress!
˜Karl