Author Topic: Offhand flourishing question  (Read 1675 times)

Offline Mayascript

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Offhand flourishing question
« on: May 26, 2020, 11:31:27 AM »
So I've recently started offhand flourishing, using a book called Ornate Pictorial Calligraphy! In the book, the first few exercises are horizontal spirals, which are going well so I moved on to vertical spirals. Now, with the vertical spirals, you change your hand position from holding the pen horizontally to vertically, and I can't quite figure put whether you're supposed to hold the pen completely vertically, or to the right a little bit? I find holding it to the right slightly is easier, but that could just be me! The illustrations in the book show the spirals at a slight right slant if you turn the book to look at the spirals horizontally, but I'm not sure! Any help would be great! Thanks in advance!
« Last Edit: May 26, 2020, 12:59:52 PM by Erica McPhee »

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Offhand flourishing question
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2020, 01:04:33 PM »
What fun! And a great challenge. There are many different approaches. I do all of my flourishing like Michael Sull does with an oblique holder and as you would with making shades for lettering. But I would like to get better at doing off hand flourishing with the traditional grip.

This blog post from Orugasan.com has a nice explanation and great compilation of photos and videos.

This YouTube video by Dao Huy Hoang also demonstrates well:

I hope that helps!  :D
Warm Regards,
Erica
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