I’m a big believer in positivity. If you can’t change certain situations or the things that happen to you then try to look at those situations in a positive way and you will automatically get more positivity in your life. Or like writer Wayne Dyer used to say: ‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change’.
Now some days that’s easier said than done though! The past week alone was a rollercoaster of fear, hope, anxiety, peacefulness and everything in between. So to keep that positivity coming I decided to list my silver linings of this corona crisis.
– Time to learn new skills, read, make art and decorate my new apartment
– Community: there’s a growing sense of community and taking care of each other these past few weeks
– Looong video calls with friends. Somehow I feel like there’s deeper conversation and connection going on in a one-on-one video call than there is in a real life conversation. Or maybe it’s the current situation that creates that deeper sense of connection.
– The joy of anticipation! So many things to look forward to after we all come out of our ‘caves’.
So those were mine, I’d love for you to share your silver linings in the comments on this blog or on Instagram.
*Insert bridge* to today’s creative tutorial: I used the words ‘Silver Linings’ for a little Modern Calligraphy & flourishing tutorial. If you’ve joined one of my Modern Calligraphy workshops before then you might be at the point where you’re ready to get a bit more fancy with your calligraphy. If so, then this one is for you!
In short: flourishing is the embellishment of letters with loops underneath and above. Flourishing can make your calligraphy really impressive and it can also be used as a way to balance an artwork out. Did you put a word a bit too far to the left on your paper? Balance it out with some nice flourishing on the right!
There’s a few rules to keep in mind when you’re flourishing:
- Base all your loops on and oval shape. Basically you should be able to imagine an oval in the middle of all your loops, be it horizontal, vertical or diagonal. So rather than making your loops very circular, stretch them a little so they have more of an oval shape, but don’t make them too long and thin! There should always be enough ‘air’ in your loops.
- Never let two thick lines cross, it should either be two thin lines or a thick and a thin line that cross each other
- Make the angle at which one line crosses the other about 90 degrees. Now this isn’t always possible of course, but try not to make the angle a lot smaller than this because this would mean your lines are very close to each other and the result will look too cramped.
- Pencils are your friends when flourishing! Lay out the words and flourishes first so you can make sure the flourishes are nice and balanced. As you can see in the video I laid the words and flourishes out in pencil first too.
These are the supplies I used today:
- Nikko G nib
- HP laser print paper
- Straight nib holder or if you’re right handed use an oblique nib holder
- Black sumi ink
Here’s a downloadable traceable sheet if you want to practice tracing the words!
I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care and sign up for the daily tutorials below if you haven’t done so yet!
Lots of love,
