Lettering with Flourishes | Expand Your Modern Calligraphy Skills

1. Introduction: Hey guys, my name's Peggy. I'm the founder of the Pigeon Letters. In this class we're going to learn all about the flourish. This is something that you can add to your lettering to make it a little more neat, a little more embellished, a little fanciful, if you will. It's more simple than you would think. I'm going to introduce the flourish to you guys in two basic shapes. From there they just evolve. We're going to get into practicing those and you're going to be able to explore new options for your lettering and find that the flourish is not as intimidating as you may think. So I'm really excited to get into this class with you. Let's get started. 2. Basic Standalone Flourishes: Embarking on a journey of learning something new consists of structure and muscle memory. The tricky part about flourishes is that they look effortless almost as though the pen was floating in the direction of the wind. They move fast, they aren't forgiving if they're wonky. The first skill I'm going to introduce you to is to learn the form and natural direction that a flourish should travel. This should help show you their structure, but also will help you develop muscle memory so that eventually you can adopt the effortless flow of a flourish. You can use a pencil or a pen to practice. The first ones that we will do are pretty simple and we're just going to practice of circles. From a regular circle form, I'm just going to extend its beginning and end, like so. You can see that this looks like it connects. But this form can also be like this. Notice that all I'm doing is I'm actually going to switch to a pen so that you can see these better. That'll show up better that way. But you can see that their form is the same. But it's just switching the motion of where the placement of where that is, where the lines will lie. But it's the same thing where it's curves slightly inward, comes around and then curves slightly inward again. Practice doing some circles and you can go along with me and do the ones that I'm doing. You can even do something that comes out, around and then through. But a really easy one to get used to are the loops, because then you can do something that evolves because flourishes constantly evolve. They go, they have a basic form and then you can build onto them, and so on. Then you can do something like this or continue on, like so. These aren't supposed to be O's. They are just a circular flourish if that makes sense. Then they can expand because you're adding a loop in like this. If you want to do something like this, you can add a loop and then come back around. See, it's the same thing you just added a loop in there, and you can add this anywhere. I'm going to do the same thing, but I added a loop right here. But it's still that round flourish. Once you do these base one's just do a variety. You don't have to do mine. Just play with that beginning, and then the end, where they're curved inward. You can start out here if you want to like that, but then they build and build. You can see how that will evolve into something like so. You can expand these loops, and do something that is more like this, and you'll find these types of loops space style in a whole bunch of different forms. You'll find them over and under turns, so this is under turns. You'll find them like in overturns, like so. You'll find them smaller, and then with an axis that comes up, you might find it like this. But, mostly I want you to focus on just the shape, so focus on that consistency as it flows, and then you can start lengthening, shortening. Obviously this wouldn't be a flourish because it's really long, but just get used to that muscle memory of what that would be like if you are lengthening some or shortening some and so on. You can do one that's longer and then gets smaller. You can do the same thing, but have it grow longer as you go. But these are all the same direction of a curve. Everything that you're seeing other than this one and this one, the curves are going the same direction. You're constantly turning one way, it doesn't switch and then turn counter clockwise. These are all clockwise, or if you're going the other direction, they're always counter clockwise, but you'll see that it's not something where you're going clockwise and then you switch and go counter clockwise. Those are different flourishes that are more compound and mixing together, which we will do next. You can do something more symmetric or is longer, but start short, get larger, short, larger and then short. Something that is more like this. You can see it starts small, larger, small, larger or small. This might look really pretty as like a framing situations if you have a word and then you have this underneath and on top going the other direction like this, and then those are right on top of each other. Practicing doing things that are more symmetric, obviously, this isn't a digital mirrored image, so this is all handwritten, so it's not going to be perfect, but that's the idea is to have it flow with your lettering, pearls. You can come out and curl in, you can curl through. It's the same idea as the o, but you have an entry or you can curl and then have an exit if you will, and that is where usually a connection is going to be or the end of a flourish that might turn into something like this or you might have it switched directions. But for now, just going into something or out of the flourish. 3. Changing Direction (Figure 8) with Standalone Flourishes: Let's move into changing directions, and this is where flourishes can get a lot more elaborate because you have more varieties. The first one we'll do is really simple. We're going to start with the curve around, come down, curve up and around in the center, into a curl at the bottom. Again, you're going to go up and around, down, curve up through the middle and a curve at the bottom. You can do these skinnier. You can do a fatter. You can do it where the bottom that comes through the middle, actually peaks up through, that you can see how that's turning into more of a loop, figure eight, rather than just that simple figure eight into a curl. See how as you practice, these are just going to evolve. The idea here is that you get your pen moving, you see the direction that it wants to go in and you experiment. These can grow and grow and grow. You can start and then go through, and rather than stopping, continue that eight, it gets smaller, and smaller, and then come through like this. You'll see, you'll come around, switch directions, come down, switch directions, come down, switch directions, down, switch directions, down, switch directions, and then keep the same direction to end. You can do that just a few times. You can do it a lot of times, you don't have to get shorter on the way down. You can build where it gets larger. You can make it so that it's small, long, small, long, and so on. You don't have to end it this way, you can actually end up the way that it began, curving around like this. These are really simple flourishes, really easy to learn, really easy to put underneath letters. Keeping it nice and short, you can come around through and stop. You don't even have to have a follow through, and that can be a flourish. You can come the opposite direction, and that's something that I recommend to. Notice, that I'm starting on the left side on all of these, that's where my hand naturally wants to go. But let's say you want to apply something like this to a letter or a design, and it makes sense only to do it from the opposite side. Make sure that you're practicing the opposite direction because your muscle memory naturally will want to do one thing versus another, and you'll see what is more comfortable to you, but it is good to have these designs being able to, see how this one comes around like this, being able to do it both directions. 4. Elaborate Standalone Flourishes: Now we're going to move on to some more elaborate flourishes that encompass what we just learned, but maybe combine a few of those elements, evolve even further to have more of a elaborate design, if you will. We will start doing our circle, but let's start pretty far out like this. All that I did here is I started curving outward and down and then I go into my circle. I overlap that line that I just did, come through out, overlap again, overlap again, and through. You can do this where it's only overlapping through some parts. See how I'd brought it through the whole way that time. But I want you guys to practice overlapping through the flourish. Because you can do this where it doesn't overlap and then you have something like this, which is also pretty. But overlapping is what will give you that real wispy fine line effect towards really flowing through. You can also tell, I want to show you, when my pen is moving faster I have that more effortless look where I was slowing this down to explain it. Notice how it's a lot more bold. It looks a lot more like set there on the paper versus having that flow effect. That's why we want to develop this Muslim Emory. It's totally fine to go slow right now as you're learning. But then once you have that structure, let's say we're practicing slower to get that motion of having it move through, do that a few times and then just try to speed it up just a little bit. You can use it as a reference. You can just see what happens naturally and you see it getting lighter and lighter and then it starts going faster and then you have that flow. Speaking of overlapping, similar to the one that we did where it comes down around like this. Let's do that, but have it come down and overlap. See how it came through here instead of just right here. Same thing where it comes down and around, down and up. Then instead of coming down, it's actually looping over that design and coming through and so you have that overlap like this. Then this can evolve also and this can just be a loop that's thrown in before you do this one. So you're just adding an extra step. If I was to do this and come around through, come up through a loop in, and then continue, what that would look like is this. You can see how these evolve. There's not like a certain structure again, you guys, these are just some that I'm playing with right now. These are not necessarily like, oh, there's only this set of flourishes. It's not something where you have to memorize this exact one. These are just ones that I'm showing you that you can develop muscle memory practice with that and then you can make them evolve into your own style. You can do something where it comes down and around and then a huge circle through with that same H-shape. It's like blending these circle and then that figure eight. Another figure eight that you can do, starting on either side. I'm going to do the opposite side because I want to switch that up as much as I can. This is my non-dominant side to start on the right and move to the left. We shall see, but you can come down around and then up and then do some loops on the way down. You can do the opposite way where it loops through like that instead of doing a loop, you would do a point. Like so. You're coming around doing a loop right here through. You can go around and instead of a loop, do a point through. So that still looks good. You just have to be careful because you don't want it to switch directions. If you were to switch directions, it would look something like, let me move that up, like this, and then you switch directions and that does not make sense because it doesn't flow there's a weird point and that's where things get mixed up. If you go too crazy without forming muscle memory, then you have a weird point that is like, okay, this isn't a flourished anymore. Whereas here, see how that goes naturally with that shape. So it's like your circle shape. You have all these beautiful loops. You can do the same thing. Just make sure that your point comes up and then you continue the same direction and back around. 5. A-B Uppercase: Now that you have some general ideas about the directions that flourishes go, let's start applying them to our letters. I will start with capital letters because you're going to find more flourishes along those lines versus lowercase, because lowercase are typically connected while uppercase is usually the beginning or somebody's name. There's a little more involved there, so we'll do capitals first. I'm just going to show you some examples and these aren't necessarily the way you need to do them. These are just again, they're just examples to encourage you to expand the style that you want to try to make them your own. The first thing that we're going to do is start by going curving around and up. Then we're going to create a curl and the tip and then come back down. That's going to look like this. Curl at the top and come back down. Then from there, we're just going to do a flourish that, it's not going to connect. You can connect it. I'll show you both ways. The first one is a loose connection through right here. The other way you can do it is to connect it. You start here, come around and down, and then connect right here just drag it through. You're going to connect, dragged through like this. It looks like it's a loop that goes the whole way through. You can do it to where you loop that whole way through. It might be a little tricky at first because you have to get down that shape. But it's possible once you practice it enough to where it is that shape. But it is easier to then come through and connect it again. You can always drag that through. The next one I'll show you a similar but it's broken down into two parts. You're going to do a curl, and then straight up, and stop. You're going to do your curl here, come up, and then stop. Then you're going to come down like this. But then up, around, and through. Again, that looks like this. You're going to come up and around, straight up, stop, come down and then it's just sharp stop, up, around, and through. Then we'll move into one that's a little more elaborate now. We'll start similarly where we're going to loop around. You start here you go to the right, loop up, come down, and then at an angle, and then instead of stopping you're actually going to follow through by going around through into a loop. That looks like this. You're going to start here up, and around. Go up, around, and through like this. Then you're going to come down from pretty high up, like here, and then stop. Come around and through like this. It's like what we did with the abrupt stop here only on much lower. Come through to your over the top loop, through, and then a curl at the end. Then you're going to connect this part and come through and up. See, I went through, did my loop into my other loop, and through again. A little more elaborate, we'll do another version of this. We are going to come around, up, and through. Then we're going to come down, but we're going to just stop. Then our cross is actually going to also come through here but we're going to actually bring it from here down. You're going to come from your A, where your cross, you're going to come backwards. Through, do a loop, switched directions, and stop. It brings it underneath and fills an empty space. This might come in handy with a name, especially let's say it's Amanda. I'll just show you real quick. I'm not going to do anything special to the other letters, but I will show you like let's say you had a flourish on your D and then you have your A. It would fill all that space. That's a good example to do something for that. Again, what that looks like is you're going to loop around, come up through like this, and then come straight down. Then take your cross, come through, loop, switched directions, and loop down. Then you can obviously bring this as far over to the right as you want to. Then I'll show you one more A, this one's pretty fancy. We're actually going to start on the right side of the A. You're going to come straight up, and then you're going to come down do a big loop, and then do a loop in the center, through, up and around. Again come up, come back down, big loop, center loop, and then through, up and around. Those are some A's. You can see they build on each other. But there's a lot of places that you can take A's, I mean even a sample flourish the one that is my go-to. I come up, down, and through like this. It's real simple. There's not anything too special or spectacular about it. You can also add in a loop like this. Just play with these. That's the idea is to play with the entry and exit, see where those circles will take you based off of the directions that you want to go and the base shapes that we talked about. Moving into B, a fun one to start with is really up high, and then come down like this, and then loop around like so. Really it's just a high loop and then you're going to do a small loop connect, small loop through and end. You can also just do it all in one. This doesn't have to overlap. You can come through like this. You can do it where you start here come over and down, and then have this abrupt area come through, stop, down and through again. It's a little less flourish, a little more swash. Basically just like an entry and exit to the letter that looks more fancy. But then we can go into something that is more fancy and come through where it's all in one motion. This can be tricky and don't judge me on the first one. The whole idea here is to practice. We're going to come up and around, and down, and then through to a little loop. Connect here. Now loop through and a high loop here. If you are more comfortable doing it the other way. Loop here, do loop through. See, and then this actually should have come up this way and then through. See those can be tricky. They are one swift motion. I'm not very good at those, but those are an option to move pretty quickly. Then we have the ones that start, they're more slanted. You're going to do a loop, down, another loop. Then you are going to take, I should have done that a little further, but you're going to do where it overlaps. But then comes up and through and then into your B. Then you're going to come down another loop outward. Again, that looks like this. You're going to, I'm going to start right here. You're going to do a big loop, come through, and loop around. You can actually connect to this where we didn't before, but you can connect it through, straight up and then you're going to bring your B through and then end it. This probably should have had more of a curve, but that's something that you can practice too. Then lastly, coming through like this. You're coming down, curving upward around, curving down and then through that. Rather than continuing a curve this way, you're actually stopping, doing a smaller curve coming through. Then you will do a loop and then another direction change, down. Then through like this. These are all over the place, but you can see that depending on your style, there's a lot of options, places that you can go. We're going to go a little bit quicker in the next videos and I'll show you some varieties of the rest of the capital letters. 6. C-M Uppercase: C is pretty straight forward. It's very similar to those circles that we were doing. Just lots of loops. You can start off here, do a loop at the top, loop around and finish. You can bring that loop here as well. You don't want to get too crazy down here because you don't want it to start looking like a G. Another more fancy version, do the same top, come around down and then you're going to switch directions, go through and then out like this. This is just our figure eight. What we did was we came through to our loop, come around, do another loop through, switched directions right here, figure eight that is overlapping and then a curl at the end. It might get lost in translation but if the rest of your letters, and we'll go over lowercase as well, if the rest of your letters are looking real fancy, then it will make complete sense. I know it's really weird in the beginning. Then another really simple option is to start low, do a curl, come through, and then a larger curl here. Then D, we'll move into D. You can start like we did the B where you come down, but then you do a loop and then come through like this. I'm totally skipping my guidelines right here, but I'm doing it so that you guys can see the letter forms so they're not smashed up like this so don't pay attention to where I am starting and ending on this sheet. Another way to do this if you are better at the other direction is to come down to your loop and then through. I'm not good at that way, cool linearly. I start here, come around, it's like your typical cursive, but you're just adding a loop in the beginning and then at the end. You can also do this where it does that figure eight again and then come through like this. Then another fun one would, it is all in one swoop, but it is really fancified. You're going to come down, do a huge loop here through like this, but your base shape is going to be in there. Different ways to do that, but you're just adding a loop in the center of what you just did here so it's basically like this but just larger. Then for E, you can just start wider and do a loop through like this, stop and then another loop through. You can curl those even more, do a loop, then a loop through there, stop. See, the base of my shape is here, and I'm doing a loop that overlaps and then come through again in another loop. You can do something more simple where it's like the base shape, but you're just adding a loop on the outer side of each. You're coming in, stopping and then ending, well that would be lower, but ending on that loop. Another way to bring that through is to start out here, come through, loop and then stop, and then you can travel again and then do a loop here, switch directions, a loop through, switch directions and down and around and through. A little bit faster would look like that. It's a little less structured here. I probably want this to come through like that though, so you can actually see what's going on. Those are some options for E, and then we will move into F. I'll just use the back of this paper. To start with my F, I'm going to come down like I did with my B and my D, and then I'm going to do a loop and follow through and then a simple cross with a loop at the very end. You can leave that out, you can do something that comes down and up, a loop that follows through, and then just a simple cross. My go-to F actually follows through, so it follows through right here and then sometimes I'll have that cross but a lot of times I'll just leave it as is. Then sometimes I'll throw a loop in the middle and follow through, sometimes I will start like this, so you do your loop, but instead of coming back up, you go through like that and then add your cross. You can do where you come out and do a loop here but then have your cross be connected, but doing a loop through that loop. So many times do I say loop, there's probably official terms for this and I'm not doing a good job with them, but hopefully you're understanding. We're going to come down a curl and then do your overlapping through. Maybe it switched directions and then come through again and then go through. See how these are just evolving, and they just get fancier and fancier as you go. One more way to do that would be to come down through and then down, loop through and then do a simple cross. Again, that's coming down, loop up, and then instead of looping up again, you're actually going to go to the side and loop through and then down to your cross, loop thorough. G can just be a simple curl and then come up, curl through. You can do a curl, come up, curl through like this. A curl, I guess, curl through and then stop lower, or you can get more fancy and do your loop through. It's the same thing except see how I would've started right here and then go on, but I actually started higher and a little bit longer and then I followed through and crossed through that one, and then I'm going to come down through like this. Again, up and around and then through down, stop, simple, like a normal cursive, if you like a lower-case cursive, switch directions and loop through. Then if you want to do like the standard, I guess it won't be standard because it's fancier, but like your cursive G that is your normal cursive G. It would be you could do something like where you loop around, high, loop up, and then stop right here, and then do a overlapping loop to end. Again, that's a large loop at the top, stop, and then you're going to do two large loops here. Notice that the ending here is similar to those loops that we did in the beginning, where they're like that circle but they're extended just slightly, and so that's where those come into play. For H, you can do something real simple to start and then just do a really long cross or you can do something where it starts a little fancier, it's like a figure eight, so I go up and then switch directions, come around and down and then I can take that cross, come down and loop through or I can do something where I am going to start and then stop, come down, loop up, do a loop through, come through, and I'm not done, I'm just stopping to show you. So I went down and up, stop, come down, curve around, go through a loop and then through. So I'm right here. Then from here, I'm going to do a loop up, and then straight down and then exit stroke. Again, that looks like this. Curve up and around, come straight down, curve up, do a loop, follow through, come upward, and then you loop around, come straight down, stop with an exit stroke. Your exit stroke could be more of a curve as well. Those little subtle changes actually can change the whole mood of your design depending on what it is so that's something to experiment with as well. Another H that you can play with, you can start off where you stop and then come through and do a loop here, any kind of loop that you might want, it doesn't have to be this one, and then come around, stop and then loop around, change directions and through. Then you can overlap through here for your cross. Lastly, this one just has a bunch of loops in it. You're going to come around, loop through, curve around down, follow that stroke through, come down, and then loop again. You're going to do a loop, come down, loop through, come back down, big loop, and through. That structure isn't the best, but you get the idea where you are doing something like this. Notice that muscle memory like I'm practicing and it doesn't look the best. Don't let that discourage you because once you get that motion down, when you do speed it up, it looks a lot better usually. This are a little more difficult because you don't want them to look like Js. One that I typically do is I just start and I do a big loop, maybe going through, come down, and then end like this. Again, that looks like this. You're going loop through up and then end. Sort of like this. Another way, you can do it to where it looks more like a fancy cursive line. But I always feel like they look more like Js. But it's typically penning around, stopping and then coming back down. How does that look like a J? You can always do a cross words through, and then come down and then through again like that. That's not what you want it to look like. I typically just go through and do something like this, or just stick to something simple. Then for J, this one does get really pretty. You can do a loop through and then stop, change to see how that slightly changes directions. Then you're going to come through and you can do a curl, or you can go through, stop and then do a curl through that one. You can come up, do a curl that stops and actually switches directions and goes through again and then curls at the end. At this point, we're just playing with the way that wants to do its direction. You can also do something where it goes through and then you have like this, that official cross coming through doing a loop. Switching directions and then taking that loop through. So again, this one looks like you come down, up, switch directions into a loop, come down. Then you're going to do a loop switch directions and then bring that through to overlap. What that would look like faster, like that. K can begin like the Hs do, or they come through down, do a loop, but then you can do a loop through like this and then do a fill like that. Again, you're coming up around, stop, straight down, do a loop. Come further over here, go down, around, connect, and then straight down and loop through. K's can get a lot more fancy where you can start with a larger loop, come up. Probably don't want that to touch somewhere like this and then lots of curls. This is just like that central O shape or that circle shape or like the longer elongated loops that overlap that we did in the beginning. That's where that comes into play and then you can come through, do a loop down, and then that same idea right here. Probably make that a little bit smaller. You're going to come through like this, down, loop through, down, and then do a loop here and then an exit. It might be a little overkill, to do that on both sides but wouldn't be if you brought this lower. If it was more like this it's not as bad because that is separated versus being right next to each other almost looks like wheels. Maybe bring it down, then it changes that appearance as well. Taking a simple L shape, we're just going to come up and around and then go into it, come down and then switch right there. You come around, switch directions here and then a loop here. Get a little more fancy by doing some more loops in the beginning. You're going to come around and down, and then a loop then come through and stop. That should be more separated. Something like, see how sometimes this can happen as you're practicing. It's like oh wrong direction. Just play around with that. Through and then loop around and through like that, or you can start way over to this side, come through and then do a loop at the bottom there. So that's kind of overlapping on itself, but it can be really pretty like this. Slowing that down. You're going to come up. Dip lower, come up through, and then switch or come up and around and down. Do your figure eight, but bring it up higher and do that curl through itself. M can be really fine because there's a lot of loops involved. You can make it really or an eight. A way to start doing that is starting at the bottom, going up and around through the loop, and then straight up. Bouncing it in the middle, straight up, come down, switch directions, switch directions and then loop through. You can also add a beginning. Let's say you're doing the same thing. Up, bounce, come down, loop through itself. Then you can just add a simple loop to the beginning. Start the same, up, and then stop, come down, bounce up and then come down. Normal exit stroke, but then come through like this. You can do this in one swift motion. Come up, bounce up, and then actually drag that motion through like this. You can bring the exit stroke up and around. If you start off like this, you can stop, bounce up like that. Instead of stopping right here, if you carry this through, you can actually do something like this. I switch directions right here. So instead of looping and continuing to go that direction, I actually switch directions, drag it through, overlap and then a small curl. I can bring this down to a small loop, come up and through. That's pretty fancy, but see, it doesn't have to be exactly like this. You can come up, stop, bring this through like this, overlap, come down, do a loop, and then just stop here. Lots of things that you can do with exit strokes, it's just a matter of playing with that and then doing it a few times, and then you do it a few times. Whatever you're doing comes a little more natural and then it's more seamless. You can really accentuate the curves that an M has. By doing something like this on either direction, you can start simple or start like this. Bouncing your M, doing something like that. These are just the same flourishes that we have been doing. It's just seeing where your pen wants to go. I am sure that by now you might have that experience where you're starting to develop a little bit of muscle memory. 7. N-Z Uppercase: Moving into n, starting similarly to what we did with our m. You can come around through and straight up. Notice that I'm overlapping, so you can always start like this, but you can bring this through, overlap it, and that's what gets you up and then come down and then come up and then through, like that. I'll show you what that looks like stand alone. It looks again to close, so I'll drop a line. So I'm going to come up through and then up, go down and then when I come up, a little bit higher, loop around switched directions and through like this. You can start on a curl, come up, down and then when you go up you can do a curl right here, and then through. One more time and that's a curl around, up come down and then when you go up again, keep going on a curl, follow through the same direction. A simple one, you going to go curl at the beginning, come up, down, and then a curl at the end, just like we did to the beginning. These are ones that you can elaborate on the same way that we did, our m here we come up, down and then larger circle shape. Then you can emphasize more of a lowercase style, but in an uppercase form. So come around down, come up and around down. That's that circle or a loop. You can do the same thing and then come through the bottom. So see how on the bottom here, I'm just going to show you the normal beginning, but if I come through, do a loop, it's like a figure eight. But then instead of continuing to figure eight, it changes directions, going the same direction. It doesn't change directions. So it changes directions right here, but then it loops and then follows through the whole time. Whereas you could do something like this, where it's constantly changing directions and then it almost creates a pattern. So you can do something where it does that it few times, but then comes through and these are things that you can do with all the letters. Another exit could come through and then switched directions here, and do a curl. So play with those different options and that goes for any letter. Then O, we did plenty of practice with the circle shape that we did. So you can do something like this, do something that looks like it's looping through like this, to a couple different circles, but play with overlapping how that looks. Play with a couple circles, play with a lot of circles and then you'll get the idea of what you want to do with your O's. My typical O starts here, and then switches directions and has over turn, here. For P, you can come down switch directions after your loop here and then do a large curl into your P or you can come down, loop through and then do your P. You can come from the bottom up and then loop through. Its a hard stop here, but then come up do a curl and loop through again. You can come up and around down and then do a curl. But then this curl is going to continue and do a loop. Come down and through and then stops at my P, probably do that smaller. So if I come through loop, come up in through, there we go. Or into more of an elaborate loop that's just larger and then do a loop through, like so. Q can be an emphasized O, so you have here, but then you have your slash in the middle. My favorite way to do this is to start here, come through to loop down. You can do this the same way. So, let's say you're doing a loop, same directions. So this is opposite direction. So I'm going through and then changing directions to where it starts curving the other direction. Whereas this one would be continued follow through. So you can do this like the continued follow through but instead of the loop stop and then follow through. So you do it like that to which looks really nice, especially if you do a loop toward the end. Or if you start a little lower like this. You can also do something where you loop right here, and then exit and then come through at the bottom. Review on a more of a traditional cursive Q. You can start in the middle, come up and around, down, do a turn and come through like this, but then you can actually add on to that like this, or you can even start something like that, but it's easiest just to go through that and then add on, they get familiar. For me anyway, because I'm used to doing something like this. Or you can just start large loop and then another loop. R will start similar to the P. So I just do a loop and then come down. You can make this come through, and just do your R and then comes straight down and do a fancy loop or you can just do this normal exit stroke. You can start way over here and then have more loops. Simple R, but have it emphasized over here, where you can drag this through and do one of these loops. You can drag it through like this. Then we have where those much larger circles coming through like that, but play with those. You can start out here and then go through. Basically, it's your normal S-shape, but you have a loop at the beginning and the end. I'll show you one of the basic one. I have to go put my loop here and then put my loop here, or come up and then do a loop. Again, what that looks like, let's say I want it even more elaborate. Come around, do a loop, and then come through my normal S do a loop, and then through again. I can do that same idea. Except instead of doing my loop where it comes straight back up, I actually go to the side, change directions and drag it through. That same thing I can do and then have it overlap. I can do the same thing but instead of having it follow through, just stop here. I can do that typical cursive S where I'm going to come through, do a loop, and then do a few right here, curls, overlap those. See how that changes it. It's the same motion, but it just depends on where it lies. So this is like your typical loop and then you can come through do the same motion, but see how I'm going out and then coming back into overlap. Then there's always that grand loop that goes through like that. T's. You can come down, do that fancy T like this. You can do something that has that smaller area and then does a loop on each end. You can come down and up and then just do a really high cross and your loop in there. You can do something that comes down, does one of those big loops. Then in that loop, it's going to come up through and then your flourish. For my U, I'm going to start low and then change directions and come through, stop, come through and do a loop down or a circle down here that overlaps. Again what that looks like, I'm going to start here, loop down, go up, flip, straight down, up, stop, come straight down, a little bit lower where my baseline is do a loop and then through as it continues and then I overlap.You can start higher, stop, and then go down again loop at the top here loop at the bottom. Do your more elaborate one's going to come out pretty far, come down do the loop, same thing here. Or you can switch directions. So still do that elaborate loop, come down up, stop, come down, switch directions right here and follow through. V. You can start pretty low, come up, stop, and then come down and exit or you can carry that through. It's a little more natural looking that way and then come up into instead of coming up and out, it's like coming up and in and then follow through like this. You can do something where you start to the right and then go around down and then go up around through and then back down through for my base and then come up like this. Again, this what this looks like is when you come down around up through, down through like this and then come up like that. Good. Doing that quicker, it looks like this. So see how developing muscle memory, it looks really weird, but really you're just getting the motions of how that's going to look and where those things are placed and then you can practice a few times during that quicker. Notice that when my pen isn't focused so much, this is looser, it's flatter, it looks like it flows more. You can come down and then do a loop here, come through and do a soft V at the bottom. W, you can do something just like this, where you come around and down, and then come up, do a loop down and then out. You can go from the bottom in and up. Normal W. I did a little bounce where it goes lower on the second one here, and then through to a circle or I can do that same thing the loop where it continues and then stop, come down, up and around. I can also take that loop around, stop, come up, stop, down, up, around, and through. For X, you can come up do a loop, through and then just simple cross. You can do the same thing, but on both sides, cross. For a Y you do a loop, come down, up and then down, loop through. If you want to do something similar you can do this one or this one. Start at the larger loop, and then end on a figure eight. You can have a smaller part where you're descending stem-loop is, so come down like this and then much skinnier and then loop through. Again that's up, down, loop, come down and up, stop, down, skinny loop but then a lot wider. Then lastly we have Z. Z, you can do a curl, loop through, straight down and then come follow through with the loop, and then end on a curl, you can do a little slash in the middle if you want to.You can do a curl, come up and around, stop,down, curl through.You can do this where there's a loop in the middle.You can follow this through where it's got that figure eight that follows through. So lots of variations. The point here is that you are experimenting and we will go into lowercase letters now. 8. a-z Lowercase: You probably won't find the lowercase letters are flourished very often because they are usually sandwiched in between other letters to create a word. Typically, they will only be flourished and a word or to fill a blank space. I'm going to go over these pretty quickly. We'll start with a, and you can come up and around like this and then come through and then a loop or you can come up and around stop and then come down like this. What that looks like slower, is down, loop up, continue that curl into a loop, switched directions, loop backwards. For b, you can come from the right side, go up and then switch directions down, loop around, down, and then finish off your b. We'll do that one more time. From the right go up, follow through and then finish your b. They come in handy because when you have a word, even though there are sandwiched inside a word, they fill up this space right here where here's a lot of other lowercase letters. Even if you have some balance, it's nice to be able to take up some of that space depending on your composition.. You'll find that a lot in the ascending stem loops and descending stem loops. For example, ascending stem loop would be your b like this. You can change that and make it something like this, where I can also come from the bottom. See how this one curls up and around. We did this with our capital V, some down, curl around and then through. It's going to go through through and then finish your b. You can also do it from the right depending on where it lays in your word. You can see how that looks better. Those are just things that I would practice your word. Try it different ways and then decide the one that you like the best. Another way to do this would be to curl around and through. It's essentially just the same idea as this, but it's starting smaller and only taking up as much space as the b does, whereas this extends. For c. This is pretty similar to your capital C. You can do things where you come in like this, or end it, where it's fancy like the a. That's a good exit. You can do something more up, loops which directions come through. Things like that. You can make this same design just larger. Then d is another one that can be a pretty fancy and fun. We're going to do our base shape and then we can start over here, come up and around, come down, loop and through like this. One more time, do your base shape and then you start on the left, come up, dip down, follow through in a loop, come down like so or you can do the same thing on the right side where it starts down and then comes up and dips through like this. Then e, probably going to be similar to c. You can do like an exit like that. It doesn't probably nothing too fancy with e. You can always bring it through like this, like that and this can always extend higher so that if it's down pretty low, you can do something like that where it ends and then maybe even goes through, stops, through again, switches direction, something fancy and fun. I probably wouldn't choose this design, but that's where you just see where the pen takes you. If you like something, then you can go through and follow the lines and see what you liked about it and then see where you want to take it from there. Then your f, you can come up, down, do some loops here and go through or you can come up and around and do some flourishes at the bottom. You can even do something like this where it has more of an exit at the bottom in that figure a and then a curl. g. This is one that has a descending stem-loop, so that means this. We're going to make that fancy by coming down. You can do a real big loop like this. You can do one like this. Same direction, just different spacing. This one again is going to come down, big loop the whole way, cross through the middle. The other one is the loop and then this small loop on the inside through. You can also do this where down, start that loop, go to the side, switch directions through like this. Then h. You can start high, big loop, stop, up and through. You can do the same thing but then have an exit like so. That's just going in to that figure 8, or you can do this the same way that we did our d's, a's and b's, where it's going to start way out here or start over on this side or this direction like this. Your i, nothing too fancy there. You could take it up and do a curl like that. Probably won't end on i too many times. Then your j. Anything that's descending or ascending, it doesn't have to connect to letters, no letters have to connect to letters. There are some that makes sense, more so to connect and then there's some that makes sense not to connect. The descending, anything that dips below that is, like let's say we have a, b, c, d, e, f. This is like your base area and these are all above. Then g dips below. Anytime this happens, this is a great time to break up the connections because then you can do that pretty flourish. For j, you can just come in and do some loops like this, or you can do that figure 8 like that. You can come through, loop, switched directions, curl. For k, you can start off higher, come through like a loop where it comes through, so up, around, come up and then through to come back down to your loop and then you're ending. You can do one of those circle flourishes. You can do it on a figure 8 where it's coming through like this and then up and then through. You can do it where it starts on a loop and then goes into a figure 8. Your l. You can do the bottom like in one of those pretty circles or you can start like this. Same thing we've done with a lot of our other letters, which you can't see that. Like that. Same thing we've done with a lot of our other letters where we start on the right side and then go through or you can start. Anytime that you start down, it's going to be going this direction again and so you have to have some place to put that, you can't just start your l right here. The best that is to come through and through and down. If you start over and under, so start over and then come through and see how it naturally starts to curve this way. That's when you go that direction. That's how you determine that. You can feel that out as you are practicing like let's say I want to make this curve, how do I do that again? Do I start under or over? Just visualize. Like once you get to that point right here, what way that's going to want to curl naturally? You can't do it like this. Like let's say you want to do this in this form. You can. It just looks weird because you don't have that natural flow, this versus this. This isn't the best. Then for m, you can do a simple loop at the bottom. More elaborate. You can do something like this. That's just down, up and around and through. Same thing with n. Little loop like this. You can carry these anywhere you want them. They can be fancy, they can move. Any flourishes that we learned in the beginning can be connected and then follow through. o. Something like that would be something you could stop at. Like this. This looks like you're coming around doing your O, coming up higher, through, loop, and end on a curl. But probably raise that higher, like that. So it doesn't look like it's another O, a wacky O, maybe a smaller loop. That's something to experiment with also. Then your P, this has a descender, so you can come down, do a loop through like this, and then do your P. You can come start from down here, loop around and over, and then like this. You can do a loop that comes, so you're going to come down, come up and around, down, keep that going with a loop, and then into it. Then your P and your Q to your base shape, down and through. So these loops are just like this, but then back into themselves. Then you can follow through or it goes back into itself, switches direction, and curls up. Or you can do something with a really large top, and not even use a flourish because it's fancy. You can come up to a drop, come around like this. You can do the same thing. But figure eight and then go into itself, do a loop there. Then your S. A lot of people do different S's. We can do it just like we did the capital or it follows through. We can do like your lowercase asks that you're used to do a loop through right here. Again, you're up, coming back down, do a loop, and you can continue the same direction like this, or do your loop and then switched directions right here, and follow through soft. You can do the same thing where it actually goes back into itself. So you're going to go up, down, you start to loop but then you go to the side, switch directions, and come back through. Then T. Get your T and then your crosses is usually where you're going to do your flourish. You can spin around like this. You can do a loop at the bottom and also do it at the top. You can go the opposite direction to where you start at the top and then loop that way. You can do something like this where it elongates, like so. Then your U. Something toward the top. Notice I'm just looping around like so. Nothing too fancy about it. It looks fancy, but right now you are at the point where you're just experimenting with where your loops will take you. You'll probably notice that you have a style that you're gravitating toward. You might do something like this. You might have a lot of overlapping. Then V. You can come through, do something like that, or you can come up through like this. I'll show you both of those a little bit slower. I'm going to come down and then come back up, but I'm going to be going outwards. So it's like over, arching, and then going around, switching directions into a curl. Or I can do this where I'm coming down and then I'm going inward, loop, switch directions, outward curl. So it changes the effect just based off of the direction that my upstroke is right here, and then you can make these as large as you want them. So I can have a larger loop, same with this one, larger loop, and then that will change the overall effect also, depending on the style that you want to do. You can even soften the V down here, so have it softer. Your W. You can just take advantage of that playful, bubbly format it already takes, and then just add on a loop at the end. Bring it up into itself. You can bring it lower where it bounces and then go out like that. So you're curling, switching directions, and curling again. X, similar to what we already did, but let's say it's connected to something you can drop it below, and do a curl, or drop it below, go the other way. So that's going to be down, around, down, around, and back up, and through. Then your Y it's got that descender. Y is where you'll find a lot of flourishes. So coming up, and through, and then looping through again. Again, that is your Y. You're going to come down in a big loop, loop through, and then come through where you're overlapping. You can do this where it comes through like this and it stops. You can do it where it goes through, switches, directions, has a softer exit, upward, I guess it's not softer it's just different direction. Do the same thing where it goes up, but instead of going up again, it's going to go through, switch direction, back around. You can do a figure eight here. So come down, around, and through like this. You can do a lot of loops going down like this. Then the same with Z. All of these you can do with Z because it's got that exit here. So just play with where those loops want to go. As you're practicing, have something in mind so your hand doesn't just randomly take you somewhere. But, I mean, eventually muscle memory will be able to just have your hand randomly take you places, which is the idea, like that. I didn't know where that was going to go. But then it's like, "Weird exit, I can do is add a curl here." Hopefully that gives you guys some ideas. So practice those and in the next video we will talk about composition, and how, and where to add flourishes to your lettering. 9. Using a Brush Pen with Flourishes: Okay, so I'm back to my flourishes and this time I want to see, assuming you already know how the downstrokes or where you apply pressure on downstrokes and then lift on upstrokes. It's the same with flourishes as letters. We're going to practice doing that. On these slight angles. I don't apply a ton of pressure but just enough so my upstroke is going to be light. A little bit more pressure. Light. Come around. Thick and down, thick. Faster. That would look like that. I'm not tracing perfectly, but I just want to give you guys the idea. Let's say we do this one. Thin, thick. Thin, thick, thin, thick and so on. Let's do this one down here. You're going to apply pressure, lift up. Apply pressure, lift up. I'm really bad when I go slow. Don't feel bad if you guys shake. If I do that one, if I'm going faster. Something like this and then, I draw this guy. It's off, but you get the idea. I am going lighter on upstrokes. 10. Composition with Thumbnail Sketches: When you're ready to actually start your composition with flourishes. I myself am pretty resistant to this step, but it is really important because it gives you a really good idea of exactly what you're going to go into and you have options to choose from, instead of just jumping in and then saying like this will do, but the whole goal here is to practice and see how things form. If you guys have ever taken any traditional drawing classes, you're probably familiar with thumbnail sketches. What this is the same image or idea, changing the layouts and what not. I'm just going to show you three simple, various similar ones. Typically you'll have boxes so you can do this with a ruler so they're nice and clean. I'm not going to have boxes, I'm just going to do it three different places. I'm going to use the phrase eat, sleep, create, repeat. The first thing that I want to do is get this down on paper in a very basic form, so there's not going to be any flourishes to it. No crazy entry or exit stroke. I'm just going to lay it down very simply, and then also I'm not going to cross my T's or no, any other letter like if it was Y, I'm not going to bring that down. I don't have any Y's in this phrase, but this is an area that you'll be able to experiment with and see how you might form some ligatures, which is how to connect a letter that may not be right next to it. That is a ligature also, but seeing how those letters can connect and create more of an illustration versus just some words. I'm going to put sleep in here, just very basic like this. Then create and make sure to, this is a little bit low. I'll probably bring that up just a little bit because I want to make sure that my words fit in well, but I'm using this empty space to bring my letters up. This is just a rough sketch so it doesn't have to look beautiful, but see I'm not crossing my T, and then I'm going to put repeat down here. I have that laid out. I have a general idea and now it's time to play with how those are going to connect. For this thumbnail, I'll take my entry stroke from my S, and I will bring it up to make that T cross. But in the process I'm going to throw a loop in right here. That's a version of a flourish. I'll probably make that a little wider, something like this. That will all end up connecting seamlessly. That's something I can do. It's an option. P, I'll probably just bring this out so it has its exit stroke. Let's go up and through. You can make this wider if you want to, so it has more of that symmetry on both sides. For C, I can bring a big loop through like this. I could start down here, but the reason I came up here is because I like the way that flourishes look when they overlap. Then my T, I could make the lower part of my P connect to the T by coming down, doing a loop and then through my T. My P actually creates the cross to my T. That is fun. Then for my R, I'll probably just do something basic for my R so it starts like that. This is something, see how I started here. If I had just jumped in with pen, I wouldn't be able to adjust that. In pencil, I'll be able to use this drawing as a reference when I'm ready to use ink. Then I'll know to come out here to create the entry of my arm. Then let's go into we have to cross this T. How do we want to do that? We have the beginning of our P, which has this empty area. I think it would be fun to bring this E out and through my T and then somehow connect it to that area. Let's go out like this to a loop, come around and through. See how that crosses my T, and then here I'll do a loop straight down. Then that creates where my P is. Then for my T here, it might be nice to overlap this flourish and then come down like this. This P can also have a flourish. It can come down, loop up, and then down and then start my figure eight and then come through in a curl. Then you have more of an illustration. I'll go over this darker so you can see it better. Then my S. You can come through like this to start your S when you're actually doing it. Then you know that your P is going across your T, like this through. Probably wait on the E. Because that's going along ways, you'll know that when you are starting, just make a note that that E is going to come in after you have this [inaudible] You know that where you're crossing and things like that, but your P will come through. All you're doing is figuring out the order. This will go in and then now you can do this E, curl around and through to your P. See that is one option, and then let's do another one. I am going to do the same thing where I just place it. Then I'll figure out where all the flourishes are going to go in a sec, so create and then repeat. From here, let's say I can take my E, see how this one I did my S around and through. I'll take my E and put that around, and through my T. Then my L, I'll actually start that out here into it. My P, instead of using the bottom, I'll use the part that comes around in through, and I'll just create one of those curls. Actually the bottom of my T, I can bring that out and through like that, so that overlaps. My C here, I can come up, stop and then follow through with my C, probably make that a little softer and maybe even wider so it doesn't look too much like a letter. This is another thing that is helpful when you're exploring layout. You can see that actually looks like a C on top of a C. You can bring it like this. Then it isn't so obviously like a letter, if you will, and then this T, hope I can cross normally, probably the sleigh actually. Because if I go up and down and threw, it goes into this cluster and that's just too much. If I go down through, then I can do something that's pretty aims downward into it's own thing. Then my E, I'll use my E to across my T. I go, I guess we did that before, but I'm just going to go down, create some swirls, and then through, and for this R, let's see, we could connect to the R and the P by going down around and up. See each of the bottom is creating a loop, going through, loop up like this. These don't always have to flow when you're actually lettering them. You can do like a really easy, gentle entry stroke that is easier to edit so that when you get to your P, you can come down around and loop, and then right here you can just lightly drag it to connect to make that illustration. Then we will do something with our T here at the bottom, probably just another one of these loops. When you look at the two here, I'm just going to go over this quickly. This one's not one of my favorites, so I'm not really going guide through it, but I just want to make it darker so that you can see them side-by-side. I even know how I did that. There we go, and let's go here. You can see that they both create that structure around the words, but I just think that this one's a little cleaner, so I like that better. But for the sake of thumbnail sketches, there may still be one out there that we haven't experimented with that we like better, so do at least three thumbnail sketches, if not five or six. This last one, I lay this out, I'm going to do a different S this time. That's another thing to experiment with, is changing up the style of letters. If you have a few different ones that you alternate through, like do mine, or sometimes like this. Instead of my loop, I do my S sometimes like this. Now I'll just take my E and cross like the T that we did already. I'll take this T, loop it down where it connects to this P, my S, I will have its entry stroke come through and actually connect to the C, so it's going to come down up and through like this. Then my T, I will have my P come through like this R probably just to swirl and then have my T come down. I'll do a wide, some swirly fun. You can see how looks and see if you like it but [inaudible] something like this. See how there's three different styles here. Often times I find that I like the first one that I did the best, but it's just satisfying to go through and see, these are some different ways. I'm really glad that I went through this because it validates my design even more. But that being said, I still wouldn't have been able to create that design had I not first drafted it in pencil, had I just jumped in with pen at first. See like that one is pretty, but this one is definitely more structured all the way around, but yeah, and then that also shows you how you're going to build it because you can trace over it harder and see where things are looping, how things should be when you are jumping in with your pen. Another thing you can do too is you can recreate this on a bigger piece of paper with a pencil and then trace it, which can be easier. I'm going to show you both ways so that you can see how with pencil you have a guaranteed result and then with pen, you don't know where you're going to go with it or the turn out because you're winging it using this as a reference, but I'll show you that in the next video. 11. Final Touches: Now that we have a good reference point, I'm going to use this but I'm going to put it to this side. Then I'm going to take a blank piece of paper and then I am going to copy what I just did. But, I'm going to do it super light, and I'm going to do it the same way though where I laid it out first and then added flourishes because I know it will be structured that way. The whole point if I'm tracing over the pencil then, I know exactly where it's and I'm not trying to do it all in one take. Then obviously, right off the that, you can make sure that it's good. Actually I want to erase this part a bit. I have that in and then I'm going to go sleep. Actually what I'll probably do because it's this type of s, instead of doing any entry stroke at all, I'm just going to start with the second part of it. P, that crosses my T but I'll wait on that part, so I can make sure that it's exactly lining up the way that I want it to. My C start with my just normal C and then go into my T, and then I'll wait on the X I know that's going to do some fancy. Here I can create my P and follow through. Only the thing is, you'll see that the bottom of my P should actually be lower. I did too much bounce in my lower letter or my lower word. I'm going to actually bring that down a bit and bounce lower than higher. If you do bounce lettering. That it's fitting a puzzle piece in there. There we go. Then my top of my p will come out and do a little flourish like that. My R. This P, the bottom of it I know that it does a flourished but doesn't attach to anything so I'll just bring that down now. I'm going to go down, loop inward. You can even overlap this R that it might look pretty and then around. Then I can do that loop into my E but I'll wait on the top of that because I know that's going to be connected to something. Then my T. That one same thing, I know it does a flourish but doesn't connect anything it just overlaps what I did with my P. I'll come down and up and then around. Now, this E I know comes out, loops, comes through C. I like how that overlaps. I'm going to bring this up higher and then erase this lower one. The line from the T. Then I'm going to L, and then overlap, come through and loop into my P. Then let's see my C. I have this. I'm going to do my S first so that, you know that S comes down, loops and up, and then that C comes up like this. You can see you're experimenting the whole time and figuring out, "Wait, how did I put this together?" Then you can make little final edits if you want to. Now I have that laid out. I have a general idea where it's going to go. I do recommend going through and making sure that extra lines are in there so you don't get confused as you are going over it and you know exactly where your pen is going to go. Then, you just take your pen and go over it. If you're going to be using a lighter pen with lighter ink, I would recommend going over this lightly with an eraser. You'll still see where you want to go, but it won't come through as much on the panel. If you're using black, it's not a big deal because you can erase these lines on the outside but it won't show up that much. But still you don't want pencil lines in your illustration. I'm just going to take a black pen. See how my E is boring. I'm actually going to do this. Now, as you know we're going to apply downstrokes on our flourishes just the same way we do with our letters, nothing changes there. It's the same rules that apply. Down through, down and up, and then up down. See how last minute I decided, "Oh, I actually like the idea that overlapping." So I'm going to do that. Then I know that this is going to connect right here. I can either start here and continue and then connect it, or I can attempt to do this line. If you feel like you can do that, then go ahead. It is long and you want to make sure it's smooth. My recommendation is don't think about it too much just go for it and make sure your hand is loose so that you are doing your flourishes just a little bit faster. Don't worry too much if you miss a couple of lines. This is just practicing and getting the muscle memory of starting to do this. Come down and through, and then here. I know that it crosses through that T. I don't have to wait till I do my T because I already have this laid out in pencil, so I can just do that now and follow the same lines that I already created. You have any wildly lines you can go over that real lightly to smooth out. Make a right here, and then up and around. See how on my downstrokes, I have it bold. Upstroke is light and then I start with my pressure here and then follow through. This looks a little bit like an E with the way that overlap. What I'm actually going to do to fix that, is take that T and make it a loop like this. Then it looks less like a letter, more like a flourish. Because there's a little gap right here that doesn't make a whole lot of sense I'm actually going to bring my T up higher. I'm going to come around through and then come up higher and see how that fills that space, and then I just follow this line through. Notice I did that pretty fast. The areas I slowed down. You can see that there's a little wobble in the line so I have to thicken that. Ideally you don't want to thicken things too much because they don't look like they flow as well. Minor stuff there, and then see how this P follows through like this. But mostly it's muscle memory. I'm trying really hard to follow these lines specifically to show you, which I have a hard time doing because I like to override. There we go. There is your piece once it has ink on it. Now I'm going to show you the same thing, but without penciling it in first and seeing how that can change things up. Usually you'll put in something that's a little less intentional, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's a little more unpredictable because flourishes real quick. I'm going to start with my E out here. Then go into my T. Then this T I know goes into my S but I'm going to start my S first since I don't have anything to trace. Then go into my L, E, and then my P is going to cross my T so I'm going to wait on that because I don't have it already out here, but I am going to now connect my T to my S. I know that comes through like that. I will start my C, so I know I come around. This is where my T starts so I can come down like that and then finish my P like this. Then this E goes off and connects to the T next so I'm going to wait on that. Then my R, E, P is the fancy one. I'm just going to do the base and then come through and do everything else. Here's my T. I know that this comes up and around like this, and then this P will meet it at the bottom so it comes down through like this. It's a little different than my first one but still again it's the same idea. Then this T, it's going to be from my E. So I have to do my E, and then come around down through into my P. Like that. Same thing, just without the pencils first or the pencil first. You can see it's a little wider. There is a little more space in between them. It's not as compact, it doesn't flow as nicely, but it's doable. That's the difference. That's why it's nice to lay down pencil first. 12. Project Time: That concludes our class guys. For your class project, I want you to use your name or somebody's name that is close to you. You can do this on a piece of paper or you can do it on an envelope to decorate and make it. So it is more presentable for your recipient. Starting with one word is a little less terrifying than doing a whole phrase. However, if you want to upload your phrases, then I would love to see them because there is nothing more beautiful than an ornate, beautifully composed flourished design. So I really look forward to seeing what you guys create and if you want feedback, please be sure to let me know in your class projects. Thank you so much for taking this class and I can not wait to see every beautiful creation that you guys submit. Will see you later.