Drawing through Calligraphy — Off-hand flourishing

Learn the incred­i­ble art of Off­hand flour­ish­ing, an ancient cal­lig­ra­phy tech­nique that is a com­bi­na­tion of draw­ing and cal­lig­ra­phy using a dip pen & ink. In a world where com­mu­ni­ca­tion is large­ly dri­ven by tech­nol­o­gy, the art of writ­ing can often seem irrel­e­vant, but the beau­ty of a hand­writ­ten card or note is time­less. Come and explore the mag­i­cal process of Off­hand flour­ish­ing with Sai, an expe­ri­enced Cal­lig­ra­ph­er and teach­ing artist, who will guide you through this course.

In the world of pen­man­ship, off­hand flour­ish­ing is the ulti­mate show­case of your cal­lig­ra­phy skills. It is an ancient cal­lig­ra­phy tech­nique, which involves draw­ing and cal­lig­ra­phy to pro­duce beau­ti­ful, intri­cate orna­men­tal flour­ish­es. When you look at a fin­ished piece, the flour­ish­es appear to be quite com­plex and elab­o­rate but the process of cre­at­ing off­hand flour­ish­es is actu­al­ly quite sim­ple and struc­tured. There are no pre­lim­i­nary draw­ings to guide you. It is a free hand draw­ing process, which is quite med­i­ta­tive and magical.

In this 6‑week course you will learn step by step the basics of off­hand flour­ish­ing. Once you become famil­iar with the tech­nique of off­hand flour­ish­ing you will learn to cre­ate intri­cate flour­ished pat­terns which can be adapt­ed into any shape and design. There will be plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tice and for trou­bleshoot­ing. At the end of the course you will pro­duce stun­ning art­works that would make per­fect hand­made gifts or cards

What to expect?

• We will cov­er the basics of point­ed pen cal­lig­ra­phy strokes fol­lowed by com­pound curves and car­touch­es, which form the foun­da­tion of off­hand flourishing.
• Once you become famil­iar with the beau­ti­ful pen strokes, you will learn the prin­ci­ples of off­hand flour­ish­ing, which can be adapt­ed into any shape and design.
• Using this tech­nique you can cre­ate bespoke cards; embell­ish an enve­lope or cre­ate unique works of art that can be framed. The pos­si­bil­i­ties are endless.
• This work­shop is suit­able for all levels.
• All mate­ri­als will be pro­vid­ed includ­ing an Advanced cal­lig­ra­phy kit.
• Refresh­ments included.

This course is suit­able for all lev­els. Famil­iar­i­ty with using the dip pen would be help­ful but not com­pul­so­ry. The book­ing fee is inclu­sive of all mate­ri­als, so you do not need to bring any­thing. All par­tic­i­pants will receive a spe­cial­ly curat­ed Advanced Cal­lig­ra­phy kit, which includes

• Straight pen­hold­er
• Vin­tage nibs
• Herbin coloured inks
• PH Martin’s bleed proof white ink
• Selec­tion of Claire­fontaine coloured paper and cards
• Prac­tice work­sheets and exemplars
• 12 hours of Cal­lig­ra­phy instruc­tion from an prac­tic­ing Calligrapher
• Expert tips and inspi­ra­tional project ideas to pur­sue your new skill on your own

If you always want­ed to try cal­lig­ra­phy or you sim­ply want to do some­thing cre­ative, this course will help you to learn an amaz­ing life skill that is bound to spark your cre­ativ­i­ty and bring you joy.

Note: Please make sure you are able to attend the course before book­ing, as refunds can­not be issued once the pay­ment is made. How­ev­er, you may be able to trans­fer to anoth­er course/ work­shop, sub­ject to avail­abil­i­ty. (This does not affect your statu­to­ry rights)