Love your (lettering) curves

Hey there, lettering diva – Have you picked up a pen or pencil today? If not, you should. Every little chance you have to practice matters.
I have to tell you, before I was able to create the intricate pieces I now make, I started by embellishing just one letter in my alphabet. Just one. Every time I wrote something that included the letter y, I gave it a touch of fancy with a simple swirl.

​While this exercise didn't make my to do lists and notes on my calendar look much prettier, it DID help me create muscle memory. Within a few days those tails on my y's started looking much smoother and it gave me the confidence to move on to other letters and further explore this aspect of hand lettering we call flourishing – even before I knew how to style the letters of the alphabet. 

What exactly is Flourishing?
Flourishing is the art of embellishing letters with a few curvy strokes and swirls that create a feeling of motion and elegance. I love that it can be used with your regular writing (as shown in the image to the left) and it gives you the ability to dress up an envelope or gift tag in an instant with just a few pen strokes.
For those of you that have purchased my  Lettering Bootcamp online course, make sure you log on to print the updated flourishing worksheets. They guide you through the process of identifying opportunities for flourishing as well as providing numerous samples of strokes that you can trace to begin to build that precious muscle memory in your hand. Once you have muscle memory, you won't have to worry about motion as much, which will allow you to zoom your focus onto composition; you'll be loving your hand drawn curves in no time!

3 Tips for Better Flourishing

1. Don't add swirls & curves just anywhere, be intentional about where you put them. Look for opportunities to flourish, such as cross bars in the letter t; the first and last letter in a word; upper loops in letters b, d, and h; and tails in lower case letters j, g and y. 
2. Create balance by adding similar or the same type of loops and swirls throughout your design. Notice the placement of the flowers and dots in the image above that reads "Love". The balance with those elements helps frame the word making it very legible. 
3. Don’t make them too round or you’ll end up with bubbles instead of flowy elegant curves. The more elongated they are, the more of a tear drop shape that your closed loops have, the more elegant they will appear.

FLOURISHING WORKSHOP, JUNE 1 • 10AM
I will be kicking off my Coffee Shop Lettering Series this weekend with two sessions back to back on Friday, May 31 at 5:30pm (because Lettering Hour is my Happy Hour) where I will cover the basics of hand lettering followed by a Flourishing session on Saturday, June 1 at 10am. These are limited to four students max so that I can focus on your individual skills and provide a more personalized coaching experience. ​

SEE WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

These lettering workshops have definitely increased my enthusiasm and creative momentum. I'm really excited to share this wonderful art form with my local community here in the Coachella Valley as well as my online community.
As part of this community, I encourage you to stay in touch via email and Instagram; feel free to ask me any questions regarding lettering and design. It is through your feedback that I'll be able to improve and continue to provide you with success tools and inspiration for your creative journey. Thanks again, talk to you soon!

XO,  Dio =]

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