Offhand Flourishing

An attempt at offhand flourishing. Offhand flourishing was how master penmen amused and one-upped each other. They would show off their skill. No planning ahead of time. No rough pencil. Just pen and ink, a wave of their hand and from their pens would fall graceful birds and swans with lavish and delicate swirls.

My bird was copied from a bird flourished by master penman, L.H. Hausam found in the penman archives of Zanerian.com I penciled my drawing before I inked using ultramarine gouache and a Gillotte 1068A nib. I need to loosen up and need work on shading, but I'm pleased with my attempt. So pleased I'm using this drawing in my sidebar to my Twitter account.

If you have some time, scroll through the penman archives. Some of the offhand flourishing is quite intricate.