Pre-Recorded Love, Fear, & Flourishing

Love, Fear, & Flourishing Pre-Recorded Online Course with Anne Elser

This recording is of a recent live group course now available to you and meant to preserve the warm cozy community vibe students love, but at a lower price point.Your purchase makes it possible for me to create new content for all my students worldwide.

All materials are uploaded to a class folder on my Dropbox site for you to stream and/or download.

Should you like to share your work, there is always Instagram and I am there A LOT.

For deeper connection and conversations, shop talk, and to meet folks for envelope exchanges, moral support, constructive feedback, and more, consider joining my private group on Facebook: A N N E F A N S.

Cut and paste the link below in your browser.https://www.facebook.com/groups/anneelserfans

IMPORTANT: When you purchase a ticket, Eventbrite will send you an order confirmation email with your ticket. WITHIN that email, scroll down beneath the ticket to see the links to everything you need in Dropbox where exemplars and class recordings will be stored for viewing.

You have a very long time to view the class. My classes are broken up into weekly exercises, but there is no rush. This pre-recorded class is structured so that you do not meet a live classroom of people. Instead, you take your own pace by yourself. If you'd like to meet others who have taken the course in the past or who are currently taking - try my Facebook Page AnneFans - it's a wonderful place to meet. Instagram also works well for connecting to others.

Calligraphic Flourishing Course Description:

The definition of flourish is to flower. We all flower in our language, thoughts, hopes and dreams, body movements, voices, and in our relationships with each other and the beautiful big world we share. But most importantly, we flourish all by ourselves - our bodies do this automatically - we were built this way. Look at the branching of blood vessels in our bodies, how our fingers splay open or fan out like flowers, the growth pattern of the hair on our heads, all the many muscles in our face that produce a genuine smile. That’s flourishing.

You have permission to flourish. And THAT is the largest obstacle we all face.

Everyone can flourish, but it is a daunting task for so many of us to draw one on paper. This workshop is designed to create a sense of ease with the idea of flourishing. We will identify points of fear and anxiety in our approach to flourishing, that wobble our lines and tense up our bodies, and we will heal ourselves from these negative work habits that make any exploration, especially this one, an unpleasant task.

We’ll train the eye and awakening the body (fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders and breath) to align with each other. We’ll begin with identifying the unique capabilities of our joints and how they best function in relation to the kinds of strokes we are drawing, from the wrist, elbow, shoulder, and fingers. We will begin to train our bodies to capably reproduce the elements of flourishes that make them work and that our eyes have learned to identify: Ovals, Perpendicular Intersections, Intersecting Ovals, Parallel Strokes, Shade and Hairline Relationships, Accents, Textures, and MORE.

We'll fall in love with the oval, so that are lines are never lost, always at home, and always pointing back towards home, at every angle and size imaginable. You cannot flourish without making ovals. And you won't want to make one, if it doesn't FEEL GOOD to make one. We'll make it feel good AND we'll train your eyes to identify opportunities for oval placement.

Working in pencil, straight/oblique pointed pens, and everyday pens (everything from felt tip, roller ball, gel pens, fountain pens, etc.) we’ll memorize standard flourishing movements and exercises that have been around a long time, and how to adjust and vary their proportions to suit our needs. We’ll learn how to exaggerate ascenders and descenders, the crossing of t’s, and the endings of words. We’ll learn to curl these strokes around the graceful curve of an oval, so that our pens are never lost, our strokes finding their way back home, even through the most subtle of suggestions. We’ll make flourishes that stand alone, work with each other, and that accent a word.

And best of all, we’ll do this together. We'll undo and heal all the negative thoughts you have in your head about your capacity to flourish. This course is a giant oval-shaped hug for your hands, your body, your thoughts, and of course - your work.

About Anne

Earning a BFA in 1991 in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art and graduate studies in Graphic Design at The Portfolio Center, Anne Elser began her artistic career in 1997 as a painter, bookbinder, designer, calligrapher, and instructor in these fields. Her passions are deeply rooted in teaching adults to discover the artist within who are encouraged to follow a personal growth path via sharing a creative table that is inclusive, encouraging, challenging, and LOTS of fun.

She currently teaches private calligraphy and bookbinding lessons from her home studio in Decatur, Georgia, and online. Anne also travels worldwide, conducting workshops and lectures, and is an IAMPETH instructor.

Her work has been featured in books and magazines across the country, and for both private and corporate clients such as Tiffany&Co, MontBlanc, Louis Vuitton, Paces Papers, Landor, Martha Stewart Weddings, Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Clicquot Veauvé, World50, Ogilvy, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Speedball.

Anne’s creation of the calligraphic hand, Open-Shaded Script was published in the Speedball Textbook’s 25th Edition - a Comprehensive Guide to Pen and Brush Lettering.

Artist, calligrapher, teacher, mother, and friend, Anne believes making art creates a channel for truth and is a soulful reflection of the connections shared by all.

She can be contacted at [email protected], and found online at anneelser.com, on Facebook, and Instagram. To register for local and online classes and workshops go to AnneElserClasses.Eventbrite.com. Class exemplars and other materials are at AnneElserShop.BigCartel.com.

Supply List:

For all online courses:

Purchase a pair of earbuds or headphones to wear during class.

Binders Art Supply (bindersart.com) is the best local Atlanta spot to purchase supplies for this class and they will give you a student discount! Anything that you can’t find there, can be purchased at John Neal Books (johnnealbooks.com) or Paper and Ink Arts (paperinkarts.com).

White Paper:

Transparent Marker Paper: Suggested brands below, but use whichever brands you’re comfortable with.

• Bienfang Graphics 360 9’’x12’’ Marker Pad

or Borden & Riley 9’’x12’’ 100s Smooth Cotton Comp Pad

Colored Paper: Any smooth paper that works well with Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof white. Suggested brands below.

• Strathmore Artagain pad. (Black paper.)

• Colored or Ivory Cover Paper: Any ink-friendly paper that won’t bleed with the ink you are using. Cut to around 5 x 7.

• Canson cover weight papers

• Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper.

Paper for Folding Envelopes: Ink-friendly high-quality paper. Any of these below will do.

• Strathmore Calligraphy Pad (This is a lovely ivory laid sheet.)

• Southworth Résumé Paper in White or Ivory (24 or 32 lb.). Neenah Paper sells this 100% cotton sheet in boxes of 100 at any office supply store or on amazon.com.

Dark Ink: Any dark ink that shows up on white practice paper.

• Sumi, Higgens Eternal, Mcaffrey’s, Walnut, etc.

• Colored inks of your choosing that won’t bleed. (My favorites are gouache/water/gum arabic mixtures).

Optional Accenting Inks:

• Metallic Pan (cake) inks: Finetec metallics and other brands

• PearlEx powder pigments mixed with water and gum arabic (try starting with equal parts of each.)

White Ink:

• Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White (water based that is thinned to your taste with water.)

Pens/Pencils:

• Pointed pen nib for lettering and flourishing and a pen holder. I prefer using an oblique pen holder, but you’re more than welcome to use a straight holder if you prefer.

• Soft Dark Dull Pencil for sketching

• Hard fine pencil for rules

• Feel free to bring in embellishments like stickers and stamps!

• Any glitter pen or glue you’d like to use accent your lettering. I Love a Clear Star Gelly Roll pen by Sakura.

Misc.:

• Ruler

• Bone Folder (for envelopes)

• Postage stamps (for envelopes)

• Glitter Glue, gems, etc., for accents.

• Chocolate

• Dog Treats

• More Chocolate

Host or Publisher Anne Elser