Flora & Francis Forest Script Exemplars v 2.0

Letter, Heart & Soul Growth in co-creation with nature, we GROW letters instead of drawing them, using the principles of script lettering.

65 8.5 x 11 inch pages
PDF Exemplar Download
122.4mb PDF
4-C
Print at 100%, not "fit to page"

For quite a while, I’ve searched for a form of script writing that is connected with the natural world in a very direct, visceral way. We’ve all seen twig writing, nature letters, log letters, made out of chunky pieces of twigs and wood... and the exemplars will include some examples that I’ve found to be beautiful.

However, there is nothing out there that gives reverence to the logic and history of pointed pen script with its shaded swells and downstrokes and delicate hairline upstrokes. There’s very little that flourishes delicately - that nods to the pointed pen scripts we love: English Roundhand, Copperplate, Spencerian, Cursive, and so much more. We will begin our study of this hand, FLORA & FRANCIS, by comparing a shade to a stem, and how to transition a sketch of the flow of an Open-Shaded Script letter to a living plant with nodes that provide opportunity for new growth.

Minuscules will be studied first, then linked into words, then majuscules. We’ll initially base our florals on the apple, quince, and pear blossoms, and then delve deeper into other florals we feel moved to explore as a collective.

We will also use the provided inspirations from the past to expand our ideas, pushing and stretching our creativity to become our own forest type designers. If you were a tree, what would YOU say and how would you say it? Now THAT’s a great question.

It is one thing to draw a letter and it is an entirely different thing to GROW that letter.

FLORA & FRANCIS offers you that visceral experience - you, as creator, nurturer of the thoughts you want to grow, the healing you wish to cultivate, the burdens you wish to release... all of these things come from time spent in the natural world. Did you notice how quickly the process of my describing the logic of this class turned to the ethereal plane? THAT is what happens when you grow a letter. *POOF* Pen, pencil, brush in hand, you are already in relationship with the natural world - seen and unseen.