$Flora On Point Online: SPNG \u201925 Fri\/Sat 10-12.30 PM$

With pointed pen, watercolors/gouache, inks, and a fine brush, incorporate drawn floral illustrations with flourished Open-Shaded Script.
About this Event

FLORA ON POINT 8-Week Course w/ Anne Elser – ONLINE COURSE via Google Meet

🌺 Flora On Point Online: SPNG ’25 Fri/Sat 10-12.30 PM Eastern

4 LIVE & Recorded Sessions | All Levels | $180 | April 18, 19, 25, 26

⭐️20% EarlyBird Discount thru Friday, Mar 15th '25.

With pointed pen, watercolors/gouache, inks, and a fine brush, incorporate drawn floral illustrations with flourished Open-Shaded Script.

💻 Classes are recorded and available for download within two weeks after last class date.

Here's the class schedule:

Day 1 Fri Apr 18 2025 10-12.30pm Eastern

Day 2 Tue Apr 19 2025 10-12.30pm Eastern

Day 3 Tue Apr 25 2025 10-12.30pm Eastern

Day 4 Fri Apr 26 2025 10-12.30pm Eastern

Fall in love with your pointed pen in a new way, by drawing your letterforms and flowers with a dip pen, letting the ink dry, then waking up it back up with water to create delicate washes for the open shades of your letters, and shading/depth for your floral elements.

Open-Shaded Script or FLORA are not prerequisites for this course, though if you’ve taken either in the past, you’ll recognize the stroke sequences we’ll be using with our pointed pens.

Flora On Point Course Description:

Before FLORA, there was Open-Shaded Script.

Open-Shaded Script constructs letterforms by describing the swell or shade made by a pointed pen with at least two contour monoline strokes, drawn in the same stroke sequence seen in traditional scripts (Round Hand, Copperplate, etc.) The second stroke of a shade or extension of a hairline acts as a mentor stroke to the previous and is meant to offer gentle correction to curves (if needed) and to suggest the growth of a flourish, all with an open heart and gentle hand.

FLORA with Anne Elser was created drawing Open-Shaded Script with watercolor pencils and watercolors. This bridged the gap between drawing and painting, allowing the user to become more adept with the brush and fall deeper in love with Open-Shaded Script's unique freedom from the pressures of using a pointed pen.

The beauty of pressure-sensitive watercolor pencils is that you can not only vary the pressure of your pencil strokes, but you can also wake them up with a thin brush slightly damp with water, thusly creating deeper, more intense shades of the original color. One can even load their brush by borrowing color from the tip of a watercolor pencil, introducing yet another texture to your work.

Drawing and painting Open-Shaded Script and the many florals that accompany it gave the user an ease and confidence while exploring larger flourishes based off of the almighty oval - a pointed pen staple in letterforms and flourishes. The user improved both drawing and painting skills, all the while learning a little more about color theory and the effective use of warm and cool colors to describe form, whether it be that of a leaf, letter, stem, or petal.

FLORA gave the user permission to explore the grace of pointed pen characteristics, without having to use one. Good and fun practice, and endless beautiful opportunities.

Now comes the exciting part: Open-Shaded Script has kicked off her comfy slippers (monoline tools) and slipped her pretty feet into the sexiest of all shoes - the stiletto (a pointed pen)!!! Flora grew up a little and decided it was time to get more bang for her buck by ILLUSTRATING letters and florae with her pointed pen in a STRAIGHT holder. She draws Open-Shaded Script with the same thin hairlines that create open shades, she illustrates leaves and flowers and flourishes with easy mentor strokes, and she adds color and depth by shading lightly with the tip of her pen.

THEN SHE WAITS FOR THE INK TO DRY, makes a cup of tea, says a prayer, and returns to the table with a damp brush and an open heart.

Instead of waking up watercolor pencils, she wakes up her pointed pen hairlines and fills in shades, tugs out color from edges of flowers and leaves, blends and blurs hatch marks used to add pigment for florae and to describe surface texture. She creates DEPTH and SHADOW. Once dry, she asseses her work and decides if she wants more. This time she uses her watercolors or mixed ink loaded on her brush, and finishes with accents and glints of dark darks or sunny highlights.

You can use a pan of watercolors, gouaches, or mix your own ink with gouache, gum arabic and water. Watch this video on my AnneFans Facebook page where I describe my technique for Mixing My Own Inks: https://www.facebook.com/751209355/videos/10158500268214356/

Please note that for your ink to be successfully blended after drying, it can't be acrylic or permanent ink - that stuff won't budge or blend.

This class focuses on the full alphabet of Open-Shaded Script and a new set of florae. Our work is much smaller and delicate and by using a straight holder instead of an oblique, you're telling your brain that this is a marker or pencil - the difference and ease of your strokes will be both felt and seen.

You will fall in love with your pointed pen in a new way.

Open-Shaded Script and FLORA are not prerequisites for this course, though I will admit that they are extremely helpful. I highly recommend you take them all - as all content and philosophies overlap seamlessly, bringing your work to a whole new level.

About Anne

After earning a BFA in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art and graduate studies in Graphic Design at The Portfolio Center, Anne Elser began her artistic career as a painter, bookbinder, designer, and calligrapher. With over 20 years teaching experience, her students often report how fulfilling the classroom experience is, prompting both personal and artistic transformations. Anne's classes are also FUN and full of laughter. Students find the sense of community she inspires enriching and entertaining.

She currently teaches online lessons from her home studio in Atlanta, has taught at IAMPETH and also travels in the states and abroad conducting workshops.

Her work has been featured in books and magazines across the country, and for both private and corporate clients such as Tiffany&Co, Mont Blanc, Louis Vuitton, Paces Papers, Landor, Martha Stewart Weddings, Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Clicquot Veauvé, World50, Ogilvy, and more. Her calligraphic hand Open-Shaded Script, is featured in Speedball’s 25th Anniversary Textbook.

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.

Supply List:

PAPER Suggestions:

• Colored, white, or Ivory Cover Paper: Any ink-friendly paper that won’t bleed with the ink you are using and that will work well with pointed pen and withstand a bit of brush work. Cut to 8.5 x 11 to match grids in the exemplar.

• Canson cover weight papers

• Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper.

• 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 Walmart, any office supply store, and on amazon.com.

INKS:

• Colored dip-pen inks of your choosing that won’t bleed. (My favorites are gouache/water/gum arabic mixtures). Please refer to the Mixing Inks video on AnneFans : https://www.facebook.com/751209355/videos/10158500268214356/

• Pan (cake) inks you've planted in your pallet that came from a tube and are now dried or cake sets : Finetec metallics and other brands.

White Ink:

• Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White (water based that is thinned to your taste with water.) I also use this to make my mixed inks more opaque and pastel.

• Titanium white gouache or watercolor

Pens/Pencils:

• Pointed pen nib for lettering and flourishing and a pen holder. Can use a straight or oblique pen holder. My preferred nib is a medium flex and not too pointy. We want hairlines, but something that you feel comfortable gliding with. You may wish to trade in your extra-fine flexy nib with something more sturdy. Experiment to see what glides well for you with a straight holder.

• 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.

BRUSHES:

• Brush for painting: Pentel Aquash Water Brush - Small

• Brush for loading ink onto your nib: White Bristle Brush: FLAT Size 2, 4, or 6

Great for mixing gouache or loading ink.

Misc.:

• Ruler

• Bone Folder (for envelopes)

• Postage stamps (for envelopes)