Calligraphy: Hyphenation and flourishes
At school you were taught that hyphenation has to follow certain rules.
Bad hyphenation can make the text difficult to read, or cause mist-akes
and misunderstandings; a sportscar could become a sport-scar. But in calligraphy,
we want to make all lines equally long, so that the field of text has straight
margins on both sides. This means you can't employ the rules too strictly.
Make as legible hyphenations as you can, but don't let legibility destroy
your beautiful text field.
If you are getting near the end of a line and you notice that there is a
risk you may have to make a bad hyphenation, you can fill out the last part
of the line with flourishes - something that looks like letters from a distance,
but really isn't.
Flourishes can also be used to beautify your text. They are usually placed
as protrusions from the tall stems. Many medieval documents have extra-long
stems with flourishes on the first line of text. But don't overdo it, and
avoid excessive use flourishes inside the text.
Finish: erase!
When all the text has been written you wait until the ink has dried. Then
you wait a bit more, because it takes longer than you think. Then take your
eraser and carefully remove all the pencil lines from your paper. Admire
your work, be glad, see how nice it looks!