Media: Moon Palace Sumi ink on Canson Pro-Layout Marker paper. Dimensions: 11″ x 14″ Artist: Raoul Martinez Title: Quelle bonne chose! Author: Pierre Loti (Julien Viaud)

I recently took a workshop from Pat Blair, the Chief Calligrapher of the White House. What a fantastic artist she is! She taught us how to change the style of our script by varying the pressure on the nib, the writing angle and the width of our letters. We also got to dabble in flourishing. This piece, which I did last week, is one of my first attempts at flourishing.

It is a quote from the novel Aziyadé by the French author and naval officer Pierre Loti. Here is the translation:

What a good thing it is to love and to be loved!

to know that a beautiful soul has understood yours; that someone relates all his thoughts, all his actions to you; that you are a center, a goal, in view of which a being as subtly complicated as your own lives, thinks and reacts! This is what makes us strong; This is how men of genius are made.