Easter is upon us, so I decided to celebrate by making a fun and educational printable! The “Flourish by Number” Bunny will give you some calligraphy practice and help you to create something eye-catching and beautiful. The trick behind making it? Be patient and kind to yourself! If your bunny doesn’t look exactly like the example, don’t fret. No matter what, you’re learning, improving, and getting in some quality time with your dip pen!
How the “Flourish by Number” Bunny Printable Works
Have you ever worked with a “paint by number”? They were quite popular when I was a little girl — and, according to Google, their popularity hasn’t waned. Basically, the idea centers around breaking a painting apart into little pieces. Each piece has a number, and each number corresponds with a color. Once you fill in all the little pieces with the appropriate colors, the painting comes together to look amazing!
This flourish by number follows the same principle as a paint by number. Basically, you have a key that tells you which style of flourish corresponds with each number. For example, every time you see the number 1, you’ll know to draw flourishes that look like connected “S”s. Arrows on the piece show you which direction the flourishes should go.
Consider page 1 of the printable as a practice sheet. Obviously, when you’re done, you’ll still be able to see the printed bunny outlines. That’s okay because filling in the bunny will have allowed you to get in some experience making the bunny!
Using the Flourished Bunny on Projects
Once you’ve created the bunny once, try making it again on a project like mail art or a sketchbook page. You can go about it a couple of ways, but I think the easiest is to shine up the flourish by number graphic on page 2 through a light box. Keep the key on page 1 handy, and fill the graphic out! (If you don’t have a light box, you can always shine the graphic through a bright window, trace over the guidelines in pencil, use the guidelines to fill out the bunny, then erase them.)
I decided to use my flourished bunny on a piece of mail art for my little nieces, ages 4 and 2. They’ll be delighted with the lovely graphic (and thrilled to be receiving mail in general)!
Why Fill Out the Flourish By Number?
The free printable Flourish by Number Bunny serves two purposes. First, it teaches you how to make an elegant, flourished bunny. Second, it provides a fun and unconventional calligraphy drill!
Creating the bunny will also teach you how to break things down into parts. I think that when you look at something like this bunny as a whole, it’s easy to think, “I could never make something like that.” However, when you take it one step at a time, it becomes easy.
While this bunny provides great calligraphy practice, I do want to note that it’s not for complete calligraphy beginners. You should possess at least a basic level of familiarity with using a dip pen before you attempt to fill it out! (Otherwise, this flourishing exercise may provide discouraging.) If you don’t have any experience with a dip pen, you can always take the Beginner’s Modern Calligraphy Online Course.
I hope that you enjoy the free printable “Flourish by Number” included in this post! If you have any questions about filling it out, don’t hesitate to ask. Have a great weekend, and thanks very much for reading TPK!
Warmly,
