I’m often asked how to do hand lettering, or where one can
go to learn hand lettering. Personally, I learned by observation and
experimentation. I hope what I share here will serve as an invitation for you
to explore the hand lettering techniques, methods, and styles that work for you
so you can develop your own process.
General tips for getting into hand lettering
Well first off, there’s nothing new under the sun—and type
is no exception. There are only so many ways you can express a letter and have
it still be recognizable. You want to familiarize yourself intimately with each
of the groups of type (serif, sans serif, script, blackletter, etc.) and then
understand the characteristics of the type that are in these groups. You want
to eventually be able to draw letters with the proper weight and stroke
contrast without reference material so you can develop your own style. The best
way to do this is to focus on one thing at time. For example: say you pick
serif to work on first. You’ll want to study the history of that style, learn
how it originated, how it evolved, what it was used for, what’s different or
the same now compared to a few hundred years ago.
A foundational understanding is very helpful, but of course
the best way to solidify this is to draw letterforms and LOTS of them. Pick
some reference material and recreate it. Start with just a single letter and
pay attention to all of the subtle intricacies and attempt to replicate it. Trace
the letters even. Whatever helps you become more familiar. Of course, make sure
you’re not sharing copied work. This is strictly for practice.
What pens
are best for hand lettering?
The best pen is the one you’re comfortable with. It also
depends on the style you’re going for. I would encourage you to experiment.
When I first started out, I used to just use whatever pens I found around the
house. Don’t be disillusioned in thinking you need some sort of fancy pens or
brushes to be any good. Medium and instruments aren’t as important as the
techniques. Give a true artist some crayons and you still won’t be able to
limit him. That said, I really like Micron pens. They’re my personal weapon of
choice, and I enjoy the variety of tip sizes for creating various levels of
detail and and line thickness in my work. I also have several different brush
pens for conceptualizing scripts and making rough initial concepts.
Lettering Source Material &
Inspiration
I expose myself to
large quantities of classic and modern typography through the internet and
spend great lengths of time recreating, experimenting with, and practicing my
letters. Textbooks and other type specimen are still a welcome resource, though
it’s not the type of thing I would say is a requirement for someone wanting to
get into hand lettering.
The important thing is
not to overly concern yourself with having expensive books, or fancy source
material. When starting out, practice is the most important thing. Classical
type reference is very important, but you can access a great deal online. Focus
on solidifying your basics before spending a lot of money on expensive books.
Hand Lettering Process
When starting out, I like to draw a number of small
thumbnails to help flesh out a general direction for the composition. For this
rough stage, I’ll use either a pencil or a brush pen—just something easy to get
the idea out. Effortless prototyping is the goal, so use whatever tool is
easiest to crank out iterations with.
Step 1
In this very first step, I’ve simply written out the words
to be used. For this piece, the quote is one I wrote myself, so I was still
working through exactly what I wanted it to say. This gives you a basic look at
the number of words you have to work with, and is a good way to overcome the
blank page syndrome. There’s no pressure, simply write out your phrase in
simple handwriting.
Step 2
You can see in this next version, I start to formulate a
rough composition. I’m gaguing a tentative arrangement and contemplating which
words should be in which lines. Here, I try to stack lines in a comprehensible
way that gives important words the necessary focus.
Step 3
Building off of the previous step, I beging to incorporate
some vague indications of style for the various words. You’ll notice that I
have some very sketch script, serif, sans-seirf, and block outline letters
beginning to develop. We’re starting to get a decent idea of our composition,
and we can begin to pay attention to potential letter interactions and overall
balance.
Step 4
This improvement is subtle, but one that is the start of
tightening things up. The first three words are now all in one line. We start
to see the first interaction of the ‘f’ descender in ‘Life’ interacting with
the second line. If you look closely, you’ll also notice some faint pencil
lines. These guides and shapes are used as a reference for building the initial
sketch of the actual composition.
Step 5
With the ‘f’ descender presenting a unique opportunity, I
explored a few ways that it could descend without interrupting the flow and
legibility of the words in the second line. The highlighted solution is what
ended up being in the final piece. The ‘f’ swoops down to completed the cross
bar of the ‘A’ for a smart fit that prevents any awkward extra space. It’s
almost unnoticeable if you don’t know what to look for, but that’s the beauty
of it.
Step 6
Going off of the rought pencil guides from a couple steps
ago, I create a much more precise and even pencil sketch. I render the
previously chosen styles with detail and pay close attention to spacing,
balance, and legibility.
Step 7
Much of my time is spent in these pencil stages. Typically
I’ll start out lightly, and gradually press in harder with the pencil to create
the darker lines to be inked once I’m quite certain of their shape. When I go
to ink, I don’t want there to be any thinking left to do. Only rendering.
Step 8
The pencil sketch is complete. The primary thing you want to
nail in this stage are the styles, spacing, alignment and balance. It’s ok if
your pencil lines aren’t perfect, but the closer you are to perfect, the easier
the inking will be, so take your time.
Step 9
Now, we finally begin the exhileratingly dangerous stage of
inking! There’s no going back at this point, so just relax, put on some music,
and get in the zone where it’s just you, the pen and the paper. There’s nothing
else in the world you’re thinking about but the very line you are drawing at
this precise moment. There will be time for the zoomed out look later, but now
is for the macro detail.
Step 10
After much patience, and often numerous breaks, you will see
the conclusion that is hopefully your grand vision. If you’re anything like me,
I encourage you to bask in this moment, for tomorrow you will see only flaws. We
are our own worst critics, after all. This is a good thing however, because it
keeps us moving forward, and it ensures that we push ourselves to be better and
better with each and every new piece.
Source
Amazing! Thank you for the tips!
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήGreat tutorial.
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήTips for beginners and intermediate letterers.
Couldn't find anything like this at www.fontnotes.com but there are other things to read there