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Botanical Letter Tutorial
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Heads up! This tutorial is one of the most popular on the TPK site, so I’ve created an online course to show you exactly how to create a watercolor botanical letter like this one. The course includes traceable templates, layout drafts for each letter, and detailed instructions over how to draw and paint floral elements.…
I love botanical letters because they remind me of fairytales I would read as a little girl. Mainly, I remember big, beautiful “O”s beginning the “Once upon a time”; I loved those “O”s as much as the illustrations in the book! While embellished letters may look difficult to create, they’re actually a lot easier than you think — especially with the aid of a printer. Today I am going to show you how to create a letter with a botanical theme. Suggestions for use of your gorgeous design follow at the end of this post.
The Watercolor Botanical Letters 101 eCourse
In TPK’s new Watercolor Botanical Letters 101 eCourse, you’ll learn how to create beautiful watercolor botanical letters from the comfort of your own home! Featuring four lessons with two hours of thorough video instruction and helpful handouts, this comprehensive course will teach you valuable illustration and watercolor techniques.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMG44rgGVhU]
This course is suitable for both beginner and intermediate illustrators. If you’re a beginner, you will find useful tips and techniques that will serve you well in future drawing endeavors. For intermediate illustrators, you’ll likely just enjoy the course as an excuse to give yourself a relaxing art-filled afternoon!
Simple Written Botanical Letter Tutorial
First, you’ll choose a nice serif font on your computer and print the letter you wish to embellish as a large-ish size. The letter I have chosen is “J”, and the font is Century. Once you print your letter, choose a piece of paper to create your illustration on. I have 70 lb. Strathmore drawing paper {cut to 5″x7″} all lined up for use here.
Put the printout behind your drawing paper, and tape both to a sunny window. Lightly trace around your letter with a pencil.
Your pencil tracing will end up looking like this:
Now, this next part is where your imagination comes in! I am using a botanical theme today, but you can use virtually any design scheme you want. The point, really, is to just fill in the letter with a pattern or illustration. I’m going to show you what I did, and you can either emulate my steps, or create your own with a different theme! You’re creative, and the sky’s the limit — do what you want!
I decided it would be easiest to begin by drawing some twisted tree branches in pencil.
After I drew these tree branches, I kept embellishing with florals and botanicals, as you can see in the photos below. To get inspiration for these illustration elements, I Google Image searched “vintage botanical illustration”.
It is fine to take a lot of time making your pencil drawing inside the letter. Your main goal is to get the letter to a point where it’s all filled in with your pattern or illustration; basically, it should look like a letter even without the presence of the outline you made in the very first step.
Once you have created your pencil drawing, you’ll want to go over it with ink.
I personally have chosen to use a dip pen {with a Leonardt EF nib} and sumi ink for two reasons. The first of these reasons is I intend to watercolor over the ink, and I know that sumi ink is waterproof. The second reason — and the reason I chose sumi ink over Micron pens — is sumi ink stays vibrant even after erasing pencil lines. I notice that generally when I erase pencil guidelines after using Micron pens, the top layer of the lines I drew with the pens is erased off, leaving the piece a bit dull.
Even though I am using a dip pen and ink, you should feel free to use what you like and feel comfortable using. Micron pens, Pilot G2 pens, ballpoint pens … whatever! Really: suit this projects to your needs.
Once you have gone over your letter with ink, wait for the ink to dry, then erase your pencil lines.
As I mentioned, I have chosen to fill in my botanical letter with watercolors. I know, big shocker there, right? I use watercolors for so many projects because they’re very easy to use: they’re not messy, they’re easy to blend, and they cover large areas of paper in a short period of time. I got this super-cool travel set in an Altoids tin from Greenleaf & Blueberry.
I like to do one color at a time, so I started with greens.
Then I did browns.
Followed by reds and some purples …
And then yellows!
Believe it or not, that’s it. A botanical letter will take you all of 45 minutes to make {that’s a conservative estimate}, and you can do a lot of really cool things with it. You can:
- Frame it and display it in your home {of course}.
- Give it as a gift to a friend.
- Use it to embellish a wedding suite — ohh, and how cool would it be to make three botanical pieces: the initial of the groom, an ampersand, and the initial of the bride?!
- Use it to make personalized stationery.
- Keep the piece black and white and have it made into a stamp.
- Have it printed on a tote bag, a phone case, or whatever using a site like Zazzle.com.
I used these for something a little different/unique: a booklet to be used at a celebration of life gathering for my great-grandmother! Basically, I scanned the botanical letters into my computer and mass-printed them using the FedEx self-service printers and 65 lb. card stock from my local craft supply store.
My family and I assembled 100 of these booklets; each featured the botanical letter glued onto the front of a 5″x7″ DIY card {created from standard, 65 lb. card stock.}. We then sewed a little story about my great-grandmother inside {pairing sewing and paper is always a good thing}, and also tucked a lovely vintage photo inside. We finished up the packet with string and a 1″ x 2.25″ rectangle with my great-grandmother’s name written on it in Kaitlin style calligraphy. I loved how all the packets turned out because of the intricate beauty of the botanical letters. It really is amazing that the letters take such a small amount of time to create; they look a lot more complicated than they actually are, and I truly mean that. Give creating one a try, and you’ll see what I mean!
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial today and drew some inspiration from it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments! Also, please accept my apologies if I haven’t responded to your comment on another blog post. I think it’s the coolest thing when you leave comments, and I always respond to comments … eventually!
Thanks again for reading this blog. I really love that you do! I hope you’re having a great weekend, and I’ll write again soon.
Warmest wishes always,
