Creative Hand-Lettering Tutorials: Part I

In a world where computer-generated type dominates, hand-lettering stands out in a beautiful way. If you want someone to notice something, write it out and embellish it! It doesn’t matter if you’re designing on a professional level {business cards, posters, billboards, etc.}, or if your goal is unique mail art. Either way, your lettering will get noticed! Today, I’ve put together three hand-lettering tutorials to inspire you; and more will follow in the next TPK blog post.

First, I’m going to show you how to make a simple shaded effect with lines. You can see this technique used in several vintage hand-lettered pieces from the late 1800s; I love the way the shading makes letters stand out!

To start, write out your word. You can use faux calligraphy, dip pen calligraphy, or use a brush pen. I have chosen to use a brush pen and my favorite no-fuss calligraphy style, the Kaitlin.

Next, use a pencil to draw a line parallel to the right side of each fat downstroke. {If you’re not sure what a downstroke is, take a quick look at the faux calligraphy tutorial.} There should be about 1/4″ {6 mm} of space between the original letter and your pencil line.

When you’re finished drawing the pencil lines, your piece will look something like this:

At this point, you’ll want to choose which writing utensil you want to make your lines with. I have decided to use a dip pen and walnut ink, but — really — you can use whatever you want. A ballpoint pen, a fine-tipped marker, whatever. You can absolutely use the same writing utensil/color you used to create your original word or words. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

Start drawing your lines as pictured below.

The basic rule of drawing these lines is this: draw the lines such that one end of the line is touching the pencil mark, and the other end of the line does not touch the letter/downstroke. All of the ends of the line that are closest to the downstroke should maintain a consistent distance from the letter/downstroke.

Once you’re finished drawing in the shading lines, wait for them to dry {if applicable}, then erase your pencil lines.

When the pencil lines are gone, you’re finished!

You don’t have to relegate your use of this technique to cursive; these shading lines look equally good in print! I used them in all of shipping stamp designs to lend a cool, vintage vibe.

This next hand-lettering tutorial was inspired by the Theo chocolate logo and colors.

Yes, I love the technique that was used to create the Theo logo so much that I cut out a chocolate bar wrapper to keep on my inspiration board. Whoever designed it is a genius; the colors emulate the warmth of the tropics where chocolate comes from, and the vertical lines mimic pouring chocolate. While replicating this design idea in a commercial context would be plagiarism, it’s perfectly fine to play around with the Theo technique for personal projects, like a snail mail envelope! You can make the project even more enjoyable by eating some of their chocolates while you create.

You’ll begin by making a pencil sketch of the word you wish to “Theo-ize”. Try to join the top of the first letter to the end letter somehow. You can see here that I’ve drawn a line from the top of the “R” to the tail of the “r”. This may be tricky for some words; just do the best you can in being creative and resourceful.

Now, pull out your watercolors. I’ve got the Altoids travel set from Greenleaf & Blueberry — and I love it. No matter what watercolor set you choose to use, be sure and take a minute to make a color “cheat sheet” so you know what each color looks like on paper. {The Altoids set comes with a cheat sheet ready-made; my thanks again to Greenleaf & Blueberry proprietor Jess for that!}

I chose to copycat the Theo color scheme, so I started by putting some Nickel A20 Yellow in the open space of the “R”.

Whether you choose to use Nickel A20 Yellow or not, you’ll want to make sure your paint stays wet as you work {this isn’t hard to do; watercolor dries quickly, but not that quickly}. That way, you can dab on new colors to blend as you please. Below, you can see I’m adding a bit of Garnet for warmth.

In the “o”, I also blended some Permanent Alizarin Crimson.

Regardless of which watercolors and/or color scheme you are using, continue blending within all the enclosed areas of your word until you are satisfied with the result.

When you’re finished with the watercoloring, it won’t look like much. Fear not! The outlining process will pull everything together.

For my outlines, I chose to use brown gouache. Alternatively, you could use acrylic paint, an opaque marker, or calligraphy/drawing ink. You could probably even utilize highly concentrated watercolor if you want to; just add less water to it than you normally would.

Use a small-ish brush to apply the paint to the piece, painting over the pencil lines that you created.

See how that pulls everything together?

Because I couldn’t resist, I added the vertical lines and a blush of paint on either side of these lines as shown in the Theo logo.

Of course, since this is an envelope, I used watercolor calligraphy in shades of brown with a hint of red to write Rodger’s address.

I was so happy with how this turned out! Keep in mind as you make your own that you can use any color scheme you want. Blue and green would be beautiful, or you could play around with the Finetec palette for a very regal, glittery effect.

Today’s final hand-lettering tutorial combines two recent {well, as far as the TPK blog is concerned} concepts: botanical letters and roses.

To begin, you’ll write out a word or a couple of words in pencil. I recommend using print for this hand-lettering style; it makes for a more legible result.

Draw various sizes of roses, and space them more or less evenly from each other. Connect each rose with a line, then add a couple of leaves coming off of that line. {Instructions on how to draw these exact roses are included in Amazing Envelopes for a Latté.} Note that I am using a dip pen, but you could just as easily use a marker, regular pen, or Micron pen. Microns are a favorite among hand-lettering artists because they are reliable, archival, and waterproof.

Continue drawing roses, lines, and leaves along your original pencil lines.

Once you are finished “rose-ifying” each letter, go over your lines {but not your leaves or roses} with another, thicker stroke of ink. You’re doing this so your original word will “pop” more, and not just look like a cluster of roses.

If you’ve used a dip pen or a gel pen, you’ll want to wait for your ink to dry. {Don’t take chances with gel pens; wait several hours!} Once you’re sure the ink is dry, erase your pencil lines.

Next, choose which tool to use to color your roses in. Your choices are unlimited, really: watercolor, colored pencil, markers, ink, colored pens, etc. I have chosen to use a brush pen in a deep red color.

I chose to use an avocado-colored brush pen for my leaves.

Once you color everything in, your hand-lettering artwork is finished!

You may be wondering what this style would look like using calligraphy. I’m divided on the results. I used Janet style calligraphy to create the piece below, and, while I admire how swirly the piece is, I don’t love that it’s fairly difficult to read. If you want to flex observers’ brains {and make something pretty in the process}, calligraphy and this rose-inspired hand-lettering style are the way to go. Otherwise, stick with print!

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog post, and you’ll humor me by reading part II of hand-lettering tutorials this weekend! If you have any thoughts/musings/tips about hand-lettering or the styles in this post, let me know in the comments. It’s always awesome to hear what you think, even if sometimes I’m slow in responding!

Until we meet again in Part II,