How to Hand Letter Like a Pro

Learning how to hand letter requires one main thing: patience. All the best hand lettering pieces start with a pencil draft, which you’ll probably modify several times before it’s just right! After that, you’ll still need to go over your work with ink. All that time isn’t a deal-breaker for me: to create today’s piece, I put on a good audiobook (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before — such a sweet story!) and gratefully soaked up every second of creativity! Here’s how to make this piece and others like it:

1. Pick Out Your Phrase

The best hand lettering pieces hone in on a quote or a saying. Choose your words and jot them down for easy reference. Then, choose the “starring” word (or group of words) in your phrase. This word will be the one that you emphasize in your piece. Once you’ve decided on your word, use a ruler to find the horizontal and vertical center of the page. Then, write one half of the word on the left side of the page’s center, and write the other half on the right side.

Once you’ve written that first word, use its right and left boundaries to make the sides of a rectangle. Cap the top and bottom of the rectangle at around 3.5″ away from the word. Then, try giving the word some emphasis with doodles inside two semicircles. The line doodles that I chose are appropriate here because they complement the sun theme.

2. Build Words Upward

Now that you’ve drawn the main word, you can build out from there. Try following the contours of your top semicircle to make two sets of top and bottom guidelines. Be sure to mark where the center of the page is so you can write symmetrical words!

Use your guidelines to write letters. Then, fill up the blank space with elements like flourishes, arrows, and/or diamonds.

3. Build Words Downward

Now, use pencil guidelines that hug the bottom half of the circle to write more words. Then, draw a banner and use calligraphy to write in it.

Continue to build words down, and don’t worry if certain words don’t work out. That’s why you’re writing everything in pencil first! For example, the way I wrote “A SHADOW” below just didn’t look right to me. It hugged the right side of the piece a bit too much, and the spacing between “A” and “SHADOW” made for awkward viewing.

Try #2 went much better for me.

4. Fill Out the Rest of the Piece

Now, switch your focus to filling in all the space within your rectangle. More flourishes, diamonds, lines, and triangles are great for this!

5. Add Ink

Once you’re happy with your pencil layout, use a straight pen, a Nikko G nib, and waterproof ink to go over your pencil lines. It’s important to use waterproof ink because you might decide to use watercolor on the piece later! We don’t want any moisture-induced smudges.

Once you’re finished, your hand lettering will look something like this:

When you’ve drawn over all the pencil lines, wait for your ink to dry. Then, use a good eraser to erase your pencil lines. Next, grab a small paintbrush (size 1-ish) to fill in any open letters with ink.

At this point, you should have a nice balance of bold strokes and thin accents.

6. Give It Some Gold

Considering the sunshine theme in my piece, some sparkly gold is not out of place! I used Moon Gold to fill in any remaining open shapes.

7. Finish Up

Once you finish adding gold, you might decide to add another color, too. I’m going for an understated palette, so I chose to fill in the banners in my piece with a light gray.

To summarize, there are three secrets to success when you’re learning how to hand letter. The first is to choose a word (or words) to focus on within the piece. The second is to contain your phrase and doodles within an easily recognizable, symmetrical shape — like a rectangle, square, or circle. The final and biggest tip I have is to make a pencil draft! It’s always best to find out that a design won’t work when it’s erasable.

I hope that you enjoyed today’s tutorial and that you give it a shot yourself! Try writing this quote first, then make another phrase or two. The more you hand letter, the better you’ll get at making layouts, doodles, and fun alphabets.

Thanks so much for reading TPK, and have a wonderful weekend!

Warmly,