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About the Hand Lettering 101 eCourse
TPK’s Hand Lettering 101 eCourse features over nine hours of video lessons and helpful class discussion recordings. In the course, you’ll learn techniques and design principles that will help you create eye-catching, polished lettering. Along the way, you’ll pick up tips for spacing, embellishment, and composition that you can apply to any creative project.
About the Hand Lettering 101 eCourse
This course will help you develop a lettering practice that’s creative, personal, and uniquely yours. We’ll cover key topics like terminology, letterforms, layout techniques, and creative strategies for bringing your words to life. By the end, you’ll be able to create hand lettering that communicates far more than just the words themselves.
- This six-lesson course was released to TPK Premium members in summer 2025. Those students helped me to shape the course by providing me with lesson-by-lesson feedback and asking important questions.
- I recommend a timeline that allows you to tackle one lesson every 7-10 days. While you don’t want to work too quickly through this course, you also don’t want to lose momentum!
- Each lesson includes a recording of the live class discussion that took place afterwards. I strongly, strongly recommend watching these discussions as they provide additional complementary information and serve to clear up questions.
- If you’re a TPK Premium member, I invite you to ask questions and post photos of your work to the TPK Premium Discord. Discord is a powerful learning tool that allows me (and other members of the TPK community) to give you quick feedback and encouragement!
Course Supply List
The beauty of hand lettering is you don’t really have to have any special supplies. Start the course with a pencil + eraser, ruler, light-colored paper, and any pen. As you move through the lessons, you may find that you want to acquire other materials.
Those additional (but optional) materials include:
- Set of Micron pens (affiliate link)
- Colored pencils (affiliate link)
- Sakura Gelly Roll white pen (affiliate link)
- Sakura Glitter Stardust pen (affiliate link)
- Colored gel pens (affiliate link) or a watercolor palette and a pointed pen (i.e. Nikko G nib in a straight pen)
- 10″ Professional Parallel Glider
Course Schedule
Lesson 1: The Basics
This lesson asks you to create a self-assessment assignment, which you’ll compare to your work after five weeks of taking the course. Then, we’ll go over basic definitions (calligraphy, typography, and hand lettering). Next, you’ll learn all about the vocabulary that you need in order to understand characters and lettering. Finally, we’ll go over all of the tools and supplies that can be useful to you as you hone your lettering skills.
Lesson 2: Foundational Letterforms
In this lesson, you’ll take the next step in your lettering journey by looking outward for inspiration and inward for style. You’ll explore how to adapt real-world lettering into your own creations, build a custom alphabet, and continue practicing consistent letter shapes.
Lesson 3: Script Lettering + Flourishes
In this lesson, you’ll get comfortable with script lettering, learn how to write in a consistent style, and add color and flair to your letters. You’ll also get to try your hand at simple flourishes, which helps your script to feel elegant and engaging.
Lesson 4: Kerning + Layouts
In this lesson, we’ll walk through how to plan and execute a finished hand-lettered piece. You’ll get comfortable making pencil drafts, adjusting kerning in context, and designing layouts that flow beautifully across the page.
Lesson 5: Artistic Effects
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use impactful effects to help your lettering stand out. We’ll dabble in filling in strokes with ombré, color effects, making ribbon letters, and creating an impressive illustrated alphabet.
Lesson 6: Applying Concepts
In this lesson, we’re tying up loose ends by chatting about how to know when a piece is done and where to go from here. You’ll also receive instructions for your final assignment.
Complementing Your Learning Experience with the TPK Premium Discord
Discord allows TPK Premium members to connect and share work as they take this course. Discord is a simple, forum-esque platform where TPK Premium members can chat, share assignment photos, ask questions, and support each other throughout the course.
Non-Premium members can ask course-related questions in the lesson discussion section within the course. Premium members can ask questions in the lesson discussion or on Discord (which is preferable, since you can upload photos there!). While you absolutely don’t have to be a TPK Premium member to take this course, you’ll find that having access to the TPK Discord makes the membership more than worth it.
All of the before and after photos shown above were shared on the TPK Premium Discord.
This course was such a joy to create, thanks in no small part to the participation of the TPK Premium members who took it as lessons were being released. You’ll benefit enormously from the detailed lessons, thoughtful homework, recorded class discussions, and helpful PDFs. Thank you so much for supporting TPK and learning with me!
