Two More Artistic Brush Pen Lettering Tutorials

I love using brush pens because they provide a quick, bold, and versatile way to convey a message! In today’s post, I’d like to piggyback off of the Two Artistic Brush Pen Lettering Tutorials article and teach you two more ways to use a brush pen. You’ll learn how to blend brush pens using a laminated surface, and how to use small points to frame your lettering!

1. Two-Tone Blended Brush Pen Lettering

Many people enjoy Tombow brush pens because of their ability to blend. You can actually mix two colors together, then write with both colors to make an ombré-esque effect. The technique is very simple! First, you’ll want to find a slick surface. Tombow actually sells a “Blending Palette“, but the blending palette is just a piece of laminated paper. A piece of plastic or glass would work just as well!

Once you locate a smooth, non-absorbent surface, get two brush pens. One brush pen should be a darker color, and one should be a lighter color. Use the darker color to scribble a rectangle on the plastic.

Now, take the lighter color of brush pen, and use it to draw over the dark rectangle.

You’ll notice that the tip of your light-colored brush pen has picked up the color of the darker brush pen.

Use your light brush pen to write a word. You’ll notice that the word starts off dark. Then, once the darker ink runs out, the word becomes light!

In this Kaitlin Style example, I used the blending technique twice: once before writing “tona”, and once before writing “bell”. By the end of “bell”, the darker ink had run out, which means the lighter marker’s original color has been restored. If you’re interested in making this exact color scheme, you’ll want to use a Tombow 443 marker as the darker color, and a Tombow 451 marker as the lighter color. You’re not just limited to blues, though: feel free to play with any dark/light color scheme that appeals to you!

As a disclaimer, Tombow brush pens are the only pens that I have tried this technique with. Tombows are known for their ability to blend, with the original color of the lighter marker always returning. I would imagine that you can blend other water-based brush pens together as well, but proceed with caution!

2. Magnetic Dots Brush Pen Lettering

This brush pen lettering technique relies on drawing tiny dots around a word to make it stand out! I call it “Magnetic Dots” because the dots have the highest concentration closest to the word, then they gradually fade out. To create it, you’ll first write your word in Kaitlin Style brush pen lettering. Make sure you bounce the letters up and down to give the word some curve!

Next, use a pencil to free-hand draw an oval around your word. The oval doesn’t need to be perfect; you’ll just be using it as a general guide.

Now, find a fine-tipped marker. I like to use the fine-tipped end of a Tombow marker, like the Tombow 228 pictured below. Alternatively, you could use a gel or ballpoint pen. However, pens are generally less responsive to the quick, light movements required to draw dots.

Use your fine-tipped marker to trace around any part of the word that is inside of the pencil oval. There should be about 1/8″ of space between the word and the lines that you are making.

Now, use your marker to create densely-spaced dots around the lines you traced. The dots should extend about 1/8″ out.

Next, draw a new layer of dots around the densely-spaced layer. The dots in this new layer should be spaced farther apart. Make sure the dots don’t go outside the pencil oval!

Finally, fill in the rest of the oval with a third, and much more widely spaced, layer of dots.

Wait ten minutes to give your ink sufficient time to dry. Then, use an eraser to get rid of the oval that you drew. You can add more dots here and there to help them fade out more naturally around the word.

If you’re making a card like this one, you can finish up the piece with the “Simple Curlicue” artistic corners design.

“Magnetic Dots” is a creative and wonderful brush pen lettering style that’s particularly well-suited to cards. I am using it on all of my holiday thank you cards because it’s fast: while I wait for the inked dots to dry on one card, I move on to making the next. In that way, I can usually finish one card every ten minutes or so! Try it on your next thank you card — I know you’ll enjoy the creation process and the result!

If you have any questions about brush pen lettering or the tutorials in this post, please feel free to comment! I’m always happy to answer. Otherwise, thank you for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day!

Warmly,

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