My super-talented colleague, Cristel, recently gave a presentation on hand lettering to a group of us at work, and I was inspired to give it a try. I’ve done lettering in Illustrator before, but never with pen to paper.
I happened to have these Sharpie brush pens on hand — Tim loves office supplies so there is no end to the number and type of pens in his desk at any given time — but after trying them out, I realized my kids “borrowed” them and used them to color. They were dry. :-/ So I ordered some new ones from Amazon (along with some practice paper), but they were delayed by weather. Double bummer.
We were shopping for birthday supplies at Walmart this weekend and I found this big ol’ box of 50 Crayola “Super Tips” for $7. Thanks to YouTube (because you can learn how to do just about anything on YouTube), I know that Crayolas are recommended for practicing brush letters since they’re cheap and easy to find. Practice problem: solved.
So now I have a cheap graph paper notebook that’s full of pages like this:
I’ve noticed some improvement in controlling the pen since I’ve started practicing, and it’s easy enough to find time; a five-minute break is enough time to write out a word or two, or practice individual letters or shapes. I don’t really like my k’s, w’s, or B’s yet, and round shapes like o’s and a’s still trip me up.
If I keep this up, I’ll reward myself for daily practice with a set of better quality pens. This will also help make my digital lettering better, since now I have a better sense of which strokes should be thick or thin!