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Class StepbyStep Project Guide

Mary Kate McDevitt

Exploring Inspiration

Introduction

Regardless of your experience, the first steps of handlettering are crucial. Even the most seasoned letterer can see the value in revisiting these basic steps.

Many people tend to jump into the computer too quickly to play with color and texture. The result is poorly drawn letters and too much emphasis on texture.

This class will help break down the necessary and help us wrangle these 26 little letters.

Follow along with my videos and the project guide to create your own handlettered drawing, and post your progress on your project page.

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Choose your phrase

1. Picking the perfect phrase can be tricky. You want it to be smart, clever, insightful and in the end look beautiful. You don't necessarily need to be a copywriter to be a letterer, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Pick a phrase that is unique to you and suits your style, it can be from a favorite TV show,movie, song, book, or a quote from any number of famous people throughout history.

Be brief! Tackling a wordy phrase can be especially challenging, certainly for a beginner. Make sure your phrase is to the point.

Consider the application for your phrase; will it be a book cover, poster, full page illustration for a magazine article, greeting card or stationary, packaging or tshirt? Make up your own dream project, maybe it's an advertising campaign for your home brewed beer, or the cover of a book on knitting.

If you are having trouble coming up with something to letter, choose a topic that interests you, and go from there. My go to topics are Bikes, Coffee, Tea, Whisky, Beer and Work.

Inspiration and Brainstorming

2. Now that you have your phrase, research the topic and come up with a concept. Every handlettered illustration should be able to tell a story beyond the words that are read. The style of the letterforms, ornamentation and details play an important part in creating a cohesive illustration that is not only beautiful but has a concept. The more thorough the research, the more thoughtful your final piece will be.

3. Make lists or mind maps of words that relate to your phrase. This is helpful to find the tone of the piece. It can be just a train of thought list that you can make sense of later.

Gathering Reference Material

4. At this stage, you are getting ideas of what you want the phrase to communicate. Now you need to gather ideas for style and how it will look.

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5. I look to historical references for style inspiration. Aside from scouring flea markets and estate sales, the internet is also a great place to start (duh). Flickr, tumblr, Pinterest and sometimes Google are my go to sites for searches.

6. Create a mood board or stick images in a folder to reference. These images should correlate to your phrase and help achieve the overall tone of the piece.

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Basics of Lettering

Tools

We will be using plain printer paper for most of the sketches. I find that I do more exploring and stay loose on paper I don't care about.

For the final drawing, a watercolor paper or drawing paper will be best. You want something that the ink won'tbleed into. Think about the texture of the paper and how it will affect your drawing, if it's a smoother look you will want a smoother paper.

This will also come in handy when you want to trace over the drawing again and again to get it just right.

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I use a No. 2 pencil for all my rough sketches. I switch to a softer pencil, I like the Blackwing pencils, when I'm finalizing a sketch for the client.

For inking, I use a uniball pen. But you are more than welcome to try out whatever tools you are most comfortable with.

I like to use a lightboard when I do tracing but tracing paper will do the trick. Find tracing paper that you enjoy drawing on (I find that the cheap stuff doesn't take ink well). I have the Artograph LightPad and I love it, the light is really flat and even and the lightbox itself is very flat. Hence the expression lightpad. But there are many other affordable options out there.

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Lettering WarmUp

Before we dive into the project, familiarize yourself with drawing letters in a more decorative approach. This way you will have more confidence going into the sketching phase.

Pick a word from your phrase to test out. Draw the word in at least 5 different styles. Refer back to yourreference material for ideas.

Here is a list of different styles to try out: Ornate Serif Fancy Serif Sans Serif Script Representational Dimensional Curved Blackletter In a Shape

Here is my warm up, I chose the word "electric"

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Keep these sketches near by, you may want to refer to them when you get down to sketching.

Understanding HandDrawn Letters

For some of you, the idea of lettering is fairly new. You know the alphabet, you can write and might even have neat handwriting but not sure how to "draw" letters.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind. Script I think the number one issue people have with script is not knowing when to be

thick (Downstrokes) vs thin (Upstrokes). Downstrokes are created when the pen is being drawn in a downward motion, and is given

more pressure on the page, creating a broad line. Upstrokes are created when the pen is being drawn up and there is less pressure. Upstrokes are usually used for connecting letters or connecting stokes. When you are sketching out scripts, keep this in mind and physically press harder when the pencil is moving down the stroke and press lightly when you move up the stroke.

Swirls I love adding swirls and fancy ornamentation to letters. But if you go overboard it will overwhelm the word. It can make it hard to read, or you can add too many swirls and tiny loops that clutter the word and make it look sloppy. Keep it simple and elegant.

Spacing Spacing is the name of the game when it comes to readability and creating an overall comfortable layout. Tight spacing can be part of the concept but if all the letters are touching, it becomes problematic. There isn't a mathematical equation to how all the letters need to be spaced, it's based on the style of lettering, the weight of the lettering and you need to rely on your eyeballs to get the look you need. Noticing these details comes with practice.

Serif Serifs are great for adding interest to your letters but may also be an important part of readability. Don't be afraid to add some crazy serifs to your letters. If your serifs are wimpy they will fall away in the layout and look sloppy.

Curves Drawing on a curve can be tricky. You want to follow the curve but make sure your letters are upright, if your letters start swaying side to side, it might be helpful to get the ruler and draw some guidelines.

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