Creative Lettering – Techniques & Tips from Top Artists
Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.
Graham Greene
If you enjoy pretty letters (the art of writing beautiful words by hand) in your art journal, this book is for you. It’s something between an inspiration book and a how-to one, collected by Jenny Doh who also made the similar Journal It!, that I recently reviewed. Both consist of samples of art journals and notebooks supplied by creative bloggers. You are introduced to their favorite way to draw letters, a handwritten alphabet and a short tutorial on how to “copy” and use their style in your own journal.
Personally I love the look of hand lettering, and I occasionally enjoy doing it. But most of the time it is not part of my artistic expression to handwrite a quote or a saying. Partly because I forget it when I am doing collage or drawing, and partly because it’s just tedious and too time consuming for me, at least when I often feel unhappy about the result in the end. I like to fill a page quickly and intuitively. Taking a break to find someone else’s quote doesn’t work for me. And forming perfect letters is a sloooow art form. If I remember to write anything it’s by journaling using my own messy handwriting. I’ve been told it looks beautiful though of course I don’t usually see that…
I think the book Creative Lettering is a fun read, mostly because you’ll meet creative bloggers, including favorite artist Aimee Dolich. I greatly admire her artful writings and poetic words. Just today I bought her new and yellow doodled washi tape, from her Artsyville Etsy Shop. Yum!
Her way of writing is to go back into longer text and “thicken up” the thin lines of all her letters until she is happy with how they look. It creates her own unique font that many of us adore.
Other letter artists and bloggers featured in the book are Lori Vilegen, Pam Garrison, Jessica Swift, Lisa Engelbrecht and Martha Lever. For all of them the lettering IS their art, and the way they do it unique and awesome. Take time to visit their blogs if you haven’t already. I’m sure they’ll inspire some art making today.
I have Lisa Engelbrecht’s beautiful pink covered book Modern Calligraphy and Hand Lettering in my bookshelf and recommend you got check it out if hand lettering turns out to be your thing. Lisa is a skilled calligrapher, who uses her handwriting to make art pieces in mixed media, on both paper and fabric. If you want to try calligraphy you need a good pen, like a nice flowing fountain pen, that has a slanted tip. Calligraphy is really fun to play with!
This book is full of hand drawn typography that will give you ideas on how to use pretty quotes and bold lettering on your pages. You can also visit youtube or do a image search on google to get a lot of ideas that you can try out! Hand lettering doesn’t have to be neat either, it can be messy and personal…
How do you like to hand letter a text, and with what?
Further lettering inspiration
* Creative Lettering – more information about the book on amazon
* General tips for getting into hand lettering – step-by-step article by Sean McCabe
* Inspiration on Lettering – a Pinterest board full of examples, copy to learn!
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Bokstäver är så kul! Gillar att leka med dem både med pennor, färg och broderitråd.
It’s a fun book, isn’t it? I thought Jenny did a super job on it! Thanks for the shout out, too! :)
Good review. :) I was not sure if I wanted it, but your review has made me realise I do!
My writing style changes depending on where I am writing and what the purpose is.
I write everyday since i only able to think clearly while writing. Sadly even i find myself difficult to read my own writing.