Want to learn how to improve your hand lettering? These 5 tips will take you from beginner to beautiful lettering artist in no time flat.
Hello, everyone! I’m Kelly from Kelly Leigh Creates. Erin has been nice enough to let me take over posting duties for today. I know that many of you are interested in hand lettering and a few of the main questions that I get from readers when it comes to lettering is how to get started and how to improve hand lettering.
All it takes to learn or improve your hand lettering is a few simple tips and maybe a few things that you haven’t thought of yet. I’m sharing 5 lettering tips with you today that will help your hand lettering no matter where you are in your lettering journey. Sit back, grab yourself a cup of coffee and let’s letter!
HAND LETTERING TIPS AND TRICKS
TIP #1
Choose a good lettering pen. The pens that I use for hand lettering are the Tombow Dual Brush Pens and the Tombow Fudenosuke. Tombow Dual Brush Pens have 2 tips. One tip is a brush-like tip that allows you to achieve thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes. The other tip is a small hard tip great for detail work.
Tombow Fudenosuke Pens come in a hard and soft tip. The soft tip pen allows for thicker downstrokes than the hard tip. Both these pens are great for detail work as well.
There are many other pens on the market. These are just the ones that I am familiar with and use. Whatever pen you choose, try it out and practice with it for a while to make sure that it works for the lettering style that you are trying to achieve.
TIP #2
Understand pressure. Hand lettering consists of thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes. To get this result, you need to put more pressure on your brush on the downstrokes of the letters and less pressure on the upstrokes. The Tombow pens are great for practicing this technique. The flexible brush tips allow you to vary the pressure to achieve thick and thin strokes.
TIP #3
Pause after each letter. While you are practicing the thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes, get in the habit of drawing one letter at a time and picking up your pen after each one. This will allow you to complete one letter and then reset and focus on the next letter. When you do this, the transitions between your letters will improve.
TIP #4
Practice. The best way to learn hand lettering (and improve) is to practice. A lot. Download some practice sheets and get to work.
TIP #5
Sketch your lettering first. Once you have mastered your letters, you will probably want to create some layouts with your lettering. When drawing more advanced designs, it’s always good to sketch out your design first in pencil and then go over it with your pens. Using a grid to layout your sketch helps keep everything in line.
WANT THESE TIPS IN A PRINTABLE GUIDE? JUST CLICK BELOW!
LET’S LETTER LAUNCHES MAY 24!
If you’re ready to take the next step in your lettering journey, I’d love for you to check out my new lettering workbook, Let’s Letter, available May 24. It’s filled with instructions and practice sheets galore so you can take your lettering from beginner to beautiful. All the details will be on the blog Monday, May 24.
Want more Hand Lettering Tutorials and worksheets? Visit these posts:
- Calligraphy Template Worksheet – this is one of my favorite sections in my Casual Calligraphy Workbook…try your hand at your own calligraphy style using this free calligraphy template.
- Casual Calligraphy Supply List – everything you need to get started in Calligraphy, plus a video preview from my Casual Calligraphy Course!
- Easy Calligraphy Letters – if you’re just starting out, these letters are a great place to practice!
- Tators Gonna Tate Calligraphy Practice Sheet – I was going to do a Haters Gonna Hate worksheet, but this was way funnier.
- Mermaid Life Hand Lettering Worksheets – don’t we all want the mermaid life? This comes in three gorgeous styles.
- Unity Over Comfort Calligraphy Worksheets – this is a very special post to me. I’m giving you free worksheets, PLUS some tips on how to embrace diversity.
- Hand Lettering Worksheets for Kids – I say this is for kids…but it’s also great for beginners! You can also get the full set in my shop.
- Monthly Hand Lettering Prompts – I have a prompt for every day of the year and you can find them all in one convenient post.
- Unicorn Hand Lettering Worksheet – this fun printable lets you try out some drawing skills, brush lettering skills, plus it includes a finished design for inspiration!
- Funny Winter Worksheet – because ugh…winter!
- Brush Lettering Practice Sheet – love this simply quote and worksheet.
- Garden Lettering Practice Sheet – this lettering worksheet also includes a tutorial for lettering on fabric!
- Wood Coasters Tracing Sheet – Another practice sheet that has a dual purpose.
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