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advice needed: hand lettering how to
Posted by shielddesign in
14 May 2010 — 7:58pm
14 May 2010 — 7:58pm
soo I had a portfolio review last night and everyone LOVED my illustrations..which is great. But everyone also said to take my work to the next level I needed to hand draw my type. The problem is that I am scared...I know just enough about type to be dangerous...any one have some tips for me?
thanks in advance!
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14 May 2010 — 8:46pm
Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it... that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.
–Dale Carnegie
Look through these 10 pages of misc. hand drawn lettering, logo and wordmarks (among other sources of inspiration out there) - http://struggleinc.com/projects/103/1/
Stay loose with no expectations, have fun with it all most importantly and let things naturally develop from there.
Regards
14 May 2010 — 10:12pm
Go buy some calligraphy books, buy some nibs and pens and inkwells, and practice some calligraphic letterforms. You'll learn to appreciate every part of the letter.
Get a sketchbook with grids and draw. Then draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw, draw. Then some more. The more you draw the better and more familiar you will become with the letters. :)
Mike's advice, "Stay loose with no expectations, have fun with it all most importantly and let things naturally develop from there," is probably the best advice to have. Wise words!
14 May 2010 — 10:19pm
I'd recommend starting with a few simple exercises to get rid of blank page syndrome - start by enlarging some letters from one of your own typefaces, or some favorite fonts, then get out the tracing paper and just practice for a while to get used to it. Then move on to copying the letters rather than tracing over them. The next step is practice modifying the letters. All of this will simply serve to get you comfortable with the process and improve your hand skills. When you're feeling more confident, try doing some simple monoline sketches to act as a sort of skeleton, then flesh out the shapes or trace over them using brushes or flexible steel nibs, etc. The thing to remember is that is that takes time and patience and A LOT of letter drawing to get good at it.
Have fun with it!
~ Laura
18 May 2010 — 9:23am
Davids Practical Letterer
more like it
a different approach
or more calligraphic
(I've been trying to teach myself too)
18 May 2010 — 6:30pm
calligraphy sucks
18 May 2010 — 7:15pm
I hand draw all my fonts.
In FontLab, using its bezier drawing tools, with a tablet and stylus.
18 May 2010 — 8:57pm
calligraphy sucks
As in it sucks to learn, or it's ugly?
19 May 2010 — 6:29am
I agree with Nick ;^)