Hello all! What's this? A craft related post. I can't believe it myself. I've taken pretty much a hiatus from everything crafty. We've had a lot going on in our lives the last month. I've really been enjoying hand lettering lately. I usually sit at the table in the evenings when Erik and I catch up on our days and write. It's relaxing for me. I also set up a tray and night and practice while we watch TV. Currently, we are watching Sons of Anarchy. It's really good.
I know I have a TON of practice to do. I just wanted to share some things I'm using with you guys. There is a ton of information on the internet. Tons and it's easy to get overwhelmed. I've always like handwriting and been interested in all kinds of fonts, etc. What gave me a good jump start was a class I took from Studio Calico called "Love Your Lettering" by Jasmine Jones. She gave a lot of really great tips. She suggested using this pen:
I actually love this pen. It has a drag to it that I like. I also like the thicker tip. I can't decide which pen I like more. This one or my Sharpie.
I love that the Sharpie is so smooth when it writes. I also like the fine tip. I get that this is opposite of what I love about the Papermate. It's just that I really like them both for different reasons.
As I was getting started on the hand lettering, I was filling in the downstrokes of the letters to make them appear more "Calligraphy" like. To be honest, it was time consuming so I decided to try my hand with brush pens. I started with this one.
I got two of them. One was black and the other was True Blue. They were good pens and I like the dual tip. However, I noticed a difference between them. The black marker was firmer than the colored one. I heard a lot about the Tombow brush pens. I decided to try them out. You can see the pen in my first photo (Hello November). I love this pen! Love it!!
This pen is awesome. It's firmer than the Prisma Colors so it's easier to control. It doesn't have a strong odor..which sitting for a couple of hours and writing the smell can get to you. I also really love the thin tip. I used it in the picture above to write Roald Dahl. It took a bit to get used to the brush pens, but I like the results far better than drawing the letters and filling in the down strokes. It is far less time consuming and looks much smoother.
I should mention that I am also writing in a tracing paper pad that I bought at Target. I like that the paper is slippery and the pen slides nicely over it. It's thin enough too, that I can put a paper with lines underneath as a guide. I might buy a sketch book eventually, but I'm happy with the tracing paper for now.
Well, I hope this post helps if you are interested in hand lettering. Have a great day.
