#lettering tips

[ilikefonts]

Jonathan Ball's Lettering Process — A Tutorial | Dribbble Design Blog

[comicbookletteringtips]

[juliasfanart]

Hey, i saw the work you did for the DBDA charity calendar and loved it. That being said, I was wondering if you had any tips for quote art? Yours looked so good i figured you know a thing or two.

I have this quote i love, but i can't do anything with it because i don't know how to make it look good and not just like boring text. Do you have any tips you wouldn't mind sharing?

Hi! I'm really glad you like my art! 🥰

Here are some tips:

- First of all, look at some references on-line. Search for "quote lettering" or something similar and you'll find thousands of ideas that can inspire you.

- Decide which words you want to give more importance to: they'll need to be highlighted in some way. Either by making them bigger or with a more complex font or framed by doodles.

- Mix different fonts, working on the contrast between flowery, cursive ones and simpler, more geometric ones. Contrast is also very big word against very small word, or very stretched word against very condensed one. Straight against curve, etc. You get the idea.

- Don't use the pc font, draw by hand. Start with a sketch of what you want it to look like. It's art, not formatting, so look at it like a drawing. Decide the shapes you want it to have, look at proportions and composition. Make it balanced. Once you're ok with it, start the lineart for the letters. One of the nice things about lettering is that each letter is different and may have a different size or rotation or change the flowery. Standard fonts are all the same, so it makes it boring! At most, you can use them as a base to trace to make things easier, but don't forget to give them your own touch!

- At the same time, try to be precise. So, even if each letter is unique, there are a few rules you need to set (unless the result you want to reach is to make them look all over the place and chaotic, which may be a look in itself). But generally, you need them to be aligned to a straight line or a curve, have a consistent height (which doesn't mean each letter needs to have the same one, but that they need to fill the shape you have sketched. I.E. If that's a trapezoid, the height will increase constantly), or a constant spacing and width for each letter (especially important in block letters).

- Watch some tutorials to learn the basics of calligraphy and lettering. You don't have to become an expert, but just recognise the difference between an upstroke and a downstroke, what are serifs, etc...

All in all, treat it as an art. Practice, look at references, make many sketches before committing to one, and have fun!

[comicbookletteringtips]