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Serge Lowrider
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Moebius on Comic Lettering
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from the editor Blackletter Today
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elcome to IMAGE FORGE home of all things creative and the inaugural issue of IMAGE FORGE magazine celebrating all things typography —letters, fonts, script and lettering oh my. IMAGE FORGE celelbrates creativity, with the purpose of empowering creatives and connecting them with our partners in the commercial world of marketing and advertising. Nothing reaches an audience like thoughtful creative content. I am really not great at writing copy, so in order to fill out this space a bit more for the purpose of the magazine , I will now provide for you r viewing and reading enjoyment a paragraph or two of star wars ipsum. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU. You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life. I happen to like nice men. I’m a nice man. No, you’re not. You’re... Sir, sir! I’ve isolated the reverse power f lux coupling. Thank you. Thank you very much. Oh, you’re perfectly welcome, sir. Use the Force. Yes... Now...the stone. Feel it. Concentrate! Oh, no. We’ll never get it out now. So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say? Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different. No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned. All right, I’ll give it a try. No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try. I can’t. It’s too big. Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Mmmm. And well you should not. For my ally in the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It’s energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we... ..not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you...me... the tree...the rock...everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that ship! You want the impossible.
Your humble editor and cheif Shawn M. Schmidt
Brush Lettering for Beginners
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Photo by Kirk Fisher | Pixabay | @kirkandmimi
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Black let ter Today by By Dan Reynolds
“The first time I understood the potential of blackletter was when I was a graffiti writer,” he says. “I was attracted by the strength of gothic letterforms because of their expressive contrast.” It was my first love,” Luca Barcellona says. Hailing from
Blackletter is instantly different from more-common type-
Milan, Barcellona embraces a variety of writing styles
face styles; it brings an ornamental quality to work it is used
in his calligraphic practice, but the “love” he is talking-
in. While blackletter is not the appropriate choice for every
about is not roman or italic letterforms, but blackletter.
design application, it has so much more potential to offer
“The first time I understood the potential of blacklet-
graphic designers than the advertising campaign headlines
ter was when I was a graffiti writer,” he says. “I was
and posters it is normally used for today.
attracted by the strength of gothic letterforms because of their expressive contrast.”
The history of blackletter stretches back about a thousand years, having originated as handwriting styles in
Since blackletter predates the invention of Euro-
manuscript production. The first books printed in Europe
pean printing, it is not surprising that blackletter is
by Johannes Gutenberg and his mid-fifteenth-century
still popular with calligraphers and letterers. This is
contemporaries mimicked the appearance of manuscripts,
true both for experienced practitioners, like John
using blackletters. For its 42-line Bible, the typeface Guten-
Stevens and Julian Waters, as well for their younger
berg’s workshop developed was a Textura, the style of black-
colleagues, like Giuseppe Salerno and Barcellona,
letter then used for handwritten liturgical books. Many of
who is probably the calligrapher to have made the
the different varieties of blackletter that have since become
most expressive uses of blackletter in the past d e ca
common were codified during the first century of European
d e . But blackletter today is an area of experimenta-
printing. In addition to Textura, the most common black-
tion and expression for more than just calligraphers.
letter styles to be developed eventually became known as Fraktur, Rotunda and Bastarda. While printing was still relatively new in Europe, German printers developed a variety of Bastarda called Schwabacher. The style proved so popular that it has likely overshadowed all other Bastardas ever since. For hundreds of years, blackletter was used alongside
Blackletter written by Milan, Italy-based calligrapher and graphic designer Luca Barcellona.
roman and italic fonts in book printing. After the Protestant Reformation, blackletter became more common in
What is blackletter’s appeal? According to Barcel-
Protestant-dominant northern Europe, while roman was
lona, “roman capitals written with a flat brush are the
more popular in countries with large Catholic populations,
most difficult letters to do. Textura and Fraktur-two
like France and Italy. By the twentieth century, typogra-
widespread styles of blackletter-give me a good base to
phers and printers in most Western countries had settled
experiment with personal styles.” Blackletter capitals
on roman type styles for almost every kind of text-
have a wider range than roman capitals in terms of the
many authors and printers preferred roman letters for the
diversity of forms they can take. They can be ornate and
printing of Latin and most other non-German vernacular
almost abstract when used alone. Or, when combined
languages. Roman type was also embraced by the Italian
with lowercase letters in passages of text intended to be
humanists, and later in scientific and Enlightenment-era
read, rather than merely gazed at, they can be subdued.
printing. The German-speaking parts of Europe were an
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exception; even during the early twentieth century, more than half of all books printed in these countries were composed in blackletter. Almost every newspaper too. Yet, starting after World War II, these countries followed the others in relegating blackletter to decorative purposes in traditional areas of design, like beer labels and newspaper nameplates. In Austria, Germany and Switzerland today, you’ll see almost no German-language books or newspapers composed in blackletter type, and only a handful of websites set their body copy in blackletter. In light of this, one might expect blackletter to have become a purely historical footnote in typographic history by now. But this is not the case.
Already in the 1990s, during the early years of digital graphic design, font makers were creating new blackletter fonts and digitizing historical designs. Those manufacturers included both larger companies, like FontFont and Linotype, as well as smaller foundries, like Emigre. Since the 2000s, though, almost all of the new blackletter typefaces have been published by smal I type foundries and independent type designers. One individual who has made a great contribution to digital blackletter type is Czech designer Frantisek Storm, founder of Storm Type Foundry in Prague. Although most of his foundry’s releases have been workhorse serif and sans serif families, it has also published six blackletters: Coroner, Dracula, Monarchia, Moyenage, Plagwitz and Wittingau.
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the swiss handyman
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serge lowrider of the alps by Kimou “Grotesk” Meyer
Kimou “Grotesk” Meyer: Hello, Serge! How are you? Glad I can finally interview you. We met back in 2001, in Geneva, to talk about my first silkscreen. We have become very close friends since then, and you have been the only person printing my fine art. There have been so many exciting creative projects since we met!
Serge Lowrider: Hello Kimou, it’s going very well. Life is beautiful. Tell me a little bit about how you started to print and what gave you the urge to learn the craft? You also told me that, at the time, your apprenticeship included sign painting, right? I started to collect stickers around eight or
that I learned my trade ten years too late!
a great t y pographer, illustrator and
nine years old. At the same time, I discov-
In Switzerland, the training of an appren-
painter. When did you realize that you
ered screen printing at a family friend’s
tice takes place in a company with one day
had creative talent and passion for art?
house who was a decorator. It made me
of courses per week in a professional school.
realize that there was a job where I could
I rubbed shoulders with the sign painters,
I am still learning every day and I am still
make a living producing what I loved and
book binders, and more or less, all the trades
doing my daily exercises, so the “talent”
collected. I didn’t need much more to real-
comes from training like an athlete every-
ize that this was going to be my job. After
day. As far as my passion for art, it came
this family visit, for years I kept saying that
later, when I started to travel and meet
when I grew up, I’d be printing stickers!
inspiring visual people. As a kid, I was draw-
Stubborn as a lion, I never changed my
ing a lot, but all kids do it, no? When I became
mind. After my mandatory and painful
a teenager, I was bombing and it taught me
school years, I quickly found a place to do
how to manage scale, letters, size and space.
an apprenticeship in a small company that
So, in a way, I nourish and feed a passion
also employed graphic designers and sign
that has been there since I was a little kid.
painters. It printed signs, banners and, of
W hat made you realize you needed to st a r t y ou r o w n bu si ne s s?
course, stickers; but also art editions, which I immediately liked a lot. During my apprenticeship, I loved mixing colors, learning that a medium too big to be printed must
of the graphic and art production world, and
After my apprenticeship, I quickly realized
be done with a brush, and I quickly learned
after three years, got a federal diploma of
that I needed to create my own screen-print-
to handle the pounce wheel. It was only
capacities. There is nothing better in Swit-
ing shop in order to practice my craft. The
in my last year there that my boss bought
zerland to begin your professional life.
beginnings were slow and it allowed me to do
his first cutting plotter. Unfortunately, it
self-promotion material for the studio where
was the beginning of the 1990s and the
O ut side of you r e xcept ion a l pr i nt-
I learned a lot about mediums. I explored
computer era. I have often said to myself
ing and sign-painting skills, you are
a lot of different graphic and illustration
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styles as well. Pretty quickly, artists and galleries asked me to produce editions for them. This brought a lot of excitement and inspiration in my daily life. It pushed me to be a better craftsman and better artist on a daily basis. You are a crazy picker. Since I’ve known you, I have seen your vintage collection growing so much. You have hundreds of vintage advertisement signs, sports memorabilia, mid-century furniture, not to mention all types of toys. What’s the importance of those objects in your work? They look to me like a giant mood board that surrounds you constantly. I see you through those objects!
“I was alway hungry and interested to learn about what was going on in the States.”
Sometimes I wonder if it’s not a mental disease [laughs]. I think it’s heredi-
That’s a hard one to answer; I don’t know.
Many artists quit their day jobs the minute
tary. My mom passed it on. As a kid, I
I guess, since I was a teenager, I was alway
they can. In your case, it feels to me that
would go pick with her in flea markets,
hungry and interested to learn about what was
you don’t really care about what’s art or
estate sales and antique stores. I started
going on in the States. As far as I can remem-
what’s commercial since your art is heav-
to collect by necessity to furnish my
ber, I was always fascinated with it. I always
ily inspired by old commercial sign paint-
apartment and studio when I was young
lived in a rural area, and we only got a TV
ing and all your commercial jobs are
and broke, and then it grew into a full
when I was 14. While all my friends wanted to
inspired by your personal typeface devel-
passion. I think I have a really good
play soccer, I wanted to play basketball, break-
opment and illustrations. You kind of devel-
eye in scoring rare artifacts. I found a
dance, do graffiti. I was the only kid around
oped a perfect balanced world for your-
lot of inspiration in flea markets, just
who was skating. In 1986, I asked my mom to
self to evolve. It’s amazing that I can walk
browsing: type on book covers, a color
go to NYC, and instead we went to London. She
around your town and see so many signs
palette on a vinyl, or a vintage T-shirt.
has only one memory of that trip. All I wanted
and posters that you’ve done for local busi-
I love to dig and I am patient. I can
was to find the kicks that Michael Jordan
nesses and it’s still 100% you. Same when
wait months to score something I
was wearing! You know, when you come from
I see your work in a gallery or on a wall in
want. Never eBay! I am proud to have
a small village, you can’t quickly travel and
Berlin or Miami, itjust adds to the Lowrider
an eBayf ree collection. I guess there
see what’s going on. That’s where this passion
World. Do you have a need to leave a visual
is also part nostalgia in this. A lot of
for America started, and it never stopped.
and cohesive trace, or is itjust a natu-
the objects I have purchased have a
It’s crazy to think that you are still “young” and
ral and subconscious approach for you?
production quality that’s long gone
in your prime but already have 25 years of prac-
with the mass-produced, made-in
tice and experience. You were an artisan before
China, throwaway culture of today.
becoming an artist
You live in the middle of hills full of cows in central Switzerland, in a village of eight houses, and your studio is in Fribourg, an historical and medieval town with a rich history. How come you know so much about streetwear, basketball, graffiti, surfing and everything that comes from the States? You literally know more about the American underground culture than most of the people I know in Brooklyn!
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I don’t think it’s a need. I think it’s more of
style. I need to travel to be inspired. Now
an obligation for us kids of the 1980s. Grow-
that our kids are almost young adults, we are
ing up, we were surrounded by such a rich
looking forward to going back on the road
handmade and hand-painted graphic heritage that I feel obligated to carry it on for the
You’ve achieved so much already in your
future generations. I do my best to produce
professional and personal life. How do you
screen prints, walls and signs that I know
see the next 20 years of Lowrider Studio?
can last for 100 years or more. Nowadays, nobody knows what will really happen with
I see these years more focused on traveling,
giclee prints, vinyl signs, and all those hard
sign painting and big murals. I still have a
drives full of virtual art. Everything is made
bunch of tricks of the trade tov learn, and I
not to last, in a way. I pride myself (and I
still want to develop and push my typogra-
think it’s really a Swiss habit) to produce
phy. I won’t completely let go of the screen
work that will last at least a century, rain
printing, as I still have a bunch of artists
or shine. Whether it’s a sign for a client
that I want to print, but after so many
or an art print, I want it to be something
years, I am trying to think about preserv-
that can be passed along for generations.
ing my health too. It’s a physical job, and I use pretty strong inks and solvents that
There is an observational mix of nostal-
I can’t avoid breathing. I want to spend
gia, emotions and anthropological anal-
more time outside, painting signs directly
ysis in your illustrated travel diaries. It’s
at the client’s location, painting huge public
sometimes a real trip, sometimes a basket-
walls. So, basically, I want to take the
ball game and sometimes just improvised.
studio on the road and spend less time in
Are those daily, illustrated notes a way to
the shop. Since my kids are almost out, I
escape your daily routine, a way to travel
see it coming soon. Deep inside, I have a
mentally, or simply a personal life diary?
secret dream that my kids, Ulla or Lee, will take over the business. What do you think
All of that. Some of it is based on experi-
about Lowrider and Daughter? Or Lowrider
ences, some of it comes from my daydream-
and Son? It’s sounds pretty good to me!
ing and thoughts. At the end of the day, it’s kind of a visual diary. When I travel, the
Grotesk is the designer and artist behind the
pages get filled much faster. Same for the few
Juxtapoz Newsstand and various projects with
weeks following a trip full of great memo-
the magazine.
ries. I slow down when I am going through
Get in touch with Serge Lowrider at
five months of straight screen-printing and
lowriderteeshirt.com.
local work. I also draw to trigger forgotten
Photography by Grotesk ..
memories. It helps. My wife, Valerie, and I have been traveling a lot since we were young, and it’s a complete part of our life-
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by Andy Khouri
In the most recent edition of his Where
letterers have been recognized for their
“To me, the lettering is a form graphology.
The Hell Am I? column for Comic Book
skills for quite a long time. Indeed, talents
It reflects your own style and personality.
Resources, Scalped and Wolverine writer
like Todd Klein, Richard Starkings, Ken
A page of comics without text has its own
Jason Aaron conducted a brief but fasci-
Bruzenak, John Workman and Gaspar
personality. But when you add the balloons,
nating interview with Jared Fletcher about
Saladino are as much “household names”
it suddenly takes up a whole, new differ-
his craft: comic book lettering, easily
to dedicated comics readers as practi-
ent lo ok. For example, I was quite disap-
the most unsung discipline in the busi-
cally any writer or artist you can think of.
pointed about the look of my pages The
ness. The first thing Aaron mentioned
However, that is not the case in Europe
Silver Surfer at first. Without the balloons,
about the art of lettering comics is that
— at least according to Moebius, or at
I thought they looked too dull, too drab.
the results are meant to feel “invisible”
least the Moebius of 1988, when lettering
Then, I lettered them and they changed
in that they don’t pull the reader out
talents like those mentioned above were
completely. It became something complete,
of the world of the story, and Fletcher
still working by hand and not with comput-
dynamic. The lettering brought it together.”
elaborated on the painstaking process
ers. While he seemed to acknowledge the
That’s why I don’t really understand how
required to achieve that kind of work.
professional skills of a letterer, he was
an artist can entrust something that is
unequivocal in his belief that the words on
important to a hired hand, no matter how
You can read more from Fletcher and
a page are as integral to the artist’s work
good he may be. A letterer may a profes-
Moebius after the cut. Jared Fletcher
as the pictures themselves, regardless of
sional, but he’s very likely someone who
is an Eisner-nominated letterer whose
whatever illegibilities or other mistakes
has stopped to see lettering as something
work is being spotlighted in a major
might occur. It’s an intriguing viewpoint
amusing, but just as another job. To me, it’s
way in the form of the new logos seen
from an accomplished authority, and
monstrous to have an important part of the
across the X-Men line of Marvel Comics.
Moebius’ complete remarks are as follows:
look of a page determined by an outsider.
He described his working life to Aaron: “I am always working on a bunch of different projects at the same time. Right now, my biggest thing is redesigning the new X-Men logos that are going to be used after “Schism” wraps up. I have been living inside of that project the past few weeks, and it is far from over. But I love it. It’s easily one of the biggest projects of my career so far. Nick Lowe continues to be a champion for me and my design work at Marvel. His whole crew is solid. I am also lettering all of “Schism” and designing the covers and variant covers too. I design the recap and Cutting Edge pages for four of the Wolverine books and “Uncanny X-Force” every month. I am lettering a handful of the new #1’s at DC, including Cliff’s “Wonder Woman” (great stuff). I am finishing lettering on “DMZ,” and a few other Vertigo graphic novels, too.” Fletcher’s dedication is not unusual for letterers, and while their work is as a matter of course more “invisible” than that of writers, pencillers, inkers and colorists,
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If an artist’s lettering style is truly not legible, then he should learn. I learned my own lettering from Jije, who himself was very influenced by the American masters, like Caniff. I do the best I can. My letter is alive, it dances on the paper. It reflects my personality. To me, the only rule is that lettering should be consistent within its style, that is, all your “s”’s should look the same, etc. In the case of The Silver Surfer, my lettering on some of the pages is not always as good as I’d like it to be. Some days, I felt tired, less able to concentrate. Also, I was a little bit handicapped by the fact that English isn’t my mother tongue, and maybe I rushed a little too much in places. But, in spite of all these problems, I’d still rather have my own letters than the intrusion of someone else’s style on my page. I really fail to understand how artists can tolerate this. The excuse of legibility is, I think, a very poor one. It is something that must be done away with. The reader can be educated to read any style of lettering. Comic strips prove it every day. The Underground proved it years ago. Some of those people’s lettering was terrible -- barely legible -- but the readers followed it. We got rid of this attitude in Europe in the early nineteen-seventies. Now, every artist does his own lettering, which is coherent with the art, and it looks much better. It seems likely that many American readers would object to Moebius’ lettering in Silver Surfer: Parable, an example of which you can see above. It defies the kind of unbreakable consistency and exquisite legibility he referenced unfavorably in his remarks but that we are accustomed to. But as Moebius wrote, these words are “alive, they dance on the paper” and reflect his personality. The fanciful shapes of the individual letters are almost like tiny characters themselves that, as Moebius explained, truly completed his Silver Surfer pages (each of which he signed as a finished work). It’s easy to mentally substitute the letters above with a more traditional look, but for many I think the work would lose something. Moebius’ lettering is peculiar, but wonderfully so. Along similar lines, it’s difficult to imagine the high contrast world of Sin City without the stark raving “BLAM!”’s of Frank Miller or the majesty of Cerebus’ second movement without the variously angry, erudite and even drunken hyper-expressive letters of Dave Sim, both of whom also drew their comics. But is it possible that Astro City could possibly look any better without the lettering and design of the Comicraft team? What about The Sandman, whose Todd Klein created iconic dialogue styles for numerous characters including Dream and Lucifer that stay with them as they traverse titles and even publishing imprints? Certainly there are few illustrators with visions as idiosyncratic as that of Howard Chaykin, whose most enduring work, American Flagg!, was lettered to groundbreaking effect by Ken Bruzanek. And of course it’s obvious at a glance how John Workman only enhanced the work of Walt Simonson in Thor. These talents were as integral to the work as the colorists, surely? The younger Moebius made those remarks during a time when lettering was done by hand and a letterer’s personal style could be more easily identified as distinct from that of the artist. Moebius’ concerns about another person’s vision intruding upon the purity of his own might have been made moot by the advent of computer-based lettering along the lines Fletcher described in his inter view, but possibly not. In any case, it’s a fascinating opinion from an endlessly fascinating creator.
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TOOL S & T U T S
BRUSH LETTERING FOR BEGINNERS: A STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIAL by Alejandro Solorzano
This is why, we teamed up with Alejandro (a.k.a. JansArts) who has been practicing the art of brush lettering for the past several years. Alejandro prepared an amazing tutorial in order to help all of YOU to learn and improve your brush lettering skills
I n this step-by-step tutorial you will learn: 1.
Which brushes to use
2.
Warm up techniques
3.
The basic letter structure
4.
Sketching process and creating your very own brush lettering piece
Now, without further ado we are shifting the spotlight to the man itself!
Hi everyone! Let me introduce myself. My name is Alejandro Solórzano and I’m a product design engineer by trade, creative lettering artist by choice. A few years ago, I started @Jansarts, a digital lettering and design journal on Instagram, where I was able to share my daily calligraphy process as well as inspirational quotes to the digital world. For me, brush lettering has been a fun hobby that allows me to express my ideas through handwritten artworks. Are you ready to learn brush pen calligraphy? I’m here to share some tips and tricks for you to get started.
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Meet the brush pens ​Having the right products by your side is one of the most important things in calligraphy and lettering. It is really interesting to try different brush pen markers, because once you know how they work, it will be easier to have in your mind the different kind of results that you might want for your letters. Avoid buying a ton of fancy fountain pens and inks! We will get started with brush pens, which are the best option for your calligraphy and lettering daily practices. Be sure to check out also this review for the top 5 brush pens. 1.
TOMBOW DUAL BRUSH PEN
2.
PENTEL ARTS POCKET BRUSH PEN
3.
TOMBOW FUDENOSUKE BRUSH PEN, SOFT & HARD TIP
4.
ECOLINE LIQUID WATERCOLOR BRUSH PEN
5.
SHARPIE STAINED FABRIC MARKERS, BRUSH TIP
For beginners I would recommend: Tombow Dual Brush Pensand the BIC Visaquarelle Brush Pens.
Both of these have felt tips that are firm but flexible, giving you more control with your thin and thick strokes. In addition, the nib of a brush pen is cone-shaped with a thin point at the tip. It is flexible so its easier to get thin and thick lines with just handling the markers pressure. Also, we will be using some basic stationery tools like: Mechanical Pencil, Eraser and the A4 paper sheets
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Warm-ups B efore jumping right into calligraphy, let’s do some warm-ups! You’ll need to grab a basic black BIC pen and start drawing circles on your page, small ones, bigger ones and move to more complex curves and shapes. Then, start doing straight lines from side to side. Like every other exercise routine, we need to warm up to get our body used to the new movements and start creating some muscle memory in our arms
Upper and lower case letter structure Before getting started with letters, there are some basic strokes that you will need to practice to understand better the structure of your alphabets. Here you can see the path that you must follow to create each letter, it will be easier if you follow the steps. 1.
Downstrokes
2.
Upstrokes
3.
Circles
4.
Loops
5.
Drills
A quick Scheme Underneath you can see a cheat sheet that will guide through the basic strokes. If you are a complete beginner, you should start practicing these basic strokes before moving on to actual words Contrast between letter strokes is key! Brush pen calligraphy is all about pressure. Down strokes should be thicker so you need to increase your pressure and up strokes should be thinner lines so you release pressure when moving your brush pen upwards.For rounded shapes, your left side of the circle should be thick and the right side thin. Also, any crossbar strokes should be made with light pressure. Quick tip: Do not get frustrated! If you start to feel tired when practicing your strokes, give yourself a little break and then start again. This discipline is all about being relaxed and most of all enjoy the process.
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Start practicing! W hen holding your markers, try to hold it close to the nib and keep the angle of the pen tip around a 45° angle. This will give you the right inclination of your letters and will be easier to get your thin and thick strokes without a lot of hand pressure. If you’re getting started with calligraphy, I recommend being patient and writing slowly. Then, I will add a little bit more of speed to create more confident strokes. Your letters will start looking crisp! Remember, the pen should be completely immobile in your hand. I always move the whole arm instead of just using your wrist. This will help your brush strokes to be smoother, so we’re going to avoid shaky letters and make your hand lettering better.
Ready? Set, Go! Once you find a word or an inspiring quote that you want to share, start sketching with a pencil your ideas. In this very first step is where you will start working on your composition, making some quick guidelines with your ruler and exploring several layout options. Select the words that might be more important and make them bigger, you want your message to be clear, easy to read and eye catching. Check out this tutorial if you want to learn more about how to improve your hand lettering layout! Then, start drawing different letters, change their form, use upper and lower case characters and try integrating them with some flourishes. This is one of the trickiest parts because you’ll have a lot of ideas and you’ll have to decide which one works better for your artwork.
IMAGE FORGE
TOOL S & T U T S
WORK HARD AND DREAM BIG In this tutorial, we will be using the quote: and we will try to create an artwork that fully reflects the meaning of this word. We want to make our audience to feel inspired so we need a motivational image to make them react to our post. Here (up) you can see some of the first sketches and iterations for this words. Remember, we are not looking for the perfect hand writing style, we are looking to express and communicate our message, so here’s where you can have fun exploring different lettering styles, textures or even play with your thick and thin strokes. Most of lettering artists do some tracing and refining step before going to digital, but for this tutorial we want keep our hand writing just like it is so we will skip this step for now. If you want to learn about refining your hand lettering sketches, I will highly recommend the previous Lettering Daily reviews. Quick Tip: Practice is key; so don’t get frustrated or discouraged if you don’t get what you want on the first sketching rounds. You’ll probably need to stop doing it for an hour, take some fresh air, and get yourself out of the computer. Give yourself a break and then get back to work. Great! Now that you’re done with your analog tools, it’s time to make some digital work. If you have a digital scanner, scan your final design and bring it directly into Photoshop. Quick Tip: If you are in Photoshop, you can import your files directly from your scanner. Go to File – Import – Images from Device and select your files. A 600 DPI JPG will work fine for this project. But, wait, we want to make things quicker and easier, so grab your phone, take a picture and send it right to your email. (If you’re a Mac User, Airdrop will be the easiest way to share files).
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