Beginner Hand Lettering – 5 Tips to get You Started
If you’ve spent any time at all on sites like Pinterest and Instagram, chances are you’ve seen a few posts about hand lettering. These gorgeous fonts and drawings are enough to pique anyone’s interest. The good news is that beginner hand lettering is remarkably easy to pick up!
Anyone can get started with just a few pieces of basic equipment and a little knowhow. If you’re looking to start lettering, you’re in the right place. This page contains my tips to help you lay the foundations and pick up this wonderful hobby.
Get ready to become a hand lettering pro!
What is Hand Lettering?
My tips to start hand lettering are a little further down this page. Before I dive into them, it’s worth clearing up any confusion. Many newcomers to the hobby are left scratching their heads looking at terms like calligraphy, typography, and hand lettering.
So what’s the difference anyway?
The important thing to keep in mind at this stage is that hand lettering is the act of drawing letters in any style. Love the look of a particular font? Found a style that’s perfect for you? Go for it! The great thing about hand lettering is that it relies less on specific equipment or hand pressure to get the results you’re looking for.
In general, hand lettering is a much more flexible and accessible hobby to pick up. This isn’t to say that calligraphy isn’t awesome too – it’s just that this older technique makes use of specific brushes and brushstrokes that can put some newbies off.
Okay, so what on earth is typography?
When writing in a word processor like Microsoft Word, you’ll have a long list of fonts to choose from. Typography is the process that was used to make these fonts available to your computer.
A typographer designs systems of letters that can be used by computers and print publications. Typography is important when you start hand lettering as it gives beginners an understanding of how letters are formed and what it takes to write them clearly.
I’ll explore this in more detail later on.
What You’ll Need to Start Lettering
One of the things I love about this hobby is that the necessary equipment list is refreshingly short. That said, it’s important to make sure you’ve got the basics to hand. Check out my equipment checklist below.
Paper
If all you have available is basic printer paper, that’s absolutely fine. You don’t have to get fancy with specific papers if you don’t want to. The one thing I’ll mention, however, is that using dotted paper can be immensely helpful when learning how to proportion your drawings.
Brush Pens – Color and Black
You’ll want a variety of brush pens in both black and your favorite colors. You don’t have to go crazy to start with, but try and get a reasonable variety of both soft and hard-tipped pens. There will be a process of trial and error here.
You’ll soon learn which pen types work best for you.
Pencils
Planning and marking up your creations is key for both beginner hand lettering and the work of seasoned pros. A relatively fine pencil that’s easy to erase tends to work best. Some people prefer mechanical pencils while others opt for a more standard HB affair.
Choose whichever works best for you.
Erasers
A good quality eraser is a must when you start lettering. You’ll likely be tweaking your plans and markings a fair bit when you first get started. Find an eraser that’s gentle on your preferred paper – the last thing you want is to tear or mark your work!
Helpful tip: work more with imperfections and try to refrain from using the eraser too much, as it will help to improve your drawing faster. Errors are absolutely normal. You don’t need to draw perfect lines.
Rulers and Circle Makers
Rulers are super useful when hand lettering and drawing guides. Nothing works better for maintaining a straight edge throughout your entire drawing helping to improve your consistency. They’re also great for measuring up the proportions of your letters and planning your work in advance.
Some artists like to make use of helix circle makers like this one for certain fonts and designs. They’re pretty inexpensive so it might be worth picking one up for your beginner hand lettering.
Beginner Hand Lettering – My Tips
Right, let’s get into it! The tips below are designed to prepare you for your hand lettering journey. If you’re wondering how to learn hand lettering, read on to learn more.
1 – Embrace the Chaos
My first tip is more to do with mindset than anything else. As with any new skill, you’re probably not going to get amazing results overnight. Get ready to be a little disappointed by your first few attempts. It all starts with baby steps.
Remember that this is about the journey more than it’s about the destination. The more you enjoy the hours you’re putting in, the better you’ll become. With a bit of dedication, anyone can learn to draw beautiful hand lettering with confidence.
I generally recommend that newcomers start small and build up with baby steps. Developing your skills in increments makes it much more likely that things will stick. I discuss this in more detail in the video below.
It’s a cliché for a reason – practice makes perfect.
2– Get Familiar With Letter Anatomy
It’s not the most glamorous subject in the world, but letter anatomy is a fundamental aspect of learning hand lettering. It’s worth getting to grips with at least the basics of how letters are formed and the different components that make up modern script.
The major takeaway from basic letter anatomy is that your upstrokes should be thin and your downstrokes should stay thick. As you develop your skills further, you’ll want to become familiar with three main type styles – cursive, serif, and sans serif.
Fortunately, this all sounds much more complicated than it really is. This overview from Envato Tuts+ explains things very well – check it out:
3 – Guideline Setup
Preparing your writing space will make it much easier to draw letters effectively. This is particularly important when first starting out but can be removed as you grow more confident.
You’ll be using five line types as guidelines.
Base Line
Your base line is where the bottom of all your letters will rest. Think of it like the floor of a house. Only the lower parts of letters like ‘y’ will ever go below this line.
X-Height
This is like the ceiling of your house. The tops of most of your letters should rest here. Only the reaching elements of letters like ‘h’ should go higher than this.
Ascender Line
These reaching elements should stop at your ascender line. This is like the attic room of your house.
Descender Line
In the same vein, the descender line is like the basement of your building. The lower elements of letters like ‘y’ should stop at this line.
Slant Line
A slant line travels diagonally across your guide at a chosen angle. It’s there to help you maintain a consistent slant for fonts that are angled to one side. The specific font or style you’re using will determine the angle of your slant line.
4 – Find a Font You Like (Inspiration)
When first starting out with hand lettering, it’s important to make things as enjoyable as possible. You’re far more likely to actually practice if training doesn’t feel like a chore. Spend some time researching fonts online. Look at hand lettering posts and see if you can find a couple of favorites.
You can steal some of my favorite pins here:
Now it’s time to get practicing! See how closely you can replicate your chosen designs. Once you’ve got familiar with these fonts, try going against the grain and practice with something new that pushes you out of your comfort zone.
5 – Scale Slow to Grow Tall
Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day! It’s generally a good idea to start small and build in increments. I find this significantly improves the likelihood that your skill will grow sustainably.
Start with letters in one or two font styles. Once you’re comfortable, build up to a few words, then quotes, then full phrases. If you start small and stick at it, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your confidence and skill set can develop!
Beginner Hand Lettering – Final Thoughts
Don’t be intimidated by the posts you see online – every single one of those artists had to start somewhere! If you’re looking to take your practice to the next level, you might like to try this course in letter building.
Anyone can start lettering and start seeing progress quicker than you might think. Good luck!
Did I miss something? What’s your tip for a friend who wants to start with hand lettering? Let me know in the comments.