And now another lettering tutorial prepared and taught by... me!

This week we tackled an art deco style that is very classy looking.

WORD FONT – DAY 1 – INTRODUCTION

I’ve started this font lesson with some guidelines. These are NOT in the finished lettering but they are important to set up as you begin so the defining marks are placed correctly. I also demonstrated the font in three scales so you get to see the proper placement of the guidelines in relation to each size. The guideline instructions are laid out on the right of each sample. Unlike mine, you will use pencil for your guides so they can be erased.

The next thing to do is to practice the marks at the bottom of the sheet and their position on the guidelines.

As you practice drawing the letters in each scale, try to identify the practice marks that appear. The other marks will show up in the alphabet tomorrow.

Note that I said DRAW the letters. Do this in pencil first so you can make any correction needed. Then trace over the pencil in ink and, when the ink is dry, erase the pencil. This is what we call P-I-E (pencil-ink-erase).

Before you start on your WORD alphabet, set up the guidelines for the scale you will be working in (select from yesterday’s lesson). Then practice the defining marks again. Watch for those marks as you carefully draw your letters.

This is a very round and upright font and it has no lower case.

I did draw up a number series to go with this font so it could be used for scripture references and remain in character.

Today, use your font to write up a quote using ‘WORD’.

You will still make those guidelines to keep your letterforms consistent. Then ink the letters and erase the pencil. Note that the letters are compressed together but they do not touch.

Doesn’t this font just look beautiful when it is used naturally rather than in the alphabet?

Select a scripture with ‘WORD’ in it and write it out in your journal, notebook or on plain paper.

Depending on the length of the scripture you plan to use, you may need to drop to a smaller scale. Don’t forget to start with your guidelines.

P-I-E is on the menu again!

Today we take the WORD font to The Word. Select a scripture that uses WORD to letter into your Bible.

You will undoubtedly need to reduce the scale even beyond the smallest on your practice pages. But you should be able, by now, to figure out the relationship of the placement of the guidelines to your guide height.

P-I-E is especially important when working on your Bible pages to protect against errors in spelling and placement.

If your text won’t fit using only the feature font, by all means combine it with some other font(s). I had only one word that was going to be a little long so I adjusted the spaces between letters to condense the word package.

I used excerpts from James 1:22.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:51 PM PDT

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Back with anouther week of lettering! This week was Ann's turn to teach and she went with a lighthearted curly and bouncy font and focused out attention on the word Gladness.

DAY 1 - INTRODUCTION

Throughout the week, I played with my metallic fude brush markers. I was working on keeping the lines even width and not pushing down on the tip to create thick and thin.

The first day we got the intruduction to writing the focus word in both upper- and lower-case letters.

We also practiced giving the letters a little bounce.

DAY 2 - ALPHABET

I did my alphabet stratight and even to work on getting the forms correct. Then I can let them bounce around (or not) when using them on a project.

DAY 3 - ANAGRAM

I went with the bouncing letters on this piece as well as centering the words. This makes it less apparent that the first letters top to bottom spell out Gladness.

I added scrolls.leaves and berries with other colors of the fude metallic brush markers.

The adtual pieces do NOT have fine outlines on the letters. This was an effect created by my scanner on the metallic marks.

DAY 4 - SCRIPTURE

More practice in my notebook.

DAY 5 - IN THE BIBLE

To save space, I reverted back to my Micron pen to letter in my Bible.

Although my Bible is the NIV I wrote out portions of the scripture as it appears in The Living Bible.

A few little balloons fill the space to illustrate Gladness.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:29 PM PDT

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I signed up for a colored pencil class online a while back and then got involved with the watercolor challenge in July. I finally got back to the class lessons and completed the homework for lesson 1.

This first involved using ALL of the pencils on a hex-chart to show their relationships. I colored FOUR charts so I could see what the differences were when used on white, tan, grey and black.

Then there was some coloring with the three primary colors in five different pressures andblending those same 3 colors with varying pressure.

And finally, I worked on layering the same colors in different orders to see what different colors resulted. There were three exercises with different pressure.

Sorry the photo is so poor on this one, but you get the idea.

I have watched the videos for lesson two but not begun the actual homework yet.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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For my turn at lettering this week I developed an original font to teach. It reminded me of cinderblocks so I called it 'Foundation'.

Here is the lesson plan:

MONDAY

I’m going to have another run at showing what I think will be a very easy print style. I’ve been wrong before, but I do think you will all find this one easy to do.

There are only a few rules: All the letters fit inside a perfect square and all are exactly the same size. You can use only the outside lines of the square as well as the vertical half-line, the horizontal half-line and both diagonals.

There are no lower-case letters and every letter will have one or two dots to decorate it. These were inspired by cinderblocks.

Letter spacing will be ½ the letter width.

TUESDAY

Today we have the full alphabet. Remember, there are no lower-case letters in this style.

Note how all the letters fit the rules that we established yesterday – all letters the same size and all lines must be on the + axis, the x axis or the perimeter of the square.

Because of the regimented structure of this style it is very easy to remember them when writing. I usually write all the letters and then go back and add the dots. It helps in maintaining the flow of writing which helps to avoid misspellings.

WEDNESDAY

This style of block lettering serves as a good one for constructing a crossword. I did mine with terms and materials used in construction.

THURSDAY

Today you can write either a hymn or a scripture on plain paper. Fill in empty areas with some drawn cinderblocks the same height as the letters but twice as wide. The blocks each get two dots.

FRIDAY

Today we will use the FOUNDATION lettering style in our Bibles.

All that practice keeping things square when we had the dots on our papers should have trained your mind to create square letters when you only have top and bottom lines.

I decorated my page with a column which I realize is not really a ‘foundation’ but it is a part of a construction and I liked the way it looked with the lettering style. If you want to use a column as well, check out the Drawing Room lesson for the week. It is not this same one but will work just as nicely.

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:20 AM PDT

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Last week we did the word WALK in the Lettering Lodge and this week we did the word STAND. Both were taught by Ann.

So I will simply show my homework pages without her descriptions or instructions.

DAY 1 - Introduction

DAY 2 - Alphabet

DAY 3 - Quote/Lyrics

DAY 4 - Scripture Notebook

DAY 5 - In Your Bible

The shoes on this Bible page were the new Drawing Room lesson for Friday.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:16 AM PDT

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Time for another lettering round-up. This one was taught on the Creative Bible Journaling Facebook group by my co-leader Ann.

Her focus word last week was 'walk' and the font was an italic print with large swoops decorating the upper-case letters.

DAY 1 - introduction

DAY 2 - Alphabet

DAY 3 - Hymn Lyrics

DAY 4 - Scripture in Notebook

DAY 5 - Use in the Bible

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:33 PM PDT

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I have so much enjoyed the challenge of doing watercolor painting every day this month. I did work ahead so I could fit it all in and still leae this weekend free for another project.

So here are the final 6 paintings.

Day 26 - Prompt YELLOW

I liked the idea of a sunflower to go with this verse because they lift their faces and track the sun across the sky. I watched a painting video on YouTube one day and then painted this from memory the next.

These birdhouses are styled after wonky houses developed by Joanne Fink.

Day 28 - Prompt CURIOUS

I havehad this painting in mind to do for a long time but it was really hard to find a reference photo that would match my vision. I really wanted the tippy-toes and the pose facing away. I finally found a vintage photo that was a good model, even tho it was black-and-white.

I used watercolor pencils for this. Haven't used them for a LONG time and had to make myself a little color chart for reference to show what they looked like when wetted.

Day 29 - Prompt ENDURING

I think raccoons are adorable! I wanted to challenge myself to do something with fur. I used the watercolor pencils again.

I did a lot of color blending before applying water brush to blend. I added shading and detailing with black ink and then finished with a white gel pen for highlights.

Day 30 - Prompt COMPASSION

Another personal challenge - paint realistic water. I decided to go entirely monochromatic with this so that the shading rather than color was the defining element. I used only water and Payne's Gray paint.

I worked from a painting I found on Pinterest. I did a little detail work with white gel pen.

Day 31 - Prompt FLOURISH

No flourishes on this! But the word is in the verse which also refers to palm trees.

I used some new brush watercolor markers to stamp two different palm branches in various greens. I added a second green to each branch with watercolor pencil before blending with a water brush.

I made marks with a waterolor pencil in the background and blended them out with water. Then I wetted the whole background and dried with a heat tool. I then outlined every branch with fine black marker.

I used the watercolor brush markers to letter the verse on vellum and mounted that over the illustration.

And there you have it - 31 greeting cards using watercolor paint, watercolor pencils and/or watercolor brush markers. All contain scriptures and were triggered by the prompts provided by Sandy Allnock for World Watercolor Month 2018.

Ddd

#wwcm2018 

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:58 PM PDT

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If I continue to do 2 paintings a day, I will finish this project up on Wednesday and not delay my other project at all! Sounds like a plan to me.

Day 22 - Prompt: DEEP

I am taking an online class on colored pencil drawing right now as well. The students taking all of this instructor's are sharing their work on the same Facebook page. Well, those taking a Copic marker class have been showing their underwater scenes so I printed out some reference photos from Pinterest and used my watercolors to mimic what the marker people were doing. It was perfect for the prompt for 'deep'.

Day 23 - Prompt: DANGER

I drew these combat boots from a photo by using a grid transfer system. The grid on the photo was drawn at 1/2 inch increments and the grid on the watercolor paper was drawn at 3/8 inch. By going square by square on the grid and drawing the lines where they appeared in each one I soon had a perfect rendition of the boots (except for the laces which I simplified considerably). Not a lot of complicated painting on this one - a base flat wash of color, dried, added a second wash for shadows.

Day 24 - Prompt: JOYFUL

I wanted to experiment with layered washes to show semi-transparent objects. I drew balloons because they are joy filled!

Day 25 - Prompt: GIANT

Last for today. I couldn't think of n illustration for Giant and had a hard time coming up with a verse too. I went with this one because it tells me that my God is BIG. The art is all in the lettering.

Six more pictures to paint....

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:51 PM PDT

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Another week of lettering tutorials is in the books. The font I taught has the appearance of being very simple but it does have a few tricks up the sleeve.

SOUL FONT – DAY 1 – FONT INTRO

The font we are learning this week is all about the rules – or maybe ‘about the ruler’. Since it is such a precise font and the spirit of the lettering is dependent on sharp, consistent form we are going to start out there instead of just jumping into writing a word.

First, the guidelines. You’re going to want paper that has some kind of unit for you to follow. I used dot grid but you would do as well with graph paper or a narrow-rule lined paper. First line to pencil is your baseline. The x-height is one unit above this. The ascender/caps line is an additional 2.5 units above this (3.5 units above the base line). The descender line is 1 1/3 units below the base line. SEE THE FIRST LINE ON THE ILLUSTRATION FOR REFERENCE.

Next, we address the letter widths. With some exceptions which will become apparent when we see the full alphabet, letter width of lower-case letters are about 1 unit wide and upper-case about 1.5 wide. THIS IS SHOWN ON THE SECOND LINE IN THE ILLUSTRATION.

Now, for working methods. Note on LINE THREE IN THE ILLUSTRATION it is important to sketch each letter in pencil. Don’t go with your first marks necessarily but make little corrections to the form until it is just right. Ink over the final lines and then erase your pencil. You end up with perfect lettering!

And, finally, there is one special letter that takes a few extra steps to get just right. So, IN THE BOXED AREA ON THE ILLUSTRATION take note of the correct formation of the letter S. Sketch an O, make tick marks as indicated, trace from tick to tick and cross over on the x-height guideline, and erase the pencil.

READY FOR SOME LETTERING NOW?

The focus word this week is SOUL. Write it out in various upper/lower-case versions. You can also practice some of the letters used in the instructional portion since this word only has four letters to play with. None of the letters on today’s page have descenders, so we’ll see those in the full alphabet lesson tomorrow.

SOUL FONT – DAY 2 – ALPHABET

This alphabet is based on a free font called SmallTall. I added a set of numbers without referencing the original font so those are mine entirely.

Note that straight letters have a set of half-serifs to define the top and/or bottom. Exceptions are the capital ‘I’ with full serifs, the capital ‘T’ with none and the ‘Z’ with none. Curved letters do not have serifs for the most part. Exceptions on the foot of the ‘h, m, n’ and the top of the ‘g, j, u, y’. there are few descenders. Two are extensions of the straight line with a half-serif like the ‘p, q’ and the remaining three are matching gentle curves with no serif. These are ‘g, j, y’. So only 5 descenders in total.

I threw in a reminder on forming the ‘S’ so you wouldn’t have to keep referring back to page one. Note that the lower-case ‘s’ can be formed the same way. Its internal crossbar is straight across rather than a curve or slant like one would normally write.

Now, go forth and letter. It’s good for your SOUL!

SOUL FONT – DAY 3 – QUOTE OR LYRICS

I used lyrics from the song ‘Anchor’ by Hillsong for a practice sheet today. When you write out a long block of text it looks better to capitalize every word. I use all caps for key words.

You can see I used a version of this font for my reference though I condensed the height of the upper-case letters. This makes it blend in but not compete with the main text.

Practice your lettering with a quote, song lyrics or poem relating to the SOUL and share your work in the Photo Album.

SOUL FONT – DAY 4 – SCRIPTURE WRITING

Today we move into using our font for a scripture on practice paper.

I spread out the lettering on my page and used a winding rope to provide a flowing guide for the reader.

***Want to make your own rope? In pencil, sketch a looping curvy line. Add a second line beside it, making the lines equidistant all the way down. Skip the areas where the rope crosses letters. Use a very fine-line pen to make broken, dotted and dashed lines down each side (stop when you come to a cross-over and pick up on the other side of it then after the loop when you come to the cross-over continue on through it – now the rope crosses itself). With the same fine-line pen, make angled hashmarks along the length, again skipping around the letters and the back side of the crossovers. Keep the angle consistent, turning your paper as necessary to do so. Erase your pencil and color lightly with brown.***

Whether you add rope or not, letter a scripture on practice paper and share your work with us in the photo album for Lettering Lodge.

SOUL FONT – DAY 5 – IN YOUR BIBLE

This is the day we use our newly-learned font in our Bibles. I really wanted to use the same verse as yesterday with a drawing of an anchor but I already had done that in my Bible. So, I switched up for Psalm 119:81 and illustrated with an open book (Bible today) and a scroll (Bible in David’s time).

This font eats up a lot of vertical space so you might have to mix in a more compact font to supplement it. I did that at the bottom.

I think I will use this font a lot as it is a style with versatility. In face, I already used it on one of the watercolors I did this week (blue bottle).

When I was writing this lesson I started out to do the focus word 'anchor'. Then I discovered there were not very many scriptures with that word that were something that I would want to journal. That's when I changed it to Soul based on some of the samples I had already done.

Here is the original introduction:

Off to do more artwork. What shall I work on next????

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:09 PM PDT

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Seems these entries are coming one on top of another. I'm doing two a day still as I have something coming up at the end of the month and don't want to be caught short.

Day 18 - Prompt: SCALE

I decided to go with fish scales for this prompt and painted the 5 loaves and 2 fish. I just by chance happened upon the scripture in Job 5:9

Day 19 - Prompt: PATIENT

I painted this one from a picture found on Pinterest and I've decided I want this place for my very own.

Day 20 - Prompt: WARM

Warm colors; warm sand; warm tropical air - yes please

Day 21 - Prompt: STRETCH

I've been seeing other people try a technique for painting galaxies that uses rubbing alcohol sprayed on wet watercolor paint. I took it up a notch by sprinkling with table salt after it was partially dry.

I am having SO much fun getting back into watercolor painting and trying out new techniques to get the result I want on each one.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:43 PM PDT

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It was my turn to teach a lettering lesson last week on the Facebook group Creative Bible Journaling. Here's a recap:

DAY 1

This week we’ll be working with an elegant semi-script. That is, it is script formed letters but they are not connected to one another like true cursive.

The lower-cases are unusually small in comparison to the upper-case letters. The upper case may break the plane of the baseline and some descenders may unexpectedly break the plane of the standard descender line (see the t and the l). We’ll look more at the scale issues tomorrow when we see the full alphabet, but for now It’s a matter of keeping the letters/words looking flowing.

The ‘t’ is my favorite letter of this style and reminds me of the cross. It was for this reason that I called this font ‘Eternity’.

You may want to practice with the letters widely spaced like the first line in the sample AND compressed like the third line.

I drew guidelines for my alphabet to get all the letter heights just so since this will be a reference sheet for further use of the font.

This free-flowing semi-script is not very impressive in the mixed case alphabet page, but it really rocks when you start writing out words and phrases with it.

My favorite letters : t, s, Z and E.

I drew guidelines on plain paper to write out synonyms for Eternal and Eternity and erased the guides along with the pencil drafts of the letters after inking the words.

I used capitals on every word to get some practice on their forms as well. I’m not fond of this alphabet when written in all caps so I did not include any of those.

See what I mean about the elegance of writing in this font? Be sure to let those ‘t’s just go wild!

I love finding hymns and choruses that are direct quotes of scripture! We sing this one in church all the time and now I know where to find it in my Bible!

I did this page with the drawn guidelines on plain paper like yesterday and, again, used caps on all the words. I used my previously mentioned method of centering when tracing the text onto a clean sheet of paper.

With the lines alongside the text in my journaling Bible I got away with only drawing one guideline for each line of text. The top, center and bottom were already in place so I just had to mark the guide for the lower-case baseline – a little less than halfway between the two lines of the bottom half.

For the illustration I borrowed from this image found on Pinterest. It has been pinned so many times I can’t find the original poster so have no way to attribute it.

This current week I am teaching again so there'll be another set of lessons up for that.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:26 PM PDT

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Now that I'm back from my short vacation it is time to catch up with the watercolor paintings for World Watercolor Month. I actually did the sketches for these while I was away so it was quicker to get on track here at home.

Day 15 - Prompt: REPEAT

I used a glitter gel pen over the top of my lettering. The wings and tops of the heads got a line of glitter as well for some shine.

Day 16 - Prompt: GENEROUS

I started out with the concept "if you as fathers know how to give good gifts to your children..." but when I had the gifts done I switched it up to represent giving to others.

Day 17 - Prompt: BLUE

I love this scripture and felt the theme of 'blue' represented sadness and heartache that led to tears. So I used my own hand as a model for one pouring tears into a blue bottle.

Challenge to paint daily with watercolors continues wo the end of the month.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:00 PM PDT

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I found I was not going to have time to paint for a few days this month so I've beed doubling up and doing two a day for a few days to bank the paintings. I realize that kind of defeats the 'paint every day' spirit of the challenge but at the end of the month I will still have 31 paintings, so I'm good with that.

I had a bunch of watercolor papers that I had gotten as sample packs from two vendors years and years ago (maybe 20?). So I've been cutting them down into the 5x7 size I've been using for this series. Some are thick, soe thin, some smooth, some textured, some have sizing and some do not. I just grab whatever is on the top of the pile and figure out the best way to paint on that particular paper as I go.

Day 7 -  Prompt: PINK

Well, I think I got the 'pink' theme down well enough. The flowers are a rubber stamp imprinted with a very light ink. This technique is called no-line watercolor because the stamp ink disappears into the water and paint.

Day 8 - Prompt: SWEET

The background of this is made with bubble wrap! You wet the paper, put waterbased stamp ink on the bubble wrap and press it to the paper. It spreads out into the wet paper. I brushed over it with very light watercolor paint to blend and let it dry then drew in the honeycomb lines. More paint went over the background areas. I used a glue stick to adhere flecks of gold foil randomly and painted two bees.

Day 9 - Prompt: LIGHT

Not my favorite but I ran out of ideas on how to make it look like I wanted. In case you can't tell, it is supposed to be a shaft of light coming from between dark clouds.

Day 10 - Prompt: CLEAR

The three big challenges I've always had with painting are 'metal', 'water' and 'glass'. I do believe this is the first time I have had success in painting glass!

Day 11 - Prompt: ROW

The very next day I had a success at painting water! Woo Hoo! Two in a row.

Day 12 - Prompt: ELEGANT

If you've been around long at all, you'll probably recognize this hummingbird as my handcarved rubber stamp. I added stamped magnolia blooms and then had to draw in a couple to fill in. This was done in the style of no-line watercolor.

Day 13 - Prompt: DOOR

Well, look here! I've successfully painted metal. My big three bugaboos can go hang out somewhere else. I can do this! Now 'shiny' metal may be an entirely different story.

Day 14 - Prompt: STRONG

I took the prompt and added 'COFFEE' to it! Although this illustration looks like a rubber stampI actually hand drew the whole thing from scratch and used the watercolors to bring it to life.

Not quite halfway through the assignment. I'll do a couple more and then take a break for my other scheduled activity before posting.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:54 PM PDT

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I have another three waterolor paintings completed for this challenge. Still finding it a challenge to figure out what to paint. After that part the painting has been easy so far.

Day 4 - Prompt LOYAL

I didn't use a scripture on this card, but a quote.

Day 5 - Prompt CIRCLE

The roses on this card are my own handcarved rubber stamp. The lettering is gold gel pen.

Day 6 - Prompt YOUNG

I went with sprouts as my reference to the prompt. I can listen to one disc of an audiobook while painting one card.

Postings will continue every few days.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:54 PM PDT

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The lettering lesson from Ann this week (CBJ - Creative Bible Journaling Facebook group) was a great adventure through creating letters out of rocks! Ann's lesson was more basic lettering but I boosted mine up to the next level by adding little features and shading to make them more stone-like.

Day 1 - introduction to the style

Day 2 - the full alphabet

Day 3 - a hymn with the focus word

Day 4 - a scripture in my journal

Day 5 - the font used in my Bible

I won't have a separate post for the Drawing Room lesson this week as I used the lesson (How to Draw Mountains) on this same Bible page.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:09 PM PDT

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I signed on to a challenge to do watercolor painting every day for the month of July. A whole three days and I'm still on track! We'll see how long that lasts while I have some time away on a couple of weekends.

So far, I think the biggest challenge has been coming up with bible ideas related to the word prompts.

Day 1 - Prompt STAR

I went with a night sky in which I used salt to create random white spaces. After this was dry, I brushed away the salt and added little yellow dots to many of these spaces for stars.

After painting a grassy field to do the lettering on, I added gold glittery gel pen to just a few of the yellow dots.

Day 2 - Prompt VISION

I used my own glasses as a model for this painting. But I had to take a picture of them to work from because, with them off, I couldn't see to draw or paint them.

Day 3 - Prompt RED

I don't know why it took me so long to make the mental connection between 'red' and 'rubies'. I had been wanting to draw or paint some gemstones for a while now so this was a great time to do it.

I found a blog that gave some tips on painting gems in watercolor and used those suggestions to great effect.

It wasn't until I got these three cards lined up together that I realized that I had used the same layout for all of them.

I have been using lettering styles from the Lettering Lodge on these.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:30 PM PDT

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The journaling bible I have has a tooled cover in teal. I got it in my head to add some color.

I turned first to a white fine-line Sharpie paint pen. I used this to color the open flowers. This worked well because it is essentially acrylic paint.

Next I used a gole glitter gel pen to color in some striped flowers. I don't know what kind of 'paint' it is but it stuck well.

Finally I used a shimmery silver gel pen for the buds. After the ink was dry a swipe with the hand left the silver but took away the slimmer of it.

I haven't decided if I will find a green to use on the leaves. I want to see how it 'wears' the way it is as this is the bible I carry to church every week.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:18 PM PDT

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And with a big sigh, I end several weeks in a row of being on duty for lettering tutorials. The other leader will take over this week.

Last week, I taught a series on the word 'Purity'. 

MONDAY LESSON

The lettering lessons this week will demonstrate and teach an elegant print font I’ve titled ‘Purity’.

The upper case is prettied up with some double lines and single and double loops. The lower case does not have any of these elements but echo the bent ends of the lines at top and bottom.

The inset box has some step-by-step directions on forming your capitals so you get the best results for your efforts:

1)      In pencil, create your basic forms

2)      In pencil, add features such as the double lines, bent ends and single and double loops

3)      Ink the whole letter

4)      Erase the pencil

AIM FOR CONSISTENCY in the size and angles of your features and in the spacing between your double strokes.

Practice with different forms of the words: pure and purity and do some with all caps and some with mixed-case.

TUESDAY LESSON

Before you start drawing your alphabet, make yourself sets of guidelines in pencil. See the ‘clouds and box’ at the bottom of the page.

The only letter I think could use some tweaking is the upper-case Y. If you have a form you like better, draw it in and share it with us.

Don’t let all those loops intimidate you! Over all, this alphabet looks complicated and hard to draw but it is really very simple – just take it one step at a time. It will look very elegant when you are using it.

WEDNESDAY LESSON

Today, use your new font to write up a word list that reflects one of the forms of ’Purity’. I made mine into an anagram but you could build a crossword or a quote.

Just play! The goal is to get some practice using the font and getting a feel for letter spacing.

THURSDAY LESSON

Let’s write scriptures!

As I’ve mentioned before, I think a phrase or verse looks best when every word is capitalized. This is especially true when the lower case is so plain. You want those caps to say, “This is what it’s all about.”

Although it would be a LOT of work, an alternative would be to use ALL caps.

FRIDAY LESSON

It’s Friday already! Time to use the new font in our Bibles.

I did part of my verse with the featured lettering and supported it with an elegant script. Except for that last word… no way did I want that to be either elegant or represented by the ‘purity’ font. It just got ugly writing.

I used a bright color burst from the feature word.

Did you notice the heart is formed from the word ‘Pure’?

Another tutorial in the books.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:56 PM PDT

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Yep, it was still my turn for lettering lessons this week - and it will be for next week as well.

This time we worked on a novelty font. Here are the daily lessons:

MONDAY

Today we begin a lettering style that is a combination of two alphabets – one for the upper-case (more squared) and one for the lower-case (with graduated swooshes). We’re using the focus word ‘power’ which we’re building with letters that resemble boards.

I sketch the outer shape of the letters in pencil and then define where the ‘boards’ will overlap and intersect. I wait until I have the whole word written and inked before I add the decorative lines.

You may have room for three lines internally or maybe only two. Just do what works without going down to one internal line – it just isn’t enough.

On the lower-case letters look at how the boards have become ribbons. Also notice the overlap extensions on their intersections.

I will say that this is NOT a complicated font, but it IS time-consuming. Just sayin’.

Are you ready for some POWER? 

TUESDAY

In the full alphabet you’ll begin to notice that some of the upper-case letters that are normally rounded have their corners chipped off to accomplish that shaping. The B and the S are the most complicated structures. If you can simplify them, you are welcome to do so as long as it still reflects the style. The most unique letters are the D, f, g, and Y.

Remember that the upper-case is all straight lines, the lower-case is all flowing lines.

How do you feel these two alphabets suit one another?

This old hymn kept playing through my head as I studied this lettering style.

I think the words look better if all the letters are either upper-case OR lower-case rather than mixing them. I threw in a few words in very basic printing, as well. Don’t be afraid to mix styles. Some are just too much for a long project and can be used as a ‘key word’ accent instead.

I also used colored pencils to add some zip to my letters – colors are separate for the cases.

Choose a ‘power’ful song lyric for your own practice piece.

We’ll use our new lettering style today to write a scripture in our workbook, journal or on a plain piece of paper.

I found that this style does not scale down easily as you need those spaces to be open to get the extra lines in.

(Am I the only one who doesn’t care for that upper-case ‘i’? I think I’m going to change it tomorrow)

1-2-3-GO!

Well, it’s finally time to use the ‘power’ font in our Bibles.

I wanted to only emphasize a few words so I used the upper-case on those, then I surrounded those with the lower-case and completed the rest of the verse in a simple script. This script does not compete with our ‘power’ style but is still fancier than a basic print.

And, yes I did change up the letter ‘I’.

I went over all my script letters with colored pencil and colored in the upper-case of this week’s style.

Stay tuned for another lettering lesson next weekend.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:11 AM PDT

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Last week I was on duty for teaching another lettering lesson. The Facebook group was also running a guided tour of the whole layout and activities of the site so there were a lot of new letterers following the lessons.

All together there were 29 people who came through and at least commented on the lessons or the work of others. Twenty of them completed at least one lesson and posted their work. Here is the lesson plan:

MONDAY LESSON

Many people on the tour may be new to hand lettering so I thought it might be time to go for something more relaxed. This style only looks complicated because of the curls everywhere but it is based on a simple print.

There are only 4 letters to practice with today – 8 if you count the upper- and lower-cases separately.

In the top two examples we are working from a 5 unit height (units would be lines on your paper or grid lines on graph paper or dots on a dot-grid paper), the x-height is 3 units. Look how the upper-case E takes up 3 units for the top half and 3 units for the bottom half. For samples 3 and 4, I worked on a 4 unit grid height and made the x-height half (2 units). Either scale works as long as you are consistent. The third set is half-scale of the second set.

Draw the basic shape of the letter first (in pencil of course) and then come back to add the unique stylings and finally, the curls. Ink only after you have the letters fully drawn out and, after the ink is dry, erase the pencil.

TUESDAY LESSON

Today the upper- and lower-case alphabets are on different sheets.

Start by working large when learning a new alphabet style. It easier to scale down after you learn it than it is to learn small and scale up.

As we did yesterday, pencil the basic shape of the letters (all of them) then come back through and add the unique stylings (like the double curls on the E, the loopy top on the M) and then go through all adding curls. This will help to get the size and shape consistent and will help you make the curls a consistent size.

Then, go through and ink each letter in its intirety in order. This will set the letter style in your mind as a whole unit. Erase the pencil after the ink is dry.

NOTE: The alphabets may not appear in the same visual size scale. Use the grids for proper size ratios.

When our pastor related a quote from Billy Graham recently, I was struck by it and had to come home and look it up. For reasons of space, I modified it slightly, but the message is the same.

Use the ‘come’ lettering style to write your choice of a quote or song lyrics containing the word.

I like to see quotations centered on a page. I often write out the basic form in left-hand alignment and then mark the center of each line separately. Then on my ‘finish paper’ I mark the center line of the page. I use a lightbox, light pad or window to align the various centers line-by-line and trace over the basic forms in pencil. Then I go back and add the styling elements and curls.

Rather than a black pen, I used colored markers to make the finished letters. After erasing my pencil, I used a second color of marker to add shadows under and to the left of my two key words.

What will your practice page say?

THURSDAY LESSON

Today we’ll find a scripture with the focus word ‘come’ and write it up in our workbook, journal or just on plain paper.

The more you write with a new style the more it becomes fixed in your memory. With enough use, those letter forms will just flow off the pencil.

I used the same centering techniques as shared yesterday and even used the same set of markers.

This is the day we take the ‘come’ lettering style into our Bibles. Don’t neglect this step in the learning process. It is, after all, the ultimate point of teaching all these awesome designer letters.

The process is the same for preparing to letter in your Bible, pencil first with basic forms to establish layout and spacing, enhance the letters with their embellishments and curls, then ink and erase the pencil.

If this is scary for you, add another step – do the designing and layout and lettering on scratch paper (grid or dot-grid) until you are happy with it and then trace it into your Bible. Do the tracing lightly in pencil and then do the inking and erasing.

For those who wish to use flowers like these, they are from the Drawing Room lesson on Wednesday of this week. But, just because I’ve done artwork on my page does not mean you have to do so. These letters are beautiful enough to stand on their own. And it really IS all about the words.

So another week of lessons is in the books!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:03 PM PDT

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