Lettering Help
 

My middle wants to learn how to do lettering to enhance her drawing/artwork.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/91/fa...5287855e1a.gif

Problem is she has a learning disability and never has been able to understand/learn cursive. I've been skeptical to get her a lettering book or class, but she was really wants to learn lettering.

I'm calling all those Shawna Clingerman fans who have learned/mastered lettering and might have suggestions. What books do you recommend? What brushes/markers do you recommend? It can be paper books or something for her ipad (she has/uses procreate).

Any suggestions?

https://media1.tenor.com/images/de8e...temid=12495396

I've always wanted to write pretty too! I would love some tips too!

I have no advice, but I can't stop watching that first GIF lol.

Kelly Creates! You can purchase sets of her pens in big box stores in the United States - I believe Hobby Lobby stopped selling them, but Joann's/Michael's/Harbor Freight still sells them because I see people posting all the time in the group that they went to one of those stores and found these and just had to have them. She also has practice workbooks. I purchased mine at Michael's on clearance but you can get it at Walmart, at least you can at mine. I'd definitely suggest joining the group on Facebook as well, she does helpful videos and "boot camps" for learning new things.

The thing with the books is it's encouraged to practice the "drills" every day. Depending on how severe her learning disability is, this may or may not be difficult for her to do, but it's worth a shot. I, personally, have not been able to pick up the lettering - I have not practiced every day and I think I have the wrong pens because my letters just don't look very good. I can't get the "light/hard pressure" and thick/thin lines thing down right now, probably because I have not practiced very hard. But with a set of pens (I'd probably go with large brush for a learner?) and one of the practice books I'll bet she's on the road to learning in no time.

There's also a few free things out there for iPad lettering practice, if you'd rather go the free route at first. I can't remember the place I saw them, but I do know that I just googled "iPad free brush lettering" or something like that.

There's a course I bought (but haven't gotten around to doing. LOL!)
Hand Lettered Design
B is so creative, I'm sure she'll figure it out!

I may or may not watch lettering things on Instagram every single night . . . . . . .

Joined the group - thank you for the recommendation. She doesn't do Facebook, but I do and I can have her watch/do things from my computer/phone.

She has a processing disorder, where it takes her a bit to process what's being said/done and sometimes she needs to visually see it. I think maybe if she approaches lettering like her artwork, she might be able to do it. But she also battles severe dyslexia, which is why she's never learned cursive, because she's still struggling with basic print. She has another learning disorder, but I can't think of what it is off the top of my head. But like I said, if she approaches lettering like it's art, copying a style, maybe instead of focusing on this letter being "b" she won't invert them or maybe spell things backwards. I don't know. This is a new thing for her (and us) but I'm not going to discourage her if she really wants to learn how to do it. Worst case, she gets frustrated, mulls over it a couple of months and tries if when she processes what she's learning/doing.

Im sorry you were unable to make lettering work. I hope you are able to get your hands on a good set of markers and give it another try.

Also, I had NO idea Harbor Freight sold anything other than hardware store items--unless I'm not thinking of the same store!

I had that saved on my phone when I googled it. I've seen the ads for her on IG and wondered if she was any good, or if it moved too quickly for B to follow.

The great thing about Kelly's group is, she often uploads videos and does lives where she demonstrates some of her stuff. She probably also has a YouTube channel, if she does that might be helpful. I'm also a visual learner, I do better seeing it and hearing it described to me so I'm always going to YouTube when I start a new hobby.

I could possibly be thinking of the wrong store? In fact I think I am, I think I'm confusing it with my diamond painting groups who are usually posting about finding storage containers at Harbor Freight! :p

I love watching Kelly Creates on Instagram. Wish I could do that lettering.... my best friend and my oldest daughter can do it... not me so good....

My girls have some calligraphy pens. One thing that may help B is to not write the word/letters, but to copy the "lines". Fat line here, thin line here. Looking at how the lines come together or match up. This can be done with any writing utensil.

She is completely new to me. We looked her up on my daughter's IG and hopefully she'll start following her to learn lettering!

This was recommended last year to her but it became too confusing for her matching up the lines to make legible words.

She'll keep at it though. She's determined, it's how she got in to drawing. She wanted to do it and she's making it happen. The same will be for the lettering--it just might take her a bit longer because writing is her nemesis!

I bought a book on Amazon and practiced for just a couple of days before just piecing together all the different ways they showed in order to make my own style to fit me. I hand-lettered all of my wedding invites envelopes and thank yous. I also have a learning disability, but I can write in cursive (not very well, but I can lol). Let her know it doesn't have to be exactly like the way they show, she can just do it her way and use theirs as example.

Mari I loved reading this!!! She beats herself up over her learning disabilities, makes herself to be the butt of jokes. One day I hope she realizes how amazing she truly is. Thank you for sharing this!!! I told her about it and it made her smile, giving her hope! :wub:

What about starting with learning non-cursive lettering? My niece requested a lettering book a couple of years ago for Christmas and I spent a lot of time at the B&N looking at them trying to pick one to give her. I was disappointed with a lot of them as they seemed really short on actual techniques for drawing, mostly just showing examples of the author's personal work. About that time Mye De Leon came out with her lettering book, and that is the one I ended up getting after finding it in the store and looking through it. It teaches about design concepts along with the actual drawing of letters, which I really liked. How to draw each of the alphabet letters is laid out step by step with pen stroke instructions, and there are practice lines in the book if you want to actually just draw in the book as you learn. The end of the book gives instruction on how to draw lettering compositions like posters with all of the flourishes and such. And she does have script style instructions for the letters as well.

I ended up buying myself a copy too, so if you want to see a few examples from inside the book shoot me a PM here or on FB ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Han...1631318&sr=8-2

The trick with calligraphy pens is to keep the tip of the pen at a set angle - usually 45 degrees from horizontal with the left side lower than the right. As you stroke the letters, the angle of the pen tip makes the fat and thin parts for you. My dad was a graphic artist and used to hand letter everything - I loved watching him.

What makes calligraphy so pretty in part is the consistency in size and shape of the letters, as well as the flourishes people add. A graphic artist learns the consistency by practicing with guidelines, and a lot of the time uses them even when they are 'professional' to achieve that. My dad's desk was a big huge light table so that he could have several layers of paper stacked on top of each other and see through them to help him letter consistently without having to draw and erase pencil lines all of the time. I loved his squishy rubber eraser that would pull up the pencil marks neatly without tearing delicate papers, it was fun to play with :D

Melinda's comment made me think... when I first started lettering, just tracing letters helped me. Would that maybe help B?
When I started, I always had a guide that I drew in the corner of page to remind me to hold the tip at the 45 degree angle - a right angle with a line half way through.