Hello there! If you’re new to hand lettering, and not sure where to begin with it, then the following exercise should help you on your way.
A few of the courses on hand lettering that I’ve looked at often start with the anatomy of letters and characters. They explore the different parts of letters and what they are called. I do think the anatomy of letters and characters is something that is important to know. If you’ve read my About page you’ll have seen that I come from an artistic background, I studied art at University. Studying human anatomy allows you to understand the human form in more depth, and this usually results in a better and more informed drawing. The same too applies to letters and characters, the more we understand them the better we should be able to use them in lettering.
Hand Lettering Exercise
However starting with the anatomy of letters is not where I’m going to suggest you begin your lettering journey. As with a lot of things, we normally want to try something first to see if we like it. I recommend choosing three logos that you think have probably been hand lettered, or have possibly developed from a hand lettered logo over time. Once you’ve chosen three, have a go at drawing them.
If you find you’re struggling to choose a logo because you’re not quite sure what hand lettering is. You can find more information about it in ‘An introduction to hand lettering, typography and font’.
The aim of this exercise is to help give you a little taster of what drawing lettering can be like. Obviously it’s still quite a way from creating your own style of lettering, and creating lettering from scratch but it gives you a little insight. That way you can begin to decide if lettering is for you, before you’ve learnt every different anatomical part of a letter.
I have jumped into this exercise, and have chosen three well known logos to draw. You can choose any logos you like, they don’t need to be big brands, just find some that interest you and include lettering. I’ll be drawing one logo each week for three weeks, allowing time in between to reflect on each page of lettering I’ve drawn. I’ll also reveal each weeks logo as I go, and share the results with you.
You can follow my weekly progress via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube. So choose your favourite places to follow, and head back here for updates.
