the art of calligraphy; let's do it! part 4

Author: Lady T Powers

What comes next after B ? you guessed it,  the letter C!

Several posts ago we started you out with some practice sheets so you can start getting the feel of playing with lettering.  You will also be able to print those sheets out as many times as you like to have extra space to practice the above lesson.  You can get them here: Practice Sheets or Click on the image below.  You can also see the post you missed on the Letter A here : Lesson A and get the print outs here: Letter A Printouts and Letter B Printouts.

Want to share these with someone else? Please do not share our files, instead share our link above to this post. Thanks.

Be sure to read the first post for letter A as it will have some important hints to help you along with these lessons.

Lets Move on to to the letter C.

Practice Hand Lettering with GrafXQuest "Letter C" Set Following the instructions laid out in our last 2 posts on the letter A, and B,  be sure to print out your letter C files to follow along. The  Letter C Lesson will be available free until  March 9th 2018, at which point it will then become a $1 to help support the site. All lessons are for letter formation and tips for learning Hand lettering and may not always apply towards the kit you are working on.  However most of these lessons should assist in most if not all cases.

Moving along we will assume you now have read the post on the letters A and B, and have printed out your C files and practice sheets, and are ready to work!  Today we are going to talk about staying consistent.

Consistency
Stretching out your lettering is a mistake most beginners make especially when they try to add them later to a text editing program. Please do not stretch out your letters to get better spacing. Take the time to redraw them so that the thin and thick of your letters stay consistent with one another.

It’s  a very important for the letters to look visually correct then it is for them to be on a perfect plane. There is no exact science to lettering or kerning, (kerning is the space between letters).  So here are a few basic rules you to know to make sure your letters are looking their best.

The difference in thin and thick strokes
No matter how thick or thin your letters, your stems (vertical lines) should always be thicker than your crossbars (horizontal lines). This helps the letter appear more balanced.  Horizontal and upper diagonal lines should always be thin, and vertical and bottom diagonals should always be thicker.

Even when designing thick mono-width lettering (where all letters  appear to be the same thickness) this rule still applies. The difference though is it will be less noticeable.

See how the horizontal lines going through both the A and B are slightly thinner?

Diagonal Strokes
When doing the diagonal stroke on  N's,  the center diagonal  should be thicker.  Outside lines should be thin since they both go up.  Now, alternate strokes of the W and M are thick.  This is again to make the letter appear not only balanced, but consistent.

Use these practices when drawing your AB and C's and pretty much any letter moving forward. Don’t be afraid to draw your lettering more than once, and don’t expect to get an award-worthy piece on the first try either. It takes patience and practice.   Plus be prepared to use a ton of paper.  I keep tons of scrap paper around just to work on lettering formation.

We hope we have given you some additional insight into hand-lettering. Have fun working with the Letter C.  The entire alphabet will soon be ready to purchase as a complete set. Until then we will D you next time! Have anything to share with us so far? Contact us we would love to see and share it with others! Need Additional Space to practice?  Don't forget your calligraphy practice sheets that track the pen type you use and has six brackets set up for practicing whole lines or single letters.

Thanks! ~ Lady T