Author: Lady TPowers what comes next after a? you guessed it, the letter B!
Following the instructions laid out in our last post on the letter A, be sure to print out your letter B files to follow along. Letter B Lesson will be available free until July 21st 2017, at which point it will then become a $1 to help support the site. Moving along we will assume you now have read the post on the letter A, have printed out your B files and practice sheets, and are ready to work! Today we are going to talk about Flourish. Have you heard the word? Flourish simply put, is the pretty little squiggles and lines added to a letter to make it look stylized. If you do a search for the term flourish it states, "noun noun: flourish; plural noun: flourishes 1. a bold or extravagant gesture or action, made especially to attract the attention of others." I found this description funny and very accurate as this is exactly the point of using a flourish on your letters. Adding a flourish to your letters lets it set the mood of whatever message you are trying to convey. Look at page 2 of your B Lesson. You will see that we start working with some flourishes. Perhaps you have seen a one page document or a story book where a very heavily flourished letter begins the story. Having a flourished and stylized handlettering can call attention to your note cards, stationary, journals and prints. Sometimes that first letter may even be another color. Sometimes an artist will begin each new line in a short phrase with a flourished letter. Here are some wonderful examples of flourished letters. Now before going all crazy and trying to do these, understand that they took a lot of work and practice. Start out small with your lesson and work your way up to letters such as above. When you are ready to advance to something like above I suggest investing in a light table, and some tracing paper. Printing out an image like above you can adhere it to the light table, place your tracing paper over it and start trying to mimic the flow of the letter. Remember that the images of letters you find on the internet are more than likely copy-written materials and you will need to develop your own style should you wish to make a living doing hand lettering. However if it is for your own personal use than it is usually ok. When working with your letter B practice sheets try varying the pressure of your pen when doing upward and downward strokes. This can change the look of the flourish and the feel of the letter. Using thinner lines can make it more elegant and using more bold lines can give a strong presence. Flourish is also used between sentences, and added sometimes to an end letter or sentence to wrap around and include the front of the sentence, depending on the length of your message or line. It can also be used to create a border around your message.
I find that when I have a lot of work to do sometimes I don't always have the right art on hand or don't have the time to draw it myself. This is where buying art bundles for use is incredible. I can use a bundle like above from DesignCuts however I want because I make sure to buy a bundle that has an extended license. This gives me the creativity to create whatever I want with these items and resell them commercially. It also takes the guess work out of it because then all I need to do is focus on the design aspect. Most of these items, (packages) listed above usually sell individually anywhere from $10 to $30 a piece. Yet I got the 33 bundles above and if I were to minimize their individual cost down to say an $10 average that would be a minimum $330 in material that I can use and I got all the above for only $29. I buy from DesignCuts all the time and I love everything. I get tickled just coming up with ways to use this stuff. Stationary, geometric stationary, Art Deco stationary, animal stationary, cartoon stationary...
This week I needed to create some thank you cards. I have had a lot of opportunities to fill some out and have had to stop several times at the store to pick up some more but not anymore. Using the ART Deco package above, (did you know Deco is back in?) I created some really cool Art Deco Thank you cards with matching envelopes. Great Gatsby! was that fun! Now I can print out on card stock and paper and put together my own card for pennies whenever I want. I will never run out! I can't wait for the next bundle to come out. So many things and a million uses. What will you use it for? Share with us. Author: Lady TPowers Starting with...you guessed it the letter A
First let us start by printing out your letter A practice sheets. If you can see what I am talking about it will be better for your visual understanding. I suggest printing on a laser printer if you have it as it is crisper and or using the black and white setting on your printers to save ink. I have included a PDF version and JPG for your convenience of printing whichever is easiest. For a limited time each of the newest launched practice sheet sets will be available for free. I suggest joining our Newsletter for updates on this so you wont miss them when they are free. After the initial launch period is over (1 week) each of the sets will then be available for $1, (to help support the site). You will also be able to purchase the whole Alphabet set, (coming soon) for a discounted price if you are impatient to really dig in or need to catch up. Ok, all printed? let's go!
Next Tip. When working with hand lettering its best to practice uniformity by positioning your hand at the same angle for making each letter, as well at watching the heights. Asymmetrical, (having parts that fail to correspond to one another in shape, size, or arrangement; lacking symmetry) is sometimes fun depending on what lettering you do and your intent, but it can also make your lines look sloppy. If you trace over the letters in the practice you will get a hang for the uniformity of that particular style and angles. Try not to deviate.
I also suggest printing out some of the calligraphy practice sheets as well so that you can work on each of the individual letters after the lesson and compare them to the practice sheets to see how you are doing. The Calligraphy sheets will also help you keep track of what pen you used for that session. Ok ready to give it a go on your own? Get to it! I really wish to know how you do with this so comment and let me know. See you next time with the letter "B"! Summer Contest Giveaway begins today Yep You get all of this! a $120.49 Retail Value!
1. Join or be a member of our Newsletter. Only newsletter members can win. 2. Post in comments here where you linked to social Media. You must Share our contest to qualify to win. Here is how: __________________________________________________________________________________ After doing the below, come back to this blog and comment with a link to where you posted your message. You may enter once a day, and will get one entry point per social media entry you do. The more you do the more chances you have to win. You have an opportunity to gain 4 points per day. The one who enters the most (has the most points) at the end of the contest wins! We will be using Facebook, Pintertest, Instagram and twitter. Don't have all of these account? Its OK! If you come back daily, and post to what you do have, you have a very good chance of winning over those who forget. 3. Get one entry for Posting to Pinterest: Right click and Copy image then Pin it with the following description: Summer Makeup and Creative Package Giveaway http://bit.ly/2nzEzdu 4. Get one entry for Instagram: Right click and Copy the image above and post to Instagram with the following description: Summer Makeup and Creative Package Giveaway http://bit.ly/2nzEzdu 5. Get one entry for Facebook: Right click and Copy the image above and post to Facebook for your friends with the following description: Summer Makeup and Creative Package Giveaway, you can win too! http://bit.ly/2nzEzdu 6. Get one entry for Twitter: Tweet to your friends with the following description: Summer #Makeup and #Creative #Package #Giveaway, you can win too! http://bit.ly/2nzEzdu We will check all entries for each of the above rules. Contest Ends When the timer at the top runs out! So what are you waiting for lets go! By Lady T Calligraphy may be a bit of a lost art but with all of the journaling and planners back in style, more than ever people are working on their handwriting skills again. I learned how to do calligraphy in high school in art class. Its something I was never great at because my own handwriting is terrible. However with practice and just plain having fun you can develop your own style that will look great and you can use it for so many things. Prints for your wall, scrap-booking, journals, planners, art and more. the list is really endless. Today I have for a limited time a free* printable calligraphy practice sheet for you and after *May 31st 2017 it will be $1.00 to help support this site, but it will continue to be free to premium Members. This printable is to help you develop your hand writing skills, just click on the image below to get it. Then come on back for some tips and hints. Hand lettering is a wonderful skill to develop and if you become good at it you an even make a side business of it by doing cards and prints for friends and family. As you can see above left, mine is not so wonderful and needs lots of work. I will be using these sheets myself as I work on my hand lettering.
I love all of the faux modern calligraphy I see now and its easy to mimic with a little practice. Starting with a simple word like Hello, lets choose a pen to start with. Microns are the best because they do not bleed so easily and are permanent, plus you can get a full set for around $8 at Michael's or on Amazon. Or just start with any black flair pen. I used a Paper mate flair above left. As for paper I prefer something smooth and thick. You can also buy many different varies of bulk paper on amazon for very cheap. The paper I used to write on in this post is 32 weight HP ink jet paper. You can keep track of the pen types you try and use on the bottom of the printable. That way you can determine which pens you liked best when you are working with them as well as what worked best for which type of work you are trying to do. Making your "hello" letters have the “calligraphy look”. Make sure your down-strokes have more thickness to mimic the look of a calligraphy nib. A down-stroke is created anytime your hand moves downward while creating a letter. See image above. How did I do this? I drew a parallel line next to the down-stroke line and filled it in. I messed up on the e. But you get the idea. The sentence above it "lot's of practice" was written the same way as hello without me thickening the down-strokes. Start out practicing and getting comfortable with this and we will add more lessons to this later! |
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Life in general is an art and I will show you how to find the beauty in everything you see and do. Subscribe and receive a free weekly download and updates. Archives
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