Lettering Blitz!

Last year I spent a lot of time selling my art at local craft shows. It was a great experience and opportunity to meet lots of wonderful people, but it did not make a good fit for my products. So I spent the first few weeks of this year thinking about my art and what direction I want to grow in, both in my personal style and as a business. I enjoy so many different forms of creating, but I really felt the need to narrow my focus for Domina Design. I took some time to think about what I enjoy the most, and what facets of my art were the strongest. Flipping through the past year's sketchbooks was very enlightening. One thing stood out over and over again - lettering.

I have always loved typography and finding creative ways to draw the same 26 characters of our alphabet. So it shouldn't have been a surprise to find that lettering appeared in almost all my sketchbook pages! After thinking about it awhile, I decided to intentionally work on improving my lettering skills this year. Research and a host of lettering supplies from my guy for Valentine's Day has kept me busy!

I'm pretty familiar with brush lettering because most of what I've done is with an actual brush (duh!). However, brush PEN lettering is new to me. It has a slightly different feel from a paintbrush, and definitely different from the dip pens I've used in the past. Perhaps you could describe it as a cross between the two? The Tombow Fudenosuke and Pentel Touch Sign Pen have been my two favorites so far. The Tombow Dual Tip brush pens have a great juicy color and feel, but I'm still adjusting to the larger tip - which means larger writing!

One of the hardest things is being patient with myself as I learn. I make LOTS of mistakes and find imperfections galore. But I tell myself to chill out, keep practicing, and that it's those imperfections which make hand lettering stand out from a refined computer font! And while there are lots of demos, practice sheets, and pictures of gorgeous lettering online, I find it important to pull back from that and find my own style. I know I'll be happiest with that work and have something I can really be proud to call my own.