Kwiix
08-27-2005, 02:13 AM
First I'd like to make it clear that this really isn't going to be a tutorial. This is more of a way of encouraging people to practice their penmanship. Not only does it help your art work look more professional but can also help you in other areas of your life.
For example, I have always spent extra time filling out my work applications. When managers (or HR people) are looking for someone to hire, and they have a stack of equal qualified applicants, which one do you think will stick out more, the messy one or the nice, neat one? In my last two jobs, the interviews started off with a compliment about my writing. When you want a job you want to start off with points before you even say anything. Everyone will tell you to look presentable, be polite, be confident, but they leave this one thing out.
Not only has it caught my future employer's eyes but also other people's eyes. I have had girls give me compliments on my writing which can be cool at times. The only drawback is that once people see how nice your school notes look like they will always come to you when they need to copy lectures they missed. That's if you kids still take notes in class or just download the lecture onto your iPods or laptops. But whatever. Even here, on PK, people seem to comment more on my writing than on my art. :squint:
The second thing I should say is that I'm not a professional letterer. I took four years of drafting in high school and then majored in architecture (switching to engineering) in college. But before all that my dad really made me practice writing (his printing is awesome!) You can say that I wanted to be like my father so bad that I would practice a ton.
Okay, enough of that boring stuff. What will you need? Here's a list of some stuff:
Lettering guide (http://www.artstuff.net/ames_lettering_guide.htm)
Mechanical pencil (http://www.artstuff.net/kohinoor_rapidomatic_mechanical_pencil.htm) (0.5 works nice)
Straight edge (http://www.artstuff.net/heavy%5Fduty%5Ft%5Fsquares.htm) (T-square if you have one)
Micron pens (http://www.artstuff.net/sakura%5Fpigma%5Fmicron.htm) (again, 0.5 works great)
Eraser (http://www.artstuff.net/white%5Fvinyl%5Ferasers.htm) (anything but the pink kind)
Erasing shield (http://www.artstuff.net/erasing%5Fshields.htm) (optional)
Circle & ellipse template (http://www.artstuff.net/pickett%5Fisometric%5Fellipses.htm) (if you want to make word bubbles)
And of course paper (http://www.artstuff.net/origami%5Fsets.htm) :ugh:
As some of you know Lettering guides are used to make guide lines. They are only a couple of dollars and come with instructions. If you don't want to spend money on one then you can draw the guide lines the old fashion way, with a ruler. But for practice you don't even need to draw the lines. All you need to do is open a Wordpad or Notepad and hold the underline key (____) until you fill a page, then print it out. You can place a clean sheet of paper over this and use the lines underneath as a guide. I recommend you draw the lines out though.
Here are some writing samples I just did real quick:
http://home.comcast.net/~rawfusion2048/LetteringSample1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~rawfusion2048/LetteringSample1big.jpg
A few things you should notice: It's not perfect, it doesn't really matter what you write as long as you practice all the letters, and that, just like drawing, you'll come up with your own style. You don't like how I make my Rs? Good. Come up with your own R. :) Again, the whole point of this thread is to practice, practice, practice. And that's not even hard. While watching tv or listening to music, write what you hear. You'll never run out of stuff to write, trust me.
So what looks nice? Straight lines! Notice that my style is really all about straight lines. This will give the letters a “high-tech” kind of look, which is exactly what I'm after. Another thing I try to keep in mind is that the letters will look better if they are wider than they are tall. In my opinion, the wider you make them the better they'll look. Also notice that just because I have guides does not mean that I will always make the letters perfect. In drafting or engineering drawings your lettering will need to be a little more perfect, but here we don't really want stiff looking letters. That leads to the last and most important tip: You must print fast to get the confident looking writing! Just like inking drawings, if you do it slow you will end up with shaky lines. But this will come with practice so don't worry about that too much when you are first starting out.
That's pretty much it. Simple, huh? Originally I thought I'd actually show how to draw word bubbles and all that stuff but with Photoshop it's more of a waste of time. PS wont help you personalize your artwork though. There are times you will want to add notes to your sketches and you'll be force to print so it's always a good idea to practice.
Anyway, if anyone reads all this and has any questions or wants to add anything to this, feel free to do so. I might add more later as I see fit and/or post more examples. I hope it can atleast help one of you messy writers to come to neat side. :razz: :)
For example, I have always spent extra time filling out my work applications. When managers (or HR people) are looking for someone to hire, and they have a stack of equal qualified applicants, which one do you think will stick out more, the messy one or the nice, neat one? In my last two jobs, the interviews started off with a compliment about my writing. When you want a job you want to start off with points before you even say anything. Everyone will tell you to look presentable, be polite, be confident, but they leave this one thing out.
Not only has it caught my future employer's eyes but also other people's eyes. I have had girls give me compliments on my writing which can be cool at times. The only drawback is that once people see how nice your school notes look like they will always come to you when they need to copy lectures they missed. That's if you kids still take notes in class or just download the lecture onto your iPods or laptops. But whatever. Even here, on PK, people seem to comment more on my writing than on my art. :squint:
The second thing I should say is that I'm not a professional letterer. I took four years of drafting in high school and then majored in architecture (switching to engineering) in college. But before all that my dad really made me practice writing (his printing is awesome!) You can say that I wanted to be like my father so bad that I would practice a ton.
Okay, enough of that boring stuff. What will you need? Here's a list of some stuff:
Lettering guide (http://www.artstuff.net/ames_lettering_guide.htm)
Mechanical pencil (http://www.artstuff.net/kohinoor_rapidomatic_mechanical_pencil.htm) (0.5 works nice)
Straight edge (http://www.artstuff.net/heavy%5Fduty%5Ft%5Fsquares.htm) (T-square if you have one)
Micron pens (http://www.artstuff.net/sakura%5Fpigma%5Fmicron.htm) (again, 0.5 works great)
Eraser (http://www.artstuff.net/white%5Fvinyl%5Ferasers.htm) (anything but the pink kind)
Erasing shield (http://www.artstuff.net/erasing%5Fshields.htm) (optional)
Circle & ellipse template (http://www.artstuff.net/pickett%5Fisometric%5Fellipses.htm) (if you want to make word bubbles)
And of course paper (http://www.artstuff.net/origami%5Fsets.htm) :ugh:
As some of you know Lettering guides are used to make guide lines. They are only a couple of dollars and come with instructions. If you don't want to spend money on one then you can draw the guide lines the old fashion way, with a ruler. But for practice you don't even need to draw the lines. All you need to do is open a Wordpad or Notepad and hold the underline key (____) until you fill a page, then print it out. You can place a clean sheet of paper over this and use the lines underneath as a guide. I recommend you draw the lines out though.
Here are some writing samples I just did real quick:
http://home.comcast.net/~rawfusion2048/LetteringSample1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~rawfusion2048/LetteringSample1big.jpg
A few things you should notice: It's not perfect, it doesn't really matter what you write as long as you practice all the letters, and that, just like drawing, you'll come up with your own style. You don't like how I make my Rs? Good. Come up with your own R. :) Again, the whole point of this thread is to practice, practice, practice. And that's not even hard. While watching tv or listening to music, write what you hear. You'll never run out of stuff to write, trust me.
So what looks nice? Straight lines! Notice that my style is really all about straight lines. This will give the letters a “high-tech” kind of look, which is exactly what I'm after. Another thing I try to keep in mind is that the letters will look better if they are wider than they are tall. In my opinion, the wider you make them the better they'll look. Also notice that just because I have guides does not mean that I will always make the letters perfect. In drafting or engineering drawings your lettering will need to be a little more perfect, but here we don't really want stiff looking letters. That leads to the last and most important tip: You must print fast to get the confident looking writing! Just like inking drawings, if you do it slow you will end up with shaky lines. But this will come with practice so don't worry about that too much when you are first starting out.
That's pretty much it. Simple, huh? Originally I thought I'd actually show how to draw word bubbles and all that stuff but with Photoshop it's more of a waste of time. PS wont help you personalize your artwork though. There are times you will want to add notes to your sketches and you'll be force to print so it's always a good idea to practice.
Anyway, if anyone reads all this and has any questions or wants to add anything to this, feel free to do so. I might add more later as I see fit and/or post more examples. I hope it can atleast help one of you messy writers to come to neat side. :razz: :)