Beginner Brush Lettering with Debi Sementelli

1. Intro to Beginner Brush Lettering: Hi, I'm Debbie. Seven Telly. Welcome to my studio. I've been playing with brushes and Nibs and paints for about 30 years now, and I've loved every minute of it. So I'm excited to share my love of the brush with you. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced letter, I have plenty of tips and tricks to share. So let's start with the basics. This is what will be covering in this course basic strokes, and then we'll move on to a basic script alphabet Now. In addition, I'm also going to show you how to add some flourishes to give the letters a little flair and kind of fancy it up a bit. Finally, we'll have our class project. This is example one. It's a sweet, little cheerful welcome sign you can put it in your house in your guest room, Option two. Or give it as a gift, and there will be a downloadable template with each of these designs, or you can create your own. So that's what we've got in store. I'm really excited. I hope you are too. So I'm here whenever you're ready, let's go 2. The Tools: now I'd like to show you the tools will be working with in this class. First, you'll need to download the set of guidelines that created for you. Each letter number and stroke shows you the exact sequence and direction of strokes. This will make it easier for you to learn the letter forms. Next, you'll need a brush marker. You can use either a fabric Castell Pitt brush pen in the regular side or Prisma color premier brush or any brush marker that has a similar size tip. You'll also want some tracing paper not only to use while you're practicing the letter forms, but also to test colors and practice your welcome sign design. To create our class project, you'll need a five by seven piece of watercolor paper that's at least £140 so it doesn't buckle. I've also included to design templates for you to choose from for the final project. Other items include ah, large brush. To add a watercolor background, you can use any brush that you might have on hand. You can use any watercolor set also that you have on hand. This set comes from a local craft store then choose different markers in the colors you'd like to use for your final project. This assortment includes fabric Castel, a Sharpie brush marker and a Sharpie Ultra fine point, and for some larger lettering, a Tom Bo brush marker and I can't live without my favorite pencil Ticonderoga. The eraser is especially helpful, and lastly, 1/4 inch blending toward Tian and you'll find something like that at any craft store. You'll find a downloadable list of all of these supplies for this class on the class page. Now that we've got our supplies, let's start lettering. 3. Basic Set Up: Now let's go over some basic starting with how to hold the brush pen. Holding it between your forefinger, middle finger and thumb gives you the best control. You'll want to keep your hand in light. Contrast with the paper from your pinky until just before your wrist. It can help to put a piece of tracing paper beneath your hand to help it move more freely. Let's talk about planning the brush. Now When making a wide stroke, you're going to place a large portion of the tip on the paper. This is called planting. Then put pressure on the brush while you move your hand down towards your body. This is a pulling stroke. To make a fine line, adjust the brush marker suggest the tip is touching the paper. Use as little pressure as possible while still making contact. I call this whispering on the page. Putting these two techniques together will give the optimal thick and thin lines, producing shapes that are most pleasing to the eye 4. Whole Arm Movement: Before we start making smaller strokes, we need to understand how to make whole arm movements. These movements originate from the shoulder. This not only warms up your shoulder, elbow and hand, but it helps you develop the movement needed to put life into your strokes. So grab your marker and with very little pressure, begin to make a large spiral like you see me doing here. Next, we're going to practice pulling strokes. Plancher marker tips so that it makes a wide mark, Then pull the stroke towards you as you pull. Let your shoulder and elbow provide the movement so you can make your strokes longer and just let your hand and fingers go along for the ride. Now you'll practice pushing or throwing strokes. Thes push away from your body again. Moving from your shoulder and elbow allows you to create a longer stroke while using just your hand creates shorter strokes. What's important to note is that my hand from the pinky on up to just before the wrist is staying in light contact with the table surface. Now let's practice making long flowing strokes in one direction. In this case, my hand slightly leaves the table at the end of the stroke, then returned to making small, wide spirals in both directions. Get into the habit of doing this exercise before you practice, and you'll start to develop the muscle memory that helps create beautiful strokes. 5. Basic Strokes : before we get started, Just a little reminder. Please post your progress. It helps everyone learn, and it also helps me to see how you're coming along. Secondly, if you would be so kind to follow me, I appreciate that. This way, you'll be able to see when my next classes air coming up. No, you're excited to get started it. I'm gonna give you a few words of caution. Go slow. In fact, if you can follow at the pace that I'm lettering at, that will be perfect. And secondly, remember, the goal is to put pressure on the brush and release that pressure at the appropriate times . So practicing that is the most important thing. So just let that be your focus and always enjoy and have fun. So let's start doing some basic strokes before we begin. I want to talk to you about placement of the paper. If you are right handed as I am, you'll want to turn your paper towards the left like that on an angle. If you're left handed, you're going to do the opposite and turn it to the right left handed people. I know there's many different ways that you hold a brush and that you write, so you'll need to try to work with your regular handwriting style and adapt to using the brush. So what I've got is a piece of tracing paper over the guide sheet that is in the downloads , and the most important thing when you're working with a brush is to create very thick and very thin lines, and the very tip is the thinnest part of the brush. So that's what you're going to use to make the thinner strokes. To make the thicker strokes. You're going to plant the brush, as we talked about earlier in our basic set up. So, um, before we go further, I want to point out that on your hand out, it shows heavy medium light pressure as faras the amount of pressure so you'll see that in the doctors, and it also shows the direction of the stroke. Be sure to follow these because this is all going to guide you when you're ready to make letters so well, we'll start with the thick lines and this is a pulling stroke towards your body. So I'm planting the brush and you see how far I'm putting it down and now pulling it towards me. When I want a thick stroke, I'm going to plant the brush down further on the paper. So mawr of the tip is on the paper, so we'll do that again. And it's a good idea if you are struggling with any of these strokes to continue to do them before you go on to the next one, but that this is what your strokes will look like when you're doing the thickest struck. Now let's move on to what I call carats. This is a thick to thin. It's really important to practice thes trans transitional strokes because in letter making you're always transitioning from one to another. So we start with a thick, and as we're coming down, I am already lift getting the brush so that it's barely touching the page. So again I'm planting. But I'm starting to think about lifting that brush about half way point, and I'd like you to watch my whole hand let me move there we go watch my whole hand because the hand really moves together. It's a very subtle movement, but it's all moving together. My fingers are not moving individually Okay, so there are your carrots. Now we're going to do the opposite, but we're still going in this direction. So we want to start off with the very thinnest stroke and then apply pressure, thin and pressure. So this is very light pressure and gradually increasing the pressure. And again, if you struggle with any of thes strokes, continue to do as many as possible until you feel comfortable with that. Okay, that's what that's gonna look like now we'll move on to the S curve. So in this stroke, you're starting off with very little pressure, adding pressure, and then you're releasing the pressure as you come around. So we're starting off very light, add pressure, and I'm slowly releasing it. Yeah, that's that looks like starting a very little pressure, adding pressure. And I'm already thinking about releasing it as I come around. Little pressure add pressure and release little pressure and pressure and release. I also want to make note that I'm very stable in my positioning. So my hand is on the my left hand is on the table. Um, and that's stabilizing my body. My feet are on the floor and I'm even leaning in a little bit so that my nose is over the paper. Hard to show that. But now we're going to do an upstroke That is a very thin line all the way up. And I call this whispering on the page and again watch my whole hand move together. Look, it's a very subtle movement. Okay, here's a shorter version of that. This and these tend to be connecting strokes that will connect between letters. So it's really important to get this thin line down again. My whole hand, it's working together. Okay, now we're going toe to show you those. Now we're going to combine the thick and the thin in what I call the roller coaster so you can see there's very light pressure going up and heavy pressure coming down. And that is the general rule about working with a brush marker or brush light strokes going up, heavy strokes going down. So light pressure, heavy pressure. So I'm actually as I'm going up. I'm thinking right about mid point that I am going to have to eventually add pressure. So I'm already kind of starting to get ready for it and come down, huh? And from down now. One thing I want to point out. My brush or brush marker is not up like this to make that thin stroke. The reason is, if you continually are on top of the brush like that, and you put pressure or you try to make that transition and you put pressure, you're going to ruin the brush. So that's important to note. But I want you to see the very extreme, um, difference between the thin and the thick lines. That's what you're going for. And we're coming up and down and, uh, and also notice the pace that I'm going at. Most people make the mistake thinking that lettering rush lettering, especially, is very fast. It's not this when you go at a slower pace, you not only have more control over the brush, but you're also really thinking about the line and the weight of the line, and you'll notice I keep moving the page because your hand can't turn like that. So I've gotta keep my hand in the right position. And so I just moved the page. So as I was saying, you're not making the thin line by putting the tip like this. You're literally making it on the side. So the brush is always at this angle, and you're just changing that ever so slightly so that you can make it then or pushed down and make it thick. Okay, that's the whole trip to getting that beautiful, thick and thin. So now we're gonna do this oval shape. Ovals are one of most important shapes in all of lettering, and it's a beautiful shape, so we want to make sure that we're getting that thick and thin. So we're starting out heavy, were coming around and again, adding that weight and heaviness and pressure lighten up and coming around now again, notice how my hand is moving. It's all moving as one unit. Something else. I want to point out. Try to move my hand a little bit more so you can see. I want you to watch. My pinky is actually kind of the driver. Okay, This whole hand is the car, and the pinky is the driver. I am making that shape with my pinky, and that's allowing my whole hand to move in the way that I wanted to move. Oops, we got a little bit off there. Okay, so I want you to know, uh, focus on watching my hand moved on my pinky, especially. It's hard to see the pinky I know. Mm. Okay, so right down there. So try stopping just so I can move my hand so I don't put it in the bad position. I think you can see how that pinky is kind of driving everything okay now. So these were some of the basic shapes. Now we're getting into some more particular shapes that you'll find in a lot of the letters . So, for instance, this shape, obviously is an L shape. And this loop in general is something you'll find in some of the A centre letters. So it's good to know how to get that loop correctly so that you have that thicken that again. Again. There's the difference between the thick and the thin. That's what we're aiming for on the you plant pulled down. And remember, we're lifting up now so that the brushes barely touching and stop and come back down around . And this is a connecting stroke. Now the oh, the O is used because it's an old shape in a lot of different letters, so it's important to get this down. Most importantly on the handout, you'll see there's a line here that indicates if that's where you want to start, you don't start here because it's just a better balanced letter. So we're pushing up very lightly, and then as we come around, we're pushing down and then we start to pull up again as we come around, and I'm going to be very careful to make sure that I'm matching up with that first line. That's really important. We have some other shapes here again, used in many different letters and these air just to give you a chance to practice, moving from thick to thin for keeping it very thin. We ever cross Byrs and then down strokes, these air pulling strokes in. And this one we're going to turn the page because this stroke, we want it to be pointing into our body. You can even put the brush down and note, okay, that's going into my body. And so that's where I want to put the paper so that I have the most control over making that stroke. If I were keeping the paper turn towards the left my hand would be awkward and I wouldn't. I wouldn't be ableto put the brush in the right placement so that it makes the correct stroke. So sometimes you need to turn the page and that will be marked on your on your hand out. I actually will add it in here. Sorry about that. The are coming down. You can see that's a very thick stroke. And then I come over just very lightly and come down again and up. Now that's all in one stroke, but it's important sometimes to break it down. So if you feel like you're having a tough time with that stroke, just break it down into thick, then that same thing with the S. We're starting out thick, and then we're coming up just a little bit and then getting thick again and coming up all the way. So we make sure we get that nice, thin line. There we go. Now, this is a little shape that you can add to, for instance, a capital E, or see lots of different places for this. But you can see we're starting out here and pushing up and coming around. Okay, we have some another some other strokes where you need to turn the page. Um, this one would be for a lower case, K or upper case R or K. So I'm turning the page again. I'm gonna put down my brush working to say, Is that going into my body? So now it is. So now I know I have the most control of the brush, and I'm giving the brush the proper, um, placement so that it can make that stroke from thick to thin. If I were doing it like this, you can see it's it's an awkward thing to make that same stroke like you could do it, but it doesn't quite turn out the way that you would want. So that's why you make that turn. We have another stroke here, and this is another turn. The page stroke. This would be used for Capital X. Another important thing to note in a capital X. This stroke is going to be coming down this way. So what you want to be sure to do is never crossed a thick line with a thick line. So as you're bringing this stroke in, you make sure that it's thin in the middle, and then it can return to being bigger, a little tip and trick there on this stroke, this would be a common ending for a J A G. Why any of those types of strokes? And this could be part of a capital H. So, again, these are all just for you to practice taking the basic strokes and making those transitions. Now, this stroke is what we would call a pushing stroke because it's going away from our body. So we want to make sure again, I want to make sure that I have the most control over it. So I'm making sure that that is pointing towards my body, and I'm starting a very light and then slowly adding pressure. And then I'm going to start releasing that pressures that I could get that point that I want okay, similar here. And you can also, if you prefer, you can do, ah, pulling stroke. You just turn the paper around so that it's going into my body, and now I am pulling it into my body and slowly releasing to get that point. So if you're more comfortable with a pulling stroke versus a pushing stroke, you're welcome to do that. This is a fun stroke that can be added again. If you have. Ah, why or J. G? Then this is something you can add on to the end. So it's a It's a fun flourish to learn. So as I come out very light, I am slowly adding pressure. And then I'm releasing pressure coming around and around. Member, I want to keep thin and thin stroke, not a thick. And then I'm adding pressure here. Okay, moving over. So in this stroke, this is a fun little struck, too. If you had, for instance, and h you could easily bring that stroke all the way down and around. So it's a fun one to add to a lot of letters. Keep that thin and as you come around, then we can add more pressure and then release and make it. Then again, Ken, here's another fund stroke. This is when I like to use on a Capital E right and again, I hope that you are watching how my whole hand is moving together. And as I said before, the pinkie is kind of the driver. So the pinky is making the shape against the paper, Um, that you want your whole hand to make. This would be part of an L. And as you come around, this is one of those places where it's sometimes good to turn paper, and sometimes you can make it without turning the paper. But when in doubt, turn paper, different people have different abilities. I will say that. But that's just what I found. To be more helpful. We have a basic crossbar, same whip all the way across. Let's say there's a T. That's one option. Another option is to make a longer swash. Here line Now on Lee. If you had a thin line here, would you use this thick line and a basic crossover stroke? And this would be, let's say, the J. So I'm gonna take that j and add this flourished line. So I'm coming back into the stroke. So it all connects the way that it sure to look, look right, And there you would have flourished J. And I'll get into another car section lesson where we'll be talking about flourishing and how you add flourishes. And now this is just a fun little stroke. And there's lots of different fun places to add this to Okay, so those air your basic strokes, If you're not getting the thick lines and the thin lines, then look at how you're holding the brush. Look and see if you are putting enough pressure down and planting that brush and getting enough of the tip on the paper and for the thin lines if you're lifting and up enough so that you're getting the thinnest line possible once you get it down, trust me. You're gonna love the way that it looks and it's gonna make your letters look fabulous. Be sure to post your practice pages on the class Project page so I can take a look at them and offer you some help if you need it. 6. Lower Case Letters: So you've been practicing the basic strokes, and now you're ready to get to the lower case letters? Yeah. Okay. A few things to know Number one is Watch your speed. It's not a race. We want to do each stroke with intention so we can get the finished ins and the thickest fix. And number two, as you'll see me demonstrate you want to break down each letter stroke by stroke so you'll see me create a stroke within a letter stop and then make the next stroke again. We're trying to be very intentional so that we can really create the most beautiful letters possible. So now let's take a look at the lower case letters. We're going to be again positioning ourselves so that the papers tilted to the left. If you are a right hander and to the right, if you're left handed and you want to make sure that your opposite hand is on the table so that your balance in your body, your feet are flat on the floor and you're holding the brush in the best way possible. Now this is what I would recommend. But I do know that people hold their brushes and pencils and you know pens differently. So if you can get it to work, that's fine. We also have our tracing paper, and so we're going to start with the A, which has that oval shape. So you see that the number one, this is the duct. Us Remember the direction and sequence of strokes. So the number one is indicated here on this line, and that means we're going to start over to the right, come up and around following the arrow, come back in, and then our second stroke, we lift up. You don't want to do it all together. This way. You really focus on getting the fix and bins in the right places. So we lift up and plant and pulled down and we get our first A with nice thick. Somethin's moving on to the be our number one is here. So we're going to start there going up and coming around, adding that pressure going up and releasing pressure, and I'm gonna stop as it indicates, that's a sex separate stroke. In that way, I make sure that I got bad exactly the way that I wanted to do. If we do it too fast in one stroke. There's lots of tendencies to kind of do this stroking correctly, So important thing to follow that abductors on the sea. We start with that basic stroke down and then always come into the stroke whenever it's connecting. Don't start here. You want to come in so that it looks more natural and again with the d. We're doing an oval. So we want to start all the way over here on the right to make that oval first. And as I come up here is an important thing. I'm gonna show you that over. I'm going to bring this line and it comes slightly out and then down. And that way I don't. If I were to bring this line up automatically and do it in one stroke, I would probably come a little bit too close to the mobile and I'd be cutting that in half . Not a good idea. And the e starting here light. Come around and add that pressure and release that pressure. Yes, for starting here, light pressure come around and pushed down and come around with light pressure in and we're going to stop again. We want to think about that. Where that stroke is going, Typically, I might have a connecting stroke and so depends on what the next letter is, Um, to determine how this stroke would go. But right now I don't have connecting strokes added on and in the G again, we have another oval shape. So we start on the right, come around, push down, come around and up and we stop, come down and plant the brush, Bring it down and around very lightly and up. The age starts right here. So I'm going to likely go up and come down and stop so I can come back in and make sure that I get that very nice light stroke, as you can see pushed down. And, uh, that is just one stroke like that. I just stopped to show you that the eye pressure down and lighten up as you come up. And then we just daughter like this. You can also make a circular motion if you prefer lots of ways to do that. Going to the J down, pushed down and round. Lighten up and got it. Now the chaos where we're going to be turning the page when we get to the third stroke. So that was the first stroke again. We want to make sure we're starting from the bottom with that second stroke being very light coming up around, pushing down and in now I'm going to turn the page so that the stroke is towards my body. So coming in and will move to the L. And this was one of our basic strokes that we did and the M Starting with just a basic straight stroke, you'll recognize that from the basic strokes and then down, up and down again, we stop in between and part. Another reason that I say to stop each stroke is, if you don't, you'll tend to do what you normally do in your handwriting. And what's different about lettering is you're actually trying to create or construct the letters. It's almost like drawing the letters. Here's that oh, shape. So the letter is built stroke by stroke, and what happens if you just do it instead of three strokes or two strokes drew it all in. One stroke is you tend to lose that very thick thin contrast because you're not thinking about that. So that's what makes it really important. You can see the contrast that you can get when you take it stroke by stroke. We're moving on to the queue again. Here's that oval shape and second stroke coming down around lightly. And then my third stroke is the connecting street. We are starting down here coming up and I'm stopping because I want you to get a sense of what this stroke does. You can come in and around and then go over and then down and come back up. Okay? Now, on the S, we again have that beginning entry, stroke, and you can either do like, yes, where you bring it up like this, Or you can just push down, lighten up as you come around and push down again and then come up very lightly. So you get a lot big change here, from thick to thin to thick again. Now included two s is so you get a sense of the options that you might have. There's lots of options port, each of the letters, but I just included the s there. Okay. The T kind of like the I straight down and then lighten up as you go over. And here's that very basic crossbar. Remember, we'd never want across a decline with the decline. So you make sure it's thin and pick you. We stopped and make that second stroke and the B come over first, then down. Then come up and around W down and, uh, stop down and, uh, stop and come around. So all that stopping is helping you to think about whether or not a thin line is supposed to be. There are thick line Now again on the X, we turn the page just a little bit. So this stroke is coming towards our body that go thin through that thick line and then think again, show you what that looks, the why coming down and, uh, stopping coming down and around and see around. Now you can stop here, or you could do it all in one stroke. Luzi is one of those where you have the option of doing it either way. Okay, Now at the bottom, these air A centers and D centers that don't have be, but oval type, top or bottom. Okay, so this isn't alternative that you could use, and these were just basic strokes again. you got that oval? Uh, stop client pushed down and up. And here's that little shape from before in our basic strokes, make sure that's a thin line coming over. This is another alternate F where it does have a loop. But it's only at the bottom. H stop. Come up and j just a little loop up. I'll show you that circular. I are dotting. Okay, Even with this K, you still have to turn the page because that is just not, um, an easy stroke to make if you're in this position, so you need to turn the page to accommodate your hands. Position l he and cue another oval stop. We could just add this little tail there. So that is your lower case letter set. And our next lesson will cover the upper case. Hey, just a quick note. If you're not already following me, please do. That way you'll be able to keep up with all my latest classes. Thanks 7. Upper Case Letters : Hi. Okay, so you've done basic strokes. You've done lower case letters. Now you're ready for the big time. Upper case letters. Yeah. Okay. Same thing as before, Watcher Speed. And make sure to break the strokes down one by one so that you are making sure to get that thin and thick and create beautiful letters. Okay, post, um, your practice sheets so I can check him out and remember to relax and have fun. All right, See you later. So now we're gonna move on to our upper case letters, and again, I have my tracing paper. I'm making sure that my brush marker is positioned correctly in my hand. I'm very balanced with my feet on the floor and this opposite hand on the paper on the table so that I'm balancing my body. I'm also going to remind you that you're using the part of your hand that runs from your tip of your pinky to the beginning of your wrist to basically, um, ride on the top of the paper. Now we want to make sure that all of that is touching because that balances our hand, gives us the most control and allows our pinky to be the driver. Um, the brush marker car. All right, we're gonna call it. That s So the second thing is, we're going to follow the duct ist. So that's the direction and sequence of strokes to create a letter form. All right, so we'll begin with a starting with the number one right here, and first stroke is down, is thick, and then we're coming up very lightly. Stop. Now, I'll just show you that stroke and plant pushed down. And now we're releasing us. We come around and remember, we're being very light because we're crossing a thick line here, so we only want that to be a thin line with a decline. Be starting here one and coming up. Stop. Plant pushed down number. That's a polling stroke. And then we're really starting in here in order to make this third stroke coming up and in and then on the fourth stroke, coming over and round and lighten up as we come in. Okay, Here you go. I see starting with the basic stroke down, and we very slightly can make it a little bit narrower at the bottom. Come up out of that bottom and very gently over. And then we pushed out. And now we're already coming back up, releasing the pressure as we come up, okay, pushed down and, uh, and stop pushed down and stop. And again, I want you to watch my whole hand as it moves together. And the pinky is guide. So I'm coming around, and now I'm pushing down and coming around. Okay. I feel like I sound like Bob Ross. We have some lovely little strokes here that we're making. Okay now, because I was talking, I actually did that in two strokes instead of three. So I'm not gonna talk about Bob Ross anymore, okay? And pushing out. Now, remember, this is a pushing stroke because we're pushing out from our body, and then the third stroke comes down pushing and releasing and over lightly and down. Okay, so that's five strokes. The G starting here, coming up and pushing down to get that pressure on that releasing and stop and now pushing down, coming around. And we're already lifting up and coming over can up and plant and push down. Now, on the third struck, we're starting off very light. And then we're pushing adding pressure and then coming back up light again, making that crossbar lightly, I around and press over and then over to the right the J stop over and press release and add pressure and release The very subtle movements that create some of these little are smaller details. Que push, Stan. And remember, we're going to be turning the page on that second stroke. So as I come around, I'm making sure with my marker that that is going towards my body pushing down and around. You see, we get that nice, subtle little tip there by having more control of the brush. The l pushed down and come up light. Now, as we come around were pushing and we're starting to release right there and release very light and again I'm going to turn the page. Some people don't turn page with the l. I like to turn the page the m down and up. I'm going all the way up. You noticed that, huh? And you could stop Once you get into the stroke, you could stop there. But you don't want to stop here so that all flows stop. Start from the bottom up and stub and pushed down. So you see how we have a lot of basic strokes in here that make up these letters. In the end, we're going up everything and stop press down and up. Now, this is one of those trucks where we're pushing it away from her body, adding and then releasing so that we get that nice little lilt there. The O coming around. This is just like our mobile and the basic stroke practice can. My pinky is already making that movement for me. The P up press down and again, we start into the stroke. We don't start up here, and that way it flows more naturally down and lighten up as we come around. Now the cue we're going to start over here unlike the oh, we wanna have a balance of thickness on both sides. So we're doing this in two strokes coming around and we'll stop right about there. Then we'll come back into the stroke all the way up here so that again it blows better. So there you go and turn a little bit this way. And if there's a way that you need to turn the page to make a particular stroke because of the way that you write or if you're left handed and you need to figure that out. Um, I just feel free to do it in the way that works best for you And the are again is going to have that turn the page, come around and pushed down and get that nice little little there s And there are different s is as well. But I just decided to used this s moving into the t. So start there with your top. Bring that out. We're pushing away from our body and getting that thin arrests We go out coming in here and pushing down and then releasing us, we come towards the bottom and lifting you I think I do sound like Barbra's not a bad thing . And I come up more press down Who doesn't love a good Bob Brush video? Me and again we've got that pushing stroke. We're pretty putting pressure and then releasing it w push down and 2nd 3rd stroke round coming up, push down. And that fifth true again. Here we go, huh? And this is that X where we're going to be turning the page once we get to this part again ? We're James thick. I mean, the thin through the thick. And some people do find that they might want to turn the page a little bit more to make this stroke. That's fine, too. Why? And there we go. And last but not least, Z stroke. Bring it up. Very light. Push, Come down and over. Stop. Come into the stroke here, out and push. And now the numbers. These also have a doctors, so it's good to follow them. No. One thing I'm gonna point out on the to I often might come back in. And if I want that to be rounder at the tip there when I go ahead and add that end just like this to with the three If I If I want that look which you can do, then you can just add that by making a circular motion with the marker four coming over and town by one to and three and six come all the way around. And then again, we're making a second stroke to make meat. That so that we get the nice balance that we want in the thick lines. So that balance is the number better? Seven and eight we can do in one stroke. You're pushing there. Same thing with the nine, but its opposite. We're starting off here and then we're coming in to create the stem part and zero just like the O. We're making that two strokes so that we get more of a balance in those lines. Now, this could be attached like that, or you could do it so that it's attached. That's just another alternative. So there are a lot of time dizzy. Here we go. They're your upper case letters and again, please post your practice sheets. I'd love to see how you're coming along and offer you any suggestions or help if you need it. Just a quick note. If you're not already following me, please do. That way you'll be able to keep up with all my latest classes. Thanks 8. Lower Case Flourishes: So you finished the lower case letters? Yea. Okay, so now a bit You want to know how to make him just a little bit fancier? Well, in this next video, I'm going to share my tips and tricks for doing just that. These were some of the techniques I use when I'm creating alternates for some of my thoughts. So check it out and be sure to experiment and create your own flourish letters. So let's have some fun with flourished letters again. I'm gonna make sure that my paper is tilted in the correct direction to the left. If I'm right handed to the right, if I'm left handed, I have my tracing paper. My feet are flat on the floor and my hand opposite hand is on the table so that my body is balanced and I'm even leaning in a little bit so that my nose is over the paper. That's the best position to get the most control. I also want to make sure that from my pinky to my wrist, I have contact with the paper very loosely, and I'm leading the letters with my pinkies. That's the driver of the car. Okay, so what I love about the, uh, lower case A is, it's easy to add a fun entry stroke here and then go into making that oval. So if you were going to begin a word within a, that would be a fun one to do. The B is interesting because you can kind of come over and start up here, bring it up higher, bring the loop a little bit wider, and then add a little smaller group there. And I won't do every letter. But these were just some ideas of things that you can try now on. The d would have liked to show you is using the alternate D that we have down here. How we can add one of the strokes from the basic strokes that we did, which is coming down and bring this down further and around. And that's a fun one to add if you have a d at the end of a word. And again, if you remember from the basic strokes there were some of those long flourishes, so I'm gonna show you what that looks like. So again, we have our global shape. Start with that, become with our second stroke, and now I'm going to bring it just a little bit lower just to show you an alternative. And I'm going to move it so that remember this. The stroke is coming into my body. This year's a pulling stroke. Okay, so I actually need to start over here so I could blend that better. Okay, so there's an option for a G. Then, if you let's say you have the word hello and you want to do something fun with the H again , we could make this bigger and we can even change this stroke. Just a fun, different way to do that. Another alternative is to bring that second stroke down, further being a low. Let's say there wasn't e here, so that's kind of a funny thing to do, creating that space there. Let's go to Jay. I like to go big sometimes on the on the lower loops, and you can instead of extending it out like this, you could just bring it around like that. Let's make that circular. So now let's do something for the K. We can coming in here and around, come down, uh, kind of around, and now I'm going to extend this down and up, and if I wanted to, I could come back into this stroke and add Coming in here, add a little thick 20 there. The l. This is kind of an unusual one to do, but it's got one coming around and up, and then down and again that would be on an interest. Three. Entry of a word If it was in the middle and I had two l's, I might do something like this. Create the first tell back and then bring the second out underneath that. So it's also fun when you have double letters to try out some unique combinations and alterations of the letters B M. I love when there's the two humps to change one of them so we can start with the 1st 1 being high and normal size. And then we can take the 2nd 1 and let's make it lower. Uh, and those fun to play around with the loop so I might come over in around and come up higher. That's kind of cool thing to do. You can also just come over and go low like that. Let's move on to the are so these were just some examples of things you can do. The idea is to play around and see what, um, what you like to do. So this one, I'm gonna bring that loop way up and then bring this further down. And again if I were writing a word, um, brain, I've kind of got this lower than the others. That kind of makes a nice change. If you have a lot of lettering, that's all in the same X height. It's nice to kind of alternate and make some changes. You can also change and are in the middle of a word. So let's say you have the word, um, down. So let's say you have to ours what can be a nice thing to do. This makes one higher, and then one regular here, this one of my all time. You can let's do the pushing stroke. Okay, so we create some difference between the two so that it's not all the same, and it kind of changes just enough in the word to give it some interest. Let's go to the S. Guesses are fun to do endings for, So I want to start with this ass come around and come out and push up. That's one ending. Or I can take this s and I'm gonna turn the page because this is gonna give me the most control of that loop. Okay, Teas. There's so many different ways to cross teas and to make teas. So we'll start with this. Didn't take the basic t and have a think, then swash going across or you could bring it down like this, make it thinner at the bottom and do a shorter truth. V hasn't interesting alternative come down around. And instead of coming up in doing that loop, we're doing the same similar kind of pushing stroke, coming up and pushing and releasing. So we get that been to decline and again with a W. Just like with the M E. Got to, um, bowls. So why not extend one further down Now, I'm also going to add a little lead in stroke, and I'll do this regular, and now bring this down and not a little bit higher email. Open that loop to make it more interesting. So what I hope you're saying is, when you do it stroke by stroke, you're actually drawing, constructing letters versus just handwriting using your regular handwriting, which is what you're You go into that mode, Um, when you're just continually doing the stroke without stopping. And let's try that other stroke that we had in the basic strokes so weak over can come on. So that's kind of fun to add on as an ending to a why. So let's look at an alternate que. This is a basic you. But I can come in, put the oval in, come down and now take it over. And I might even bring this loop around, turn the page again so that stroke is coming into my body, go into the existing stroke, come out and put pressure, and there you have a unique cue. Now let's look at the Z and let's say that we've, uh, we're doing the word, Um, let's say that we're doing the word wiz, so we'd have W I'll go ahead and work on that. The same. That's the basic shape of the W. They're just like the why, but let's bring this down like we did before. Bring it up, connect into an I come up and now let's create an alternate, maybe I come in a little bit higher, come down sadder and wider, come over and bring this around. So there we've combined two different alternate letters to really add a little pizazz to the word. So there's all kinds of possibilities. The idea is to play around and experiment. That's what I do, what I'm working on alternates for a fund, and you'll be surprised what you come up with or who will come and check out your flourish letters. Just a quick reminder. Post your pics to the project gallery, and if you haven't already, please follow me Banks. 9. Upper Case Flourishes: got through all the upper case letters. Congratulations. You're doing great now. Once again, I'm thinking you want to know how to make him a little bit fans here. So in this video, I'll be sharing my tips and tricks, and I want you to experiment with your own. I can't wait to see him. Be sure to post him talk to you later. So let's start playing with some flourished upper case letters again. It's all about experimenting and trying things out. But when I'm creating my fonts again, I like to have a lot of alternate letters, both upper case and lower case. And so experimenting and playing is what I do a lot of. And I encourage you to do this well, so let's start with the A. It's a fun letter to do this, too. So I'm going to actually add a stroke coming in here, and I'm going to extend this trope further down a little bit and now, So that's the shape our God. And now I'm going to go into this stroke right here, come around and over. So I've just changed it up and kind of softened it up and given in a little bit more pizazz . If I wanted to go crazy with it, I could even to a bigger loop and start over here and come around and down and come down further. And then I could take this loop and make it go through there a little bit more fun. Okay? With the baby, I'm going to show you kind of a different way to approach it. Instead of coming from here, I could come from appear and come down and then around that, I'm gonna stop right there and come back up here around. And now I'm going to meet this line. So that's a totally different be that I've created from a basic be I could even add a little line here. That's just one possibility. And if I wanted to do something similar to what I did with the A where I added onto this, I could start here, come around, come over and then, um, quite different. So what you what I hope you're saying is that I'm still going stroke by stroke because that gives me the ability to really play around and construct the letters instead of hand writing them now off you remember some of the strips we did in our basic strokes. But one waas, this one and another was this one, so you can see how that changes the e. Now, I'm not gonna do every letter, but just wanted to give you some ideas of what to play around with. Now let's take the H. So I'm going to stay with the basic structure. But I'm going to add loop here. Come around here and I'm gonna add a loop here and now. I can also come in here to secretary with the A. Come across the l would be a night, another one. That would be fun to add something to So we can start from here and come around and connect . And let's go bigger. When you have two loops in this case, you don't want them to be the same height or with you want them to be slightly different. So this one is thinner and higher, which is good, and let's turn the page and extend this further down. Let's move on to be an so similarly I'm I'm looking what's already there, and I'm adding on to it. I'm adding a loop coming around And now because I'm doing separate strokes, I can think about what I want this stroke to look like. So I'm going to do this. Go now. I'm gonna look at the are again. I'm looking at it stroke by stroke. So I wanted to say, Well, I don't want to put that stroke in. I wanna work with this stroke burst like I do with the B. And I think I'm going to add a loop up here and then bring it down Now I'm going to come up . Uh, let's see now, I'm gonna come into the letter from here, going around and coming around like that. So you see, I'm still looking at a stroke by stroke, but I'm just alternating strokes to something that is different. And I'm going to even at a little based there. So there you have a changed our. Now I'm gonna show you This is a more contemporary s, but I'm going to show you these kind of more classic s which comes up. But you see how it's still following the basic form. Now I'm going to change it like that. Let's do something else with B s. It's very similar coming up coming around again, I'm keeping the same basic shape. I could stop right there, or I can add that. So if I were connecting to the letter here, I could do that like that. Maybe I'm writing Saturday. So taking the letter stroke by stroke allows you to think about what the next letter is and how you might create an interesting connection to that letter. And let's try something with the W Let's So I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna come around here and now I'm gonna come in to this second stroke and come up. I might come up a little bit higher, I might come down lower, and now I'm gonna come up. Okay? Look at how my hand is making that big movement altogether. And I'm doing that from my shoulder and my elbow and my whole hand. So that is where when you put all of this together, that's the freedom that allows you and the creativity that allows you. Um, let's look at a t. Because there are different ways to do t. So one of the kind of again, uh, more classic t is something like this. And what if I add they will appear. There you go. The Z that we have here is very different from the scripted Z. So let's look at what a scripted C could McCoy. And again, it kind of really follows us. Similar Who? And what if I come back in there? Okay, so these are some flourished letters that you can play around with and also create your own . 10. Making a Word 3 Different Ways: you've got through everything. Now we have to put it all together. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to connect the letters to make a word. And we're gonna do it in three different ways. The 1st 1 is the traditional way. The 2nd 1 is adding some alternate letters, and the 3rd 1 is using alternate letters and bouncing off the baseline to create that modern look. So check it out and remember, have fun and experiment on your own. There's so many possibilities, I can't wait to see what you come up with. So now I'm going to be writing the word congratulations in three different styles the regular one that has a little bit of flourish letters and 1/3 that has a combination of flourished letters that also bounce off the baseline, creating that modern look. So we're going to remember this is our base height. This is our X height because we're using this size marker. If I was using a larger marker, the Excite would move up to here. This is the caps, height and the A center height, and the D centers come down here. I'm also going to remind you that I'm sitting up straight. My feet are planted on the floor. I've got my non writing hand on the table so that I'm balanced and I am touching lightly the surface of the table with the pinky to the wrist so that I have this nice fluid motion . So let's start writing the word congratulations in the traditional style. Again, I'm going stroke by stroke. I'm making a connecting stroke. It doesn't go all the way up because the letter and connecting to isn't. Oh, but notice the O is going all the way up because that is the first stroke off the end, which is the next letter I'm connecting to again, coming up half way for the G. Because it's an R. I'm going to go all the way up. And you can note that an R does come a little bit above that X height. Same thing with the S starting that oval. I'm going to bring that tee up not quite to the top. Teas tend to be a little bit lower when there's the standard T, but I'm bringing this up for the U and I always wait to cross the T because there might be something else I'd like to do with it. So I wanna wait until I see what other letters around it. So I can decide how I want to feel that space. So in this case, I think I'd like to do this okay. Again, coming all the way up because that is where I'm meeting the next stroke. I also want you didn't notice the speed that I'm lettering at. It's purposely intentionally slower? No, because I've got that I there I can make a decision to bring this up slightly and have that cross there, or I can cross it lower. So I think I'm going to do that. I'm gonna bring it up and cross it like that. So there we have just the regular standard good form, all staying within the structure of the X height, the a sender and D sender lines. Now let's add a little pizazz by changing up the letters and making some of them alternate mutters again. Less is more so We don't want to do all of them, But some we can make subtle changes to like that. Go. I just made a shift in my brush I want to point out why I can feel when? Because this brush has been used for a little bit. I can feel when the brush is starting, Teoh move to one side. And so I want to turn it so that I'm using the sharpest point. That's something you have to kind of feel more than C. So let's change up this. What are G Now? I know that I've got are A t and C up here, so I know that I have this space underneath to play with. So let's go ahead and really bring that out. Now. In this particular case, I did not turn the page. Um, because I've been doing this for a very long time. I have the ability to do that a little bit easier. But I would suggest for a beginner that you go ahead and turn page until you have that stroke. Calm down. So I'm gonna change up, make this a little bit taller, and I'm slightly altering. I didn't want to bring it all the way down. You have just given in a little bit instead of this coming all the way up. Kind of put it on the angle there. And now I know that I haven't l coming up and I've got a tea that can be crossed. So what if I combined both? And what if I brought this down? So there's a kind of decisions that you can make when you go stroke by stroke again. I've kind of come a little bit lower here, just altering the size slightly, and I'm gonna come down and I'm coming a little bit off the baseline. But just I want to give you a little example of that here. We'll do more of it in the next one again. Something that I can do with the Oh, I can come way up. Let's bring that tee up a little bit higher. You go just a little bit higher. Okay? So not decided to kind of create this unique s over here. I can dot what I hear. And now I think what I'm feeling like this, I want this to really extend over here and kind of land in this pocket right here. So just a funds light alternate alterations to make the world a little bit more fun. Now let's bounce off the baseline. So our baselines here, and I want to be careful not to go to extremes. That is one look, but I'd like to show you another look. So one of the things that you can do is just kind of change even a slight angle of a letter as well as the placement off the baseline. So I'm gonna come just below that baseline come up and I'm going to take this and kind of bring it down like that. No, this is an opportunity to show you that all letters don't have to be connected. Still, kind of like doing that, because I like that. It feels that space in there let's come up a little bit higher here and go a little bit lower here, kind of giving us this nice little space in here. The other thing about this type of lettering is it gives you the opportunity to really look more at negative space medical higher on the back end. Here, dip down a little bit, grow up high. I'm still gonna just stop it there. Now what do I want to happen here? What kind of like this movement that creates got a nice balance with this down here because spread out the a little bit there, Go high. Committed to a short I come up taller on that. Oh, and in I can feel that the brush tip is pushed a little bit One side So I'm twirling it so that I get thes sharper side Come up here and now I'm gonna try something so I see the t can be crossed with the swash of the s. So what do I need to do to make that stroke? Well, I need to come into my body, so I'm going toe. Either I can go this way, which doesn't make sense because this has to come out first, so I'm going to come out practice first. Now I still have room adopting I so you can see that has a lot more changes off of the baseline than this. So you can stay very conservative and it's always good to first do the letter. As in the proper form, this really helps you to start to look at what are the possibilities for flourishing for bouncing off the baseline and play around with what? Where you can do some things differently. Then you can start experimenting. And finally, if you want something like this, you can really put a lot more fun into it. So I hope that you will have fun. This is so much fun to play with this. It's a little bit of the philosophy of learned the rules so you can break them and then you know your forms air still going to be good And the overall design is still going to look good. Okay, have fun and joy and play and please post what you've done. I can't wait to see. 11. Class Project Option 1: Hi. It's time for the class project. Now you have a choice of two designs that I've created that are included in the download or you can create your own. So the design Sears a final welcome. Enjoy your stay. What's catching the light there? And these are framed in a simple white frame from target works. So I can't wait to see what you come up with. All of the instructions are included in the following videos. Literally step by step. Please. Please, please. Poster pictures so I could see what you did. So now we're gonna work on the final project. First, I'm gonna talk about the tools that you'll need. So a water color palette. We're gonna need a large size brush so we can put our watercolor background on this paper. This is £140 watercolor paper cut to a five by seven. We'll need a pencil, and it's helpful to use a workable fixative to spray the background once it dries, so that if you're going over it, you're putting pencil on it and you need to erase. You're not going to erase any of the background color. That's also something that you can easily find in any craft store. I'm also 0.2 be using my template that comes in your downloadable. So I've cut this one out. There's two options for you, but this is the one I'm working on right now. And if you, um, no one advanced the frame, if you're going to frame it and you know in advance the frame, you're gonna put it in. It's good to note how far in you need Teoh bring your lettering so that it doesn't go underneath the frame. Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to put the background colors and I have just on a very, very light green. You want to always keep the background very light. You can see on putting a lot of water in here, And that's because the more water, the more transparent the color will be. I don't want it to. If it's too dark, it will interfere with the lettering that I'm putting on top of it as faras the T, um, value of the color. So the value is the light or darkness, and if it was too dark, it would conflict with that so want to make sure that I get that nice and light and you can even go in and add water to it If you feel like maybe it got a little bit too dark. So what we would do next is allow this to dry, and then we want to prepare to put the template on top in pencil of the background. So you conduce several things. First of all, if this is too much for you, you can just use the word welcome. Or you can create your own word and just lightly pencil on the background. So what, I'm gonna show you an easy way to do this is you take your pencil and I've already kind of done it on the whole background. But you literally just do this wherever there is a line. Once you get that all done, then you come back in and just race over the line. I just do that w here, and it's very lightly imprinted on the paper. So now I'll be able to easily go over this with watercolor or a marker. So I'm going to be using the fabric Castel marker for the main color and this orange Sharpie brush marker. There's all kinds of brush markers out there, so it's a good idea to just check them all out. Then, if you want to get the shadow effect that shadow there, that will require this, which is 1/4 inch tortilla on and again, something very inexpensive. You confined this easily at any craft store. Now if you wanted a different option. If you have a light table and you want to use that which I have right here, you can place the template on the light table and then position your watercolor paper that's been sprayed and has a background position that over so that you can see the lettering underneath. So now that we have our watercolor paper with the background sprayed and positioned correctly, we're going to use our marker now. This is where it's important to remember all the things that you just learned about lettering, mainly where to put the fix in the thin. So the general rule of thumb is that you go thicker, going down and thinner going up, so we'll start here, go up more coming around and going up, coming down, coming up, going to the E thin going up. Come around, Pick Now remember how we were talking before about connections? So because I know that I'm going to do an l. I'm going to connect right about there and in this l I'm starting right here, coming around and then going down and you see how I purposely go down to cover that connection, going to see, thank, come around. I'm actually changing the angle of my light table because I realized I had it at the wrong angle. And another thing. If even if you're using a light table, if you feel more comfortable going over the lettering in pencil first, you're welcome to do that now, because this isn't ending. Thinking that up a little bit and a lot of times because you have watercolor paper, you might have some unevenness in the Strokes as you came around, because the watercolor paper is a little bumpy, so it's perfectly fine to go in and look for those and then just picking them up. So remember, one of the strokes that we had in our basic stroke was just this little tiny stroke right here. Well, that's where we're using that on this in this situation on this e and again coming around, and I'm gonna stop because I'm gonna make this big loop here. So I want to make sure that my hand is positioned Well, so I come into the stroke. Come around. Come up now I'm going then staying then because you don't want across a thick bear and up. And I see a little bit of unevenness here again, working with watercolor paper. You might run into little things like that. So it's no problem. Just go back in and and fix it. The end again. I'm making separate strokes. And because I'm making a J. I'm making that stroke, that exit stroke, which is now connector stroke all the way up where I know that the J is going to start, and I'm gonna thickened that up a little bit as I come along. How many? Just to a circular dot there white as they come around again. I'm coming up so that I meet beginning of the next stroke. Same thing with the why? Next joke is here. So I'm coming up to meet the next stroke. I mean, Jim, and around and again my whole hand is working as one unit. I'm gonna come back in here. Is that that a little bit frayed on there from the watercolor paper? Okay, I'm gonna remove this a little bit more, and it's always a good thing If you feel like you're not able to make the stroke, move the paper so that it works for you. Now, remember how we have this stroke that we can do either a pushing Stroker pulling strokes. So I'm actually moving the whole light table. By the way, this is an art. A graph light pad comes in handy, especially if I go on location. So I'm gonna come in here into the stroke, come out. I'm staying then and now I'm slowly adding that pressure. But I'm releasing the pressure as I come out because I want to get that nice little tip there. And I also hope that you're paying attention to the, um the speed that I'm going at throughout this whole course, you'll notice that high, go at a slower speed, then you might find or you might think, is how you're supposed to go because it's more important to have control than you tend to have more control when you go slow and think about each stroke. Okay. One last word and some of the design decisions were made. Um, I'm gonna point out, for instance, there's three de senders here, so you notice how I've changed the size and in some cases, this shape, they're all slightly different. If they're all the same, it just doesn't look as good. And they could clash. So you really want a plan out your lettering. It's not something that you just pick up a pen and do. Um, if you're trying to create a piece that you might be putting in a frame actually took that a little bit lower than yes, on the template again, I've sent any to move this a little. Come around here and again. There's that other stroke. I'm gonna wait to cross the t. I was kind of like to wait do that. So this time I'm gonna do a pushing stroke instead of a pulling stroke. This was a pulling stroke coming into my body. This is a pushing stroke going away from my by coming around, keeping it thin in here, going a little bit thicker there and very slowly coming around now This got a little bit off just like yourself picks that I hope I'm not making dizzy. Okay, so now that I have everything in place now I'm going to look at where does this t fit best ? So we got it right in there, and I have got a lot of nice playing in here. That looks really good. And if I were being really picking, I would probably go over a little bit more of these. Where to get the color a little bit deeper. But because we're doing this for demonstration purposes. Oh, I forgot the, um exclamation point that chief. And just like one of our basic strokes. Okay, now we've got our little orange circles, and I'm kind of outlining them a little bit just lightly. And you can do this in marker. You can do this in water color, so I'm doing it in water color picking up this orange, and I downsize to a smaller uhm pink brush. You could use the the large paint brush and just use the very tip of it. What? That's kind of a fun design element. I'm gonna go down to this lighter orange. I had picked the orange and of Manson forgot which one I picked. So what you can tell as I'm doing this, is that the background is very light. As I said, so it's not competing with the words, but this color subtle enough so it doesn't compete, but it still pops out from the background. Now, another thing to notice. I put five little circles because a general concept is if you're going to do any kind of element like that, use odd numbers like three or five or seven. Okay, so that's looking pretty good. But I'm gonna show you what the difference is when you add that shading, so it's really worth doing. So the key is, when you're putting the shadow line, you only want to put it to one side or another. I typically tend to put it on the left. The other key thing is, you want to leave some white space. You don't want to put it to close to the actual letter. It just doesn't work as a shadow, and it tends to get messy. So I'm going to be going over each letter and putting a shadow line like this on the left, and you have to also be careful to get all the little nooks and crannies. So even inside of the e the inside of this little oh, all those little spaces So I'll come back when it's all done. So you can see I put the pencil in and have already gone through with my, um, Torti on and smudged it blended it. I'm just gonna show you a few lines here. This is exactly what I did. Just smudging it. And you can see the more that I smudge it, the more the shadow increases. And that just really helps the letters pop. And I'm even putting pencil in these small areas, like right here in the s, all those little areas, the O, you'll notice I'm not putting anything on the top because we're really talking about a light source. That's how you create a shadow. You think about the light source. So in this case, um, the light the shadows over here. So the light is coming from this direction, but again, just to keep it simple, just put it on the left side of every letter. So that is the finished final project, and you can see. This is what it looks like framed in the next video. I'm going to do the other option. The so glad you're here. Option in case you want that one. 12. Class Project Option 2: Hi. It's time for the class project. Now you have a choice of two designs that I've created that are included in the download or you can create your own. So the design Sears a final welcome. Enjoy your stay. What's catching the light there? And these are framed in a simple white frame from target works. So I can't wait to see what you come up with. All of the instructions are included in the following videos. Literally step by step. Please. Please, please. Poster pictures so I could see what you did. So the second option for your class project is this little signs. So glad you're here. Now, I just want to point out you are welcome to do something totally different. If that doesn't work for you, you could use the same colors or different colors. If you wanted to make a happy birthday that could fit in beautifully there. Just pencil it all out first on tracing paper so that you really thinking about where you're putting any of the flourishes and, um, in the small little elements and you're leaving enough space for your frame. This is an inexpensive frame from target. So you could do just about anything you want to do. But I just made these because I thought it was I like to put these in my guest room and maybe you don't have a guest room. That's okay. You could also put it in your kitchen or any place that someone might likely come and visit you. So what we're using is some water color, very inexpensive watercolors. I picked up Michael's. This is just a large brush, and I've got a large Tom Bo brush a Sharpie brush marker. I should say they're both brush markers and a Sharpie alter find point. So these air just the colors that I chose, and so we're going to put the background in. And as you can see, we've got a very subtle change from pink to orange, and you want to pick colors that would blend easily and again. You always want to go very, very light. So I'm going to put a lot of water in the light pink and a lot of water in this light orange, and I'm just gonna let those sit for a minute, and now I'm gonna put water on my paper. That's gonna help it lend more easily. If it's going into water, I will take my pink on this side, nice and light. I'll take my orange on this side. And then as I come to the middle, I'm blending them. And the great thing is, it doesn't have to be any particular shape. It's just a background of color. If you get a little bit too much water, you can always go in and just dab it with a paper towel, and we're going to let that dry. I'm gonna set that aside, and after it dries, we're going to spray it with some workable fixative. You confined this at any craft store, and what what it does is it protects the color of the background. So when we do our lettering, either with watercolor or markers in this case, we won't have to worry about it, creating any problems with the background color. Also, since you may be using pencil on the background, you are able to erase it without erasing the background color. Now, the last sign that we did the welcome Enjoy your stay sign. I actually used a light table, but this time I'm going to show you an easy way if you don't have a light table that you can just use the template that I provided in the downloads. So all you do is take your pencil just like I've done here, and just make sure that it's covering all of the lines of the letters. Okay, So to transfer this one onto the watercolor paper, I used the method of putting pencil, um, just shading with pencil on the back and then tracing over the lines, literally line by line, and he puts a nice light pencil marking on my watercolor paper. So now we're going to go ahead and and letter it. And as you can see this because this is a lot larger, I chose to use a larger brush marker. This is a Tom bow. Then, for the word your I'm using the Sharpie brush pen and finally, for here. I'm using the Sharpie Ultra Fine Point, and because it's watercolor paper, you might get a little bit of fraying on the edges. But that just adds to the kind of homemade look. So remembering everything that you learned so far in the lettering, of course, that we've done, you want to make sure that your following the doctors. So now we're ready to start Lettering got our background with God Are pencil line in there to follow? And we just want to make sure that we're following the lines as closely as possible and going very slow. I'm also as we did all through our lettering exercises. I feed her on the floor. My hand non writing hand is holding the paper down on the table. So I'm very balance and stabilize. I'm leaning and slightly over the table so that my nose was almost, um, over the paper. And this gives me the best balance possible. And I'm using my whole hand to make the movement. And my pinky is leading my hand. And also, I sprayed the background with spray fixative workable fixative so that if I have any lines to a race, I'll easily be able to do that. Now, this is one of those strokes where I'm going to turn the paper so that the stroke is going into my body. This is a polling stroke. Notice how slow I'm going clean that up just a little bit. There we go clean up on aisle nine as I like to call it. And by the way, your watercolor paper may buckle a little bit, but once you put it in a frame, it'll flatten out, going nice and slow and making sure that I'm putting the fix where they should go and making the thins as thin as possible. No, clean up there. There we go. And this is another stroke that we had in our basic strokes, the extra ones on the bottom. Okay, so I would probably go in and do a little bit of clean up on some of these lines just to make them look a little bit better. No problem with that. Clean that up a little, get rid of any obvious bumps and notice how I'm turning the paper even to do this clean up . Because I always want my brush. Always want to be in control of the brush. And, um so to do that, sometimes you have to turn the paper. Okay, Now we're gonna switch to the Sharpie brush pen for the words. You are okay. Stroke by stroke. Make sure I can see where I need to go. Okay. This is going to be a little bit of a pushing stroke. Just just short one. Because that pencils very, very light. I want to make sure to stop and look and see where I'm going. That posture in there, Okay. And then we have the word here. Oh, if I did not say it, um, you also want to make sure to place this so that you still have some white space on the side, so it will fit not only fit in your frame, but have some white space around the frame groups. Very simple letters here. Typically, if you are working with a script and you put a non script, you want it to be pretty simple so that it doesn't clash. Okay, so now we're gonna add our little elements. I want to go back to using the brush marker, the orange brush marker. Good. Our little hearts here. I'm just gonna one here. And whenever you're adding elements, you always want to add in an odd number three or five or seven. It's just a design, um, factor. Kind of a well known design, Um, thought is to always used odd numbers. Okay. And then to differentiate it from the letter your I'm gonna come back in with this Sharpie Ultra fine point. Just add some little dots. Very simple. You don't need much. Sometimes less is more okay, So I could stop there. That's exactly what we were trying to create backgrounds a little bit softer here, but I'm also going to show you what I did in the other sign was I added a shadow. You can see that to make the lettering pop, and you're certainly welcome to do that here. So I'm using a pencil, and this is called a tortilla on. It's a blending tool. I'm using 1/4 inch. You can use any size as long as it works with whatever size lettering, generally speaking, a small one. So when you're adding this shadow, first of all, you're only gonna added toe one side because we're what we're pretending is that there's a light source coming in and casting a shadow on the letters. So I would just do it on the left side every part of the letter. I'm not gonna do it on here because that would be the top or the bottom. So just the left side of every letter, every part of every letter Come out here even here and even in here. Okay, so now we've got our pencil drawn in. Now we take the torch eon and we blend it, and the more you blend it, the more you see the wider the shadow gets. It really creates a nice effect. Sounds like it's scratching on the page last year to extend the line. If you want do a little bit more doused here Way so there. That's kind of a nice effect to create. So you are welcome to do that. And please, please post whatever you do create, even if use a different saying because I really want to see what you do and what you've gotten from the from the class. It's definitely going to help me think about what I'll do next. I have some ideas. So one thing I want to point out if you're going to create your own words, something totally different, please do create a structure for the letters to go into. Remember, we talked about structure induct us, so the structure really gives you a more uniform look. Even if you were to bounce it off the baseline, you still wanna have that structure underneath it. It just supports the overall design and makes it look much, much better. So this is the final piece. I went ahead and added this shadow effect to the words. So in glad and I left it off the other words because I just felt like that was enough. So I hope you enjoy creating your project whether you're using these words or words of your own and please post it on the class project page so I can take a look at what you did. Hey, just a quick note. If you're not already following me, please do. That way you'll be able to keep up with all my latest classes. Thanks.