Brush Lettering A Beginners Guide || Free practise sheets .

1. ABOUT THE CLASS: [MUSIC] Hi. I'm Ritika Sridhar. I'm an artist and a calligrapher from Coimbatore, India. Welcome to my Brush Lettering course. This course is for complete beginners, where I'll be starting from the scratch. Firstly, I'll be demonstrating the working of the few common brush pens. I will show how the tip of the brush pens work. It is not necessary for you to use the same brush pen that I'm using. You can use any of the brands that you have. Even if you don't have a brush pen, you can start it off with pencil. Following that, I will show and demonstrate all the basic strokes that a beginner should practice in order to start with lettering. I have ensured that this class is broken down into categories so that every beginner can understand it easily. You can also download free practice sheets in the resource section. I have created a basic strokes and common mistake sheet; followed by that, you can get few other lettering sheets. You can download and print the sheets and practice it along with me. I will also be teaching the basic anatomy of each and every alphabet. After that, I will also teach how to style the alphabets. Following that, we'll be seen how to form words and how to style them. At the end of the class, you'll be able to create beautiful and flourished words. So you can easily follow it along with me and practice brush pen lettering. Don't wait for other; jump into the class and learn the techniques of brush pen lettering. 2. BRUSH PENS DEMO: [MUSIC] Hey, welcome to our next class in the class than wonder demonstrated a few brush paints that I use regularly. Here is Tombow Fudenosuke, and this is Karin markers, and this is the Camlin brush pen. I'll demonstrate how all these three pens work. If you're using Camlin, the tip is a little bit thinner when compared to Karin. It is also not as firm as Karin. It bends so much, and Karin doesn't bend so much. I'll demonstrate all of these three. Then Fudenosuke is a small tip pen. See, it doesn't even look like a brush pen. You can use this for smaller light rings. I'll demonstrate all these three now. [MUSIC] This is Camlin brush pen. You can see the tip is thin and also larger. That is, it bends a lot. It is very flexible. You can get a really broad stroke. See? If you're going for an upstroke, it'll get it like this. I feel it is difficult when you do alphabets and words because it bends a lot and then you will get like this. See? Since the tip is very flexible, it's very difficult to get the thin strokes. It might be different for each and every one. [MUSIC] This is how Camlin brush pen works. The next one I'll show you is the Karin markers. It has a broad tip but it's not much flexible like the Camlin one, I'll show you the broad strokes are not so much thicker like this. When you do an upstroke, it's very fine. Then you do an oval. I think it's very smooth and very good. I don't find any difficulty when I switch between thick strokes and thin strokes. This is how Karin markers work and looks. Then there's the Fudenosuke, as is told you, this is a small brush pen. This is the thickest stroke that you can get from the Fudenosuke. I have to zoom in for you, so let me do that. Now, an upstroke and then an oval. [MUSIC] Now I'll write and show you few words. [MUSIC] Now let me show you with the Camlin brush pen. [MUSIC] This is Camlin. The next one is the Karin brush markers. I'll show you how this works. [MUSIC] This is for Karin. 3. BASIC STROKES: [MUSIC] Let's get started with the basics first, I will demonstrate all the strokes. It's very important that you practice these only then you will have a strong fundamentals. [MUSIC] I have a guideline on my sheet. You will also have the same in the practice sheets that I've given. Let's get started. The first one is the downward stroke. It does not embark slanting line, just like this. It should be evenly thick from the top to the bottom line. Even if you change the angle, it's fine but you have to give even pressure throughout the length. I'll do this once again, hold the brush pen like this, a little slanting and a little away from the tip unlike the other normal pens, and put even pressure throughout the length. Whenever you practice these strokes, leave even space so that you'll get used to it and it'll be easy for you when you form letters and words. Once again, I'm doing this. It goes like this. Make sure to take care of the slant angle and depression, and the shape. If you were a big unites completely common to have shaky lines at the beginning. Initially, you might be disappointed by it, but once you start practicing, you will get firm strokes. See, your strokes might be rough like this or you might get uneven strokes. But you will have to understand that you have to give even pressure. [MUSIC] Once you're done practicing this, next, you have to practice the same one like this without the slant. This is it. You have to put even pressure without the slant angle. It should be straight thick lines. Keep practicing this for a few lines of pages until you feel confident about these strokes. [MUSIC] Next is the upward stroke. For this, you have to start from the bottom and reach till the top line. It has to be very thin. Again, I'm doing this, put even threshold. I mean very light pressure like this. First, initially, you might struggle with this, but with practice, you can master any kind of stroke. The next one is similar to this, but with a small change. The starting of the stroke will be a little curve like a tick mark. I'll do that. [MUSIC] It goes like this. It looks like a tick mark. [MUSIC] Like this. This is called the entry stroke. You might not be needing it a lot. But when you start an alphabet like this, if you have an alphabet like this, you have to add this stroke in front of that. Just like this. When you learn the basics, it is better for you to learn every single stroke. Practice this also. Let me mark the directions for it, for your reference. This is the downward stroke. It goes down like this. There's also the similar downstroke, you have to start from the top to the bottom. These two add up to a stroke. It goes like this and like this. [MUSIC] The next one is the overdone, which is a combination of both the thin and the thick stroke. At first, you have to start from the bottom. Get a thin stroke followed by a smooth curve, and then a downstroke. Again, start from a thin stroke, then the downward thick stroke. When you change the thin to thick the stroke, it has to be very smooth. Start from the bottom line, get an upward stroke, and then a downward stroke. Always remember that upstroke has to be thin, and the downstroke has to be thick. Next is the opposite of this, which is an underdone. You have to get a thick stroke first and then transfer it into a thin upward stroke. Just like this. Again, I'm doing this. This is it. [MUSIC] I'm marking the direction. You can find all these directions and instructions in the practice sheets. The next one is the compound curve, which is a combination of both the above curves. First an overdone this, and then forward by a underdone. First, thin stroke and then a thick downward stroke then again a thin upstroke. See this. It's just the combination of these two strokes. These two strokes combine together is the compound curve. [MUSIC] I will show you all the important strokes that we've seen so far. Thin upward stroke, a downstroke, and then an overdone, underdone. Then the compound curve. Next is the entry stroke. Then the flat thick stroke. But our thick slant angle. Moving on to the next stroke, which is the ascending loop. For this, start from the waistline with a thin upward stroke, and then go down to the bottom with the thick downward stroke. I'll do this again. Start like this and take it to the bottom. I'll mount the direction for this, it has to start from here, and then end like this. Next is the descending loop. In this, you have to start from the middle line, go down with the thick downward stroke, and then the upward thin stroke. Just like this. Practice until you get it very smooth and form downward stroke and then the thin upward stroke. We'll use this for definitely d and g and n. Practice all these. Then we'll move on to the next basic stroke, which is an oval. This is the most important one. Start from here, and then thick downward stroke, and then join like this. Make sure at the join point you don't get any double lines. It has to be very smooth. Getting an all rate would be really difficult. But keep practicing until you achieve this. Because most of the alphabets will be needing an oval. This is most important one. [MUSIC] All our basic strokes are complete. I will show you all the remaining one that we practiced in this sheet. The ascending loop, the descending loop, next the oval. Practice this for many pages and many lines until you feel confident and strong about these. [MUSIC] In addition to all this, you can also practice one more stroke that is like this. Like a triangular cap. Thin slanting upward stroke and a thick downward stroke. You can add this one also to the factors. Once you feel confident about all the strokes, you can move on to the alphabets, which I'll be teaching in the next lesson. 4. ALPHABETS A - N: Hi, thanks for jumping into the next class, which is the lower-case alphabets. I hope you are done practicing all the basic strokes. Now, you can join with me and practice the alphabets. I'll start with the a alphabet, which comes with an oval and then an undertone. Almost half an undertone like this. You will see me wearing the basic strokes a lot for the alphabets so that it looks better. You have to make the basic strokes more flexible for making a comfortable and a good-looking alphabet. For b, I'll start with an ascending loop and then an opposite-sided oval like this. You can also do it as a straight line and like this. It is in a opposite-sided oval because you start in the opposite direction. Next for the c, it is an unfinished oval like this. You can extend it a little bit as I told you I'll be wearing all the basic strokes later. Next for the d again, we have to start with the oval like this. Then I'm going to start the ascending loop with a little bit of undertone. Here, e and for the f, starting with the ascending loop, then I will just have curve like this. Next again, an oval for the g, like this, followed by a descending loop. You can also extend it a little bit like this. I'll mark all the directions that I'm done so far. When you draw an oval and then undertone, make sure you leave a gap in between. You can observe that. Again here, you have to identify the basic strokes individually. Here again, for this an ascending loop like this and an oval then the descending loop. For the h, I'll begin with an ascending loop, then followed by a half compound curve like this. Then for an i I'll have the entry stroke and then an undertone. Similarly for the j. You have a descending loop for the j with an extension. Next for k, I will begin with the ascending loop, then reverse over like this with a slight radiation and an extension like this. For the l, it is an ascending loop mixed with an undertone like that. For the m, go like this with two slanting overtones. Similarly, the n. If you have any difficulties in forming these alphabets, you can always throw your questions in the discussion section. I will be there to help you with whatever kind of help you need. I'm marking the directions for your reference. The i goes like this. You can see me using the entry stroke only for i and g. But wherever you think you need an entry stroke, you can use that. But make sure you're using the right strokes wherever it is needed. You have to easily identify the thin and the thick stroke. There should be a lot of differentiation between the two. Only then the lettering will look good and it will have a clear look. 5. ALPHABTES O - Z: I'm continuing with the rest of the alphabets here. Next is the o, which is nothing but a normal oval. Then for the p, I'm going to use a thick slanting line. If you want, you can use an entry stroke. I'm using it directly and then an opposite-sided oval like this. For the q, it is an oval and then a thick slanting line. Then I would like to have a small curve like this. Understand the direction. Understand where it should begin and where it should end. Differentiate the thin and thick strokes. For the r we have to start with an entry stroke like this, then a small loop, and then an under-turn. It is a half and under-turn. These are the directions. Similarly, for the s, start with an entry stroke and then a loop, and then a curve like this. Then for t, start with a thick slanting stroke with an under-turn. Moving on to the u, it's a complete under-turn with a half under-turn then the v with a sharp edge at the bottom like this. You can see all the alphabets are almost a combination of the basic strokes or with a slight variation of it. For the w, two undertones together like this. Next, for the x a reversed unfinished oval, and then an unfinished oval. For the y, an under-turn followed by a descending loop like this. Then we have the z, it goes like this. 6. STYLING A - K: [MUSIC] Hey, everyone. I hope you watched my previous classes and learned all the basic strokes as well as the alphabets. Now this class is to learn how to style the letters. It's very easy. You can just try to style the letters with the help of the basic strokes with a slight modification itself. Now you see for the first alphabet, I extend the underturn a little. For the second one, without joining the oval, I just extended it. For the third one, I have started the oval in front of the underturn. These are the various ways to style an alphabet with the basic strokes itself. For this one, I have extended a loop at the ending. These are a few examples for the ways to style and flourish the alphabet. I will be creating various styles for each alphabet. You can also sit and try it along with me, or you can try your own style. [MUSIC] This one is a normal b and the previous one was a slight modification for the oval. Without ending it properly, I have created a loop for that. Now for this, I created a slight variant of the first one. You can see the loops are a little bit loose. For this, I have created a loop inside the ascending loop on the top. Like this you can try and explore various loops. You can find various styles on the net and try to impose that in your letterings. [MUSIC] Here, I will extend a little on the top. This I'll make it thin and taller. For the next time I'm creating a loop at the top. This is a regular d. For the next, I'll be creating an extension on the top like this. You can observe all the variations that I'm creating. [MUSIC] The key point that you have to note when you flourishes, I don't usually flourish at the start. I finish my alphabet mostly and then only do all the extensions. But when it has to begin in the alphabet, I do it first. You can see all the loops on the ascending d's and b, I'll be doing at the end only. For that, this video will be helpful for you so that you will know when to start flourishing and when do the it on the end. Now you've seen me flourishing all the a's, b with the ascending, descending loops and the entry strokes and everything. Now it's time for you to try the same thing and then create your own flourishing. Next will be a walk-through of me styling various alphabets with different styles. [MUSIC] Don't start flourishing the alphabet straight away. In the worksheets that I have provided, there are loops and curves that you have to practice. Practice those first separately, only the curves or only the loops I have [inaudible] Once you practice that, then start flourishing the alphabets. [MUSIC] 7. STYLING L - Z: This is a modern m, where amusing bounce lettering. Bounce is nothing but jumping off and on the line. Here I am on to adding an entry stroke to the n and also flourishing at the end with a loop. For the o, what you can do is you have to differentiate only where it joins, like when you begin and when you end. That is the point where you can flourish. This is again a modern b where the oval is a little bit loose. One more thing that you have to keep in mind when you flourish an alphabet in a word or a sentence is, you cannot flourish each and every alphabet in the world. It will be very congested and it will not look good at all. What you can do is either flourish it at the starting or at the ending, just like with letters in each of the letters. You can see that I am only flourishing at the starting or at the ending. Similarly, for a word, you can flourish it where it begins or you can flourish it where it ends. But at some point, you can flourish even in the middle of a word. When you have alphabets like a, m, n, so that it will end down, you can extend and have a loop, just like I had now in the x. Or if you have a descending loop like y or g you can go ahead and style it in the middle of a word as well. But make sure it is very even and it has a flourishing look than it looks congested. In the next lesson, I'll show you how to flourish your board. 8. ABOUT THE FREE WORKSHEETS: In this class, I'm going to talk about the practice sheets that I've provided for you. I have all the basic strokes in here. I have the first one with full transparency, and then the next few will have less transparency so that you can practice about this. You can have your brush pen and practice like this. This following example I showed you. If you have iPad and a Procreate, you can also practice this in the iPad like this. If not, you can take printout of these sheets and try them out with your brush pens. I also mentioned the direction of the stroke so that you'll understand that better. This will go like this. I've mentioned all the directions. Here as well, I have the rest of the basic strokes along with the direction with the numberings. I have numbered it so that you will know where to start and where to finish. Then I have a sheet with common mistakes. [NOISE] I'll be listing out the common mistakes with all the basic strokes that usually beginner steps. I have circled the mistake once, and I'll mentioned that in the sheet so that you'll know what to do and what not to do. Again, this is for the same. I'll also be mentioning about everything in this video. Then you'll have all the alphabets. If you want to practice these alphabets by tracing that out, you can do it. You can place the tracing sheet above this and just letter it over this. Then there will be two sheets which describes the anatomy of the alphabet, which I'll be showing you now in detail. I've mentioned all the anatomy, the direction, and all the rules that you have to follow when drawing or writing an alphabet. Then you have the last two sheets, which is forming letters and styling them. This we are going to see now in detail. Now, let me explain about the anatomy that I've mentioned in the worksheet with this practice sheet that I have done. Then you take the thick downstroke. It should be even from the top to the bottom. You shouldn't have any rough edges or an uneven stroke. Then for this one, you have to have thin upstroke and it should have the same angle as the rest of the lines. Then for this, check whether if the soft, underturn fits into an oval like this. Also this. Why is this necessary? Means it should have a proper shape. I've already told you about the shape, angle, and pressure. If you have a proper shape only then your letterings will look good. Try to understand that almost every basic stroke or every lettering has to fit inside an oval. Also these two lines has to be parallel. Next, again, for this, you have to make sure that this fits inside an oval. If you take and placed it again here, it should also fit inside the oval. Moving on to the next one. Here again, there's a loop. Here, where you have to place the oval is, like this. You should form a small oval at least. See to that your lettering fits into this criteria, so that it will look good. It is not a rule or it is not the thing that it should be perfect like this, but I just told you this because it should be neat and with the proper shape. Then an oval, which again, you know that you have to have the proper shape for it. Here also, the oval should fit in here. You don't consider this part. Consider this. You have an oval here. This is what I'm talking about. Your lettering should have an anatomy and a shape. Now for the alphabets, same way for the basic stroke. If you write an a, it should have an equal space over here, or a proper oval. Similarly for d. For b, since b is in a opposite side of the oval, I have like this, but you can also have a proper oval also. These are the slight modifications that you can do for your letterings. Then here again for g, then you will have the same open for o, for p, for q. Then you can place an oval for y here, for a z here. Then similarly, you have it for g, for j, and a lengthy thin oval for l. Again here, a lengthy one for k. I'm not talking about the length or the shape of the oval, but it should have equal space like this. Hope you understand what I'm talking about. See, similarly here as well. Have a proper and even spacing. Next for the flattish alphabets, I will add all these scanned copies of these in the description of the resource section. I haven't added them in the practice sheets, so you can't find the scanned ones there. 9. FLOURISHING WORDS: [NOISE] Now let's talk about lettering and then styling the letters when you have a single board. I'm going to write my word first. Make sure you follow all the basic rules, especially the thick and the thin strokes. I have my basic word first. The next step is to analyze wherever you can style this. Usually, you can style the letters where it is beginning or where it is ending. Here I would like to style something like a capital C, but I find that there is alphabet which is higher than this. If I also make this higher, it won't look very good. What I'm going to do is I'm going to start the see from here, like this. This is one option that we can do. If not, the second one is, I mentioned all the possible ways that you can style. First, this one, you can extend this like this, and then have your C like this. If not, as we saw in the previous lessons, different styles of lettering. You can have a loop like this, but make sure it doesn't look like a C, you can have this. Select that. There are many possibilities for flourishing. For the next one, it is H. What I would do is I can have something from here or do something here. There are two possibilities that I'm taking off now. I mentioned those two here, starting from this side and then having a loop here for the H, or I can have the H like this and style this side like this. You can do anything here. You can have an oval along that. This is one method. First, analyze what are all the ways that you can do. Next, I don't want to flourish this because if you style each and every alphabet in the word it will be very congested. If you want, you can do this. You can flourish this one. I'll show you how you have your letter R. You cannot flourish about it but instead, when you're in here you can do something like this. You can extend it like this and just leave it, or you can take your alphabet, and you can have this type of flourishing. This will suit very well when you have letters after that alphabet and letters before that alphabet. When it is in middle, it will look very good for this. I don't want to flourish I and S, I would like to flourish this so that the starting and the ending has a nice style for that. I can add this H or this H to this. Let me show you the flourished lettering now. For this H, start from here and finish the alphabet and then do like this. This is how you have to style letter when do a brush pen calligraphy. You might have seen me flourishing this one but if you're not that strong with your basic strokes or if you're not having that flow, you will not get these things right. You have to practice a lot and get the flow going, only then you can flourish the alphabets like this. In the practice sheet, you can find this word and also another one. You can also find many examples like this in the practice sheet. One more thing that I want to mention to you is, all these flourishings should also have an anatomy. You might wonder what is the anatomy here, but I'll tell you now. See, this should form an oval like this, and this one should form an oval or the side of the oval like this. Similarly, here as well. You must be able to form an orbit. This is what I'm talking about. If you make sure that your flourishing will fit into an oval, then it will have a proper and the demand of propulsion. 11. FINAL THOUGHTS: Hey guys, we have come to the end of the session. Hope you enjoyed learning and creating beautiful letters and flourishing them. Feel free to share your practice works in the project section. You can also check out my other courses. I've been teaching two other courses in Skillshare so far, which is Portrait Drawing course and Realistic Color Pencil Drawing. Thanks for joining the class. I will meet you soon in another beautiful course.