Here's a closer look at the lettering piece I demonstrate in my Unwind with Words class. 

I picked the word 'Flow' to letter and I knew I wanted to create something flowy and liquidy, so I decided to start with that in mind. 

I started with a skeleton sketch that was all about some angled letters in a jumbled layout, leaving enough space between the letters to accommodate the liquid shapes. 

Next, I fleshed out the shapes around the skeleton to refine the sketch into a more organic, flowy form. I added splashes and blobs to add visual interest and fill negative spaces, creating balance in my composition without overthinking. 

Seeing how my sketch evolved, I decided to use acrylic paint markers to add colour to my lettering. I started with painting the entire word with a base colour. 

I used a darker paint marker for some simple shadows, and a brighter paint marker for gihlights, adding depth and dimension. I then used coloured pencils to further blend and brighten the highlight areas. 

I added one round of some final highlights using a white gel pen. 

I'm quite happy with how my piece turned out although I had second-guessed myself in the process and felt like giving up midway. I'm really glad I stuck with it and took the piece to completion. 

This exercise was about just drawing words creatively, but without overthinking. Creating without the pressure to be perfect opens up new and interesting creative zones in our thought process and helps build our skills and trust our design instinct with confidence.