Sarah Ensign - Hand Lettering for Beginners

Whether you feel like you have good or bad handwriting, I want you to know that you can absolutely learn hand lettering! Im so excited for you to join me in creating beautiful letters. I started hand lettering during a difficult time in my life when I needed something to remind me of how to be happy. It became my therapy and I looked forward to practicing it every day. Little did I know that lettering would become such a big part of my life.

One of the best things about lettering has been meeting so many other people who love lettering. So, as you begin this journey, Im inviting you to be my lettering friend! If we could sit down at my kitchen table and letter together, I would share all of my pens with you (my husband says I have plenty of pens, but you and I know that you can never have too many) and the first thing I would tell you is to forget everything you believe about your own handwriting or artistic skills. You can learn to letter just as long as youre willing to practice!

Hand lettering can provide great stress relief. Its very calming and will help you slow down and focus on the details, and it will work your creative muscles as you create beautiful lettering pieces. It can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be, but you can do it anywhere just as long as you have a pen and paper. Also, you may be surprised, as I was, that it can become a source of income!

Hand lettering is not simply handwriting or cursive. Cursive is writing in one continuous line, but hand lettering is the art of drawing individual letters by hand. Sometimes Im told that I do my cursive wrong because Im picking up my pen, but actually, Im not writing in cursive! Instead of writing words in continuous strokes, with hand lettering youll be picking up your pen between the strokes, so youll actually be drawing the letters as opposed to writing them. Youll be learning a new skill, and as with any new skill, it will take some practice to learn the craft.

No! With practice, anyone can learn to hand letter. It may be a little challenging at firstsimilar to how it feels when you try writing your name with your non-dominant handbut with enough practice it will start to feel natural and youll begin creating beautiful lettering that you can share with your friends and family. And luckily, you dont have to learn hand lettering with your non-dominant hand!

Absolutely not! Sometimes Im asked by left-handers if they can still learn how to hand letter. The answer is a big yes, of course! There are many talented hand letterers who are lefties, and the basics in this book will still work for you, even if youre a lefty. The biggest issue I notice for lefties is that they smudge the ink when they letter. There are a few things you can do to avoid smudging. First, test your pens to see how long they take to dry and then try to use pens that dry faster. You can also wait between each letter to make sure the ink is dry enough, though this can take longer, especially if you are using really inky pens. You can also angle the paper so your hand goes under the letters as you draw them, or you can letter with your hand hovering slightly above the paper. Ive even seen people sketch out a word and then letter it backward! It may take some getting used to, but youll definitely find what works for you. Lettering takes a lot of practice for both lefties and righties.

Beautiful hand lettering looks effortless, but there actually are some important concepts to understand that will help you create consistent and beautiful letters. Youll run across these terms quite a bit as you work your way through this book, and youll see these concepts in action as you work through the practice worksheets.

The structural components of lettering

As you learn to hand letter, its important to understand not just what makes up letters, but how they are built. These are the basic structural concepts you should understand in order to create consistent letters.

• Baseline: The bottom line where the letters sit.
• Midline or x-height: The middle line where the tops of most lowercase letters touch.
• Cap line: The line where the tops of ascenders and uppercase letters stop.

The basic components of letters

There are five basic components that make up letters.

• Downstroke: Where the pen goes down (the thicker strokes).

• Upstroke: Where the pen goes up (the thinner strokes).

• Cross stroke: A horizontal stroke that crosses through a vertical stroke.

• Ascender: The part of the letter that goes above the midline, such as for letters b, l, and k.

• Descender: The part of the letter that goes below the baseline, such as for letters g, p, and y.