I've taken part in Skillshare's workshop "Handlettering for the Holidays" which consists of three separate classes hosted by wonderful Skillshare teachers -
1) A Comprehensive Guide to Hand Lettering: Creating Graphic and Script Styles hosted by Erik Marinovich
2) The Golden Secrets of Script Lettering: Find Inspiration In Your Handwriting hosted by Martina Flor
ABOUT THE CLASS
In this post, I'm going to show you my work process and some sketches from the second class from the workshop by amazing Martina Flor. In class description it says:
Explore how designer Martina Flor uses her handwriting to create a piece of Script Lettering. In this 60-minute class, you will learn her step-by-step process for transforming spontaneous handwriting into a lettering piece. Martina will give you a insight on her process creating lettering and share tips to to turn an spontaneous/imperfect handwritten expression into a personal and unique script design.
I was immediately cought to say at least. I've been experimenting with hand-lettering for a year now and am really keen on devoting my time to learn the craft. Being taught by some of the industry's leading experts is like a dream-come-true for me and learned quite a lot by participating in Marina's class. She gave a great insight into her process and shared details on how to do the lettering on a professional level. The part I loved the most was when she talked about knowing how to criticize your own work and I definitely picked up some great practices from Martina that will help me in my own work.
CLASS PROJECT
Since I am more comfortable with doing digital work I followed the steps by translating it into the digital realm - so for transfer paper, for example, I lowered the layer's opacity and stuff like that - it certainly is manageable. However, I didn't do the vectorizing phase, since I do like the imperfect and texturized aesthetic. First I did a couple of rough sketches without thinking much about it. In the end, I decided to go for the first one in the second row.
Next up was refining the inital sketch - I liked the approach of criticizing your own work so decided to do little notes to examine where I can improve the overall design. I ended up doing three rounds and for the final, I did some tweaks here and there to get to the point where I am happy with how it looks.
As I was going further into it, got the idea to turn this lettering piece into a greeting card for my dearest. So I added florals and textures to go with the lettering. Overall I am quite happy with how it turned out!
Do you also do hand-lettering? Which part of the process is the most exciting for you? I enjoy sketching a redefining my initial sketches so much so would say that's my favorite part . I can't wait to go ahead to the next class!