Learn Hand Lettering for a Latte

Welcome to the Hand Lettering for a Latté worksheet set! In this worksheet, you’ll learn how to create a variety of different lettering styles for general artistic use (art prints, greeting cards, etc.), logos, envelopes ... anything, really! To get started, you’ll need a few basic supplies:

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The sort of hand-lettering covered in this worksheet is not spontaneous; it requires a little bit of planning. To this end, always draw your design first in either pencil (for white paper) or soapstone (for black paper).

If you can see through your paper, it’s not a bad idea to place a grid behind it and use it to guide you. Two grids are provided for you at the end of this worksheet.

Once you have finished drawing over your design in ink, wait for the ink to dry completely. Drying time will vary depending on your writing instrument; but as a general rule, follow these guidelines:

- For gel pens (including Gellyroll whites and Pilot G2s), wait at least 3 hours to erase.- For ballpoint pens, wait at least 5 hours to erase.- For Micron pens and Sharpie markers, wait a minute or two to erase.- For India ink and Sumi ink, wait at least 5 minutes to erase. Hold the design up to the light first and see if light catches on any still-wet ink.- For watercolor (either used to make the design or to color the design), wait at least 10 minutes to erase.- If you’re not sure, always err on the side of waiting longer. It never hurts to let a design sit overnight before erasing!

You do not need to commit the lettering styles in this worksheet to heart. They may be useful on an “as-needed” basis; when you are working on a project that you wish to use one of these styles on, simply reference how the style is made, use this worksheet to practice the required letter forms a couple of times, and add it to your project draft sketch!

Pair hand-lettered typography with calligraphy to make a bold statement! Any of the styles outlined in other TPK Learn for a Latté worksheets will go well with the letterforms in this worksheet set.

{You can download this free envelope template at https://thepostmansknock.com/typography-art-envelope-tuto-rial/. Use Wishbone for the city, an embellished Garamond or Flytrap for the name, and Sans Serif for the rest!}


https://thepostmansknock.com/typography-art-envelope-tutorial/

https://thepostmansknock.com/typography-art-envelope-tutorial/

The alphabets in this worksheet are ordered by level of simplicity. We’ll start with the most basic lettering styles first, and work our way into the decorative styles.

This lettering style is very clear and basic. It pairs with virtually any other lettering style, script or print. Use it to spell out important secondary information on menus, invitations, envelopes, or whatever else. This style looks equally good using all capital letters or the traditional use of capital and lowercase.


This lettering style is great for headlines. You can leave it open as shown, or you can fill it in with color. It’s a simple, sans serif style that will prove useful for a number of projects.


This is a small, easy-to-create lettering style that I like to use for secondary information. For example, I may use it in a banner above a name/address on an envelope (e.g. “Please Deliver To”), or to write in details on a typography art piece. You can, of course, make the letters any size you want, and perhaps even fill them in. This concept and style is yours to modify in any way you see fit!


This style is ideal for titles and text that you want to stand out. It’s compelling, strong, and simple to create! You can either fill in all the letters or write them as outlines as shown below. To create the outlines, be sure you make the letters first in pencil (then go over them with ink), and skip the last step of filling letters in with black.


If you wish to draw this font as outlines, be sure you create the letters in pencil first. That way, you can erase guidelines, as shown in the example below:

1. Draw the entire letter in pencil.If you are drawing on black paper, use soapstone.

2. Draw over the outline with a pen. Do not draw on the parts that are not part of the outline, like the line in the middle of this “J”.

3. Wait for the ink to dry, then erase the pencil or soapstone. You can now leave the letter as-is, or fill it in with any medium you’d like (such as watercolor or crayon).

Garamond is a well-known serif font that is often used in books (and, in fact, was used to write the text in this worksheet)! When typed out on a computer, Garamond is largely unremarkable. However, if you write it out by hand, it gains a personality that adds a “wow” factor to envelopes, posters, and typography art pieces alike! I love it written in outlines, but you can also fill in the letters. Either way, you’ll love the result.


This style is elegant and impressive, making it ideal for information you want to stand out in a big way. This eighteenth-centry-inspired lettering does not include numbers; you’ll either need to write them out or use a different font style to write them. I call this “Flytrap” because some of the elements of letters resemble a Venus flytrap, such as the curve on the “P”.


All hand-lettering needs to start with guidelines and a general plan. To come up with a design, first sketch out your general idea, like this:

Choosing a general shape for your lettering artwork (rectangle, square, circle, etc.) will make for a cleaner, more impactful piece. Here, I chose a rectangle.

Next, I drew two diagonal lines, between which I wrote “APPLE” using Roman style. It’s always a good idea to draw out the word or words you want to stand out the most first.

Then, I drew “an” in open style, drew a banner*; then I wrote “A DAY” using Wishbone.

*Banner tutorial can be found at: https://thepost-mansknock.com/hand-drawn-banner-tutorial/

Hand-lettering always looks good with some illustrated elements. Try to think about things that relate to what you’ve written, and include them.

For this piece, the obvious answer is apples. I searched for photos of apple trees online, and loosely based these branches on what I saw. Your goal here is not perfection; your goal is visual interest. Whatever you draw, don’t stress about making it look just-so. This is, after all, only a sketch!

The next step is to sketch out the final design! Use one of the grids provided, and put a relatively transparent piece of paper over it. If you don’t have transparent paper, you can use a light box, or tape your grid to a sunny window to make a DIY light box.

I kept the grid straight and put my paper at a diagonal here. I allotted appx. 1 1/4 cm for each letter. As you can see, I drew vertical lines to show the beginning (right) and end (left) of each letter, then drew the beginning of the next letter appx. 1/4 cm from the last letter. For the “A”, I took some creative freedom and drew a branch and a leaf in place of the traditional cross stroke. Feel free to play with the letterforms in this way!


https://thepostmansknock.com/hand-drawn-banner-tutorial/

https://thepostmansknock.com/hand-drawn-banner-tutorial/

I kept the paper at a rotated angle to write “an” in lowercase open style. As you can see, I used a ruler to draw guidelines for the tops and the bottoms of these two letters.

When you only have two letters like this, the spacing between the letters isn’t a big deal, so there’s no need to measure.

Next, I drew my banner. After I drew the banner, I made faint pencil guidelines running parallel to the top and bottom of the banner. These guidelines weren’t made with any exact measurements; you’ll just use your judgement to draw guidelines like these to aid you in writing on a curve.*

I used my guidelines to judge how tall to make my Wishbone-style “A DAY’.

*For another example of writing on a curve, see “The Making of the Hand-Lettering for a Latté Logo”.

I removed the pencil drawing from the graph paper as it was not needed to create the branches and apples. I created the illustration elements in pencil first, then I drew over everything using a pen.

On this particular drawing, I used a Micron 005 pen. It allows you to make tiny strokes, which are beneficial in a piece like this because of the detail in the leaves and branches.

Once I drew over my pencil drawing, I waited a minute or two for my ink to completely dry. Note that drying times vary depending on which pen you are using (see “Tips”, p. 2).


Once your ink is dry, erase any pencil lines, and you’ll be left with a beautiful design!

At this point, there are a few things you can do:

- Color your design in with the medium of your choice (I love watercolor!) and frame it or send it as a gift. - Scan the design into your computer and have it made into a rubber stamp by uploading it to rubberstamps.net. - If you like working with graphics on your computer, you can play with the design in a program like Illustrator or Photoshop, then use the image online or in a publication.

Here is my final design after a few minutes of working with it in Photoshop! For those of you who are familiar with Photoshop, I: 1. Removed the background. 2. Did a color overlay on the outline. 3. Used the paint bucket tool to fill in the illustrations. 4. Used the paintbrush tool to add soft shading.

Don’t forget to do everything in separate layers!

A quick note on centering words:

To ensure that words are centered, I always sketch the word out first (as shown in the tutorial above). Once the word is sketched out, I measure it with a ruler to see approximately how long it is in the sketch.

For the final, then, I create guidelines based on that measurement. I choose approximately where I want my word to start and end, then I create a guideline in the middle.

I always begin writing the word from the middle. To find the middle of your word, draw it out, then draw a line where it splits. If your split is a space between letters, draw the letter on the right first, then the letter on the left.

The best way to ensure even spacing is to draw in pencil first. That way, if you make an error, you can correct it!

appx. 7 cm

star

t end

middle

star

t end

middle

To find out where the word splits, write your word, count the letters in it, divide the letters by two, then draw the split so you have a visual.

APPLE1 2 3 4 5

5÷2=2.5, so: APPLE1 2 3 4 5

From this, you know to start with the “P” in the middle.


Learn Hand Lettering for a Latte

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