Brush Lettering for Beginners: How to Get Started the Best Way for Success | Shelley Hitz | Skillshare


Shelley Hitz, Watercolor and Lettering Artist


Shelley Hitz, Watercolor and Lettering Artist

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10 Lessons (1h 30m)
    • 1. Brush Lettering for Beginners

    • 2. Brush Pens for Beginners

    • 3. The Paper to Use

    • 4. Supplies Update

    • 5. Basic Strokes

    • 6. Brush Lettering Tips

    • 7. Anatomy of Each Letter

    • 8. Fonts to Use

    • 9. Letter Your Name

    • 10. Next Steps

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About This Class


Would you like to learn brush lettering as a hobby that is relaxing and creates beautiful art, but you don’t know where to start?

Maybe you’re confused about all the options available for brush pens and markers that you could invest a lot of money in, but you don’t know which is the best one for a beginner.

I personally made the mistake of investing in the wrong pens in the beginning and will share with you the one option I recommend for beginners.

Maybe you’ve tried brush lettering and you’ve given up because you couldn’t get the hang of it.

When I was first learning brush lettering, I did a lot of research and practiced for hours, but still failed miserably.

I was about ready to give up when I learned the basic strokes. When I started practicing my basic strokes on a consistent basis, I had a breakthrough in my lettering and saw a huge improvement. I will share these basic strokes with you in this class.

I will also share with you the anatomy of the lowercase alphabet and how to form each letter. You will learn exactly when to lift your pen and when to make a stroke so you won’t have any guesswork about what to do.

I will also talk about joining letters and by the end of this class you will be able to letter your name and will have a great foundation to continue practicing your brush lettering.

When you enroll in this class you will be able to download my class resource list, my practice sheets and more.

Let’s get started with brush lettering the best way for success!

Not only is brush lettering relaxing, it also produces a beautiful outcome you can use for gifts, cards, artwork, and more.

Click enroll and let’s get started.

If you want to know when I release new classes, make sure to click the "follow" button on my profile here:

Meet Your Teacher

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Shelley Hitz

Watercolor and Lettering Artist


Ready to learn the art of lettering and watercolor, the easy way? I know what it's like to be a beginner. And I know what it's like to battle the inner critic. The fear, self-doubt, and comparison.

But, I have learned to embrace the artist in me and have re-discovered the joy of creating art.

Art can help you:

Relax and have fun. It's been an amazing form of self-care for me. Discover the power of color. Creating art can bring you so much joy. Create beautiful pieces you can display in your home or give as gifts. And so much more!

I'm passionate about teaching others and love seeing each of you have the courage to embrace your creativity and choose to create art.

In my classes, I will take you step-by-step through the learning process and cheer you on in this... See full profile

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1. Brush Lettering for Beginners: would you like to learn brush lettering and be able to use as a hobby? That's relaxing, that creates beautiful art. But you just don't know where to start. Maybe you're confused at all the different pens and brushes and options out there that you can spend tons of money on. And you just don't know which is best for beginner. Maybe you've tried rush lettering and you've given up because you just couldn't get the hang of it. High mining Micheli hits I'm an author and illustrator and in this class I'm gonna teach you brush lettering for beginners. How to get started. The best way for success. It was in June of 2016 that I first launched into the whole area of lettering I was creating custom he and drawn coloring pages for my book Broken Cran Still color and I decided to learn more about lettering so I could add that to my coloring pages. Well, I bought a bunch of different rush markers and pens, and I was trying and trying and failed miserably. I was about ready to give up when I learned the basic strokes, and so in this class, I'm going to teach you the basic strokes to practice. And it's when I started practicing those on a consistent basis that I really had a breakthrough. My lettering and I really started to see a huge improvement. And so, although it's not the most fun thing to think about, it really can make a huge difference for your lettering. I'm also going to go through exactly how to break down every letter in the lower case. Alphabet recommends starting with a lower case, one thing at a time so you can get proficient at it. And what I'll do is I will break down every stroke. Exactly how I recommend doing it in the style that I personally use and you're going toe, learn exactly when to lift your pen, when to put it down. And so you don't have to guess anymore that's gonna talk about joining letters, and by the end of this class, you're going to be ableto letter your name and really have a great foundation for continuing to practice your brush lettering. When you enroll in this class, you'll be able to download my practice sheets. I always love to give you tons of resource is so you'll be able to download my class resource list. You'll be able to download the practice sheets and so much more. So let's do this. Let's get started in brush lettering. The best way for success. I don't want you to give up. I want you to get results. It's so relaxing its away that I really have just experienced so much joy. It decreases stress, and it has a beautiful outcome you can use for gifts for cards, for artwork you can share in social media and so much more click and rule and let's get started. 2. Brush Pens for Beginners: as you're learning brush lettering. One of the most important things that you will need is a brush pen or a brush and some sort of medium to write with. And so I'm going to go over in this video, the pens I recommend for beginners and the biggest mistake I made in the beginning. And then I'm just gonna go through a bunch of the different tools I have purchased and invested in, and I'll let you know what I like about and some things that I've learned. All right, so let's start with just the pens that you can purchase. And there are so many options. Oh, my goodness, you can just buy pen after pen after pen after pen. And I want to tell you right now, the magic is not in the pen. You will see really good hand letters on instagram using simply a Creole abroad tip marker . So a more expensive pen is not necessarily going to be the the instant easy button. Now there are certain pens that will make it easier and will make it easier to learn. So I'm going to go through some of the pens that I have here I'm also going to go through some brushes in just a minute, but I want to give you a word of caution. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I was first learning brush lettering is that I'm a person I love. I just I love trying everything. I love learning new things, and I love having just a variety of options. And so I was trying everything, and that was a big, big mistake. In the beginning, The best way toe learn brush lettering is to choose one tool, because I will tell you for a fact. Each one of these requires a little bit different skill. Each one of these requires a little bit different muscle memory with your hand. So if you're practicing with a bunch of different things a bunch of different pens and brushes a bunch of a bunch of different mediums, it's going to take you a lot longer toe. Learn this skill than if you would just stick with one in the beginning until you really feel comfortable with it and then start branching out. Now, I know some of you are not going to do that. I didn't, but I will tell you, it took me probably double or triple the, you know, the length of time longer. Then it would have if I would have just stuck with one pen. Another mistake I made in the beginning was I just jumped in and bought the Tom Bow dual tip brush pens. And these are awesome thes air. One of my favorites. There were expensive and, you know, they have the brush tip on the one side, and then they have the blunt tip on the other side so that you can do that and they're great markers. But because of the way the brush is because of the way the end of the rush trip is, it's very flexible. So let me see if I can show you here it will bend and you're not gonna break it like it's meant to bend. But because it has so much flexibility, it makes it a lot harder to control. So if you have more flexibility, it's gonna be harder to control. So the brush and using a brush with ink or watercolor is gonna be one of the hardest mediums to control its one of my favorites. And yet it took me a lot longer to really master my strokes because I chose that medium. But so you know something that's more flexible. It's gonna be a lot harder to control to get your fix and your thins, and it can be frustrating. And I will tell you from experience that I love, love, love this pen. But it can be very frustrating in the beginning for beginners. So because you're taking this class brush lettering for beginners, I am assuming you're a beginner and as a beginner depends, I would recommend are still Tom Bo thes Air Tom Bow. But they're the food and a Suki hard and soft pens. Now I put little things on here so I could just remember which one was the heart and which ones the soft. Because these are in, Um, I think it's Japanese, and so I can't read it, and I would get confused. And since I teach a lot, I want to make sure I'm telling you the right things. And so the one that's a little more purple is the hard. The one that's a little more gray or greenish is the soft, but this comes in a pack. I have a link to this in your class. Resource is, it comes in a pack of two. It's pretty affordable, and so if you have nothing else, I just recommend buying this two pack of pens and then we'll talk about paper in the next video. But you can pretty much use whatever paper you have on hand with these pens. So why do I recommend these pens for beginners? Well, again, it goes down to the brush tip, so this brush tip is very is very small. It's gonna be It's gonna produce a smaller outcome, but it's easier to control. It's not as flexible, so it's still flexible to give you the hearts and the six and the things we're gonna talk about that in a minute, but you can just see it's not nearly as flexible as the do a brush tip waas, and so that makes it a lot easier to control. You're six and your thins, and again we're going to get into that in another video, but makes it makes it much easier to control, and then you can still get the effect of the calligraphy, still learn it, but learn it with something that's gonna be a lot easier and, to be honest, less frustrating. I I wonder how many people buy something like this. Do a brush because they see so many calligraphers using it on Instagram. And most people, you know, if they do, they use this or they try a brush and ink or watercolor, and it's just so hard when they give up. So I don't want you to give up. I want you to know calligraphy is modern calligraphy hand lettering, brush lettering. It's a skill that can be learned, but the biggest mistake I made in the beginning and the mistake I do not want you to make is First of all, choose one tool to practice within the beginning, and I'm recommending these Tom Bo Harden soft. Just use this one tool and practice until you get that muscle memory of your hand until you learn how the letters are created. And then once you have the basics, then you can branch out into some of these other mediums. All right, so do you. Promise me that you'll try that you'll try using these pens. They're not very expensive. I have a link to Amazon. Use them here in the beginning until you really start to feel more comfortable and then wants you to do that, then start branching out. All right, I'm getting off of my soapbox now. I just I am a teacher at heart and I want to see you get results. That's the biggest thing I want to see. You have fun. I want to see you get results. And I just don't want you to give up because of frustration. So I'm gonna go through some of these other pens. To be honest, this was actually the first pen I bought. I saw somebody recommend these. I do not recommend these. They're real brush, and they're very hard because of that. They're very hard to control. Also, mine did not come with very good ink. Um, the Incas and I mean this kind of look, Sometimes you want that you know, the look where the ink is kind of not all there, but I have not been impressed with these pens. And then they're very hard for beginners. I honestly thought there was something wrong with me because I could not figure it out. Now, even after I have some some decent skills. These pens air. Still, these markers air still not really working the best. They work best on marker paper, which I'll talk about in the next video. But just so you know, I don't recommend these, and unfortunately, it was the first pack of brush pens and markers that I bought. Thereby, you're talking you got Kentucky has a lot of great things, and I'm sure that some people were I mean, I know some people love these. I personally don't love them and don't recommend them. All right, so the next one I'm going to show you This is a pen. Tell touch. I think it's called the Pen. Tell Food Touch as the little spark lease in, and this is a fairly decent pen for beginners as well. It's not quite as easy to control as the Tom Bo hard and soft, but this is a really nice one as well, and I really like the feel of it. It is a little bit harder to control the fix in the Thins with this one. Like I said then with the Tom bow. So I still lean towards, you know, wanting you to get those but This is also a great one for beginners. If you already have something like that, this was a ah rush pan that someone had recommended in its zebra, and I decided to try. It's very similar to this pen. Tell touch food touch. So it's very similar to that. Again, it's, um, it's kind of that medium range. It's not quite as easy to control, but it's It's a lot easier this than some of these other thicker brushes, so I really do like thes two puns. The pen tell food touch, and this is the zebra brush pen. These are great pens as well. It's a step up. I, I really think. Then, um, Tom bows the Tomba's air. Still, I think, easier to control for beginner. But I still recommend those two. And I also purchased this just to see what it was like. I love, love, love the microns if you've taken my other classes. My focal, a graffiti class, my class on easy coloring book designed my block lettering class. All of those classes I talk about the microns because the microns are my favorite for, um, for creating just regular fine tip lines. So when you're not needing the brush effect. You know, the microns are my favorite, but the same company creates a brush pun. So I thought I would try their brush pen and see what what I liked personally so far, with my experience with that, I haven't really loved it. It's, um it is. It is, um, gives it a little bit thicker line. You know, you can see it's like the next step up. It's definitely just a different skill again. Has it just a different tip than what I'm used to, And so it makes it a little bit harder. And like I said in the beginning, each pen, each tool is going to take a different skill set. And so the more things you're trying to master, the harder it's gonna be and the longer it's gonna take. So although I can feel really proficient with my lettering, see, this is not a good Oh, and it's just because it's a different pen, and so every pan, every every tool is different. So I'm not a huge fan of this, but I just wanted toe again, like show you everything that I've purchased and what I like and what I don't like about them. So you'll see a lot about the Sharpie rush friends. Now these are so fun. I mean, they really are there. Tip is different than a lot of other brush pens is kind of like a civilian show you. It's almost like a cone or something, I don't know. And they're really smooth, like toe to write with. Now, this is getting more into the large pens. So I'd say these air, this small pens, these air getting into medium, small medium. Now we're getting into a large. So when I say large, it's just the stroke it's going to create. Let me show you again the Tom Bo, Um, this is the soft next to this, so see how much smaller of a stroke this is going to create. And so learning when you're first learning, you're going to be creating much smaller pieces. It's going to be the words are going to be smaller. They're not gonna fill up a huge piece of paper, but it's gonna be a lot easier to learn cause the's are easier to control. All right, I know I keep saying that, but I just wanna make sure that you understand. So with the sharpies, I don't know if you can see on this piece of paper. This is just a index card. It kind of bleeds around the edges. And the only paper I've really found that thes don't bleed as much. And sometimes they still will Is the marker paper, cancer marker paper. And again, I'll show you that in the next video. So you know these air Really fun. I have a bunch of different colors. I bought a pack on the Amazon just to try out. So I have, You know, it comes with a bunch of different colors, which that's really fun. I love that. You know, you can try and and have all the different colors. Just know if you purchase these, I really recommend purchasing the marker paper like that's going to really be the main paper that's gonna work with. I've tried using this on like, watercolor backgrounds I've created, and it doesn't work because it bleeds and I've tried it on card stock. I've tried it on me Mixed media paper and it just these pens just 10 doubly. That's the way sharpies are, you know, And there they tend a bleed through your paper as well. So they're very markets. So that's the Sharpie, and you'll see me using it just because I purchased these markers and until they run out of ink, you'll see me using these on INSTAGRAM and other places. But I don't necessarily recommend them now if you get them. Like I said, just know that they do bleed a little bit and that you'll need to invest in marker paper. All right, I'm gonna show you the Crayola next and Crayola. I plan on doing another class on Crayola graffiti. They call it Crayola Graffiti, where it's like you're you're doing calligraphy with Crayolas because you can do it with the broad tip. You know, although this is not a rush pun, you know, this is this is the broad tip marker. You can still get the Thins analytics if you practice. And if you really push hard on the Crayola markers, so right here. You know, I've practiced this and I have practiced with the Crayolas. There's something that I like and you can get a big set like I got a big set of 40 different colors at Michael's recently they were on sale for like 10 bucks, you know, so you can get these pretty cheap and there's you could do a lot of fun things with, um but they do take a different skill set, and it it's not something I would recommend for this class. But just keep this in mind. If you have Creole is around, I do plan on doing another class where I'll teach you how to do the the modern calligraphy . And the hand lettering with the Creole is alright. So back to the Tommo dual tipped brush pen. This is a great, great pen, and this is again. It's going to be for the larger letters, and so you can see you get a lot bigger, thicker lines than you do with their hard and soft pens. And yet it's It is a lot harder to control this tip. I mean, watching me, you may say, Oh, shell, you make it look easy, but it is not easy in the beginning, especially. And, um, so anyways, I love these pens. They are a little bit more expensive, but they're really great. We know once you get your your feel for how how the thins in the fix work. You get your pressure, you get, you know, feel for your letters. I love this, Pim, and you do have to be careful just in f y I with the tip. This tip, my very first black, I really afraid the tip these tips air sensitive. And so with the Tom Bo dual pressure brush pens. I do recommend you use the marker paper. It's softer and easier on the tips and will make your markers last longer. And so I didn't I I love watercolor, so it's watercolor backgrounds. So I did a lot of lettering on watercolor paper in the beginning, and it ruined the tip of my black pen, and it just started fraying. And, um, it didn't last is long because of that. I didn't know that when I was starting out. So you're learning that from me and from my mistakes. If you do invest in these, invest in Mark the cancer marker paper because or the Rhodia marker pad paper, because it will make your pens last longer and then this is just fine. It has just the regular tip. It's just a hard tip that you can use, like for block lettering and such. And I do recommend taking my block lettering class. I teach this that style there, or even just the regular block lettering. I teach that in there, and it's really fun to vary your layouts with regular letters, printed letters with script letters. And so this is a really good way to do that if you have the dual fresh duel like I keep getting stuck with that, um, the dual tipped brush pens from Tom Bo. All right, so before we go on, I just wanted to show you that you can do brush lettering with actual brushes, and this is actually come to be my favorite way to do the brush lettering. However, it is not recommended for beginners. I did it the hard way like this. This is probably one of the hardest skills to learn, and yet it's one of my favorite. And so I did it. But one of the things I love is I love using ink. You can just get this speed Balling gets really inexpensive on Amazon, and this is ah, pen. Tell a quash water pem, and you can just fill it with ink I used a little eye dropper and it can get messy. Just f y I do it over a sink. So you're not messing everything up. But you can then have the ink in there and use it this way. Now, I still haven't found the best way to have the ink just come out really, really strong, like you compress on it and it will bring it, um, the ink down a little bit more. But I'm still, um, you know, it's it's not there we go. See, It's like a lot Blackmore black. Now you kind of have to pushed the ink down a little bit, But to get that consistent, Inc look, I found it's still just a little bit harder. And this tip, Although this is a small this is the small. It still is a little bit bigger than what I want for a brush tip, but I do like using this at times, but I'm not. To be honest, I'm not using it as much anymore because I'm just using my regular brushes. And so then with the regular brushes, what I've done is I've taken some of the ink, and I put it into a little container, and that way I just have it right there. And I can just dip my pen in their thes air rushes that I got from Michael's. Now the advice that I've I was gone was get the best that you can afford these air professional quality from Michael's by it. They're probably not the best brushes you can get, but they're pretty good. And so I got these. You know, Michael's offers, like 50% off coupon. So I got a pretty good deal on both of these, and I start off with around to the bigger the brush that tends to be a little bit easier to control. And, um, this is the one I started out with and I really like. And then I I am now working on getting proficient with around one. So, like I said, every tool, even though this is the same, it's a brush. It's still going to take a different skill. Now. The thing with the Round one brush is it runs out of ink a lot easier, so there's not as much. There's not as many fibers. It's a thinner. It's a thinner brush. You know, the lower the number, the thinner the brush and so it doesn't hold as much ink, so you have to dip a little bit more often. And, yeah, it offers a lot thinner line so I could get a lot thinner line, you know, with this round one than I can with around two. And so I'm still working at becoming proficient with around one, and I have found it harder than the Round two. And I heard one person say that it's kind of like when you're learning to write when you're in kindergarten and you have those bigger crayons and they give you more control and then you go down to the smaller, smaller, smaller. They say it's even that same way with your brushes. Let me just get the ink out of here so doesn't dry in there. But I love, love, love of love, my brushes with think I really I love it, and it's personally my favorite, either with ink or watercolor, but it is very difficult of a skill to learn, So I do not recommend this for beginners, even though that's kind of how I started. Um, again, I'm just I'm telling you, you know you can do what you want, but I'm just telling you what I've learned. And so that's that. And then you can also use just the pen Tele Quash pen. You can use this just with regular watercolors and do watercolor lettering, although again, I just prefer my regular brushes now to use with the watercolor lettering. I'm not really using this brush as much. I use this more for travel, So this is a great brush to take when you want to travel and do watercolors. So So, you know, as I've gotten better. And as I've really enjoyed the watercolor lettering and all of that, I, um, I have now gotten into really just using my brushes. But this is a great, affordable brush. To start with has a nice find tip. This is the small tub I am. When I was first getting started off with water colors, I got the cheaper watercolors. So these are the pen. Tell artsy zehren tubes, so you'll need some sort of palette to put him in. And then the one that I really love and the one I recommend for beginners is this palette from Michael's. It's It's part of their everyday value program. So you can get this for $5. And what I like about it is everything's already out ready for me. I don't just squeeze anything out. Like when you're a beginner, you just don't know what you know. I didn't I didn't know what I was doing. And so and plus, you don't have to worry about, like trying to mix a bunch of colors to get the color you want. It comes with so many different colors, and I love that. So you can see some of my favorites are, you know, the ones that are used the most. The ones that are, um, have been used the most, But I'm not using this one as much now that I've been able to invest. But I started with this set was only $5 I started with this pen Tele quash Pan because it helped me to know Am I even gonna like watercolor to invest in more? So this is not a watercolor class, but it is about brush lettering. So I would just want to dimension about watercolor and just let me show you real quick. You can just press on the pento quash pen. Put some drops of water in there. I also use a, you know, water dropper to put water in there. Or you can use a little spritzer. This is just a little spray bottle. Any spray bottle will work, and then you just, you know, move it around until you get kind of a good consistency with the pain. And then with that, you can letter using this brush and watercolor. The other thing I love about watercolor is like their unending colors available. And, you know, you can do so many things and and there's just so many different options. But you do need watercolor paper. If you're going to use watercolor. I have lettered some on card stock and even on these index cards, you can see if if you're not using a ton of water, it will work. Okay, with just for the lettering, I wouldn't do watercolor backgrounds or anything on this paper, but I just wanted to mention the option of water color because it is part of rush lettering . And once you have the color on your tip, you just squeeze the barrel little bit. Rub this around on an Afghan until you don't see any color coming out anymore. This I've used this napkin a lot. And, umm on paper towel, This is a paper toe and you can see now it's free of the paint. So I've gotten the paint out of it, and it will be fine to store it now without the, you know, doesn't have the paint in there. But isn't this fun? It's like, um, napkin art or paper towel art. All right, so we've covered Ah, lot. And the reason I want to cover all of this was I just I wish someone would have told me these things In the beginning, I wish somebody would have sat down and told me exactly what I just told you. And yet I just had to kind of wade through it and learn it the hard way. So I wanted you to be able to get started on the right foot. If you're just starting out, I do recommend these Tom Bo Harden soft. They're going to be the easiest to control in the beginning, and I think you'll be able to really get success faster, which will be more rewarding for you and I really think it will help you to not give up. However, I do really love these pen. Tell food touch and are this pen Tell food touch and, um, the Seabrook. And then as you get better, I love the Tom Bo dual brush or dual tipped brush pens. And I just love my good old brush and ink or watercolors. So I hope this helps you just get an understanding of the different tools that are out there. What to dio. Now, just choose one. Choose one medium that you're gonna use and let's get started with that. The next video. I'm gonna talk to you about the paper. So let's talk about the paper, and then we will move forward to helping you get started with brush lettering the best way . 3. The Paper to Use: Let's talk about paper now for the pens that I recommend for this class, the tumble harden soft. They come in a pack, so you get both of them. I think you can use any any paper. Now if you are using something like the Sharpie or grab it here, that Tom bow dual tip brush pens. I do recommend specifically marker paper for this. The marker paper will help you to not fray The tip The brush tip of this Tom BOPE m and it will last longer. And it seems like the marker paper is the best for the Sharpie, so doesn't bleed as much. But for the sake of this class and because you're just getting started a beginner, I recommend starting with these pens. They're easier to control their their small pens. So they're gonna make a smaller font. It's gonna make smaller words, but it's gonna be easier control, and I really believe you're gonna have better success. So for those funds, I really think you can use any paper just gonna go through a few things that you might have around hand at home. I just bought this at Walmart and I was first getting started. I loved the affirmation. Yes, you can. Yes, you can do art. And I have a class here on skill share that is all about allow yourself the freedom to explore your creative side. So if you haven't taken that class yet, take it. It has five different affirmations that you create and it will help you just overcome some mind blocks. But this paper, you can use this for lettering. What I recommend is just if you use this gluing two of the pages together, so it makes it thicker so that it doesn't bleed through. So let me just show you what it would look like in this paper. So does seem to bleed a little bit when you're using this kind of paper. But for practice, you know, you can use what you have around at home. But this is not what I would necessarily recommend. I don't know if you can tell it's blood a little bit around the edges there and plus has the lines and stuff. If you want to take pictures and display your lettering on instagram or on social media or use it for something else, you're not gonna want those lines on there. So another couple options. You can get these blank index cards at WalMart there just really inexpensive less than a dollar and thes these work. OK, actually, just to practice your letters and just for getting started again. It's still not the ideal paper, but one of the things is for me. I don't like feeling like I'm wasting expensive paper. And so when I'm practicing using something like this, it makes me feel more open to just practicing and throwing things away afterwards. If it doesn't work out just because it's really inexpensive paper in it, it's already cut in easy, small sizes that you know, like if you're if you're in my lettering challenge hope filled lettering. You know you can create you the word or phrase that I've given you for each day on something like this, and then you can post it on Instagram. You can find out more about that challenge at Shelley hits dot com board slash hope. The link is in your cost. Resource is there's tons of lettering challenges, so if you're doing a lettering, challenge these air great just to write out your letter and are your word, and you don't feel like you're wasting a bunch of paper. The next thing I'm gonna show you his card stock. So again, this was just an expensive card stock that I got at Wal Mart. And again, let me show you. I'm showing you with the hard brush chip with the Tom bow. I think this is actually a little smoother. Seems a little bit better than even the card stock. So in a way, I'm kind of showing you from my lowest recommendation to my highest recommendation. But, you know, I I think you getting started and just learning you can you can use any paper you have. But you know this you can kind of see it turned out pretty good, wasn't too didn't bleed too much. And so this card stocks good. You can also cut this card stock down if you want a smaller piece of paper. So let me saved this one for last. So this is the mixed media paper. I've shown this in a couple of my other classes. If you've taken them with me and this mixed media paper is great, um, it has let me just grab. I've cut this piece down. Let me just show you what it looks like on here. This is Ah, a paper paper. You can find it. Any of your local art stores can find it on Amazon. I think you can even find it at Walmart and it turns out pretty good. So that's the mixed media and how that looks. And it's a great paper to work with. It's not good for watercolor. So if you are doing watercolor, you will specifically need watercolor paper. I recommend that Kansan watercolor paper. I like this size the 12 by 18 because I can cut each of these sheets down into smaller four by six cards. And then I can use those for what I do on social media. And I can also give these away. This is a great size to frame, so I cut this bigger piece of paper the 12 by 18 into six. By for and you know it, it ends up producing a lot of paper for ah, really inexpensive cost. And then these, like I said, are great. They're great for postcard size. They're great for cards. They're great to gift to people, and then people can frame the size if you really like it. And so that's something that I've really gotten into the habit of doing, and I tend to cut my paper about once a week, so I always have new paper to use. Now, the best paper, if you're using any kind of markers or brush pens, is the marker paper. This is the Kansan marker paper. This is the best one like I would recommend using. Have an extra piece of paper here. I'll just bring it out if you If you can afford to purchase paper, you know I'd recommend purchasing this now. This is very flimsy, so it's not gonna be something that you'll typically want a frame. Now. You could probably put it on something like card stock and, you know, frame it around and then you know you could frame something like that. But it's really good for taking pictures for social media for scanning. And it's really easy on your tips because it's really smooth paper and it's made specifically for markers. And so let me just show you what it looks like on here. So I really resisted for a while getting the marker paper because I thought I already have all this other paper. Why do I need to buy marker paper? But once I realized that the other paper was causing my Tom Bo dual tipped brush pens to too afraid, I decided to invest in it because, you know, the Tom Bo pens are not cheap. And then this is the paper I recommend for for these do a pressure rushed tips. I don't recommend starting with these markers, but if you are using these, definitely. I definitely recommend saving up and investing in the marker paper, but you can see the difference. So you have the small tip pens which are on the left. That was the hard Tomba heart. And then you have this dual dueled tip brush em and you can see the difference they're gonna They're gonna produce a much different size results. I personally like the bigger size that this produces or a regular brush produces. But there are times that I really want something smaller, and it just looks more I don't know, just kind of sophisticated. And also, like I said in the beginning, I know I keep saying this, but it's easier to control these smaller pens, and you're I think you're gonna have much better success. All right, so that's, um, the paper. Let me just tell you one more thing. I took me a lot of investing. Tracing paper. I don't know why I got this. Ah, hobby lobby. It was on sale, so I just ended up getting this tracing paper. You can use any tracing paper. Um, but basically, with tracing paper, you can take my lettering, practice sheets, and you can just put the practice sheets underneath there, and you can. Then you can then remove the subsequent see it and then you can just trace over it. What this does is it helps you in the beginning, learn how to form the letters. It helps you be able to to get muscle memory with your hand. It helps you to just learn a style. And I have some different examples of different script fonts, and you can Then you install those funds on your computer. You can type out whatever you want to whatever you want to a letter. Let's say you're doing my hope filled buttering challenge. And you want a letter? The phrase for that day you could type that out, print it out, and then you just trace it and then you have that beautiful look And so that is something that is very helpful. I did purchase practice sheets in the beginning, and I would just go over and over and over and over. At that time, I had just gotten my iPad pro with my apple pencil, and so I purchased ones that I could use on my iPad, so I didn't waste paper practicing. But I really think, you know, this is so inexpensive, you know? I mean, my iPad was so expensive, it was a business expense. But, you know, it's just a couple dollars on sale, and you just, you know, and invest in some tracing paper, and then you're going to be able to get the feel of the letters, develop the muscle memory. It's muscle memory with your your hands, and so this is definitely something I recommend getting, if you can afford it just at your local art store on Amazon or whatever, just by a pack of tracing paper, along with whatever other paper you're using. So I hope you found that very helpful. Now we're going to get into the next session where I'm going to really give you the foundation so you can start with success with brush lettering. So let's go ahead and learn the basic strokes. 4. Supplies Update: in this video. I wanted to do a quick supplies update. I've continued to explore new markers and paper, and I want to share a few new recommendations I have. So instead of buying like the cans and marker paper or the rodeo dot paper, that's fairly expensive. I found this premium choice laser jet paper and it comes. It's from H P. It comes in this big pack, and it is £32 and there's 500 sheets. So you get a lot more for your money mi gravity out of here to show you. So this is the sheets. They're super white and the really smooth. So these air good for your tips of your markers, they won't fray your tips. You can actually even use thes for some water color lettering. This isn't intended for watercolor. Obviously, in a watercolor paper is normally 100 £40. This is only 32 but if you're just doing some light watercolor lettering, you could do that on here as well. And then I wanted to show you a couple new markers that I like. So these are the art line sticks, and these are not intended to necessarily be for brush lettering. They're called brush markers, but I really like thes. And if you press hard, you can get a nice ombre effect. So let me just show you here. It's gonna make that noise. But you have to press really hard, and you can get a little bit of that ombre effect. You can see it's a little bit darker, miss, if I can bring this closer a little bit darker at the top lighter at the bottom. So I really like these markers. Their tips are a little bit easier to control than the Tom bows. I like the fact that they come in so many colors. Let me just show you here. So you know, there's a variety of colors. There's nice and bright colors, and I really like that about these markers. So these air fun they're meant to interlock. Honestly, I don't use that. I don't use that feature, but you know you can lock them together and make all sorts of different fun things with, um But I wanted to show you those markers and then the other markers I'm currently in love with are these current talkie metallic markers. Oh, my goodness. These are so fun. I love them. I mean, I love everything metallic. Anyways, now these probably won't scan as well. So if you're doing work that is primarily to scan these may not be the best for you, but for just regular lettering. Oh, my goodness. I love these. And the fixing the fence are fairly easy to get with these markers. So I'm gonna show you with the gold because I'm a gold girl. I love gold. And what I found is thes tips are pretty easy to control. And so I you can get the fix intense. But I really what I really like is there just fun there, You know, I don't if you can see the glimmer in this or not But these air really fun. You're going to get some new markers. Thes are ones that I'm currently loving. I hope you enjoy this. Supplies update 5. Basic Strokes: in this video, we're going to talk about a foundation that's going to help you get started with brush lettering The best way. This was something to be honest. I skipped. I just jumped right into learning the words and writing outwards, because that's what we want to do, right. We want to write words. We want to create beautiful things. And yet, if you don't practice and get good at the basic strokes, you are going to really struggle. And so with calligraphy, and I go end up on this in my faux calligraphy class, which you can take here on school share. There's some basic things that you know that you'll need to know. So I have created these practice shoots for you there in your class. Resource is area. Just click on your project. They'll be on the right hand side to download. If you don't see that section, you'll just need to check on a browser on a mobile device or on your computer. But basically, with these practice strokes, there's four different lines. You have the top line here, the dotted line, the big bold in line and then the most bottom line and the bold line is your baseline. That's where you're going to have all your letters. Sit. Your dotted line is the X height. The X height is basically the height of a lower case X. This top line is you're a center line. It's where any of the the Ascender is like an H when it when I do the loop up, that's where it's gonna stop. Then you have your D centerline. That's where anything that comes down below, like a Y or an f. You know those air going to descend down to that line, and basically you want consistency. So that's why practicing with lines like this, it can help you really get consistent. The other thing you want is you want it to stay the same angle. Traditional calligraphy is at a 55 degree angle, but modern calligraphy, hand lettering, brush lettering. It could be whatever angle you want. I tend to keep my more straight up and down or a little bit to an angle. You can choose whatever you want, just want to let you know. That's kind of how it works, and then the very basics of calligraphy and brush lettering is going to be your thick in your thin strokes. So that is going to be the strokes that we will practice first. You'll start on your paper and just come up thin and then you'll come down thick. You can see I aren't Marty off on my angle a little bit. But, um, this kind of gives you a chance to practice, come up thin, and then you come down thick. So this is coming up, and then this is coming down. This is your upstroke, and this is your down stroke. And so you want to practice getting that, then in your thick what I recommend is holding your pen around a 45 degree angle. This was also something I didn't learn at first. And when you're doing these strokes, hold it out of 45 degree angle and then press down for the down stroke. You're gonna go real light on the upstroke, and then you're going to go down hard, more, more pressure on the down stroke. So the you know the ins and outs of of brush lettering. It's all about the pressure, and you'll learn that with time your hand will develop the muscle memory but what I like to do and you have to just find what's gonna work best for you. But I let you know. And what I've heard from a lot of other hand letters and calligraphers is hold it at the 45 degree angle press, you know, light up and hard down now for you lefties out there. I'm not a lefty. There are different websites, and resource is out there that people, you know, they're very proficient at this, even being left handed. But it will just feel a little bit different and will be just a little different for you if you're left handed. So that's the first basic stroke is just the upstroke on the down stroke and you want to practice the thick or the thin and the thick. So you know, this is the thin and this is the thick. So you want to be practicing that says you're upstroke and this is your down stroke. So I've provided this once. I once I finish this in this lesson, I'm going to make it. I'm gonna scan it and make it a pdf for you. And, like I was showing you with the tracing paper. You could just put the tracing paper over this and then, you know you can do it that way. If you want to do it that way and just practice there, um, mine are not perfect. I'm not saying that that you want to try to get just like mine. I've also found you can use just regular copy paper, and I don't know if you can tell, but, um, if you're have pretty good lighting, you can also just trace through regular copy paper. And that way you just have to print off the practice sheets one time, and you can coffee it either way. So it's kind of how that works. So let's move on to the next stroke. It's the overturn. So with the overturn, it's going to start down here and it's gonna go light up, and then you're gonna have more pressure down. So light up more pressure down and again, you're holding your pen at the 45 degree angle. I'm using the hard, and what you're going to do is you're gonna just go light up, you're going to start putting some pressure and then you're gonna put the most pressure. So there's that little transition point and that transition point is the hardest one to get used to. I will. I will not joke with you. That's gonna be the hardest part for you is you know you're coming up and then you start to transition right here at the top because that transition and then you're gonna go hard, more pressure down the next is Thea under turn. So this is very similar. Just the opposite, and you're gonna put a lot of pressure then in transition, and you're gonna do light up a lot of pressure, transition and light up. Once you get used to these strokes, this is something good to just do toe warm up when you're wanting to do your brush lettering. It's just a really good warm up. And I have pages and pages in my practice notebooks just filled with basic strokes. And it was, to be honest, it was when I started practicing these basic strokes on a regular basis, developing that muscle memory in my hand that I really I could see a dramatic difference even after I had been practicing for months and months. So this really does. I know it seems really simple, and you're like, Shelly, just want to get into the words Let's just get into it. But this really does make a difference. The next one is a compound curve, and this one is going to combine the over turn with the under turn. It's hard when I'm talking and trying to do this at the same time. All right, so basically, I kind of messed up right there you're doing, um, light up. Then you have the transition hard down, light up, hard down, and you can pick up your pen, like if you wanna just pick it up, you can pick it up. You don't have to. You don't have to just go at this the whole time. And actually with brush lettering, that is a big thing. That you'll learn is that it's picking up your pen. It's not typical curse. If if you learned cursive in school like I did, you learned it was a fluid motion. That's not the way it is with brush lettering or modern calligraphy. All right, so the next one is probably the hardest. It's the oval, and I still have a hard time with it at times because it's just the turning. My paper was moving its good toe. Have your papers still, you're going to start kind of over here at the side with a light pressure than you're a start transitioning to more pressure and then light pressure light, more light. So you're gonna start with light pressure, go with more pressure and light pressure. So this was a tough one. It's, you know, it's the hardest one and will take a lot of practice. The next one is the A sending loop. And so what you're gonna do, you're gonna come up with light pressure, come down with hard pressure, and this is like what you use when you you do a B when you do a an H and basically and you know what? I'm going to show you in an upcoming video. Is that these strokes? Then make up your letters. The next one is the descending loop so you can see the A sending loop went up to the top line that a center line, the descending loop is gonna be hard pressure down to that descending line and then light pressure up. So this is it looks just like a J. Or it could be, ah, why you know the part of a Why so hard pressure down light pressure up. The other thing with brush lettering is to be patient and to go slow. It's something I have to tell myself all the time. Is Shelly go slow. The slower you go, the better results you're going to get. You have to slow down. If you think you're going slow, slow down even just a little bit more and you'll get a better outcome cause you'll be able to control the fix and the thins. Much better the transitions. You'll be able to really prepare for those transitions much better, and you'll really have a lot more success. I believe if you go slow so remember to go slow. Just gonna go ahead and put another one just a make it kind of even here. My eye caught that and basically you have. You have this worksheet in your project area, but you also have blank work sheets with lines. It is really helpful, like I said, to work with the lines so you can get used to the consistencies of heights and so forth. But you can also just use your regular paper and do it that way. The key is to practice, practice, practice, practice. So this is 12345677 basic strokes that you can practice every day as you're learning brush lettering and just warm up, Do a few toe warm up, get your hand going, and I really, I really believe because this is what happened to me when I started focusing on basic strokes and really learning how to train my hand in these transitions and the six and the things That's really when things started to get better for me. And I had a, um, a turn for the better with my hand lettering. So take your time, do these strokes, and I really think you're going to see it help. 6. Brush Lettering Tips: So now I'm going to go through some basic brush lettering tips, so the 1st 1 is to start with a pen that is easy to control. Like I already mentioned, I recommend the Tom Bo hard and soft. They come in a pack together so you can get both of them. The second thing I recommend is to start with one main pen. I already mentioned how I just jumped in and I tried all sorts of things. And you're It's actually a different skill to work with a pen like this than it is to work with a brush or to work with the dump. Tom Bo dual tip Russia's. So you start with one main pen so that you can really get good at that, Really get your skills good at that, and then you'll have success faster. The next tip is to go slow, so I've already mentioned this, but I cannot overemphasize if you I think you're going, so you probably already need to go slower. You want to think of lettering as not as handwriting. It's not handwriting. This is a skill that can be learned, Believe me. You know, I thought I didn't have an artistic bone in my body in June of 2016 and now I'm teaching art classes. I mean, it's something. It's a skill that can be learned with practice. So take, you know, encouragement from that, and you want to think of lettering more as illustration or drawing. So you really want to be deliberate and slow with each stroke, and the slower that you go, the better you're going to be able to control the pressure. The fourth thing is to hold your pen out of 45 degree anger angle. Now, I'm just printing with this pen right now, but when you're lettering, you want to hold it at an angle. So if you're up and down, it's gonna be a lot harder to get the pressure from that tip with the down strokes or to get the transitions right. And so you really need tohave it at an angle. We show you on another piece of paper here. When I have this at an angle, you know I can really press down and get the fix. Get the thins when I'm upright. You know, it's just it doesn't it doesn't work as well or it like it bends my tip. Weird. But when you're at the angle, it really lets you press and get that that thicker down stroke. So make sure you're at a 45 degree angle and then you want to have the pressure. So it's all about the pressure. It's all about the pressure that you're putting your controlling that through through what you're you're how you're pushing on your pen. So if you're not getting thinking off strokes down strokes, you need to push a little harder. You're not going to run the pen if you're at that 45 degree and go like already mentioned, the tip is meant to be flexible. You know it'll it'll flex. And that's what gives you those beautiful fix and thins. Is it flexes. So if you're not getting enough thick, you're probably not giving enough pressure, and then the pressure you you really, you know, are gonna learn to alter the pressure transition, the pressure from that thick to the thin so it really looks like a smooth transition. The next thing is, you want to learn toe lift your pen, so this is not you're a typical curse stuff that you learned if you learned cursive in school, so and curse of you would just do one fluid motion like that in brush lettering. You left your patents. So you do this loop there, which is the A sending loop. Then you dio overturn. You left your pen, Then you do another over under under turn, and then you left your pence. So you're lifting your pen. You're not just doing a smooth, fluid motion. You lift lift lift. After every stroke, you lift your pen, lift your pen, lift your pen. So that's something you really have to get used to is, you know, being, um especially if you were taught her stuff in school is lifting your pen and then, you know, just learning the basic strokes and practicing them is key. So we already talked about the basics tropes in the last video. But now I want to talk to you a little bit about why that's so important and how you're going to use them to join letters together. So let's talk about the letter A. The letter A is going to be the oval, and then it's going to be the under turn. So you're gonna have the oval, lift your pen and then you're gonna have an under turn. Lift your pen so you can see how, knowing these basic strokes and getting good and proficient at these basic strokes it's going to help you with your letters. Let's do another one. Let's do D So D again is an oval and then it's a under turn was just a little longer under term. Let's do an M and M is just the down stroke there. You're gonna have an overturn and another overturn. So see how those all join, and it just depends on your style. You know, I'm showing you in this style I'm using. Right now, everyone styles a little bit different. That's why I've provided you a pdf with different script fonts that you can use. I also have a link to additional practice sheets that you can purchase if you want, But, you know, it's just basically basic strokes forming your letters. And so in the next video, what I'm going to do is I'm gonna actually take you through each of the letters in the lower case, and I'm going to show you the anatomy of each of those letters how they're formed. And that's really gonna help you get started with writing your letters and writing your words. 7. Anatomy of Each Letter: all right. This is probably what you've been waiting for. Let's get into the letter, Shelly. And it is important, but I want to show you I want to show you and teach you some of the basics so you could really get started on a better foot than I did. But let's get started with We're gonna go through the lower case in this video. So the a we already talked about that is an oval and an under term. So that is the A the B. And again, I'm sure you my style, you know, you you may, um, you will develop your own style over time. Or you may like other styles better, But I'm just showing you my style. It's the A sender loop. It's a partial oval. And then it's the the loop over there. So if you do the a center, Lou and that is how you do the b, Okay, so the sea pretty much just a partial oval. There's nothing to break down on the sea. The D is an oval and on under turn. So what the d gonna come like this and then down the e is kind of like an oval, but it has the little part in it here. The ease really tricky, In my opinion. It's hard to get that transition, and it's basically just up and then down, and we'll take a lot of practice. The IWILL just like the O the f is just all in one stroke. So you come up with E a center loop and then you come down. This really isn't a basic stroke. It's just kind of like the D sender loop. But you stay. You stay more pressure on the down stroke and on the upstroke you get lighter. G is an oval and a D sender loop. So that's your G. And in this class, I'm just teaching you the lower case. It's what I started with and again, just like using one pen and getting really used to it. I really recommend starting with lower case and getting really used to it, practicing it before you add in upper case. Okay, let's do age. It's the a center loop that is have like an overturn there. The age comes up, around and down like that. Okay, let's do the I The I is pretty easy eyes and tease. I like that. Every he see it's pretty much just a down stroke, and then you just come light on the transition stroke there. Jay is basically just a D sender loop with the DOT so it's pretty easy. You should already be familiar because of your basic strokes. You are practicing your basic strokes, right? Okay, the A sender, Luke. And then I like to do this version of the K. There's different ways to do que you find your style. And then l is just basically like in a sender loop there. And then I you know, I just come around and then this is his a lighter, a pair of the m We already kind of talked about it. It's in three spots, three strokes and again you're lifting up your pen in between, and I like to make them different heights. So I like to make the kind of have the different heights. It just makes it of interest. The end is very similar to the M accepted just has the one overturn. Theo is basic, a basic stroke, and this can take a lot of practice p of your down stroke and then you have a Noval and I like to add the little loop. So you're just gonna come down around like that? Que is an oval, and it's kind of like a d sender, but it's the opposite way in the centre loop. You're gonna come around, you're gonna come down and around. Are is a fun one for me. So you're gonna have that little loop, and then you're gonna have, um, your under turned there and typically this little loop part here on the are should be a little bit more pressure. You're gonna go up, gonna come down and then down you do a lot of fun things with ours. And technically, you should lift your pen right there they are s you're gonna have, like, one of those up strokes, and then you're gonna come down and around, so this isn't really a basic stroke. But once you learn your basic strokes, it'll make it much easier up, down and around. I love the tea. The tea is so easy. It's one of the easiest ones you're just gonna do. You're under turn, and then you have the cross for if you ever feel like you're needing help just do some teas and that will help you feel like you're doing better. The U is a under turn and then another under a turn. The V. I like to do a V where you have the down stroke and you have the up and a loop. That's the way I like to do it again. There's lots of different ways to do these. That's why I like to do it. W down, up, down and up Eggs, your down stroke. Then you have your upstroke. I also like to add a little bit of curve to it with this one. So this first this first would have just a little bit of of a curve to it. You can do it either way. Let's go ahead. Yeah, I guess I can fit. Why? In here? Why? And I must up there a little bit. Why is the under stroke and then the D center loop and then see, this is the way I do my Z again. There's different ways to do it. So there you go. You have all of the letters broken down for you in just the directions that they go and you know they're Basically most of them are made up of basic strokes, so I can't stress it enough. Make sure you're practicing your basic strokes every time your lettering just get out of paper. Uh, you know, practice paper and practice your basic strokes and then you're going to be able to create these letters. I'm also going to just talk to really quickly about joining letters. So let's say we want to do the word awake. We're gonna do the A and again you're picking up your pen in between each one and then with the W You're just gonna bring it toe where it's going to It's, You know, this down stroke kind of overlaps with that a little bit. So it looks like it connects the w, bring it out and then, you know, again, you bring the a toe where it, you know, it connects with that the k you're gonna common here again. You're just making sure each of these connects know these air, not the best sizes. Some of them are a little bit you can see these days, or this one's bigger than this one. So I'm not really doing this exactly correct. But you can see. I kind of messed that up just a little bit, so I can just add a little bit too connected. Now, let me do it without talking. I mean, when I talk, it makes it hard, so you can see this one's much better than that one. This one was all over the place. I was kind of telling you about it, but you just want to have the letters spaced out evenly. Here. You can see you know the spaces in here arm or even you wanna have them about the similar heights. And you want to make sure that when you do lift up your pen and you do your next letter that they kind of then connect it looks like they connect with each other, even though wasn't a fluid motion. So it just is gonna take practice and practice. Makes perfect, is what they say. But actually practice makes progress. That's what I like to say. It doesn't make it perfect, but it makes you know it gives you progress. And so keep practicing your basic strokes. Keep practicing how to form all your letters. And then once you do that, you can see how to connect. Um, in the next video, I'm gonna share with you a resource that you can use to begin to learn muscle memory on words and letters. 8. Fonts to Use: So what have provided for you in your download area? Under your project is different fonts and I've typed it out with the capital and lower case of each font. And what I like about the fonts is you know, these air free fonts that you can download that I found online and you can download these to your computer and then you can create. You can type out words. So if you have certain words that you want a letter and you like this style of the King Basil light, then what you can do is you can install this font on your computer and then you can type out the words you want, make em bigger or however big you want to print it out, and then you have something that you can trace for and concrete any words and it will help you really learn how to connect the letters. It will help you with muscle memory. And this is something that I just I just found very valuable. And I wonder share with you in this class in this particular one when I printed it off the linked and print off. But I have the download links in thes as well toe where you download the fonts. If you need help downloading fonts, I just recommend Googling it or go to going to YouTube and how to download and install a font on a PC, or how to download and install a font on a Mac. That's not what this class is about. This is just a resource. But see, this is a different type of script font. And so what I've done is I've just put these in a little page protector, and then you can take your your tracing paper. I am. You know, I've already done some things on here. You can take your tracing paper and then you can trace over these, and it just gives you a style that you can learn. So this is a different style that you can learn and that you can trace over Now. This is meant for big pens, this particular style, but you can still use it with the smaller pens. We show you my Sharpie. Here, you can see these air definitely bigger fonts for the bigger puns. But again, it still gives you the idea of how the letters air formed. How they're connected. And what I love about this is you can take, you know, if you're in a lettering challenge or if you want to a letter a certain phrase. Like I said, you can install this thought. You can type it out in word or whatever word processing software use. Then you can print out that exact word that you want to letter. Um, I really like this King Basil fund. It's the light version is free. And so this would be a great one for you, too, to practice with with the smaller pens. Looks like it is pride about medium size pen and gives you some ideas. Now everyone has their own style, and that's something I want to talk to you about is that you're going to eventually develop your own style. So this gives you muscle memory. It helps you to develop your skills with with combining letters and all of that. But eventually you're going to need to create your own style because this is a fun. This is someone's artistic interpretation, and so you don't want to be just like them. You wanna have your own style, and that's what I have done and this is currently my the style that I am using. And there's a link to practice sheets with this particular style in your cost. Resource is you can see I have the capitals in the lower cases and this is the style that that I I use right now. But, you know, I use different styles for different things, depending on what I'm doing, depending on you know, the feel of that particular piece. But the style I practice the most and I use the most is this one. And after, you know, just researching a lot and trying a lot of different styles. These are the types of letters that I like. I like the way they're formed. I like the way that it's done. And so you're that's what you're gonna do. You're going to take all these different fonts and thes styles that you see online, and then you're going to develop your own style. You know, maybe instead of the cave being like that, maybe, You know, I I like my cato have that little loop. Maybe you just do a straight K, you know, maybe instead of the PB and a straight downward line Maybe you do a loop and then another loop, Or maybe you do the loop and you just stop it there. Um, you know, there's so many different ways to do the different letters, and that's what's fun. You get to develop your own style, but as you're beginning, it's really important to have something to practice with. And so that's why I've added these these different fonts and practice sheets for you. You could just even download and just use these, you know, just to practice the capital and the lower case. Or like I said, you can install the font with a link that I provided there's or free fonts at. At the time of recording this, these air free funds always make sure you check the license. You know if you're gonna use them commercially, but then you can type out words and phrases, and you have something really practical that you can use to create beautiful letters. So I hope that this was helpful for you. You know you can download these resource is in the your project area, and I can't wait to see what you create 9. Letter Your Name: Now it's time for you to a letter. A phrase can choose your name. That would be kind of fun If you lettered your name, choose something and letter it and then take a picture of it and posted in the class area. I know some of you are probably shy about sharing, but you know what? It encourages all of us to know that we're in this together. So, actually, I'm gonna encourage you toe letter your name and just do it all lower case. Just gonna let her my name here. And so you can do several tries you might want to have out. The resource is you might want to trace. It's fine to trace if you want to do that. But I want you to create your name and just do it in all lower case letters and show us. Show us your final name and post it in the project area. I would love to see it 10. Next Steps: I've covered a lot in this class. This is the type of class I wish that had been available when I was starting brush lettering, and that's why I'm creating it. But I talked to you about the pens to use the paper. We went through the basic strokes and you know what those look like and how those can help you in your practicing. We went through brush lettering, tips and all the different tips that I really learned that have helped me to succeed. We went through every single letter, and I showed you in the lower case how they connect and you know how you create those letters. And then we talked about using fonts for practice and developing your own style. And, you know, I just really thank you for joining me in this class. This is a journey. This is not the end. This is just the beginning. Brush lettering is a skill that can be learned. You can continue to grow in it, and you'll just see some confidence happen as you go and you know you'll be able to develop things that you're really proud of. For instance, I just recently created this and this is something that I created into a lock screen. If you would like to download this for free, you can get it at Shelley hits dot com board slash hope. That's also where you find out about my hope filled lettering challenges. And you know, this was just something I was really proud of between, you know, just drawing and painting the the flower and then just the lettering. And it's not perfect, but it's not meant to be perfect. But I loved it, and, you know, you can start creating things that you love. You can start sharing them with people like I am doing now, and it can be a skill that's just fun. I find that it's so relaxing, and so I hope that you've enjoyed this. I hope you'll continue to practice. Let me know what you're going to do with this skill, how you're going to use it. You can use it on handmade cards. You can use it on place cards for for dinners, and you could just fold this in half and put people's names on it or fold it in half. This way, you can use it for quotes and use it for artwork. There's so many ways you can use it. I even use it when I'm coaching. Authors all sometimes use my my lettering on some of the worksheets I create. There's so many ways you can use it well, just when you post your project, let me know one of the ways you plan on using the lettering, even if it's just to relax, it is just to relax and unwind in the evening. If you enjoy this class, I would really appreciate you simply taking a moment to post your review here on skill share. There should be a pop up at the top of your screen that says, Would you recommend this class to other students? Simply click yes and post a sentence or two about what you learned, what you appreciated or what you've gained from this class, and it would mean the world to me. It also helps to reach more people with his training. And so I appreciate you taking a moment to do that, and I look forward to seeing you in the next class again. This is Shelly Hits Thank you for joining me in the brush lettering for beginners class. Make sure to get all the resource is in the class. Resource is area and I will see you next time.