Wednesday 10 July 2019

lettering with BITE


This week I've been attending an online Crafty Camp, a bit like US summer camps except this one is for adults! It's hosted by Dani Manning from PopFizzPaper - you can find her on YouTube and on Instagram and on Patreon - I'll add links at the bottom of the page.

A guest tutor called Brittany Luiz showed us how to do different types of blended lettering using watercolour markers. So as the crafty club I'm part of is celebrating Hallowe'en in July I thought of how to put my new skills into creating a scary image - lettering with BITE!


Between two parallel lines draw your chosen word - eek is a favourite of mine. Erase any unwanted lines. It also helps if you can use a soft eraser or putty eraser to take some of the graphite off the page. You're left with a faint pencil which can be fully erased after colouring.


The watercolour markers I had in my stash were Winsor & Newton in gamboge hue and cadmium red hue which suited this project. If you need help with how to write 'nice' lettering there are plenty of videos by Dani and Brittany that you can follow. I used Dani's style of faux lettering. Let the colour dry for a few minutes before erasing the faint pencil lines.


Here I applied what I learnt from Brittany's tutorial, tinting the top of the letters with red watercolour marker and blending that with the yellow. I found I needed to clean off my marker tip on a piece of spare paper.


Using an extra fine black Sharpie I added lines and dots of shading to the very top of each letter, added googly eyes along the body of the letters and monster teeth along the horizontal bars. And that's it - the letters could be fussy-cut out to add as a die cut onto a pocket letter or used as the inside of a Halloween card. 


I am still a student when it comes to lettering but I do like this type of shading - it feels very painterly which suits me as I'm a visual artist/crafter. Have a go...maybe try bluey-greens with mermaid accents or ice blues with snowflakes.

Dani Manning/PopFizzPaper:

Brittany Luiz:

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Copyright © 2016 by Roisin O'Hagan/bloowabbit


All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.






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