Greetings! I often get questions asking about the handlettering I incorporate in my planner pages so, I have put together this guide of my top 5 most used ones! Along with the video demo and the PDF reference below, I have some further notes to share in this blog post too!
If you are here just for the free PDF reference sheet, click here.
Below are some further helpful things to keep in mind:
- Practice words and phrases, not letters. If you are completely new to handlettering, definitely familiarize yourself by copying the letters of the font you are trying to learn. But past a few rounds, I recommend diving straight into writing words and phrases. This is because when you apply what you learn, you likely will be lettering things like "laundry" or "sleep late" in your planner, and not individual "a", "b", and "c" randomly throughout.
- Can't mess up something that wasn't supposed to be perfect. With a lot of my doodles and handlettering, I intentionally never aim to be perfect with my strokes. I definitely try to make things neat and make sense, but if there is a little blip somewhere, it's easily disguised by the fact that everything else is wonky to begin with! Think of it this way: if you draw a line with a ruler but accidentally make a bump in the middle, it's very obvious that you made an error. But if you free-hand your line and everything is somewhat straight but also somewhat wavy, a little bump in the middle won't be so noticeable.
- Everything is a variation of something. After learning the basic printed alphabet and script alphabet, everything else is essentially a modification of what you already know. Add thickness to the downstrokes, add serifs, stretch things out for a dainty look, change the slant, etc. So don't be intimidated with thinking that you need to learn dozens of fonts! Just mastering a few (or just two) basic fonts will get you a long way.
Good luck! You can do it :)
Comment
Thank you for this! I have loved handwriting practices for over 40 years now. Always looking to improve and vary.