Trust Your Soul

Trust Your Soul is something I thought about for the past 6 months. With a couple of free days this week I decided to letter the composition.







First step was to draw some quick sketches and use one for the drawing template.







Even though I had a drawing template nothing was set in stone. Changes were made as the lettering progressed. The goal was to create something less commercial, more personal and not repeat the letterforms.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Slow Down You Crazy Child

Slow Down You Crazy Child is a recent tattoo lettering project. I was so pleased to have received a photo from Vicki showing her inked wrist.



This project began with a series of quick little compositions to show what was possible.



As with all projects I began with a template sketch starting point. Adjustments were made for the lettering to read properly at a small size. Words and letters had to be reshaped, resized and altered to create the composition.



After the composition came together I embellished to the letters to provide Vicki with something unique to enjoy for a long time. I am amazed her tattoo artist was able to recreate all the details of my lettering at such a small size. What a pleasant surprise!Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem was a cool project and the lettering is now on apparel at Random Objects.

This Project was recently featured in InPrint showing all the concept sketches. When I letter in vector format I start with single weight strokes to develop structure of the letters including spacial relationships. This is no different than drawing with a pencil or marker on a sheet of tissue paper. A lot of trial and error happens in this stage.



Once the composition reads properly I will shape each letter with bezier curves to create the desired thicks and thins.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Annie Mulz Logo Script

The Annie Mulz logo script is a recent project. I had a lot of fun with this one all the way from the concepts to the finished lettering.



After review of the concepts this version was refined with a PITT brush marker and used as a template in Illustrator. I decided to alter the cap M shape slightly for better visual match with cap A.





The logo can be viewed at the website along with some very cool stuff.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The 2nd Charles Pearce Workshop

This past weekend was the 2nd Charles Pearce Roman Caps workshop. More brush practice and study of letterforms. The goal for the weekend was to create all the caps with a brush and trace over the the brushed letters with a marker to refine the letterforms and learn the proportions. A lot of cut and pasting was involved to fine tune the letters. Very similar to the layout process in the pre digital days when I was working in the ad arts studios. Charles mentioned that drawing was an important step to intimately learn the letterforms. I definitely agree.

The next assignment due for the 3rd workshop is to letter a Roman text composition based off the refined caps drawing. The composition will be transferred to canvas and lettered with a brush.



Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

My Flat Brush Holder

I finished the first Charles Pearce workshop assignment yesterday. I had no experience using a flat brush prior to the workshop with only one month to figure out how to hold and manipulate a flat brush to paint letters. The major obstacle I encountered was holding the brush while twisting and turning the bristles at a consistent height to the paper surface. With literally thousands of practice attempts with no success at flatbrush lettering I had to think of a solution for my hand to hold and paint with the brush.



A very simple design. However, it took 50 versions of this design to make it simple. It originally started with a chopstick attached to the brush with a rubber band and evolved into the current brush holder shown in the photos. With the device in my hand it is very easy to change the width of the brush stroke by rotating the barrel. Best of all this is very easty on the hand and wrist.



The letters in these examples are not perfect by any means but a significant step ahead of my early workshop attempts to letter with a flat brush. Prior to using the brush holder I was not able to paint a stroke with any control while twisting and turning the barrel. After lettering with the brush holder I began to understand the basics of the flat brush. Perhaps after time and more practice I will no longer need to use the brush holder. For the time being it is definitely something I want to continue lettering with when a flat brush is required.



Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Roman Caps Study with Charles Pearce

I'm taking a 3 month Roman Caps workshop with Charles Pearce organized by Karen Ness of the CCC. Charles is one of the most well know and respected calligraphers in the world. He is truly amazing. The first weekend of study took place March 26th at the Burnham Fire House. My objective of the course is to learn the structure of Roman Caps and how to use a flat brush. Prior to this workshop I never used a flat brush to create any lettering.

All participants of the workshop have an assignment to letter 3 lines of text with proper proportions and spacing. Definitely the most complex lettering project I have ever experienced. I am not working digitally to create the letters. The tools for this one are a pencil, gouache and a flat brush. The letters require a lot of brush manipulation.

This image courtesy of Karen is my critique with Charles. He was kind enough to explain how to improve my spacing and letter proportions of the first lettering draft. Fortunately there were no fires in Burnham at the time as I borrowed a fire dept. vehicle for the lettering critique.



Over the course of a month I have been at work on my assignment and have lost track of the hours put into it all. I am finally having some success with a flat brush but I've got a long way to go. My studo is now filled with countless sheets of practice letters. Best of all my schnoodle LittleDude is taking a keen interest in Roman Caps. Maybe someday I will teach him to use a flat brush and we can letter together.

I have one week to finish the assignment.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Albanese project

Albanese was a lettering project for a local client at the beginning of 2011. This was a project which required a lot of sketching in a quick time frame to develop a brandmark for a chocolate product.

I often tell people that that drawing skills are essential. When I start a project I do a lot of preliminary studies to learn the letterforms. I am not creating detailed drawings as all the precise draftsmanship happens while drawing in Adobe illustrator. I rarely spend more than a couple minutes per sketch. Basically a lot of quick investigation of what may work for readability.

This series of sketches was done with a PITT marker on sheets of 9" X 12" layout paper. I drew these studies while sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch. Only had a couple hours get some ideas together on paper for a quick presentation with the art director. After all the trial and error studies I picked versions which had some potential for further development, traced them while adding notes for the AD to read. After sacnning the layouts I e-mailed the files for presentation.



These are the images sent to the AD. After he reviewed everything we discussed which versions to develop in Illustrator.















This image shows the vector versions created from the sketches.



After sending the vector art files to the AD I created one more version that had nice flow and contrast. Something extra as another option for the AD.

Overall, this was a very successful project. The images show that drawing is an important part of the lettering process. Sketching is the way to find out in a very quick time frame what will and will not work. Concept sketching also allows the opportunity to show a client what is possible instead of guessing what finished art might be.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

HeadStrong

Headstrong is a project I worked on for an art director in Belgium. A good example to show the amount of preliminary sketching involved when creating a lettering piece from scratch.



Having done some 40+ sketches I let the client choose which version to proceed with. The version selected required additional development.



After setting up the initial character lines I decided to proceed with additional sketches. Initially there were too many irregular overlapping lines with no consistent baseline or X-height. I did some quick studies with a Condor pen and choose the version on the bottom to scan and use as a revised template in Illustrator.



With the new template image everything fell into place with weights, B/W contrast and visual clarity. Big difference from the initial attempt.



This was one of those rare projects in my lettering career in which a client loved the progress sketches including the final lettering, had full knowledge of pricing and payment responsibility but decided to not pay for any of the work I produced for unknown reasons. Regardless, this one is a very cool lettering piece to show which I believe will lead to something positive with more opportunities for interesting lettering projects in the future.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

A Long Night

This sample sums up what happens towards the end of every night in my lettering life. I have never found an easy method or solution to create a lettering treatment. Probably never will.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Beauty of Imperfection

There is something about mistakes and the beauty they create. This is another lettering piece done with a Condor fountain pen on rough texture paper.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

This One Is A Keeper

At this point in time I continue to practice gestural writing skills. When I have free time from commercial project this is what I focus on. For every 20 sheets of paper I practice with I get maybe 1 or 2 lettering compositions worth refining. This lettering example is one of them.



I wrote "This one is a keeper" a number of times trying to develop a good flow of letters. I scanned the inked lettering for template use and started with single lines which turned into outlines.



The shape and placement of the thicks and thins changed constantly while drawing in Illustrator. The final is quite different than the initial inked lettering. I just let the letterform shapes happen along the way in a natural manner.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Practice With A Condor Nib

I continue to practice my gestural lettering skills every day. I've got such a long way to go with this style. In the past several weeks I have tried a variety of nibs with very limited success. With a Speedball C4 nib I feel as if I am carving into stone and scratching the paper surface. I have better luck with Brause nibs as no surface scratches occur. Within the next week I plan to try some Tachikawa C and Mitchell Roundhand Square nibs.

At present the only nib that glides on the paper surface when I letter is a Condor fountain pen. I recently asked Richard Binder to make a custom nib for me that produces finer thicks and thins than a standard Condor. It works great! I hope that after a number of CCC calligraphy workshops I will have better success with dip pens and nibs. My goal is to float every pen over the paper surface like a Condor nib.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Lettering For The Hundreds

This morning I had to pleasure to see lettering I created in 2010 embroidered on apparel at The Hundreds online shop.

This was a really cool project to work on with the opportunity to draw a lot of concepts in addition to creating finished production lettering. A very good example to show what is involved when developing custom lettering from scratch.



Of all the concepts submitted a few of them were selected for final art.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The End Result

Ever since the workshop with Yves I have been thinking a lot abut what he told me as we discussed digital lettering. "The end result is what matters not so much the process".

As a result of that experience I decided to post some detailed screenshot images of the process I use to create a lettering piece. This one being a gestural script.



First I start with a pencil. I actually wrote the words a dozen times and used the best composition as an underlay.



I placed the sketch under a sheet of semi transparent layout paper and lettered the words with a extra fine Condor fountain pen. This became my rough lettering reference which was scanned and used as an Illustrator template. In order to create vector lettering I have to look at inked letters to understand the thicks and thins of the script.



When I start in Illustrator I fist create single line paths to follow the shapes of the letters in my layout. I then create outlines of the paths and begin to reposition and refine the lines. I must mention that things change along the way as I shape the letters based on contrast and flow of the forms. The final lettering is never exactly the same as the pencil or inked letter reference.



With vector lines and bezier curves I can fine tune details as the lettering in my Illustrator file is rather large at about 60 inches wide. I can zoom in and refine curves with precision and zoom out to see how changes effect the overall composition.

This is just one way of creating lettering and there are many other methods available. As time progresses want to increase my skill with traditional writing tools and pens in combination with digital format.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

A Gestrual Sample

I have not posted any new lettering in a while as I have been practicing my gestural writing. I was fortunate to take Yves Leterme workshop a couple weeks ago. I was in awe of the beautiful lettering Yves has produced throughout his career. In addition, I got to watch a group of amazing CCC calligraphers produce a lot of amazing stuff with a variety of writing instruments. So much talent to experience for 4 days.

After the workshop I have been paying more attention the shapes of the letters I write instead of placing random strokes on paper. This sample was produced with a Hiro nib and oblique holder. Prior to the workshop I never had any success with a dip pen. This is the first step in a long way to go.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/lettering
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection