30 Day Drawing Challenge Day 13- Find a Favorite Font

You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.
John Singer Sargent

I love letters! I think they are an overlooked art in today's era of computers and texting. It's almost criminal to think that kids are not being taught how to write cursive and develop their ability to write with style. Beautiful lettering can improve a simple drawing and give it content and meaning. Greeting card manufacturers make their millions based on this simple idea...take a thought and put it together with a picture and people will want it.

When I look at people's sketches and art journals, often the sketch is good, but poorly executed lettering can take away from the drawing. This doesn't have to happen. Until we look at lettering as art, we may miss the opportunity to write with artistic style. Today I'm going to help you do some thinking and some playing around with letters. =)

Based on this idea, I want you to take on the challenge of looking for a personally appealing font. Look for one you could adopt as your favorite. I was amused to see that the font above is actually a continuous line font. I thought it might be fun to share, since most of you tried to do a continuous line drawing on Day 10 (In case you missed it, here's the link: Day 10 of my 30 Day Drawing Challenge- Continuous Line ).

If you want to keep an art journal, this little exercise may be something to do more than once...after all you may want to mix up your lettering every once in a while.

There are so many fonts out there...if you Google "fonts" you'll find an abundance of them. If you don't feel like going to that trouble, here are a few you can try to practice. You get to choose!

Materials you might use for this challenge:

pencil, pens, markers, colored pencils, elegant writer marker, crayons, watercolor...use your imagination!
paper

Step 1- Pick out a font and draw the letters. Think of each one as a drawing. If the letter is enclosed in a box (as the one above) you can use the negative shape around the letter to help you form the shape correctly.

Step 2- Embellish your alphabet with color! If you use the elegant writer marker, then be aware it is not permanent and will bleed when water touches it, forming green and pink coloration. If you dab it once it's wet, it will become more pink. Test the Elegant writer with water on a test sheet prior to using on your drawing. It's really fun, but takes some practice.

Step 3- When finished, take a photo and send it to me. I would love to see the fonts you come up with!

Hint: Keep an area on your paper dry if you want it to remain white when using watercolor or water-soluble markers/pencils. The pigment from watercolor or any other water-soluble mark makers will only travel where the water takes it. Dry paper acts as a dam and prevents the color from moving there.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours! ;-)

I saw this font at Hobby Lobby in wooden letters, and liked it so much I took photos of them on the shelf. People must have thought I was crazy, but I still love them and here they are all on one page. I used an elegant writer to draw the contour of the letter and then took a wet brush and wet the OUTSIDE of the letters to make them pop. After it dried, I added more ink and reinforced shadows, and then took a wet brush and smeared them again. Hint: when using the Elegant writer, have a kleenex in your hand at all times for lifting...the ink can get a bit crazy, but it's worth the effort.

PS- for tomorrow, we will be using our elegant writer markers. If you don't have one, you can substitute watercolor pencils or other water soluble markers (but they won't be as fun )

Keep up the good work...we are almost half way through our 30 days of Drawing! I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge. If you're enjoying this challenge, share it with your friends =)

Rebecca Zdybel

Artist, Instructor, Art-Travel Instructor

Art Lessons in all media

Myrtle Beach, SC

rebecca@artmyrtlebeach.com

Spread Light, Share Love, DO Art!

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Rebecca Zdybel is an artist and instructor in Myrtle Beach, SC. Follow her and see her work at http://www.artmyrtlebeach.com/

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Wednesday, May 13, 2015