Lessons

Lesson Info

Forming Uppercase Letters

So for the upper case, those they're going to take up basically and back to this guy sheets so you can see, like, on the a here, which I'll definitely do so it's more visible it's going to take up the three lines so it's going to take up the ascender that both of the ascender spaces as well as the excite um and then depending on, you know, if you're doing like a lower case for seizing an uppercase g it's going to go into that dissenters basis? Well, so a and this is sort of a personal style here this is I mean, it's loosely based on copper plate, but, um, we're gonna start off with just the a little bit of a down stroke to make this little decorative element there, and then I don't usually lift on the way up, but it just sort of happened right there, so nor that please on then we're going toe cross at the top of the excite there, so again, that should have just been one movement up, I just got a little stuck and you know, if you're doing this, if you're doing, you know, larger letters ...

or if you're you know, moving along here, it is perfectly natural to pick up your pen your wrist should actually versus doing like this so sometimes I actually do have to stop like mid letter and be like ok just sort of readjusting that we can finish it off a little bit more gracefully um be any sort of letter that starts off basically with this stroke you're going to use that one first and that's gonna be you're be your are your peace it'll show up in your tea and your f as well um so anyway always that one first there's the b and you're gonna bring in once again that oval shape it's going to hit this letter three times so there's your first one there's your second one and there's your third one this is a very deliberate looking but you're in a try that one again um so there's that down stroke by the way this part that I do totally optional I just like it so um there's your b again and for this loop right here you're not going to want to touch that down stroke so you can do like a little bit more casual of beers you know where it does it actually intersects kind of playfully but for this purpose we don't touch that loop to this for the see kind of a series of just ovals again make sure you guys can see what I'm about to show you here this line right here you wanted to kind of mayor this line and you want to maintain some sort of consistency in this space between the two lines so that was like keeping a parallel almost yeah exactly exactly so that's you'll see that happen and obviously a few more letters serial point that out but that's just some you know, once I sort of once I started paying more attention to that method my letters became more uniform and just they just started shaping up to be a lot better and it was one of those things where it's like probably should have paid attention to that in the first year not the fist so but you know, it's just kind of one of those things like I'm self taught it wasn't obvious to me but then when I really started like focusing on the true letter forms it was like ok, now I understand the relationship between all these lines and so again once you start paying attention to them and actually you know, accomplishing that then you will see an improvement in your letters um the d we're going to start on that down stroke again versus that loop that you'll find over here so we're going to start this is all just one big movement we'll just bring it back around you can stop here or you can come here but I wanted to show you another example of those um lines that air sort of paralleling each other um the d a has always been a tricky one for me um just recently, I've started to really love it, but you know, it's just it's like actually can have a lot of fun with it, but just that long upward movement can be a little bit tricky and then just maintaining like a balance also this part right here, a lot of people have a tendency to d'oh like a little bit more of a loop, and you're not going to want to do that. You want to want to keep it a little bit more just in line with each other, so just kind of that sort of a shape ah, for the e what like the sea to start and then again, just always oval shapes. So and with this particularly e actually this loop unlike the b, which is kind of straightforward right there, I attend to give it a little bit of an angle just to help that bottom shape pop up a little bit. And again, you're seeing that you've been spacing there and for the f got your down stroke. All right, repeat that, uh, I wonder there's lint in there you will find that happening a bit. Um went does or other things cat hair, dog hair, whatever you have around well and in your new job so it has to happen, you just want to clean that out um you want it you're gonna want to clean up you know the lot anyway you guys have seen the wipe it off quite a few times um and then when it starts to really dry off do dip it in the water just to loosen that up again so um and that is a pretty common thing they're so okay let's try that f again the down stroke that you started your be off with and then that oval shape and then you had to come here and then cross it at that line the g this is one of those letters there are so many ways to do it I tend to go back and forth between stopping it down they're down here or that's some that's definitely a letter that my personal style comes through like constantly so you know there's just so many ways to do it like I said you can bring this down a little further um but I prefer to stop it just it somewhere in the middle of that those two lines there uh let's see each again so many ways to do each letter and they choose to do it this way on this second stroke I just kind of I've gotten in the habit of doing that lately um another down stroke there and for that I were gonna want to get that to come down just a little bit more tightly there that's not branching out all the way over here it's just kind of there and I, um you can put a little bit of shading and hereby shading I mean the down you know, like a downward pressure so you khun you can do that too here um I just sort of kind of go back and forth between if I want that sheeting here if I want to feel like a hairline so that's again just a personal thing um for the j sort of like the eye just a bit longer and that you don't wantto keep those lines spaced a bit more um sorry evenly and then for the k I started off just like the age for this particular style and then you have that loop that again does not intersect that line or meet it and that l um if you check out my instagram page I did a pretty serious l on there and it's a total fake out I actually don't do that all the time I did just like this but on my instagram page I did it pretty traditionally and I kind of felt bad for doing that but way looks like I'm like oh that's how she always does the l so basically you can add a shading here turn your turn your papers so that you're not doing this because you never want to do that and so that's kind of a more traditional l so the m is kind of a toughie because it's one of those letters that you know it's like consistency is pretty important so am I I'm going to go up with that hairline and down again and then up a little shaky there and finish up that you shape so basically this letter are seizing that that line so that hair line up and that here lineup are pretty much parallel did it with those down strokes um and fortunately is basically half because it is too long for three long lines and those two lines they're gonna be parallel to each other for the oh just a nice big oval shape and then I like to do a bit of that so hairline down we're almost hairline just a little bit shading there and then I like to dio kind of more of a wider down stroke on that second part uh p once again that same shape and it's gonna be a lot like your upper case be but just sort of half of it the cue excusing that should not be finished off like that um the cues I like to do it just like my oh and really that should be more like that um and then just a little adding a little tail there and they are so much like your b in your pee and you have that, um loop come back in again not meeting that line just go back down in a ship without u shape on the s it was a fairly simple one so and then with the s here again you're finding this shape it's in your p and your r and all those other letters you're finding it right there so that's just something to keep in mind it's like even though it doesn't actually start off and how that esteemed line it's still if you put this over this it'll basically lineup on fifteen basically just like your f minus that part for my use it's just sort of a habit of formed I don't like to come all the way up to the top here you can it's just um sort of something that's sort of leaked its way into my box of habits um ditto with the v a sort of stopped short just gonna come right back up and do a little bit of an arch out that c w w user a lot like that and where it's just like you have all this parallel paralleling lines so strong it again w down on back up and I bring in a little bit of a curve to each of them and then I'm bringing back up so it kind of finish it up um a lot like the v here that just higher up and then you can see what I mean here about dragging the ankle on sort of happens unintentionally for the ex this's a weird one so again, there's a couple ways you can do this as with all the letters that's the x so that's gonna be a downs like thick down strokes this one um try to keep it light and I do everything possible to prevent a lot of ink dragging around in there but there's a lot of opportunity for that to happen, as you can see. And so, um, like here's a big spot, obviously right there too, so it's just something to kind of keep out for, um so again, just start off like you're you and your v just with this and then pressure on the down stroke lighten up a little cross over and I pick it up right there and this particular one because, like I've laid, I laid down quite a lot of ink right there, and so once you cross over like that, you know, with the line you're going to drag through, of course it didn't quite do that on the example, but I'm sort of wary of that. Um and then on europe, stroke is light pressure and lay down and come back around and also do a little bit simpler if you should so choose to go simpler route um that's very uncover play like that and cnn for why same beginning they're doing the same thing as I do with my jeans and sort of stopping a little bit short their hoops to do that again and you'll notice that a lot of times I pick up my pen like mid you know after idea like airlines I didn't bring up this hairline and then go back down actually stopped and then started up here so it's just one of those things where you will want to make sure that you meet that line again in the natural looking way versus having it be like you know to like perpendicular to each other's is going to be more like that um I know it's just a quick side note there and then for the z just uh little loop there come back up try not to shake so that is the whole alphabet um so you actually have the tools to make words which will be doing in the next class? Does anybody have any questions on the uppercase letters? I have a question what what in your opinion is kind of different between copper plate and some of the other kind of script he writing that's being done that you see a lot on invitations nowadays so you're probably referring to the modern calligraphy and what's copper plate you know there are definite don't come rules but you know there it's a discipline and there are certain ways to do it it's like you know, like following like a certain like soup recipe, which is very simple way to put it but you know, it's just like these are the ingredients that go in it and this is how you make it and this is when you're going to want it do this to the heat and so, you know, it's kind of the same thing with, like, these more traditional scripts even though I've tweaked this one a bit so like copper plates been syrian, you know, just round hand on grocers all those they have very specific rules and with the modern krilic clear fees it's basically like people's personality showing through in their artwork and they're writing so it's still, um, you know, you're still using the same materials for the most part um but you're basically making it your own so through and there's so many ways to do that, which I will definitely cover in the next class. Well, that, um it's just it's it's less disciplined basis like, ok, we're just going toe right and make up a really pretty alphabet and it's not like going to be in a book somewhere from fifty or one hundred years ago, so you know it's that's sort of what I'm noticing is the difference there it's like people are actually making their own alphabets our script styles