Brush Lettering

Do you know what is brush lettering? Is it the same as calligraphy? Why is this trend now? Can it be a hobby? Am I the only one who is curious about brush lettering?

Recently I have read an article about doing brush lettering. Out of curiosity, I decided to check it out online and found out that actually hand lettering has been trending for a few years now. So where did I go these few years for not knowing this is the latest fad around town? Beats me.

Last month I decided to sign up for a brush lettering workshop held at The Workroom. The workshop is very popular for beginners. So most of the places have been taken up very fast. I was lucky to be able to sign up for the last slot in July’s workshop. The workshop lasted for 2 hours.

Now, what is the difference between calligraphy and brush lettering? Calligraphy is a type of writing using a dip pen with a nib and ink, whereas brush lettering is drawing letters using a brush pen, sharpie or gel pen, often used on projects that are too large for calligraphy. On top of that, you can use colours on brush lettering as well.

In this workshop, the participants were each given a folder with 2 brush pens, 1 watercolour set and some worksheets. We were introduced to different kind of pens at the beginning of the workshop. After that, it was PRACTICE time.

For practice on the paper, we used the Pentel Fude Touch brush pen. This pen offers the flexibility of drawing varying line widths. For watercolour lettering, we used Sakura Water Colour Brush. The brush pen is filled with water and you can squeeze the pen to wet the tip.

Then later part of the workshop, after practising on the strokes and the control of the brush pen on paper, we moved on to use watercolours to draw letters. The fun part of watercolours lettering is you can channel your inner creativity to mix and match colours on the letters. To me, watercolours lettering is the combination of drawing letters with colouring. To be frank, I am not very good at drawing, so this one is a bit tricky for me.

The photos below show the watercolour lettering from my instructor and my own work. You can see the difference in skills.

Overall, brush lettering was fun when you are doing it with a group of friends or even strangers like in this workshop. I got to know someone and we compared, commented and helped each other in improving our lettering skills. The workshop was set in a fun and relaxing way. Though it was quite tiring after practising for a few pages of the worksheets and I needed a break to relax my hand.

It takes discipline to master the control of the brush pens and the basic strokes of writing the cursive letters. Once you create “muscle memory” of the strokes, you can use any pens to create the kind of lettering that you like. The next time, you can try to use brush lettering on birthday cards, wedding invitations or signage.

For me, I am going to practice and try to use it on labelling my jars as a start.

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