More Digital Lettering

A New Art Form - Digital Lettering

Yes, I know it's been around forever. But I'm very slow to enter the world of digital art because I love and adore paper/canvas/wood and pencil/pen/paint. I really do. I still read actual books that you can hold in your hands because I really do LOVE paper.

I never want the digital world to completely over-take the realm of visual art. There should always be drawings and paintings and sculptures. Things you can touch and hold and see the texture of the brush strokes.

With that said...I am trying some digital art right now. I got a fun, new toy--an iPad Pro--and I purchased the ProCreate app because it seems to be the one most preferred by digital letterers. And man, it's FUN!!

Outside: Ok, here's my first attempt. It's very stiff and elementary. But hey, it's all a learning process, right?

Laugher: Starting to getting the hang of it. I feel like this is extremely close to my hand lettering. And that's what I want. I don't want the program to do the work for me. I want a program that I can use to enhance my own style and hand lettering. 

Explore with Me: I have always wanted to know how to add lettering to photographs and ProCreate make is very easy. I took this photo on a hike one day and added the lettering the next day. How cool is that??

From Pencil Sketch to Digital Character

I'm sure there's a faster, more efficient way to do this, but I'm VERY new to digital illustration. I'm also very old school--I LOVE paper and pen or pencil. They will always be my first love. But I'm having a lot of fun trying some new digital lettering and illustration!

For this little lady I did a quick sketch in my Bullet Journal and I ended up really liking the little character that emerged. I love to see the evolution and process of art so I figured maybe you do too. So here are the steps I used.

First, I scanned the page onto my computer.

I then isolated the image in Photoshop by basically painting out all the background.

I used an Instagram filter to lighten up the image which got rid of the ghosting that was coming through from the page behind it. There are still some dots from my Leuchtturm1917 notebook showing through but I'm ok with that. I think they add character and once I add the color they'll be barely visible.

I then opened the lightened image in the ProCreate app on my (new!!) iPad Pro and added some digital color and added back in some of the shading that was lost when I lightened the image.

And lastly, (still in the ProCreate app) I added some lettering for a fun, playful touch.