Making lettering with Sakura products. Here we are with another guide regarding lettering and illustration! With this tutorial, we will explain step by step how to make fantastic lettering, thanks to Sakura of America products.
The materials used in this guide
To make this lettering, we will use different Sakura of America products. The American brand is known worldwide for being one of the reference points for markers for lettering, illustration, writing, drawing, and calligraphy. Specifically, the great protagonists of our tutorial will be the Sakura Pigma Brush Pen, a fantastic product made specifically for lettering and illustration. As you can easily guess from the name, these are felt-tip pens with a skinny brush tip. The main feature concerns the ink. It does not drip on the paper and can dry very quickly. The marker is characterized by the classic Sakura style, extremely simple but, at the same time, fascinating drawing ideas.
What is the goal of this tutorial?
Lately, more and more artists are entering the world of lettering for the first time. With this guide, the intent is to explain how to create lettering in detail and step by step. This tutorial is, therefore, a good starting point for novice artists, but, at the same time, it is an excellent opportunity for those who want to refine their technique or for those looking for inspiration regarding the following work to be done.
Make lettering with Sakura of America products
Before we start with the step-by-step explanation of this guide, we want to give you a couple of tips. First, you will have to prepare all the necessary material and, in particular, you will have to choose the phrase/word to represent. Influenced by spring and its bright colors, we have decided to depict: “You cannot ask the flowers not to bloom.” Once you have chosen the phrase or the word, it is time to choose the protagonist colors of the lettering. Again, we have opted for bright and bright colors, specifically: Orange, Blue, and Green.
Step 1: Prepare the sheet
Once you have decided on the sentence, or the writing, to be highlighted, we start with the preparation of the sheet. Using a graphite pencil, you will have to mark the center and the various lines with different spacings. Although it will serve as a “guide” for realizing the sentence, the advice is to use a pencil with a more complex lead, such as an H or an HB.
Step 2: Sketch the sentence in pencil
Once the worksheet has been prepared, we can move on to the second step. Using the same pencil as before, we sketch our writing. Again, it is essential to be precise and, above all, not to make a too heavy mark but relatively light.
Step 3: Make the base of the lettering with the gray marker
Once the preparations have been made with the graphite pencil, it is time to create our base using the two gray markers. As mentioned earlier in the material list, the ideal is to have a brush tip marker and a fine tip marker. On our e-commerce, you can find titles characterized by a double tip, perfect for this lettering! To carry out this step, erase the mark drawn with the pencil and, subsequently, go over everything using the felt-tip pen.
The words that make up the sentence are created in two different ways: the keywords are written in italics, using the marker with the brush tip, while the rest are written in block letters, using the fine tip marker. In our case, the words: flowers, ask and blossom, were made in italics. The words: ai, you can’t, and not were instead written in block capitals. Once you have finished this step, you will erase all the pencil marks made previously.
Step 4: Prepare the protagonist colors of the lettering
Once the preparation steps are complete, we can start thinking about the colors to use. In this step, the great protagonist will be the Sakura Pigma Brush Pen. The choice of shades to use is up to you. We have opted for Orange, Blue, and Green. Once the colors have been chosen, we take the Sakura Brush Pens and spread the paint on a smooth surface to be water-colored; our advice is to use a handy plastic palette. By applying the colors, it will be possible to obtain soft tones, making it easier to achieve the desired shades.
If you want, you could directly apply the color with the Brush Pen on the sheet and, subsequently, blend with water and the brush. It will result in brighter colors but slightly more challenging to control.
Step 5: Watercolor the words
Once the colors have been decided and prepared, we can move on to watercolor the writing. You will need to equip yourself with a brush in this step, preferably explicitly designed for watercolors. Again, the advice is to start with the most important words, even if there is no specific rule or order to follow.
To watercolor the words, it will be necessary to add a little water to the colors spread on the saucer. It will allow to dilute them slightly. Once this is done, let’s start coloring the portion of the letter in which the color will be more saturated, and then go slowly to blend it and make it almost transparent. Next, we change color and start from the point where it meets with the previous one. Now, unlike before, we will have to start with an extremely light color and then gradually darken it, and so on.
Step 6: Making the shadows
I finished the step related to watercolors. Let’s move on to add the shadows. The first thing is to choose the light points, that is, to imagine where the light on our writing can come from. Once this decision has been made, on the opposite side, we make the shadows on all the words, using the gray Brush Pen. Shades can also be made colored, but for this job, we decided to make them gray.
Also Read: How to deal with criticism guide for artists
Leave a Reply