All language subtitles for Unit 3_2.ENGlish

In this lesson we're going to draw the alphabet as a subject matter and we're

going to expand on our freeform lettering styles. We're not going to

plan ahead too much, we're just going to go with the flow and use the spaces we

create as we go along to influence our letter forms. So I'm going to start with

a nice big letter A, just drawing it exactly how it comes to me. There we go.

Maybe I'll just quickly shade this one in to give us that maximum contrast. So
I'm

not being too precious about how I shade this in. I think the idea is just to
make

it as dark as possible to aid our design. So there we go, there's our A. Now we
have

this kind of nice curve to work with.

To help influence our next letter. So here's the B. I'm going to use that curve

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And I'm going to continue it on

Like so

I'll join it like that. So here's our B

I'm just going to thicken up these lines a little bit more. I'm going to make it
look slightly different to the A

So I'm not too worried about making mistakes or anything like that at the
moment, I just

want to be quite playful, be quite quick as well, and get our ideas down as
efficiently

as possible.

So maybe I'll colour these in as well.

So the good thing about shading in is if you do have a little area you're not
happy with,

a small smudge or a pen mark that you don't want, then you can just kind of use
that shading

technique to tweak the letter a little bit and slowly refine that design.

So there we go, now I've got this kind of shape up here that perhaps a C could
fit into,

so I'm just going to squeeze that up there.

OK, there's our C. Maybe this one can have a little shadow.

So we're just trying to mix these things up.

We're going to use the spaces created by each letter to influence the next one,

but we're also going to try and make each letter look slightly different,

use a different technique or a different style for each one to build up our
alphabet.

When we get to the middle of the page, we're just going to go right across.

I'm not going to worry about if things don't quite match up between the two
sheets of paper.

There's our D.

And so when you get to curved letters, then the shapes start to get a bit more
interesting.

So maybe we can do an E that bends around.

Maybe that makes it look like it's waving in the wind, so we can have a kind of
wavy E.

OK.

And maybe do something a bit different for the F.

Again, not trying to overthink this.

Just kind of going for it.

That E could perhaps expand out to there.

There we go.

And so now I'm left with this line.

Well, maybe we can use that line for this letter.

So instead of shading it all in, we can just add these lines.

Maybe we can continue one line extra to bend around that F, and the same here.

There we go. So this F has left us a bit of an awkward shape but maybe we can

squeeze our G in underneath.

And then just to make it stand out from the F, I'm going to shade it in a little
bit.

So we're starting to build up our alphabet, each letter is looking different
from the

next.

We're using the spaces created by the letters to inform the next design.

And the most important thing is we're not overthinking things.

So let's start with our H.

And maybe the I can feed off this A.

There we go, I might just add a shadow to this H actually.

So I'm going to move on to the next letter, we've got a J,

I'm going to use all this space up here

to make a really big, crazy J.

And the shadows on letters traditionally tend to be

on the left-hand side because that's where each letter

has the fewest curves or the fewest shapes to work around.

So in that tradition, I'm going to add another shadow

to this letter down the left-hand side.

So I'm going to add another shadow down the left-hand side.

So it looks a bit too wide at the top there,

so I'm going to use the shading technique

just to make some micro-adjustments

until I'm happy with the shape of it.

and again just down here. Okay so this has left us a really awkward spot to get

this K in so I'm going to use all that space left and then go right across

and there's our K. Add a few lines

Now a quick check, I'm not so happy with that one, maybe we'll try lines going
across, make

a kind of crosshatch, give it a bit more contrast.

So, I'm not rushing this, but I'm doing it quite quickly.

I want to explore each idea, each style as quickly as I can, before moving on to
the

next letter.

Because there might be something there that I really like the look of, that I
can use

in another project, or something that could inspire a completely new idea.

Just going to move on to the next letter, there's an L, let's give this some
really

chunky lines.

I'm not going to worry too much about getting in the gap in the middle of the
sketchbook.

And some gaps will be trickier to work with than others.

So this, for example, is quite small.

So I'm going to start my M quite small, and maybe I'll make it really pointed
and come

down.

There we go.

Maybe I can make that curved, look a bit strange, there we go.

Give this a little 3D element.

A little bit of shading inside.

Thanks for watching.

So with this end I've really had to work with the constraints of the shapes and

the gaps I've left myself and that can kind of inform your letter design. So

this isn't a case of me designing, sitting down and thinking about how I

want this end to look. It's working to solve a problem and sometimes that's

when the best designs happen, when you're responding to those restrictions and

you're making adjustments to make your letter fit that gap. I mean the chances

I never would have drawn an end like this if it wasn't for this exercise and

leaving those gaps in these letters.

So now I've got the problem with am I going to fit the whole alphabet on this

double page spread? Well perhaps I need to go a little bit smaller for the next

few letters to try and gauge how much space I've got. So here's my O, I might

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just shade that in.

you

And moving on, let's do a really small pea.

So, I'm kind of mixing uppercase and lowercase letters as well.

Sometimes a lowercase letter will fit the space a little bit better, but I'm not
overthinking

this stuff too much, whatever works.

okay last few is the W let's make this really wide

And now for the X.

So this lowercase y will fit a little bit better into this awkward space so

I'm going to draw that here.

And we've got quite a lot of room left for the Zed so what I like to do

sometimes is add an ampersand just before the end.

So it looks pretty cool, and it also helps fill up the space.

So there's the ampersand, and just enough room now for my Z.

I might just shade that one in quickly and use this shade in just to tweak the

lines a little bit. There we go.

you

Okay, there's our Z. And there we go, a double page spread of the alphabet.

Here's my finished alphabet, so I'm just going to go back, maybe tweak a few
little things

here and there, maybe pick out a few things I don't like and make a few small
changes.

Not sure about this Q with all these lines in, so I'm going to maybe just
connect those

up, see if that makes it any better. I find the Q, actually, the one letter
that's always

tricky to draw. There's so many different ways to draw a Q and none of them ever
look quite

right to me. So maybe let's play with this a little bit longer, trying to get it
to work

in this spread. Maybe that's a little bit better. What's also good to do is when
you're creating

letters like this and doing this exercise, you're creating letters that you
wouldn't

normally draw in this way because of the restrictions and the gaps that you're
working to.

So, for example, I quite like this B, so maybe we can isolate this B, if I just
redraw it

on the next page, just quickly, just to reference my own work.

I quite like how the counters inside it are coloured in and the thick lines so

there's that B. So that exercise is a good way of drawing these letters fairly

unexpected again using those restrictions that we set ourselves. Let's

just finish that off. So now we can start to think well what would other

letters look like in this style? So what would an A look like in this style?
Well

let's have a go. You would maybe have that short connecting point there and

then maybe we need to incorporate the roundedness so do maybe a rounded top

and colour in that middle and give it those thick lines. So you can use this

exercise to

create a letter that you wouldn't normally have considered drawing

and then develop it into a whole alphabet by itself.

So maybe let's just try C.

Maybe something like that.

And these kind of interesting and unique letter designs,

they aren't finished products in themselves,

but they're the starting points to other ideas

to perhaps being incorporated

into another project you're working on.

Or perhaps they don't need to be.

Maybe this is just practice.

This is you practice your lettering skills.

So I'm not sure about that C, maybe it would have flatter ends and that gap

needs to come in a bit so maybe something more like that.

There we go, the startings of a potential typeface all by restricting yourself
into

drawing the alphabet across one page.

This alphabet exercise is a really good way to create those unexpected letters

and it's a good idea to kind of repeat this exercise as well. Do it over and

over and try to make it completely different each time. These negative

spaces are a really great way to create something completely unexpected. You can

build on this negative space theme by doing the same exercise but the other

way around. So here for example I've been drawing the background in this kind of

rough shading in fashion and leaving gaps for the letters as I go along. So

we're creating the alphabet in the negative space of the brush strokes

that we're creating. When you're working on this exercise the chances are you'll

make a lot of mistakes or you'll draw a lot of things that you're really not

happy about but that's okay because the sketchbook is the one place where you're

allowed to do that. This exercise is a great way to create new letter forms

without overthinking things. We've also created some wonderfully energetic

sketchbook pages.

Next up we'll see how adding a few more constraints can really up the
creativity.

So follow me over to the next lesson where we'll be drawing letters in boxes.