4 Awesome Classes for Learning Lettering & Calligraphy
I could very well be a course junkie.
Seriously, I’ve taken so many lettering and calligraphy courses and there are still others that I’d like to take (and some I have but have yet to take). My leaner pockets are your fortune today.
I find that lettering and calligraphy classes are either a broad overview or they go in-depth on a specific skill.
The lettering classes that are broad overviews tend to teach what the main typographic terms are, down for thick/up for thin strokes, how to draw a serif, sans-serif, script and a decorative font, ornaments, composition basics and how to digitize your work. The basic calligraphy classes mainly teach down for thick, up for thin. On the other hand, with classes that go in-depth on one skill, you find little tips and suggestions that will help you pay attention to little details that better your letters. My list is a combo of each.
4 Great Classes for Learning Lettering and Calligraphy
Skillshare - Well, technically, Skillshare is a whole platform, not a class. But, it still counts. I took Skillshare classes a few years ago to start with lettering. Those classes are still some of the best. I loved Mary Kate McDevitt’s classes and I returned to them over this quarantine to refresh my memory. I also love all things Martina Flor. Her process is so next level that I still think I’ll be watching her classes for years to come. I mean, post-The Golden Secrets of Lettering, who doesn’t refer to the way she classifies letter families? Between the two of these artists, the basics are covered from each handmade font all the way to digitization. Still, there are many other classes on the platform for lettering and calligraphy that make it worth the price of admission once your freemium ends. Plus, they’re all in English…which leads me to my other class picks…
Calligraphy and Lettering for Instagram by Nubikini - I enjoyed this class so much! I know part of it was the travel theme-based approach. It is a specific course in that it is about lettering over photos in Procreate and it’s one of the most enjoyable courses I’ve taken yet. I also understand that it was updated to include how to animate lettering in Procreate to share on Giphy (see my gif below :) ). Sweet! It also gave me some of the best tips for using Procreate. For example you should always use the same eraser as the brush you are drawing with…That was such an awesome tip! Wait, there’s more! But, I can’t tell you. You have to take the class. :) Note: The class is in Spanish with English subtitles.
Calligraphy & Rock ‘n’ Roll by Ivan Castro - The goal of this class is to use brush lettering to design the cover of an album. I actually have Ivan Castro’s book as well. It has circulated on blogs and Youtube videos as a favorite for learning lettering with good reason. But, of course, whenever you can see the author perform, it’s always going to be better for the visually-inclined (raises hand). In the course, he goes through all the families of the letters and how to form each. He also shows how expression can be infused into calligraphy by varying the tools, inclination of the stroke, shifting the baseline, etc. Plus, he’s funny. Note: This class is in Spanish with English subtitles as well.
Introduction to Script Lettering by Ximena Jiménez - The goal of this class is to use script to design lettering for a t-shirt. The instructor approaches the alphabet kind of like Ivan Castro’s class in that it shows how to create each of the letterforms using families of letters that are constructed similarly. Stress is put on the consistency of the inclination of the letterforms, avoiding “stains” in transitions, how to create swashes and flourishes, etc. She even shows various movements of the wrist in order to get to certain kinds of strokes. Even though it says “Introduction”, it’s one of the most in-depth introductions to script lettering I’ve ever seen. At the end of the course, she goes into how to produce and even promote the t-shirt. Nice!
Of course, there are plenty of other classes/courses that I’ve taken that have been helpful as well…and, at the end of the day, no class is going to be of any use if you don’t practice what you learn from it. But these are the ones I feel I’ve gotten the most out of so far for laying a foundation in lettering. I go back to these to refresh myself on the things they taught often.
If you know of any other courses that would be a good complement to my list, let me know.
