Every Day?

Wow. This challenge is every day, including Saturdays and Sundays.

When I signed up for a lettering challenge, I was already lettering or doing some form of practice every day. But I don’t show everybody those things. They are my ugly ducklings alone. But, I quickly found out that in a lettering challenge, you are supposed to post consistently. Every day. At least, ideally. While I can’t say that posting a piece every day is within my comfort zone, I can say that I may be developing skills a lot quicker because I have to present something every β€œday”. The word day is used very loosely here….more like every 24 hours…or so.

My iPad lettering normally starts off in my sketchbook as a rough sketch that I photograph with my phone and clean up in Procreate on my iPad.

To do this, I take a photo straight on. Then, I use an app called Background Eraser to get rid of the grid from my sketchbook or whatever background I have in the drawing.

Depending on what kind of time I’m working with, I may use a monoline brush to trace the drawing over again to smooth over any rickety edges. Between the beginning and the end, I tighten things up that I just can’t live with…maybe add some different colors, and then add some finishes to it like what is seen in the first image in Procreate (loving textures lately….The subtler textures seen in that first image and in the video below are by True Grit Texture Supply ❀️).

I don’t think I initially realized that every day would be such a challenge since we’re mostly in the house. But, oh my God, it really is! I’m often up late at night just trying not to peter out in the first half of the challenge! πŸ˜‚

I actually have a decent set up to use for photos in the daytime, even if it is in my basement. I have lighting that I can also use at night. But, since I like daylight best, my one saving grace for posting my iPad lettering projects at night is mockups (I know the IG algorithm hates it. I’ve just decided for this challenge, I don’t care. ). Currently, my favorite mockups are by Custom Scene. Most of their products are created for PSD which I use for other things. But, they have a Procreate Watercolor Scene Creator that I had to have because that’s the app I use so much for lettering. I also got a bundle that included some other items because I use some of the technical gear in the package-and I like options. I actually want one with Tombows, Pentel Fude Touch, Pocket, and Aquash brushes too…Oh, and a choice of using a black/brown person’s hand (what a novel idea in 2020) would be really nice lol. But this Procreate version was a really thoughtful start and I love them for it! They even have some ready made scenes that you can just add your lettering to immediately.

Overall, they’re just fun to use and make it easy to develop a consistent feed that goes with the rest of my lettering projects, even at night. Woohoo!

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I still haven’t figured out whether I’m going to restrict myself to calligraphy or lettering only…I do believe in setting challenges and restrictions to increase creativity. But, I’m just going to throw out that particular rule for now. I’m just having too much fun!

Stacey

Letter lover journey to creating something every day by any means necessary (but primarily pen and iPad).

https://www.staceyscribbling.com
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