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Lettering Artist Resources and Gift Guide
In this resource guide for lettering artists we’ve put together a list of our favorite hand lettering supplies. These also make perfect gifts for birthdays and holidays for that lettering artist in your life.
Hand Lettering Books & Lettering Inspiration
Education is the foundation… here are some lettering books to get you started. More experienced artists may pick up some new insights too! House Industries Lettering Manual, The ABC of Custom Lettering, and The Golden Secrets of Lettering definately deserve a place in a lettering artist’s reference library. These three artists/educators sometimes offer classes too, be sure to check out their websites.
A few more hand lettering techniques books for the reference library: Hand lettering guides like, the Speedball Textbook is a classic book for lettering artists. Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy and Calligraphy: A Complete Guide can be especially helpful for those interested in calligraphy and flourishing style letters.
Basic Lettering Tools (analog or “old school”)
For artists who enjoy sketching more traditionally you can get started with simply a pencil, pencil sharpener, kneaded eraser, ruler with french curves and some paper. Amazon basics has a Sketching Pencil Set, although geared more towards illustrators, includes the basics and gets the job done.
Lettering paper and practice pads for honing skills. A General Sketch Pad to get your ideas onto paper, also good if you plan on digitizing your artwork later. The Canson XL Pen and Ink Pads, are a great way for the artist to practice and perfect their lettering and calligraphy skills. These pads are designed to prevent bleeding and smudging. You can use also start your design with Graph Paper and then use Tracing Paper to make adjustments to your lettering. If you are practicing calligraphy, then Lined Calligraphy Paper is helpful.
Brush Lettering & Calligraphy Tools
Lettering and Calligraphy pens for elegant writing. The Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Pen (This one of my favorites! They’re available in single pen or sets) and Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen are both popular choices for its flexible tip and rich ink. Faber-Castell Calligraphy Set comes in multiple colors with a calligraphy tip instead of brush tip.
Ink and nib sets for traditional calligraphy, consider a nib set like the Speedball Calligraphy Set. This set comes with different nib sizes that can be used for a variety of lettering styles. For ink, Windsor and Newton Calligraphy Ink and Dr. Ph. Martin’s India Ink are both good quality inks. Both brands offer a variety of ink colors for dip pens.
Watercolor brush pens for a pop of color, like the Arteza Real Brush Pens, or Artistro Watercolor Pens can be used for both modern style calligraphy, brush lettering, and watercolor painting. Also, the Sargent Art Watercolor Brush Pen Set with Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors Set or Windsor Newton Cottman Watercolor Paints offer even more color choices for your artwork.
Digital Lettering Tools
Digital lettering tools can speed up the workflow and easily create lettering special effects. Digital tools, like the Apple Ipad or the Wacom Intuos (for PC / Mac laptop users), are great for creating all kinds of lettering designs on a tablet or laptop computer. For example, the feature image of this blog post was sketched digitally on an Ipad then colored in Adobe Photoshop. Don’t forget the digital accessories like a Bellemond paper-feel screen protector and a drawing glove… while not a necessity these accessories are helpful and enhance the digital drawing experience.
Hope this resource guide gives you some ideas and inspiration as well as some new tools to try out to create beautiful lettering designs. Happy Lettering!
More Artist Resources & Gift Guides
- 5 hottest Christmas Gifts for Artists
- Watercolor Artists Gift Guide
- Coloring Book Gift Guide
- Illustrators Gift Guide
