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Teach Yourself How to Hand Letter

January 26, 2016 By Morgan Last Updated: December 6, 2020

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Hand lettering is a trendy hobby right now – and rightfully so. Requiring little more than a pen and paper, hand lettering is accessible to everyone. Read on for how to teach yourself how to hand letter.

I’ve mentioned a few times recently about my new obsession: hand lettering. It’s fun, let’s me get out some of my creativity and is an easy way for me to turn off my brain. Not to mention, it’s cheap – you truly just need a pen or pencil and paper to make something pretty. Hand lettering seems to be pretty trendy right now. It’s seen in advertising, there are extremely popular books explaining how to accomplish the style, and entire blogs and Instagrams devoted to the art. But how hard could it be to teach yourself how to hand letter?

When I first sparked an interest in learning to hand letter, I did some research and poured over Pinterest tutorials, blog posts, and supply lists. All of them were gorgeous and perfect – not a line out of place. And you know what? It was extremely intimidating. Never would I ever reach their level of what I declared to be perfection. Nothing seemed simple or attainable. Eventually, I picked up a few tips and tricks that I found to be helpful, wasted pages and pages and pages of paper practicing, and made some vague progress towards looking like the pros.

Have you ever wondered how to hand letter? Ever tried to teach yourself, but then got overwhelmed by perfect instructions and perfect letters? Try out this step-by-step tutorial written by a beginner just like you!

So today I thought I’d share my imperfect ways of teaching yourself how to hand letter. No perfection, no fancy pens or paper, no expensive books, no Etsy downloads for worksheets or eBooks. Just plain old pen and paper. How to hand letter: from a beginner to a beginner.

Teach Yourself How to Hand Letter

Supplies:

-pencil
-pen
-notebook paper
-the interwebs

First, chose a lettering style you enjoy looking at. I really like the bubbly modern calligraphy style of lettering which I feel is the most popular. Either way, search Pinterest or Google and find a style you enjoy looking at since you’ll be looking at it a lot. You can take a look at my hand lettering font Pinterest board to get yourself started on inspiration (and follow me while you’re there! I pin a bunch of hand lettering things there!

In this first post, I’m going to show you how to learn how to fake modern calligraphy. You could use this method to fake really any kind of calligraphy (which technically uses a pointed pen. Right now I’m playing around with brush lettering, but after I really want to get a pointed pen and try it out!) but like I said before, I enjoy the modern calligraphy. To each his own!

RELATED:How to Fake a Hand Lettered Print

First, choose what you would like to write. I knew that I was doing this specific post, so I chose “Teach yourself how to hand letter” Super original. I suggest finding one word to do for the first one – if you want something to copy, head over to Instagram and check out #handlettered. SO much inspiration is there.

penciled

Next, take some lined paper and slowly and lightly write the word. This is why, especially in the beginning before you learn your “own” style, it’s really helpful to have a photo of something to copy from. (PLEASE NOTE: I am not condoning or encouraging you to use someone else’s work, copy it, and claim it as your own. That’s rude, mean and probably illegal. I’m just saying use it as a learning tool to one day creating your own, original work.) Here is an easy tutorial for copying a hand lettered image!

Want a fun space to practice your new skill? Grab your free copy of the Good Day Trackers and spend a few minutes each night hand lettering in one good thing that happened each day!

Click here to subscribe

Use a pencil and don’t press too hard since we’ll be erasing it later. Keep working on it until the penciled word looks how you would like it to. Also, I suggest in the beginning your words being bigger – it makes it a little easier.

Hand lettering is a cheap inexpensive hobby anyone can do. Teach yourself how to hand letter!

This isn’t in pen – when I edited it on picmonkey, this happened but I think it better shows you the lines anyway.

Then, go over your word and imagine where your pencil stroked down in the process of writing it. To make it clearer and display it better for you, I drew little arrows next to my word to indicate up or down stroke. For each downstroke, we’ll eventually want a thicker line. That’s the key to calligraphy – the downstroke is the thicker stroke.  With your pencil draw a line to fake this look, ending each line by blending with the curve to the upstroke.

hand lettering step 5

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Carefully follow your pencil lines with a fine-tipped pen. I use Sharpie Pens and I think they work perfectly for hand lettering – no bleeding or anything like that. But use what you’re comfortable with/what you have. A fine black gel pen would work nicely as well, but you could even use a ballpoint if that’s what you have. Don’t put off learning this because you think you need XYZ equipment. You don’t.

Note that there will be shaky parts. I’ve found that the slower I go, the better it all turns out, which kind of goes against what my gut tells me. Don’t worry about shaky hands. We’ll have a chance to fix that in a few steps if you want, plus this is just practice and learning!

Another tip – picking up your pen between letters is fine and encouraged! You can see exactly where I did it on mine. I just suggest finding places where you can either blend in any mistakes or that will be colored over so that you don’t have to worry too much about making perfect transitions.

Scan0015

Now the fun part – color in the “spaces”. I love this part because it often goes from being a hot mess to a pretty looking calligraphy! I like to use a felt tipped pen like a PaperMate Flair since it’s a little thicker and more marker like, making it easier to ‘color’. (also, please note at this point I realized that scanning would probably work better. :))

If you’re looking for more ways to get creative, make sure you grab my FREE snack cookbook, “Eat the Rainbow” which features 10 fun, themed fruit and vegetable snacks in a rainbow of colors!

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If you would like your lines to look smoother and more fluid, after you “color” your letters, go over all the lines with the slightly thicker pen – it will make your transitions look smoother and more natural. Also, erase all of your pencil lines now.

Scan0016

This last step is optional, but if it’s something I really like and if I’m feeling like a perfectionist I’ll do it. Go through each letter and smooth out the sides with your thinnest pen. I usually use the fine Sharpie. This helps makes alleviate any shaky hands from earlier. Kind of my ‘secret’ for making it look like I know what I’m doing. And then you’re done! (You can also use a favorite of the lettering world, the Micron pens, which are made in a variety of thicknesses.)

Just be warned – it’s an addiction! But I love this hobby because it’s cheap (a pen, pencil and some paper are all you really need!), useful, and I can spend only 5 minutes practicing it if that’s what time I have. I hope you all enjoyed learning a bit more about this trendy skill, and that you enjoyed learning from another self-taught beginner

RELATED: DIY Hand Lettered Silhouette Nursey Print

Please, please, please let me know what you think in the comments! Is this something you would like me to expand on? Do you like hand lettering? Do you hand letter already?

Want to learn more? Brit+Co has SO many awesome online classes for affordable prices! Here are a few I thought you’d like!

Looking for more posts on hand lettering? Check out these!!

fake a hand lettered print

How to Fake a Hand Lettered Print.

DIY Nursery Decoration

DIY Nursery Decoration.

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Comments

  1. Sarah @ Seriously Lovely says

    January 26, 2016 at 9:11 am

    I think it would be fun to read more posts about this! I definitely get intimidated whenever I try to learn something like this thinking that I need to go out and buy special paper and pens, so I really appreciate your approach. I have some projects I wouldn’t mind do some hand lettering with, so any tips would be great!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 8:24 am

      It’s so much fun, too! I’ve actually made some cute nursery print using this in the past and they came out so cute! Stay tuned for some more tutorials 😉

  2. Liz @ I Heart Vegetables says

    January 26, 2016 at 10:49 am

    That is SO beautiful! I would love to be able to hand letter like that. My sister in law does calligraphy and she actually addressed all of our wedding invitations for us! It was so beautiful!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 8:34 am

      I did our Christmas cards all fun, and I almost regretted it after a few since it was pretty time consuming (being a beginner). But they came out so cute and I got so many compliments! I would love to learn real calligraphy one day!

  3. Heather@hungryforbalance says

    January 26, 2016 at 1:05 pm

    It is so cool that you taught yourself how to do this!!! I use to be really into calligraphy when I was younger and I would LOVE to read about your experiences with it!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 8:35 am

      I always wanted to learn ‘real’ calligraphy! I dig faking it, but I see a fancy pants pointed pen and ink in my future. I love that it’s kind of trency and modernized now, rather than the Old timey calligraphy.

  4. Julie S says

    January 26, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Well that is lovely! I suppose if you scrapbook or write a lot of letters by hand this would be a fun way to add a personal touch 🙂

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 9:06 am

      I’ve been trying out using a Bullet Journal, which is basically a DIY journal and I’m loving using this technique for headings and whatnot!

  5. Heather @ Polyglot Jot says

    January 26, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    So cool! 🙂 You should make a little etsy shop–you could handletter greeting cards for people.
    I tried this out a bit when I was engaged because I decided to handletter all of my invitations for each address. It turned out pretty good–but man was it tiring!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 9:19 am

      Oh you’re too sweet! I’ve thought about doing a shop for prints, but I don’t think I’m at that point in my talent though, hahha. Some of those Etsy sellers as so incredibly talented!! Maybe one day! ANd I feel you, I did the same thing with my Christmas cards. They came out so cute, but it was a TON of work!

  6. Emma says

    January 28, 2016 at 1:14 am

    This is awesome! I’ve always admired hand-lettering but I thought you needed a special pointed pen. Totally going to give this a try – thank you!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 9:40 am

      That’s what I thought as well! I love that it can be done with a plain old pen! Thanks for stopping by, Emma!

  7. Ann says

    January 29, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Great post! Handwriting is becomng a lost art. This is a great way to create custom signs – something I am just getting into! Thanks for sharing…
    Ann
    http://theapplestreetcottage.blogspot.com/

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 9:23 am

      It’s so much fun! I’m trying to cover an entire wall in my kitchen in homemade prints made this way.

  8. Beth says

    January 30, 2016 at 8:02 am

    Great post about something I’ve wanted to do for a long time! This is one of. my faves this week on Wake Up Wednesday, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 9:38 am

      Oh, thank you! I’m honored. It’s such a fun and easy trick to learn!

  9. Linda Kilsdonk says

    January 31, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Wonderful tutorial on beginning hand lettering! And your sample letting piece turned out beautifully! I followed your board on Pinterest. I am surely going to give this a try. Thanks for sharing! Smiles, Linda at Paper Seedlings

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 1, 2016 at 9:39 am

      Oh thank you so much! It appreciated. I’m glad you followed the Pinterest board- it’s great for inspiration! Thanks for stopping by, Linda!

  10. Janis Cox says

    February 1, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    Morgan,
    This works so well with what I am attempting – Bible Journaling – or Bible Painting. I use bubble letters right now because I am pretty confident in doing them. But this looks amazing and I will certainly try it. I will link this post next Saturday on Word of God Speak when I will be showing 3 more Bible paintings. But this can show another way to write.
    Blessings,
    Janis

    Reply
  11. Erin @ Stay At Home Yogi says

    February 1, 2016 at 9:15 pm

    You read my mind – I have been wanting to try this so bad! You’re so good at it. I will give this a try during the next good naptime! 🙂

    Reply
  12. Sherry@savvyapron says

    February 2, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    Thank you, I am going to start today!!

    Reply
  13. Judy@CranberryMorning says

    February 2, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    I loved this post and am heading off to round up my supplies. I love that it’s all ordinary stuff, or at least stuff I already have. Thank you!!

    Reply
  14. Rashel says

    February 3, 2016 at 12:53 am

    I always think how pretty it is when I see someone do this, but didn’t think I could ever get it to look right. Thank you for the simple instructions, I think I can give it a try now!
    Visiting through Mama Moments.

    Reply
  15. Jenny @ Unremarkable Files says

    February 3, 2016 at 9:02 am

    So pretty!

    Reply
  16. Frani says

    February 4, 2016 at 6:11 pm

    Can’t wait to try this! Thank you so much for the instructions!!!!

    Reply
  17. Kathy says

    February 6, 2016 at 5:16 pm

    I LOVE hand lettering. I have recently been getting into watercolour typography as well as using fine liners. I am definitely not a professional so I love seeing how other people create their letterings because we all have different techniques. I have been meaning to do a blogpost about my own techniques as well! xx

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 7, 2016 at 10:11 am

      I LOVE watching the watercolour ones on IG. They’re so pretty and mesmerizing! I would love to learn that.

  18. Amanda says

    February 6, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing! This is amazing! Visiting you from the Mama Moments Monday link up. Blessings!

    Reply
  19. Sam @ Living The Dutch Dream says

    February 7, 2016 at 10:04 am

    It’s funny that I just came across this post. I wast just having a play with my watercolours and sharpie pens to try to make something for valentines but no matter how hard I tried the lettering was sadly lacking.

    In the end I gave up and came downstairs to have a mooch around on the internet and low and behold your post popped up.

    Thanks for the tips, I’m going to keep trying x

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      February 7, 2016 at 2:09 pm

      Definitely keep trying! I suggest following a few different places on

  20. swapna says

    February 16, 2016 at 8:41 am

    Sometimes I feel compelled to hand write when I don’t get the appropriate font! But I don’t think I’ll be any good! Sometimes I myself don’t und what I’ve written! Tee hee!

    Would love to see your posts in the Practical Mondays Link Up:)

    Reply
  21. Rebekah {crayonsinmycamerabag} says

    February 19, 2016 at 3:00 pm

    This is beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing! I love looking at beautiful hand lettering, but I find it incredibly intimidating. I think I can follow the steps you laid out, though. 🙂 Going to follow along now so I don’t miss any more of these posts!

    Reply
  22. Carol says

    February 24, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    Thanks for sharing at my party last week and what timing. I am on a hand lettering binge ( well learning) right now! Featuring when my party opens up tomorrow night. Great tutorial.

    Reply
  23. Theresa @DearCreatives says

    February 25, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    Great tutorial! Beautiful lettering. Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Pinned & shared. Hope to see you again soon.

    Reply
  24. Amy M says

    March 2, 2016 at 9:27 am

    I know it would take practice, but that is something that could be beautiful for artwork once one masters the basics. I remember learning the very basics of calligraphy when I was in middle school, but it’s been a long time since I tried anything like this. Fun!

    Reply
  25. Amberjane says

    March 2, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    I love this I am going to give it a try – thank you for sharing with Pin Worthy Wednesday

    Reply
  26. Char @ Truly Epic says

    March 2, 2016 at 11:39 pm

    What a cool art! You really should consider going the Etsy route. 🙂

    Reply
  27. Jen @ Noting Grace says

    March 3, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    Oh I love this tutorial. I have a chalkboard that I’ve been wanting to add a saying to, but haven’t had the guts to try it. This makes it so much easier! I foresee lots of hand lettering in my future!

    Reply
  28. Shellie says

    March 8, 2016 at 5:47 am

    Morgan, I love the personal touch of hand lettering and I’m crazy about monogramming. I have chosen this as one of my featured favs from last week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop. I will be featuring you on my site this week.

    Shellie

    Reply
  29. Sarah Nenni Daher says

    March 10, 2016 at 10:11 am

    This is so much fun! I’ve definitely been doing it ‘the hard way,’ so I’ll be attempting this later today.

    Thank you for linking up to the Thank Goodness It’s Thursday link party – obviously, I had to choose this as a feature!

    Reply
  30. Jeniece @ On the Go Mommy says

    April 30, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    Definitely trying this! Can’t wait, great instructions 🙂 not too intimidating.

    Reply
  31. francis hartzer says

    May 8, 2016 at 1:00 pm

    hi, my name is francis and im a beginner!
    im from south africa. ive just started bible journaling and need to learn to write nice/fancy. i love your post because its easy and simple and wont take me forever to learn.
    thank you

    Reply
  32. Shana Swindle says

    June 13, 2016 at 9:46 pm

    I have tried to subscribe to your mailing list so I can receive the practice lettering sheets, but am not having any luck getting a confirmation email. 🙁 Would you mind checking for me? Thanks for your help and generosity in sharing!

    Reply
  33. PUJA says

    July 12, 2016 at 6:35 am

    Thank you so much! your way of explaining really makes it easy to pick up that pen and start..its always so intimidating not knowing how to begin..you changed that!

    Hope to see more ideas come to life with this 🙂

    Reply
  34. Ruth says

    July 16, 2016 at 6:28 am

    Wow! Thank you so much for these great instructions!
    I am just overwhelmed by all these perfect instructions on Pinterest like you were but while browsing Pinterest for free worksheets so I could start practicing calligraphy, I found this tutorial. SO helpful!
    It really encouraged me to finally get started. I am quite good at cursive already because I’m from Germany and learned it in first grade. So all it needed was this post.
    THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🙂

    Reply
  35. Melanie says

    July 21, 2016 at 11:06 pm

    You totally opened my world up to making my own wall art now! I am super excited, now I just have to do it! 🙂 Thank you so much for the tutorial, this will definitely be a post I will be coming back to over and over again and sharing!

    Reply
  36. Kendall says

    August 10, 2016 at 9:27 am

    I’ve been teaching myself a bit of handlettering, too. I really enjoy doing it and can’t wait to make more. I like how simple it is to get started and how beautifully things come together! 🙂

    Reply
  37. Kate says

    August 10, 2016 at 10:56 am

    This is awesome! I’m so glad I came across this because I’ve been curious and I’m sure that I could use the same idea for chalkboard lettering as well!

    Thanks for joining us this week at the Wake Up Wednesday link party! Hope to see you again next week!
    Kate | TheOrganizedDream.com

    Reply
  38. Lisa says

    August 12, 2016 at 11:35 pm

    Looks fun.

    Reply
  39. Sandra Garth says

    August 13, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    Great tutorial and thanks for sharing your links with us at Celebrate Your Story.

    Reply
  40. Marilyn says

    September 2, 2016 at 9:02 pm

    I am a newbie to lettering. Searching out how to video’s and simple steps. I appreciate your article. I love that you need a pen, pencil and paper to get started and some sharpies. Don’t want to invest a lot of money in the event I am not good at it. You asked for some suggestions. I would like to address envelopes so they look pretty. I would also like to do thank you cards or birthday cards. I am not an artist but I love to be creative. Anything along those lines would be a interest to me. Thank you for your inspiration. Just want I needed to start my on a new journey. Would love to send things that are personalized by me.

    Reply
  41. Jagu says

    September 9, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    Love this post. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at this for a long time and now I think I may start tonight. Please post more about hand lettering – tips, how to design to print, etc. Thank you

    Reply
  42. Mary says

    March 15, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    My desire is to make my own greeting cards for family and friends. Hand lettering is a large part of it. Thank you for the encouragement and assistance to go forward. Relaxing fun! I love it!

    Reply
  43. Hannah says

    March 16, 2019 at 4:54 am

    Thank you so much!! I was just “browsing” through tutorials, trying to find out what kinds of pens I should buy before I get started. But I will try this now, with what I already have. Thank you.

    Reply
  44. Darla Childress says

    February 19, 2020 at 9:41 pm

    I love all your letters! You explain how to do it so good that even I understood🤣🤣 I’m totally new at it, but love it already! Thank you for all the tips! It helped me a lot!
    Sincerely,
    Darla

    Reply

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