Showcase your brush lettering skills and get to know other who share your love for brush lettering.

How to join the challenge for free:

1. Download and/or print the prompt graphic for this month.
2. Post this graphic on Instagram or Twitter to let us know you’re joining along.
3. Every day, share a picture or video of your brush lettering on Instagram, Twitter or Periscope using the hashtag #brushletterpracticechallenge.
4. Check out other awesome people using the hashtag and leave them some likes and comments!

Download and Pin the graphic below!

Click to tweet: I’m joining @randomoliveblog this month for the #brushletterpracticechallenge. Find out more at http://bit.ly/blpchallenge

How about some extra guidance?

I’ve created a set of traceables to help you practice all of this month’s prompts.

Downloadable, printable, traceable pages to get your brushy letters looking smooth. Also comes with extra lined paper.

Looking for the original Brush Letter Practice Guide with over 250 printable pages and a structured 45-day practice schedule? Click here.

With your newfound lettering skills, you’re interested in putting together your favorite quote as a piece of art. (You may also be wondering how I put together quotes like I do here)

I use a mix of physical and digital techniques. Letters and words are created on paper and then all the composition and color is added digitally. I’ll show you how I put it all together here.

Part 1: Letter on Paper

I’m lettering the phrase: “insert your favorite quote here” with black sumi ink that I’ve filled into a Pentel Aquash Waterbrush in Medium (affiliate link).

First thing to tell you. I do not compose the words on paper. I letter each word separately with the intent to cut it up and re-organize it in the computer.

Why? I know myself. I have a touch of perfectionism and I’d be totally unrelaxed and locked up if I knew it wasn’t just a draft. Also, if I mess up the spacing or spelling of one of the words, I can just letter that small portion again.

I also know that I letter big. It’s my way of getting smooth lines. So a standard letter-sized sheet of paper doesn’t have much room to play. Longer quotes or saying will often take up 2 to 4 sheets of paper to fit all my lettering.

This page gets to sit and dry for a few hours while I go eat a snack or a meal and watch TV.

When I come back to it, I scan at 600 dpi on grayscale using my Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner (affiliate link)

Part 2: Separate the Words from the Background

The next part is to separate the lettering from the white background. I like to use this process to keep the translucency of the letters – it keeps a brushy texture when layered over photos and other backgrounds.

I’m using Photoshop Elements 11 for this process.

Rotate the image.

Convert to RGB color.
Use levels to make sure the white is really white and the black is dark.

Convert the background layer to an editable layer.
Add a layer mask to the layer.

Select all and copy your lettering.
Paste your lettering into the layer mask.

Invert the layer mask.

Simplify layer.

And the white background is totally gone! You can now see the checkerboard pattern, which means it’s all empty pixels.

Use levels to make sure the black are dark again.

Part 3: Slice

When cutting the words apart, I put each word on its own layer. This will make it easy to move things around and rotate if necessary. Knowing that I was going to cut apart the words, I make sure to leave sufficient white space in my lettering stage.

Select the word using the rectangular marquee tool.

Right click.
Layer by cut.

Repeat for each word.

Avoid the word that was an error.
Hide the original layer.

Now each word is on its own layer to be able to manipulate.

Part 4: Compose

I use the move tool to click and drag the words to the ideal position. You can also turn on the gridlines to better see if things are aligned and then rotate any words that are crooked. I also like turning on a guideline in the center of the page to make sure things are centered.

After moving things around to my liking, I’ll crop down and save as a PNG file.

Part 5: Create Your Final Print Size and Add Color

Open a new document with the final print size you want to create. In this case, we’re creating an 4×4 print.

Resize your PNG file to fit.

Drag in your PNG file.

If you wanted a simple black and white print, you’re done here.

To add a solid color, create a new layer and fill it with whichever color you choose.

Clip the color layer to your lettering layer.

To add a watercolor effect, create a new layer and fill it with a watercolor pattern.

Clip the pattern layer to your lettering layer.

I have a variety of watercolor effects in my collection from Nicky Laatz and MakeMediaCo. (The Mammoth! Watercolour Kit, Give Me Watercolour Textures Quick!, The Ultimate Watercolor Bundle – affiliate links)

And that’s it!

Ready to see some letters in action?

In these videos, I’m using a Pentel Aquash Waterbrush (affiliate link) in Medium with the Artist Loft Watercolor palette from Michael’s (similar palette here – affiliate link) and the jumbo sized practice pages from the Brush Letter Practice Guide.

Watch the video playlist below to see all the letters in action.

(click here to watch on YouTube directly)

Click to Tweet: Learn to brush letter lowercase letters with @randomoliveblog with this video playlist!

Ready to get practicing? Get the downloadable, printable, traceable Brush Letter Practice Guide.

If you’ve been practicing your brush lettering, you might be starting to think of ways to get creative and add variety to your style. I have a list of ten examples here to get you started on some ideas.

This is your typical style with consistent use of thicks and thins within the letter forms and keeping a consistent baseline with the words.

Here we start to play with the baseline a bit to exaggerate those curves and get a playful feel to the letters.

Go at an angle with all your letters. You can use this with a consistent baseline or with a bouncy baseline.

Go tall and narrow with this style. Exaggerate the height of your letters and bring them closer together.

Thicker and shorter is the name of the game here.

Flourishes are not my strong suit, but they can add an extra swirly touch.

Set the letters relatively farther apart from each other than you usually would.

Keep your brush pressure steady to try to make all the lines thin in your letters.

Same idea as the delicate monoline, but we’re also adding a bouncy baseline.

This one’s not a script at all and takes some practice to form totally different letter shapes.

Experiment with all the styles and mix them up to see which ones you enjoy the most. Participating in a lettering challenge will give you plenty of excuses to try them all out. Check out the monthly Brush Letter Practice Challenge here.