Helen Mirren said, “Self-doubt is the thing that drives you to improve yourself.” I first read this quote and said to myself, “WTF, Helen!? Self-doubt is the thing that drives you insane!” In my experience, self-doubt is a default mode that I must fight against each day in order to succeed as an artist. I wanted to know why Helen, a creator that I deeply respect, would say such a thing. Upon further investigation, I think I see what she meant.
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A great way to get into calligraphy is with the brush pen. The brush pen is very versatile, and it continues to create really beautiful results as you get more advanced. The ink is already loaded and ready to go, so it is easy to use. It’s not as complicated as you might think to get started. To be successful, you don't have to get the perfect, most expensive tools. You only need a brush pen and paper to start. I will tell you which supplies I wish I'd known of in the beginning before I went crazy buying the wrong things.
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Even the mention of Photoshop can be daunting because it is such a robust program. Photoshop is amazing, and I suggest learning as much as you can about it, but sometimes we just want to know one or two techniques specifically for lettering and calligraphy. Putting the design over a photo with blending modes is one way of digitizing your hand-lettering that is simple and versatile. I use this technique all the time to spice up my lettering pieces. I will take you step by step from original piece to finished composition, using blend modes, spot healing cleanup, and layering order. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means. I’ll explain. This is an intro to Photoshop that is easy to follow along.
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In this post, I share with you a fast and effective way to create this faux reflection look on lettering using a stippling gradient. This is otherwise known as pointillism. You can draw this out in pencil and then go over with stippling, but my way using tracing paper is faster and easily maintains the organic look of the original brush lettering.
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There are lots of ways to add shadow to lettering. Drawing the shadow with ink, pencil, chisel tip pen, paint, etc are perfectly good ways of adding dimension. Though, they can take quite a bit of time. Today I’d like to show you a couple ways to quickly and efficiently add dimension to your lettering using only brush pens. I will go over black shadows, shades, offset shadows, and color combinations.
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Compare and Despair
You know the feeling. You’re sensing a bit of a rut with your creativity, so you decide to take a look at some others’ work for a boost of inspiration. You start looking through Instagram, blogs, Facebook, or some other medium, and that sinking feeling creeps in. By the time you notice it, you are so far down the spiral, you don’t even know when inspiration was replaced with the feeling of overwhelming self-doubt. Now you don’t want to make anything at all. What’s the point?
So what happened? Compare and despair happened. The minute you measure your own work to the work of others, the feeling of despair sets in.
There have been whole years that I let comparing get the best of me, and I didn’t engage in my creative pursuits. Now, when feel it coming on, it lasts no longer than an hour. This has taken a lot of practice to curb. I have found a few tried and true solutions to overcome the compare and despair monster. And I'd like to share them with you.
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If you're struggling to start writing that novel, or forming that band, or getting your business idea off the ground, you might be stuck overthinking it. Overthinking can keep some of us paralyzed for days and even years at a time. There is a solution, and it’s pretty simple. The answer is to just start.
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