You may be coming to a place in your coloring where you want to add your own embellishments or personalize some of your favorite colorings for gifts for others with hand lettering. You can always trace something you create from your computer but most of us that enjoy creating artsy things may want to learn to do this part of the craft ourselves.
Luckily, there are several amazing calligraphers and hand lettering experts out there to help. We have also provided our favorite hand lettering art supplies here to help you get started.
Hand Lettering “How To” Books
Hand Lettering 101
An Introduction to the Art of Creative Lettering from Paige Tate. To start off with, this book is just super cute with its polka dots and size. It’s spiral bound so it opens flat for you to be able to do the exercises you are given.
Includes:
• Hardcover, oversized gold binding and gold corner protectors
• Step-by-step instructions for how to create various fonts and designs
• Thick premium paper, perfect for lettering
• Beautiful coffee table book and practical workbook
Click to Order Amazon US, UK, France, Spain or Canada
Hand Lettering (An Interactive Guide to the Art of Drawing Letters)
This 160-page book has the best reviews of any lettering book on Amazon.
- Learn five major hand-lettering styles, then transform your writing into art.
- Practice pages allow you space to master each letter in every style.
- Sections demonstrate how to embellish your letters, mix different styles for emphasis and flare, add decorative effects like shading, and combine text and illustration.
- Easy-to-follow tutorials and sections to trace, color, or complete make hand-lettering approachable for anyone.
- Project ideas demonstrate ways to brighten everyday items, create striking art, and add a meaningful touch to gifts through hand-lettering.
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Hand Lettering for Relaxation
An Inspirational Workbook for Creating Beautiful Lettered Art by Amy Latta. While hand lettering can look intimidating, artist and blogger Amy Latta has a friendly and down-to-earth approach that will give you the confidence to draw impressive designs after practice. This book contains 46 workshops to help you progress through the steps of hand lettering. Click to Order Amazon US, UK, France, Spain or Canada
The Ultimate Guide to Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering for Beginners
This is a new book in 2019 by June & Lucy. They provide an inexpensive Learn to Letter book in their Hand Lettering Workbook with Tips, Techniques, Practice Pages, and Projects. You can also find them on Insta to share your work and ask for tips. Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada
Happy Hand Lettering: An Inspirational Guide for Creating Beautiful Words of Life
This book has nothing but 5-star reviews! WOW! The author says ” We are not aiming for perfection, we are aiming for Joy and by hand lettering scripture verses, positive messages and life-giving words, creative hearts can release their inhibitions, feeling free to make mistakes, try again, and celebrate the journey– both in lettering and in life.” This book is large 8 x 10″ & spiral bound. Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada
The Ultimate Guide to Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering for Beginners
Learn to Letter: A Hand Lettering Workbook with Tips, Techniques, Practice Pages, and Projects by June & Lucy. Click to Order US, UK or Canada
Pretty Simple Lettering
Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide to Beautiful Hand Lettering & Brush Pen Calligraphy Design. This book is Spiral Bound 11 x 10 with 126 Pages. Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada
Lettering for Absolute Beginners Workbook: Complete Faux Calligraphy How-to Guide with Simple Projects
Learn How to Create Gorgeous Alphabets with Any Pen on Any Surface with regular pens. Nothing fancy is required by the author of this book Danielle Stringer (just published by Fox Chapel. Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada
Fearless Flourishing
The Art of Whimsical Letter by Joanne Sharpe
This was one of the first books I picked up on the topic of hand-lettering and it’s still one of my favorites. Her examples are both easy to follow and easy to adapt to your own style.
Joanne then demonstrates twenty art techniques for creating a variety of lettering styles using many different tools. She provides you with fifteen basic alphabets, ranging from simple pen-and-ink renditions to increasingly elaborated texts that reference calligraphy, vintage fonts, and doodle art, among other styles. Joanne also teaches you how to turn prosaic lettering into page art itself, merging text into illustration, or ornamental words with decorative drawings. Click to Order
Joanne Sharpe also has just published a book entitled The Art of Whimsical Stitching if you have ever taken your favorite coloring book artists to fabric, this is the perfect accompaniment for you.
Chalk Lettering is SUPER popular right now and this book is amazing. It has a practice chalkboard built right into the book.
The Complete Book of Chalk Lettering: Develop and Create Your Own Style
In over 60 lessons, learn the ABCs of lettering (literally) and basic styles: serif, sans serif, and script. Next, how to lay out a design, combine various styles into one cohesive piece, add shadows and dimension. Master more advanced letter styles, from faceted to ribbon to “vintage circus.” Use banners, borders, and flourishes. Click to Order US UK Canada
Zenspirations Lettering and Patterns by Joanne Finke
This is another of my personal favorite books that is packed with great information to take basic block lettering to something really special to embellish your projects.
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Brush Pen Lettering
A Step-by-Step Workbook for Learning Decorative Scripts and Creating Inspired New Styles
Click to Order Book on Amazon US, UK or Canada
Creative Lettering and Beyond
Inspiring tips, techniques, and ideas for hand lettering your way to beautiful works of art
This book has four sections featuring different artists, Gabri Joy Kirkendall, Laura Lavender, Julie Manwaring, Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn each share their own specialties in the book. After a brief introduction to the various tools and materials, lettering enthusiasts will learn how to master the art of hand lettering and typography through engaging, easy-to-follow step-by-step projects, prompts, and exercises. From the basic shape and form of letters to cursive script, spacing, and alignment, artists will discover how to transform simple words, phrases, and quotes into beautiful works of hand-lettered art.
Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada
Dawn Nichol runs a wonderful hand lettering group on Facebook and Instagram where she posts a lettering challenge a day and invites those new to the art to share their images with others on social media. In her first book, she goes into some basics and gives you pretty coloring pages to practice and some other projects to have fun with.
Words to Live By – Creative Hand Lettering, Coloring & Inspirations
This book is very basic and includes quite a bit of material in it that is not strictly lettering exercises or lessons. If you are brand new then this is a good book to start with but you’ll want to move on to something else for a more in-depth introduction or join her on Facebook here. She also offers freebie practice sheets on her website. Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada
If you have an artistic younger member of the family, Dawn has created a book just for them as well. Adventures in Hand-Lettering 40 Exercise to improve your Hand Lettering skills Many of the reviews say it’s a great book for beginning adults as well.
Explore our Top Hand Lettering Supplies article here.
Hand Lettering Tutorial Videos
How to do Cheater Calligraphy
Brush Lettering Practice
Hand Lettering Accents Tutorial
If you have any questions or other favorite tutorials please be sure to share there below.
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