I'm currently lettering the Situation comic. Of all the steps in a comic I'm probably least at ease with the lettering. I prefer hand written letters over fonts from the computer but I worry about legibility. I think the vast majority of comics are lettered using computer programs, at least when I google it all that comes up are computer lettering tutorials. Although I did find this Plea For Hand Lettering that sums up my thoughts. Especially the idea that comics and the letters are part of the same overall thing. That seems obvious but many people don't treat it that way. Another thing about lettering is I'm not sure how long it should take. I do it pretty fast so I'm not researching it in case I'm going to fast....
5 Comments on Letter Days, last added: 7/13/2010
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I love it! Very nice indeed :)
I'm sure you've thought of this but- when I need to hand letter something, I go into Photoshop and use a plain font to enter the text and get the size and spacing correct. Then I open another layer and enlarge the image to 300 percent. Using a hard round brush, I loosely trace over the font underneath...not following the line exactly, but using it as a guide. When done, I delete the font layer and I have well spaced text in my own hand so it has that imperfect appeal. Hope this helps. (ps...important to work at 300 percent or your line will be shakey)
Thanks Lara!
thanks Anon! Great idea, and nope, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe in a few years, lol. I'll give it a try. I'm already deep into the lettering of this project so I'll just finish this way but I'll try it on the next project.
As always a beautiful drawing, and I prefer hand written on comics. It has a sense of intimacy about it.
I agree, thanks Fearless!