Brush lettering practice

There is nothing more satisfying for me to do lately than practicing my brush lettering everyday. I have been posting photos of what I have done on my Instagram (Azlina Abdul) every other day from late last year till now. The photos above are photos of brush lettering practices that I have posted there and I wanted to share them with everyone here too.

For me brush lettering is not something that is easy for me to do but somehow doing it makes me feel so relaxed and at peace. I prefer to use watercolour as my medium to practice brush lettering but I also love to explore other mediums like inks of various kinds. 

I would start by choosing a sentiment that I love and practice writing it with any brush tool I like.....and will keep writing and writing till my hand is sore. I won't give up until I am truly satisfied with the outcome. Usually when I start, it doesn't always look as nice as the photos you see here. It would take a while before it looks ok for me to post them online. A lot of papers wasted in the process, believe you me. But it is necessary in order to get the hang of it. 

There are a lot of styles when it comes to brush lettering and at the moment I seem to be good with my own style. Haha! Just one. One that I am comfortable with. It's close to my own handwriting. The only difference is the letter "R". I usually write my R in a different way, but now I'm practicing it the way it's supposed to be written. There are so many styles of writing the letter R in calligraphy, especially if you write it using a different tool. For now I'm just gonna practice with brushes......perhaps in future I'll use calligraphy pens too. Those are super interesting to try! :) 

As for brushes.....I would have to say that the water brush is simply a wonderful tool for brush lettering. I just wish they make them smaller in size, then I would be able to write smaller writings on paper for my handmade cards. For now I only use those  watercolour brushes for small lettering. The effect it gives is of course different with different tools used. So I just have to know which works out well for which project I'm making.

Hello 2016!

A brand new day, a brand new year, a brand new, new year's resolution perhaps??? hahahhaa.....I'm not going to make a list of new year's resolutions anymore. I'm too old for that. I just do what I can, when I can haha!! But I do have a new love. And that is calligraphy!

I fell deeply in love with it last December....and whenever I have the time to spare, I would spend it on practicing writing either with pencil, pen, water brush or just with a water colour brush. I just got my water brush yesterday and I've been spending time all day writing with it. Ok ok......not all day, perhaps for a good few hours, since I do need time to do other things like to eat, do laundry, clean the house and a million other things, LOL! If only I have a live in help to do all the other things for me, then I can play all day in my craft room. Wouldn't that be simply divine :).

I just wanted to share the brush calligraphy that I did today with my new water brush. And a video of me writing that "Hello 2016" with much fear of making mistakes. Haha! I think I took about 10 videos of it before I got it right. Doing a video can be really exhausting! Only those who have done so would understand the pain of making a craft video. It ain't easy, I tell ya! Even if it is merely a minute. Haha!

I do hope to be able to learn more on calligraphy this year and somehow incorporate it more in my artwork, especially for my handmade cards. It would be awesome if I could. So much to learn and discover. Exciting things to explore. I wish all of us the best for this new year. May we learn and become the best that we can be and more. :)