How To Do Hand Lettering With Chisel Tip Marker

In this lettering art tutorial I am going to be giving you a full little quick guide so that you can learn how to do hand lettering with Chisel Tip Marker. 

Of course, I am going to be going over some misconceptions when talking about this type of hand lettering and why it is called hand lettering instead of calligraphy when using a chisel tip marker. 

Well, here I am just going to be giving a brief summary of some questions that I am going to be answering and topics that I am going to be talking about.

• Can you do Calligraphy With Chisel Tip Marker
• Materials
• Why is it called Handlettering Instead of Calligraphy
• How Do You Use Chisel TIp Marker For Calligraphy
• What To Practice When Starting Out
• Final Thoughts

Can You Do Calligraphy With Chisel Tip Marker

You can do Calligraphy with a chisel tip marker. Well, you will get the effect of calligraphy and it might not be considered to be actual modern calligraphy.

If you are a beginner into lettering or calligraphy I do not recommend using a chisel tip marker because it can be quite hard for a beginner. 

If you are on a budget I would recommend Crayola markers to start off with which I have done a tutorial on. You could check it out here.

So like I said above this might not be considered actual modern calligraphy when using a chisel tip marker which is something that you might want to consider.

Then again not a big deal because you will get the same effect. 

But I am going to get a little bit into it as a disclaimer so we just have it out their so that others can understand.

Why Is it Called Hand Lettering Instead of Calligraphy

Ok so like I said I am going to be explaining why this might not be seen as actual calligraphy.

First a lot of the times hand lettering is referred to faux calligraphy aka fake calligraphy.

A lot of times people also use the words “cheating calligraphy” or something similar to that.

Well the way I learned the definition of lettering (modern calligraphy) as the art of illustrating letters with flexible tools.

What I mean by flexible tools is that the tips of the pens are flexible like a brush pen. Or another way to put it is you can get your thin up strokes with light pressure and the more pressure you put on the tip the thicker the stroke.

This includes the following pens: regular calligraphy pen, brush pen, crayola marker, even a pencil, and there are lists of so many more. Notice that I didn’t specifically say chisel tip marker.

A chisel tip marker is not considered a flexible pen leading to that you can not do modern calligraphy/lettering.

DISCLAIMER: Yes you can consider it calligraphy if you are talking about traditional calligraphy (not modern calligraphy/lettering). 

With a chisel tip marker you actually have to move the wrist of your hand or the angle of the pen to be able to get your thick strokes and thin strokes. Instead of using the method of less pressure and more pressure. 

Any way let’s get started

Materials

PAPER

Honestly since we are not using a flexible marker like a brush pen you could probably use any type of paper. 

But I would make sure that it is bleed proof.

CHISEL TIP MARKER

For this tutorial I am going to be using a Prismacolor Premier chisel tip marker.

Of course any type of marker with a chisel tip is fine. 

How Do You Use Chisel Tip Marker for Modern Calligraphy

Ok the very first thing that I want to talk about is how exactly are you going to have to hold your chisel tip marker for lettering. 

Well you are going to have to get used to holding it two ways.

One is for your upstrokes 

Another is for your downstrokes

Again like I said above this is not a flexible tool so the only way to get different line weight is to actually move the angle of your pen.

It is actually quite hard to explain but I will be adding pictures so don’t worry.

Any way when doing your upstrokes you could either hold your marker two ways. 

One just hold it to where only the tip of your marker is touching the paper.

Two you hold the marker to where only the slim side is touching the paper.

Now down strokes you are going to be holding your pen like you are going to be highlighting something in a downwards motion.

Here is an example.

After doing that you are going to want to just practice moving in between these motions with your pen and writing on the paper.

Let’s move on to

What To Practice When Starting Out

So of course I would first like you to practice what I have just talked about above. 

You should be able to somewhat hold the chisel tip marker correctly with ease before starting to move on to this point.

Any way the very first thing that you are going to practice (this includes with any type of lettering) is the basic strokes. 

When practicing you should be using these guide lines:

Here I am just going to be going through all of the basic strokes to just give you a brief understanding of what these are like and what they are used for. 

UPSTROKE/DOWNSTROKE

OVERTURN/UNDERTURN

ASCENDING LOOP/DESCENDING LOOP

COMPOUND CURVE

OVAL

After looking through that I would recommend to sketch out some guidelines like this:

This will help you to be able to stay consistent with your strokes which is something that you are aiming for.

After mastering the basic strokes I would recommend to then use these strokes to start forming letters, words, and phrases. 

For example with the lowercase letter H you are going to need an upstroke, ascending loop, and compound curve to form the letter.

This is the very base of calligraphy and you can always tell if someone is not using the basic strokes in their lettering. Well of course after learning and mastering these concepts you can break the rules to start developing your own style.

But first learn the basics.

Let me show you some other letters that are formed by the basic strokes.

Final Thoughts

You have now just learned the very base of lettering with a chisel tip marker. 

Again this is something that I would not recommend lettering with as a beginner since it is quite harder than using a regular brush pen. 

It is possible to be able to learn this concept so don’t say I told you not to do it. Just get into it and you would get your own lettering art in no time.