Is Hand Lettering Hard For Beginners

You are wanting to start doing lettering but you are nervous thinking that you can’t do it.

You are procrastinating and think this must be too hard to even learn hand lettering.

Well, I am here to prove you wrong.

As any other skill hand lettering takes time.

So I am going to be answering the question today Is Hand Lettering Hard?

Here is just the short answer since some of you are always in a hurry:

Hand lettering in some ways or another is going to be hard for everyone. But it may become harder if you are not learning it in the correct way. For example, if you don’t start off by learning the basic strokes of calligraphy then it may become hard for you in the long run.

Now for the rest of the article, I am going to be going more in-depth on what this explanation means.

This is a summary of what you are going to learn today:

• In-depth Explanation
• Why It Is Important To Learn the Basic Strokes
• How You Can Start on the Right Foot
• Myths About Learning Hand Lettering
• Final Thoughts

In-depth Explanation

I could understand as a young beginner how overwhelming hand lettering may be. So here is a more in-depth explanation of what I have said above.

Hand lettering is going to be hard in so many ways for almost everyone. When learning hand lettering you are learning a new skill and all new skills are going to be tough.

But for the usual beginner you are going to have some struggles. Honestly, if you are starting off on the right foot you shouldn’t worry if you are having a hard time or not.

But if you are starting on the wrong foot and having a really hard time, then you should worry.

So what does it mean to “start on the wrong foot”.

Well, there are certain rules in hand lettering and certain things that you should learn from the very beginning.

For example, someone would start on the wrong foot if you didn’t learn the basic strokes of calligraphy. One of the most mistakes beginners do is get into drawing their letters without learning the basic strokes.

Another example is someone not using guidelines when practicing calligraphy. Guidelines are important because they help you make sure that everything is precise.

For guidelines, it’s important to know all of the different parts like the x-height, ascending hight, descending hight, and etc.

So when thinking that hand lettering is going to be hard, well every new skill that you learn is hard, but over time it does get easier. 

If you are scared of just learning hand lettering because it is going to be “hard” don’t worry at all. Just do it even though you think it’s going to be “tough”. You just have to make sure that you start on the right foot.

If you don’t start on the right foot you are just going to make it even harder for yourself in the long run.

I am going to be going over how you can do this in the next two sections.

Why Is It Important To learn the Basic Strokes

So I have been going on and on about the basic strokes but why is it important to even learn this.

As I have explained above a lot of people just go straight into drawing their letters without even learning these important fundamentals.

WHAT IS THIS ANYWAY

The basic strokes are strokes used in lettering to be able to form your different letters, words, and phrases.

The eight basic strokes are:

• Upstroke
• Downstroke
• Under turn
• Overturn
• Compound Curve
• Ascending Loop
• Oval

Let’s continue…

Basically all of these strokes can be used to create almost any lowercase lettering in calligraphy/lettering.

It is important to know this because without these you are not forming your letters correctly.

A lot of people think that calligraphy is just cursive with line variation, this is not true. Calligraphy actually has its own form, that uses the basic strokes.

If you are wanting to learn more about this topic I actually created an article about what is the difference between calligraphy and cursive.

Someone who starts learning calligraphy without the basic strokes would then realize “hmmm I am actually forming my letters wrong”. Leading for you to start over.

You are going to have to break bad habits, which I have found extremely hard, especially since you already developed the rhythm of creating each and every one of your letters.

The basic strokes are the very base of lettering and are something used to start off lettering with. Over time you can start breaking some simple rules so that you can develop your own style.

But, you only do that when you have completely mastered the very basics and fundamentals of calligraphy.

What You Can Do To Start Learning Hand Lettering on The Right Foot

Now I am going to give you a process of what I would do if I were learning calligraphy all over again. This process is hopefully going to make it easier for you, from the already stressful process of learning hand lettering.

FIRST LEARN THE BASIC STROKES

Before anything grab your pencil and a sheet of paper and start learning the basic strokes of calligraphy. 

Don’t grab any other utensil, a simple pencil will do. You are going to be practicing the basic strokes but without line variation.

If you getting it down, start practicing with your calligraphy tool. 

After learning the basic strokes start to learn how you can use these basic strokes to then form your letters.

Here are a couple of examples of how these strokes can be used.

LEARN HOW TO CONNECT LETTERS

Now you are going to want to learn how to connect your letters. When I was starting out lettering I found it quite hard to connect my letters.

This is hard to explain so let me give you a video by The Happy ever Crafter.

CONTINUE PRACTICING

Even though you now know how to connect your letters you should still be practicing the very fundamentals.

It is always good to go back to the basics and making sure that you got everything down. When practicing over and over again you will notice patterns in your letters.

This is when you can start developing your own hand lettering style and breaking some of the fundamental rules.

Myths About Hand Lettering

In the whole entire article, I was talking about the myth on how hand lettering is too hard, but really if you practice it can become quite easy.

So now I am going to give you two more myths about hand lettering (to help you know that you can do this).

YOU CAN’T DO HAND LETTERING IF YOU HAVE BAD HANDWRITING

This is not true. Even if you have the worst handwriting you can still do any type of hand lettering or calligraphy.

The reason for this is because calligraphy has a totally different set of rules and forms than your regular handwriting. Even if you have good handwriting, it is going to be hard for you in the same ways as a person with bad handwriting. 

Don’t worry if you have bad handwriting and you are wanting to learn lettering.

If you are wanting to learn a little bit more about this topic you can check out my article all about it here.

CALLIGRAPHY IS A TALENT

People think that the average person can not learn calligraphy and that only talented people can.

This is not true at all.

Any person in this word can learn calligraphy and hand lettering. It can become a talent if you really work  hard at it.

But you are not born with it. So don’t feel that you need to have the skills to learn this beautiful art.

Final Thoughts

You have all just learned that hand lettering is actually not that hard if done the correct way.

As always when learning hand lettering it is important to practice the right way not the hard way.

I hope that all of this was helpful. If you have any more concerns or questions please feel free to comment.