The Art of Watercolor Lettering

A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide to Painting Modern Calligraphy and Lettered Art

Kelly Klapstein

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781631597817
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Learn how to master the medium—and how to go with the watercolor flow—to create one-of-a-kind lettered art and calligraphy that reflect your personal style. In this stunning follow-up to her highly praised and influential first book, The Art of Brush Lettering, lettering expert and workshop instructor Kelly Klapstein (popular on Instagram as @kellycreates) shares her secrets for mastering the essential techniques for creating lovely modern lettering and calligraphy with watercolor.

• Start with the basics, from choosing paints, brushes, and other supplies to preparing your paper for painting.
• Learn to handle watercolor paints with essential strokes and warm-ups.
• Explore painting letterforms in a variety of styles, from traditional to modern.
• Try a range of creative techniques, including blending ombrés and rainbows, creating pictorial letterforms, and combining watercolor with other mediums.
• Enhance your lettering with special touches by complementing it with handpainted backgrounds and simple illustrations.

"Plenty of beautiful examples are included and they are really easy to re-create just by following the instructions which are always clear and concise. The letters with the beautiful colour transitions look so good. This is a very hands-on and practical book that I can easily recommend to beginners." — Parka Blogs

4

Color Play

Watercolor’s properties as a liquid medium help us achieve beautiful results with lettering. Learn how to layer paint for monotone patterns, blend watercolor paints for rainbow and galaxy lettering, create dramatic results with metallic watercolor, achieve eye-catching white lettering, and more. Let’s take advantage of the mobility of the water and create some wonderful effects with color.

WET-ON-DRY

The term wet-on-dry simply means applying wet paint onto the dry substrate (such as watercolor paper) or on top of dry paint. For this technique, we will paint letters, let them dry, and then paint more layers to create a pattern or an interesting effect. This is when color theory is useful and will help you design pleasing combinations of colors and patterns.

Monochromatic

Paint your letters with a light value of the color (this means add more water for a lighter hue). Let dry. Then, using the full value of the color, paint any pattern on top (stripes, dots, flowers, wavy lines, etc.).

Color Combinations

Paint an alphabet or some letters with a single color. Let dry. Paint any pattern on top with other colors and discover which color combinations and patterns are pleasing.

WET-ON-WET

Lettering with the wet-on-wet technique is mainly achieved in two ways.

Method 1: Start with Water, Then Add Paint

The first method involves applying clear, clean water to the paper first and then adding paint. You can add one or more colors, depending on the effect you want to achieve.

If your word or quote is long, and your climate is dry, then paint only one or two letters at a time with clear water and add pigment before proceeding with the rest of the word(s).

Method 1 using one color.

Method 1 using two colors.

Method 2: Start with One Color, Then Blend in Another

The second method begins with one color of paint and then one or more colors is added into the first color.

Follow these steps for blending colors with the wet-on-wet technique:

1. Put the paint colors you’re using into your palette.

2. Pick up the first color and paint your letter.

3. Clean your brush and pick up ...