Watercolor Lettering Basics: Tips + Tricks

Hey friends! In today's video, I'm going to be sharing some beginner tips for hand lettering with watercolors. I am really excited to be able to share this with you because I have always loved watercolor lettering. It's actually the first type of brush lettering that really clicked for me and I still love it so much, but I feel like whenever I post videos using watercolors, they don't really get watched as much. So I have always kind of assumed that you guys would prefer to see lettering with brush pens, but I recently took a poll on my Instagram stories about which video you'd like to see next and the watercolor lettering video won the majority vote. So I'm really excited that you guys want to learn more about lettering with watercolors and make sure to let me know if you want to see more of these types of videos because I would love to make them. So the first thing that I want to talk about is some of the different types of watercolors and specifically the ones that I think are really good for lettering. My watercolor collection, I've tried a lot of different things. It's kind of big and really random, which is one of the reasons I haven't done a video on my watercolor collection yet. So I wanted to break some of them down for you so that it doesn't seem so overwhelming and like there are so many different types that you could get. But before I get into it, just know that you do not need all of these types of watercolors. You don't even need a lot of them. You really just need one and it does not have to be expensive. So the first types of watercolors that I want to show you are the ones that come in a pan. These I think are really great for beginners because they're easy to find and they can be really inexpensive. I do have a pan that I'm not showing you in this clip that's from Michaels and it's really inexpensive, just a few dollars. And I will insert a clip at the end of this video using that one because it is a great option for beginners. If you have a Michaels around you, it's the Artist Loft brand and they work really well as well. And then I have these that are the Prima watercolors and the Winsor & Newton which I like both of them but I really can't stress enough that for watercolor lettering, especially at the beginning, it's not really necessarily how amazing your watercolors are. It's more in my opinion about how well you get to know your set of watercolors. I have been able to create some really beautiful watercolor lettering with the inexpensive Artist Loft set and if I remember correctly, I think that I very first started with a set of watercolors that was from like the kids section at Walmart or Target. And so I'll get more into this later, but I just wanted you to remember that if something isn't working for you, buying a different product might not be the answer unless you're using something that's just really terrible or defective. The answer might just be getting to know the product that you have and exactly how to use it best. Okay, so to move on to the next type of watercolors, that is these watercolors that come in a tube. These are also great and I really like them. The ones that I personally use are again the Winsor & Newton watercolors. I did originally start with a more inexpensive set that I got from Walmart and they did work well, but some of the pigments had a really like chemical smell and I really wasn't a fan of it. So that's the main reason why I decided to invest in a better set and these are what I like to use. They are really nice because they're concentrated so you can get a really vibrant color pretty easily. So to use these you're just going to want to squeeze a bit out onto a palette and then add a bit of water to dilute them. This can depend on your preference and also what kind of brush you're using. For example, if you're using a water brush, you might find yourself unintentionally adding water into the palette as you go. So in that case just make sure not to dilute it too much or really at all from the beginning and just kind of get a feel for how they work. If you want to squeeze these into an empty palette or pan, you can also let them dry and then use them later. You just reactivate them with a little bit of water. I don't usually do it this way intentionally unless I just have left them out and come back to them later. But it is definitely an option if you prefer to let them dry first before you use them. I have also read that this makes them or can make them a little less pigmented. So just be aware of that. But this is also an option with the ones that come in a tube. These first two options that I showed you are pretty similar and it might come down to the convenience for you. If you want your watercolors to be portable, watercolors in a pan might be easier for you. But on the other hand, if you want to make sure that you get the same vibrancy and consistency each time you letter, then you might prefer to use a tube where you can just squeeze out a little bit of watercolor each time that you sit down to letter. The third type of watercolor that I want to show you is concentrated liquid watercolors. I have two here. One is a super vibrant and bold color scheme and the other is really light and a more opaque color scheme. Liquid watercolors are really great because they can create really vibrant and bold colored lettering, especially if you choose the bright colors. I have to be honest. These aren't my favorite way to letter with these types of watercolors just because they feel really different for me coming out. They are really liquidy just like the name obviously and one of the things that I really like about watercolor lettering is watching the colors kind of bleed together and being able to go back and add liquid to my letters and kind of adjust anything that might not look just right to me. But with concentrated liquid watercolors, I just don't find that it's as easy to do that. They write really smoothly. So it's a great thing. It just kind of depends on what your preference is or what you're used to or how you like the feel of the paint when it comes out. But like I mentioned they can create some really beautiful lettering and especially if your style is more of that bright colored lettering or where you like to blend a lot of different bright colors together, you can achieve some really really really beautiful things with these. So it just kind of comes down to your goals with watercolor lettering and how you prefer your watercolors to feel. So now that we've talked about some of the main types of watercolors, let's just talk quickly about some of the different types of brushes that you can use. The first brushes that I like to use are round brushes and you can buy these in multiple different sizes. The quality can vary from a really inexpensive or quite an investment. So as a beginner, I recommend starting somewhere in the middle. I don't find it necessary to spend a ton of money on a round brush, but I do think that finding a quality brush that tapers at the end is really important. You do not want your brush to flare out at the end because even like one loose bristle on your brush can affect your lettering and it can add lines when you didn't want them and that can be really frustrating when you are doing watercolor lettering. So if you've been around here for a while, you probably already know this but my personal preference with watercolor lettering is to use a water brush, specifically the Pentel Quash water brush. I have tried a bunch of different types. I pretty much have made it my mission to purchase and try every water brush that I find and time and time again the Pentel Quash water brush is still the one that I go back to. The others that I have tried just don't really compare and usually it's because the tips are either more blunt and less tapered and that can make lettering with them more difficult. I will say there is a bit of a learning curve with these and if you squeeze too hard they can leak out the sides but honestly there is a learning curve with watercolor lettering in general. So I think no matter what products you use, I know I said this earlier but just make sure that you give them enough time to really figure out the tricks and how to use the specific ones that you are using. So here is just a quick demonstration of the sizes but I will use these again so that you'll be able to see them more. And the last supplier related thing that I want to talk about is paper. This honestly could go in a bunch of different directions so I am just going to try to give you the quick and condensed version. In my opinion a watercolor paper is the best to use but you can, in my opinion, use a regular thick paper for practice. I know a lot of watercolor enthusiasts are probably going to disagree with me on this but watercolor lettering is just so different than creating like a big watercolor piece that you're just filling with water and like continuing to layer and so I feel like if people realize just how much practice goes into hand lettering they might change their mind on the type of paper because it would just cost so much money to continue to buy as much watercolor paper as you would be using as it takes to like practice and learn a new type of lettering style. So I personally think that it's okay to use copy paper for this stage. I would not recommend creating finished products on copy paper or like trying to create something that you're going to sell and again watercolor paper is amazing, but just for the purpose of beginner practicing like I said I think it's okay to start with a thick copy paper so that you are not spending a ton of money on expensive paper that you might not even be keeping what you're practicing on. So the one that I use if you have watched any of my videos, I use this almost all the time. It's a 32 pound paper and this is going to hold a little bit more water than your average copy paper. So just be aware of that. If you're using a really thin paper you might have issues with your paper rippling or tearing when you use a lot of water. And then when you're ready to move on to watercolor paper, I am a big fan of the Stratmore watercolor paper. I like that it has enough texture to give the nice watercolor bleed, but it's not so textured that you have to be like really amazing at water control in order to get your lettering just right. I buy this big pad of the watercolor paper. It's kind of hard to see and then I just cut it down to whatever size I want. If I'm just practicing I just kind of loosely cut it into fours. I feel like that way I don't waste as much paper when I'm trying to letter if I have just smaller sections that I'm using at a time and I can kind of fill up one and then move on to the other. So that's what I do and I try to find this on sale or use a coupon just so that it doesn't get too expensive because watercolor paper can be a little bit more pricey. So now let's get into the actual process of lettering with your watercolors. For this video, I'm just going to use these watercolors in a pan because I think that for many of you they're probably going to be the most accessible and the most affordable probably as well. So again, just use whatever you prefer. To start out I'm just going to activate the watercolors by adding water to them. I'm sure if you use watercolors like this as a kid you probably just dipped your paintbrush into water and then swirled it around into the pan until the brush was saturated. But I would recommend that you don't do this if you're attempting to hand letter with your watercolors. The reason for that is because I found that by doing it this way you can cause your brush to kind of fan out which makes getting your strokes thin very difficult. I have also found that by using a water brush to do this and mixing your paint together with it, it can cause the water to not flow as nicely and get kind of clogged. So I just think that makes it more difficult to letter with. So what I recommend doing is taking either a larger brush that you won't be using for lettering or a dropper or basically anything that allows you to get a bit of water onto the pan and add some water to your color choice. Once you do this, let it sit for a few seconds before putting your brush in and then go ahead and dip your brush in. I also just want to point out that I have two different kinds of water. You can't see them in this frame because I made it close for lettering. But I use a dirty water and a clean water just if I'm mixing back and forth between colors. So I will clean off my brush in the dirty water and then I will dip it in the clean water to add that water back to my watercolor palette just so I'm not trying to mix dirty water in with my watercolors because that can change the color of them and kind of make it not as pretty and not probably what you're looking for. And the last thing that I want to mention about that larger brush that I was using to activate the watercolors with is that I just cleaned it off and wiped it down and then kind of reshaped the ends and left it on its side to dry. I do that with my regular round brushes and paint brushes just to kind of help them hold their shape and especially if it was one that I was going to be using for lettering again just because I don't want it to dry all fanned out or something like that that will make it more difficult for me next time I go to use that brush for lettering. So here I'm just demonstrating some of the different styles that I use depending on which tool I'm using or which watercolor brush they can kind of change the lettering style and with these very thin round brushes that I have, I think they're a zero and a one, I really like to do this very very thin block style lettering. I think it goes really nicely if you're combining styles with a brush lettering and so I find that those really tiny brushes are really great for that One thing that you'll notice is I'm holding it super super upright just because I kind of have to in order to be able to create those really thin strokes without getting back into my thick and thin strokes so I like to draw or paint I suppose with just the very end of that watercolor brush So for this part I'm just going to switch back to those watercolors in a tube if that is helpful for you guys to see those in use As you can see the top has dried a little bit I've just been sitting out as I was filming this and so I did have to add a little bit of water to reactivate them And I'm using a slightly larger round brush This is a size two and if you have questions about these products I will I usually leave the links for things if I have them in the description box below Sometimes I forget so feel free to ask but I will do my best And I'm just giving you a little bit of an example using this And just a few more tips that I have for watercolor lettering so the first tip that I have is to go slow and I feel like I say that all the time because I know that a lot of people get frustrated with seeing this sped up lettering videos Simply for time purposes. I just have to speed them up. This recording I think was like Maybe close to two hours when I first started editing it Hopefully I can get it under 20 minutes, but we will see so i've been trying to add in some real-time lettering Just to give you guys a feel of how slow it goes. I find that with watercolor lettering I go even slower than I do with a brush pen So this is just an example of some real-time hand lettering using a water brush and one of the great things about These water brushes or watercolor lettering is that you can kind of go back if you have a mistake Or if you'd like to add like a little bit of thickness to your down stroke And you can kind of add a little bit of color or pigment if you'd like So it's really forgiving and so going slow will just help you to be able to kind of Get those strokes in place and then if you need to readjust later You definitely can if you do it while it is still wet. I find that to be the easiest way And the next tip that I have is just to get to know your supplies and I apologize for this ridiculous close-up of my hand But like I said using these thinner brushes and doing a block style I use a much more upright pen hold or I suppose it's Paintbrush hold and so it's a little bit harder to see what i'm doing in this clip, but it gets better But like I said earlier in this video if something's not working for you Don't just assume that you need more expensive watercolors or a more expensive paintbrush Obviously if something is defective or it's just super not working Definitely look into that but give your supplies some time because I personally think they all work a little bit differently. Sometimes when filming these I struggle with switching back and forth between watercolor supplies or even brush pen supplies just because there's like a little bit of a I don't know if it's a learning curve or just a little bit of Technique differences depending on what products I use and so sometimes it's hard to go back and forth between Several different ones. Um, and so just give yourself some time Really look up the information about the specific watercolors you're using try to watch videos on it if you need to And just see if you can learn the tricks behind your specific products that you're using And that hopefully will help you a little bit with some of your frustrations and then if you find that's just not working for you, then go ahead and try something else, but um, just know that There are different learning curves and sometimes they can be frustrating so do not get too discouraged And always ask questions. Um, if you see someone else using them and just see if they have any tips for you Hopefully they are willing to share some of their advice And I already kind of mentioned this earlier, so i'm not going to go too long into it But the next tip is just to redo it if you need to go back and add some color Or if you need to go back and add some water Just grab a little bit more and try to thicken those down strokes if you need to a little bit if you need to straighten up an edge Don't be afraid to do that because that is part of the joy of watercolor lettering is that you can continue to add if you need to Um, and hopefully that will be something that will be helpful for you with some lettering frustrations So the next tip that I have i'm not really sure what to call So i'm just going to demonstrate it for you a few times and hopefully I can explain it. Well Um, there are some letters that can be tricky to go up and down when you are doing watercolor lettering Specifically if you're using a very small brush and or writing, um, really small letters And so this is something that I have seen several times if you follow emily from sizeloveletterco on instagram um, she does a lot of watercolor lettering, but she does a lot of like large quotes and Envelope quotes and or envelope addresses and so A lot of what she's writing is really small and i've seen her do this and it's been really helpful for me with some of those tricky letters Um normally with brush lettering we just go in one direction when we're doing a thin upstroke We go up and when we're doing a thick downstroke we go down and normally I really would recommend sticking with that and not kind of like moving your paper or You know kind of going backwards, but there are just these letters that can be really hard Especially as a beginner with watercolor lettering and so what i've seen her do before and i've kind of picked up on is just kind of like mark where you're gonna go and then So you might draw up a little bit and then you might kind of go backwards to meet your connecting line And then because we can add more water to our watercolor lettering You can kind of add it so that it's a little bit more seamless looking And that way you haven't had to transition your brush Like around a curve that might have been really difficult for the specific brush that you're using Or how small you're trying to write your letters So I hope this is making sense to you I'm, not sure if it is please ask questions if you do not have any idea what i'm talking about but basically i'm just trying to say that if you need to kind of Go backwards as you're lettering and then kind of connect them with water later That's okay Just kind of visualize in your head where that curve is going to go and try to meet it up as best as you can Um, I hope that makes sense But like I said leave questions in the comments if that is still confusing to you I will do my best and try to find one of emily's instagram videos that I can link below that maybe has a better example of this for you guys Otherwise if you're not following her, I will leave her link below and you can go check her out But hopefully that was helpful for you. Even if it might have been a little bit confusing The next thing or tip that I want to show you is something I almost forgot But it's one of the funnest parts about watercolor lettering and that's that you can mix your own colors And I know that I did something that I told you in this video not to do and as I was doing it I think I was already regretting it because I could tell that my water brush was getting clogged But that is mixing your colors. So I did switch to a bigger brush And created this beautiful like bluish green Kind of color and it's just something that if you're a person like me who likes muted colors And prefers not to use like primary colors You definitely can get a lot of things out of just a primary set of watercolors So don't be afraid to mix and match and don't be afraid to try out different color palettes or different color schemes You can look up different color mixing and color charts online if you would like a little bit of color theory But just know that you are not stuck with the colors that came in your watercolor kit And you can definitely try to mix and match your own So thank you so much for watching and I really cannot believe that this video got so long I apologize in advance if you are someone who does not like long videos I'm always stressed to post a really long video because I feel like people are going to get really angry That it was so long, but there is just a lot to say about different types of watercolors and watercolor lettering So if you would like a more focused tutorial on something specific Just let me know leave it in the comments below and I am happy to try to do some of those for you guys Um, if you are not already following me on instagram, you can do that at how to hand letter I post there almost every day and that's usually where I take my polls of like which videos you guys would like to see or If you mind if they're 20 minutes long or not, so definitely if you have an opinion Um, let me know over there or leave a comment below Um, if you are not already subscribed be sure to do that and thank you so much again for watching I will see you in my next video. Bye