Katelyn Brooke

Trifecta: Painted Lettering

Design Inspiration· inspiration

24 Apr

If you’ve been around for a long time, you might remember that I used to have a column called Design Inspiration.  Like many other ideas that I’ve had, it was fun while it lasted  but after a while I just couldn’t keep up with it.  I had 3 blogs going at the time, and I moved on to other things.

I’ve been thinking about revising the column and doing it again, for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I am inspired by and learn from studying the work of others.  I know that the whole inspiration versus imitation thing is a hot topic in blog world, and it’s easy to feel like there’s something wrong with looking at others work too much.  But how do you learn in school?  You study other people’s work.  Studying good work sparks ideas and helps you make connections about the medium or technique that you’re working with.  It doesn’t mean that you have to copy it.

Secondly, as a designer and blogger, I feel like the internet has made our work increasingly temporary.  Go look at those design inspiration posts.  How many of those designs are still up?  Some are, but a lot of them have been replaced.  That comes with the territory of web design, but I think it doesn’t hurt to pause and recognize good work when you see it.

So today I’m posting my first Trifecta post- I’ll pick three examples of work that have inspired me lately and have some common thread connecting them.  Today I picked some examples of painted lettering.

Painted Lettering

 

I’ve always been a sucker for hand lettering, but I’m especially loving these examples of painted lettering.  The texture and the transparency of the medium just makes me itch to hold a brush in my hand.  I’ve never tried this technique myself, but I would love to experiment with it!

1 || Running in Heels by Pinegate Road

2 || Story of My Life by Maiedae

3 || Clarzzique by Eva Black

Have you seen any cool examples of painted lettering lately?  Tell me in the comments- I’d love to check them out!

13 Comments

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Comments

  1. Rachel says

    April 24, 2013 at 9:14 am

    I think this is very pretty- not sure if my hand is steady/delicate enough to do it myself!

    Reply
  2. Betsy says

    April 24, 2013 at 9:38 am

    that’s gorgeous! wish I could do it myself.

    but the larger theme you touch on – how temporary our work can be – is a bit scary. It makes you realize how many of our obsessions are a flash in the pan. I’ve been trying for months now to clean up the images I’ve used for the past three years on my blog, and even the ones that I linked to properly don’t exist anymore! We are fickle.

    Reply
  3. Bekuh says

    April 24, 2013 at 10:37 am

    Love this! I’ve been really fascinated by the painted lettering recently as well. If you figure out a cool technique I hope you’ll share your tips.

    Reply
    • Kate says

      April 24, 2013 at 11:40 am

      Oh I definitely will :) I haven’t looked into it very much yet, but I’d love to figure out how to do it!

      Reply
  4. Clare says

    April 24, 2013 at 11:05 am

    I am glad you brought this series back. I so agree, studying others and their art is inspiring, and all new ideas stem from others!

    I, too, have loved painted lettering for a while now! The trifecta you shared is gorgeous! I pinned these examples a while ago, but I still love them:

    http://kalbarteski.bigcartel.com/product/when-you-love-painting

    http://www.thefreedomexperiment.com/2011/10/09/let-call-it-magic-how-to-add-a-little-spark/

    Reply
    • Kate says

      April 24, 2013 at 11:40 am

      I love those, Clare! Thanks for sharing- I’ve heard of Kal Barteski before, but the other one was new to me!

      Reply
  5. Kristen @ KV Confessions says

    April 24, 2013 at 11:44 am

    I’ve been wanting to do another blog redesign lately, and this is totally something I had in mind. Anything hand-drawn/painted/artsy makes my heart flutter a bit :)

    Reply
  6. Joelle says

    April 24, 2013 at 11:47 am

    I absolutely love Jenni’s new design, but I haven’t seen the other two! Thanks for sharing Kate, and I definitely think you should continue this series. I may not be a graphic designer, but I always love seeing new, pretty designs. And I think you’re right about it all being temporary. I know that I just get bored with my designs!

    Reply
  7. Alyssa says

    April 24, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    So pretty–I wish I could do something like this on my own!

    Reply
  8. Allyssa says

    April 24, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    I absolutely love this! I agree with you — hand lettering is awesome, but there’s just something about the painted version.

    Reply
  9. Karen says

    April 24, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    Love these! I’m a sucker for painted lettering. I’m not much of an artist when it comes to painting, but actually just bought some watercolor paper and have been playing with watercolor crayons and colors.

    Reply
  10. Janelle says

    April 24, 2013 at 8:59 pm

    The ones you chose are so pretty. I love the light, watery flower detail in the last one. I’ve been hand lettering a lot lately, but have yet to share anything on my blog. I’ve only hand painted letters once before, but it turned out pretty well. I used minty colours.

    I have a tip to share: water down the paint a bit if you’re using acrylics. It helps smooth edges and the paint seeps into the paper well. You can also do it in full paint first and then use the water trick to blur any inconsistencies. Hope someone finds this helpful if they’re exploring it :)

    Reply
  11. Whitney says

    April 27, 2013 at 11:14 am

    I love the hand painted look. Jenni’s design is one of my favorites!

    Reply

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