Type as Image: Draw and Hand-Letter Your Favourite Animal

Animals are sweet and hand-lettering is awesome — so let’s put them together in this fun, simple and quick class which does not require a lot of resources, drawing or lettering skills! 

I am Evgeniya Righini-Brand and in this class I am going to share my favourite technique of hand-lettering within animal silhouettes. It’s a really cool approach to making designs that incorporate both typography and illustrations, and can easily be applied to create striking posters, t-shirts, greeting cards, adverts and even logotypes! 

This class covers:

• choosing the right source images;
• tracing animal outlines by hand;
• making your own home-made carbon paper;
• planning and sketching lettering;
• defining lettering – feel free to use my lettering guide which shows my approach to creating letterforms for this kind of projects;
• finalising lettering by hand;
• digitising lettering using Adobe Capture app, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Image Trace function. But you can also stick to a pure pen and paper approach, if you wish, and not use any software to complete this class project!

This class is suitable for pretty much any skill level and does not require a lot, if any experience with drawing or lettering!

Required Materials:

• soft (2B or softer) & hard pencils (HB or harder);
• marker or thick liner;
• any kind of light paper 80–100 gsm (photocopier paper);
• eraser;
• masking tape;
• reference image;
• optional: tracing paper or carbon paper or light-box;
• optional: ballpoint pen;
• optional: card or heavy paper;
• optional: Adobe Capture and/or Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator.

Downloads:

• Lettering Guide

Resources:

• Type as Image — research board on Pinterest

I’m really excited to see what you create! Join me in this class to draw and hand-letter your favourite animal!

• Introduction & Overview
• Research & Ideas: Choosing Images & Text
• Required Materials
• Tracing an Animal Outline
• Planning & Sketching Your Lettering
• Defining the Letters
• Finalising Your Lettering
• Digitising Your Hand-Lettered Animal
• Taking Your Work Further, Saving & Conclusion