Craftside

How to Hand-Render Type from the Book, Drawing Type: An Introduction to Illustrating Letterforms

Are you as fascinated with hand-lettering as I am? I just love letters and I am finding this new book Drawing Type: An Introduction to Illustrating Letterforms so inspiring. I have shared that I try to write a quote every day. Now, what I do since I got a copy of this book, is to randomly open it to a page and use the letter-forms and layout as my inspiration for how I am going to write my quote. Here is just one example of one of the exercises in Drawing Type.

Click on this page from Drawing Type to read the full exercise on how to hand-render type.

More about the Rockport book:

Drawing Type: An Introduction to Illustrating Letterforms

by Alex Fowkes

Part inspiration and part workbook, the images of hand-drawn type will inspire and excite any designer to draw and explore type. Drawing Type features real-world projects and sketchbooks of well-known type designers, including interviews about their processes.

Playful, hand-drawn type can easily be used in a range of disciplines within design and illustration such as packaging, editorial, posters, advertising, online graphics, and signage, and the hand-made aesthetic is more prevalent now than ever. 

Alex Fowkes will help you to create custom lettering that clients seek for their projects. Alex walks you through the steps to drawing serifs, san serifs, scripts, etc. With ample space on the pages for designers to mimic and draw their own typefaces, this book is perfect for learning at home or in a classroom that you can refer to again and again!

Alex Fowkes is a freelance designer based in London, UK. While working full time Alex completed lots of typography based briefs in his spare time, from personal pieces to commissions and album covers. His work varies from hand drawn type to digital typography but always tries to retain a human element to his work. The Sony Timeline is the biggest typographical piece he has undertaken taking almost 150 square meteres, taking over 2 months just to design.

Paper Cut Art by Rob Ryan Featured in the Upcoming Book Paper Cut

Pretty, just, pretty. And touching. This paper cut art is by Rob Ryan and is featured in the upcoming book Paper Cut: An Exploration Into the Contemporary World of Papercraft Art and Illustration.

And the quote is:

"Moons circle planets

and planets circle stars

stars and galaxies rotate eternally

and you and I circle each other

for you will always be my entire universe

and if you want me - I will always be yours."

 

More about the Rockport book:

Paper Cut: An Exploration Into the Contemporary World of Papercraft Art and Illustration

by Owen Gildersleeve

More and more the design world is turning away from digitization and once again embracing the imperfections of handmade, craft-based practices. Written and collated by noted papercraft illustrator Owen Gildersleeve, Paper Cut offers a unique perspective into this burgeoning field of contemporary illustration. Featuring astonishing works from twenty-five of the world's top papercraft illustrators, this collection also contains in-depth interviews and rarely seen behind-the-scenes photography, which reveal the artists' motivations and working techniques. Contributors include Rob Ryan, Yulia Brodskaya, Jeff Nishinaka, Andersen M Studio, Chrissie Macdonald, and Kyle Bean.

Owen Gildersleeve is an illustrator and designer based in London. His work predominantly focuses on papercraft illustration and over the years he has become highly respected in the field, working with a large array of international clients, as well as collaborating with many other respected artists. In 2009 Owen was awarded the Type Director's Club Award for his work with Fast Company Magazine. Then in 2011 he was awarded the Art Director's Club Young Guns award, which showcases the some of the world's best young talent in the fields of art, design and illustration.

Owen Gildersleeve is an illustrator and designer based in London. His work predominantly focuses on papercraft illustration and over the years he has become highly respected in the field, working with a large array of international clients, as well as collaborating with many other respected artists. In 2009 Owen was awarded the Type Director's Club Award for his work with Fast Company Magazine. Then in 2011 he was awarded the Art Director's Club Young Guns award, which showcases the some of the world's best young talent in the fields of art, design and illustration.

Kiss Posters from John Foster's book Paper and Ink Workshop

Today's art prompt (or silly idea), however you tend to look at a sort of doodle/graffiti idea, is inspired by this page from Paper and Ink Workshop: Printmaking techniques using a variety of methods and materials. This page features concert photos that combine 50's vintage photos with the Kiss face paint.

This gave me the idea to doodle the Kiss star on the faces in magazine. I'm not saying this is art or anything; it was just a fun combo. If I was the graffiting sort, it would be fun to do it on posters, like drawing a moustache on faces. Of course I'm not advocating anything, I just kind of thought it's a funny idea.

 

For more from Paper and Ink Workshop, head over to this post from yesterday's RockPaperInk.

More about the Rockport book:

 

Paper and Ink Workshop: Printmaking techniques using a variety of methods and materials

by John Foster

Go behind the scenes in the creation of incredible pieces of design and art with Paper and Ink Workshop. This book discusses silkscreen, letterpress, and woodblock printing, and explains the techniques needed to produce the final prints. You will not only be amazed and inspired, but also able to quickly take the knowledge learned and apply it to your own work and projects. Get empowered with a new set of tools to help you tackle your client’s projects, or find the inspiration to finally start your own business. Either way, you will be forever indebted to this book for providing the spark to move you forward.

 

The market for hand-made prints has exploded, whether through cutting edge gigposters, folksy stationery, retro letterpress or Etsy crafters. Established design icons, experimental students, innovative artists, and brand new entrepreneurs all find the allure to be undeniable, for both those making the prints, and those purchasing them. Filled with unique characteristics, small signed and numbered editions, quirky printing processes, and the human touch, this has fast become one of the most important segments of both the design and small business worlds. Inside Paper and Ink Workshop you will find immediate tools that you can use to improve your skill set, find inspiration, and learn how to successfully create these items yourself. We’ll take you behind the scenes with many of the world’s leading creatives, as they show you how they brought their prints to life using silk-screening, letterpress, woodblock, and equal parts inspiration and elbow grease.

 

John Foster is the Principal, Superintendent, and assorted other big words at Bad People Good Things. He is a world-renowned designer, illustrator, author and speaker on design issues. His work has been published in numerous books and every major industry magazine, hangs in galleries across the globe and is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. He is the proud recipient of a gold medal from the Art Directors Club as well as a Best of Show from the ADDYs and is a former President of ADCMW. Mr. Foster is the author of “New Masters of Poster Design” and “New Masters of Poster Design: Volume Two,” “1,000 Indie Posters,” “Dirty Fingernails,” “For Sale,” and “Maximum Page Design” as well as having the honor of penning the layout chapter of Debbie Millman’s “Principles of Graphic Design,” and is the man behind the “Dirty Work” and “Poster Of The Week” columns on rockpaperink.com. He sits at an enormous desk for drawing and thinking mostly, with the two goofiest foxhounds known to man below his feet. www.badpeoplegoodthings.com

Edward Scissorhands doll by Roguedolls Featured in The Doll Scene

Do you love altering dolls? I have a book packed full of amazing designs that is sure to make you drool as much I as I am. The Doll Scene: An International Collection of Crazy, Cool, Custom Designed Dolls. Here is just one of the adorable pages of eye-candy featuring and Edward Scissorhands doll by Rougedolls.

I think my favorite part is the doll is the cut paper hands. This book isn't released yet but you can pre-order it and you can get yourself in the running for an early advance at Goodreads.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Doll Scene

by Louis Bou

Giveaway ends April 11, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

 

Enter to win

 

More about the Rockport book:

The Doll Scene: An International Collection of Crazy, Cool, Custom Designed Dolls

by Louis Bou

The Doll Scene features hundreds of custom-created dolls by the hands of some of the best artists worldwide using mainly original Blythe, Pullip, Ball Jointed Dolls, Dal, or Monster High dolls as “raw material” to generate their lovely and stunning characters. These dolls have an oversized head and large eyes that change colors!

Changing everything from the original serialized doll— hair, makeup, reshaping faces, adding new eyelashes, eyelids and clothing— the artists featured in The Doll Scene create some truly amazing figures.

Louis Bou (Barcelona) is a graphic designer, art director, editor, book author and photographer specializing in contemporary fashion, and the director of his own studio in Madrid, Spain. Working in the publishing world more than a decade from now, he is the author of more than 30 books about graphic design, photography, illustration, street art, toys and fashion. Some of his books have become real best sellers, such as We are Paper Toys!, Street Art: The spray Files, NYC-BCN: Street Art revolution, Street T, Windows of The World and Couture Hats, published by Harper Collins Design, selling together more than 100,000 copies worldwide. He has worked for some other publishing houses like GraphicSha and BNN in Japan, Pageone and Basheer Graphics in Asia, Monsa Publications, Loft Publications and Mao Mao in Europe, just to mention a few. In 2012 he decided to jump on his own career opening his own studio of photography and publishing Mista Studio by Louis Bou in Madrid, where he works for publishers and magazines worldwide. He also works as a photographer for models and actors agencies. Bou has also ventured himself into the world of video-clip filming and directing his first music video for the Spanish pop band called Alivem. He is now preparing his first feature film.

Contributors: Nanuka- Bilbao, Spain; Julien Martinez- Paris, France; Caramelaw- Singapore; Cookie Dolls- Madrid, Spain; Poison Girl’s Dolls- Spain; Clockwork Angel- The Netherlands; Enchanted Doll- Canada; Juan Albuerne- Gijón, Spain; Erregiro-  Sevilla, Spain; Zombuki- Florida, US; Forgotten Hearts- Puerto Rico; Nerea Pozo- Spain; Cocomicchi- Spain; Sally’s Song Dolls- Barcelona, Spain; Irreal Doll- Sevilla, Spain; Shaiel- Poland; Juan Jacobo Vaz- México; Mapuca- Spain; Noel Cruz- US; Rougue Dolls- Spain; Citron Rogue- Paris, France; Nympheas Dolls- France; Pam Dolls- Spain; G.Baby Dolls- US; Freddy Tan- Singapore

And since it's Monday I have some links to all sorts of great stuff on some of my favorite blogs:

Body Mind Beauty Health

Recipes for nontoxic odd job kitchen cleaners

Quarry SPOON

Recipe for blackberry breeze smoothie from Super foods month

Whole Home News

10 Must-do items for the first 6 months of your new garden

Rock Paper Ink

Deconstructing Product Design: O-Series Scissors

Walter Foster

A Fun Tip for Pet Portraits

Nancy Wick

Addicted to thread

QGeekBooks

6 Hilarious April Fool's jokes only book nerds will understand

Descriptive Word Pairs Exercise From the Book Playing with Type

Today, I have a fun creative prompt from the book Playing with Type: 50 graphic experiments for exploring typographic design principles.

Pick two opposite words and combine them in a fun way.

Here are two examples: Solid and hollow that are drawn like a solid object with the word hollow being the holes in the 3D letters.

The second example is made with those little melting beads kids play with which spells true and false.

So not only can you choose opposite words to exemplify their meaning when you draw them, try making the two words out of an unusual material.

Click on this page from Playing with Type and choose from the list of word pairs or pick 2 of your own and try drawing them thogther in your art or simply doodle them during your next down time.

More about the Rockport book:

Playing with Type: 50 graphic experiments for exploring typographic design principles

by Lara McCormick

Playing with Type is a hands-on, playful approach to learning type application and principles. This engaging guide begins with an introduction to the philosophy of learning through the process of play. Along with a series of experimental design projects with an emphasis on type, the author provides designers with a “toolkit” of ideas and skills developed through the process of play. The awareness and sensitivity to type styles, forms, and type choices gained through these visual experiments will increase the designer’s confidence in their personal and professional work. This book can be used in the classroom or independently, and readers can go directly to exercises that appeal to them.

Lara McCormick completed her MFA in design from the School of Visual Arts, and has a post-graduate degree in typography from Cooper Union. She is currently the Graphic Design Chair at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She is obsessed with all things type and is constantly looking to push it in new directions. She lives in Manchester, NH. Visit her online at http://www.laramc.com.