CHALLENGE
Some songs just feel like summer and with the season starting on June 20th (for us in the northern hemisphere), I thought it'd be fun to letter a playlist of our favorite summer jams in a creative way! For those of you who remember mix tapes and CDs, this was my inspiration! If you are too young to know what a cassette tape is, please google it so this retro challenge makes more sense lol.
MATERIALS
Paper, ruler, pencil, fine tip pen, brush pen with small brush tip (for smaller lettering)
INSTRUCTIONS
(See below for a few close up images for reference)
STEP 1: IN THE UPPER LEFT OR RIGHT CORNER OF YOUR PAPER, DRAW A CASSETTE TAPE
Start by using a pencil to draw a rectangle in the size you'd like your cassette tape to be. Continue using your pencil to draw in the details--focus on creating rough shapes (rectangles, circles) at first, then go back to slightly darken the final lines you'd like to use. I used a ruler to help me darken the lines and keep them straight. (My favorite rulers are these
clear grid ones)
STEP 2: DRAW THE TAPE COMING OUT OF THE CASSETTE
The tape will come out of the two ends of the cassette and be one continuous loop. Using your pencil, draw this line in and add little loops, waves, and curves to the line. This line will be the guide for your lettering. Keep some of the lines long so you have space to letter longer song titles.
STEP 3: ADD YOUR SONG TITLES
Come up with a list of songs you'd add to a summer playlist. In pencil, begin lettering the titles onto the lines you previously drew. I used both script and print. When penciling in the script (which is what I will go over with a brush pen), I left it monoline and tried to make it a little wider than usual so that when I go over with a brush pen, the thick strokes have enough space and won't get too squished.
STEP 4: INK YOUR PIECE
Once you are done penciling everything in, it's time to go over it in ink! Remember to try to avoid smearing by giving the ink time to dry or put a scrap piece of paper over areas that have already been inked. I used a fine tip pen to outline my cassette first. Then I moved on to brush lettering the song titles. I switched back to the fine tip pen to write the artists names. The last step for me was to use my brush pen to outline any of the loops and tape where there was no song title or artist.
STEP 5: LET IT DRY COMPLETELY, THEN ERASE THE PENCIL LINES.
And you're done! Take a pic and share with me via email or on Instagram! Don't forget to tag me @atiliay #betterlettersin15 #bli15mini so I don't miss it :)
