I did it! I did it only 3 months late, lol! Hey, but I finished the time intensive challenge called “Lettering Challenge” where you get a prompt each day of how your lettering should look like. A prompt could be something like “Romantic” and then you’d have to letter a word in that style, using a font and decorative elements to match the theme. I’m very impressed by people who actually do it in one month. You’re basically making a fully fledged art work every day! Between moving to another country, moving across the states, finding an apartment and getting settled, it took me a while to finish, but hey, who cares. I did it! I was able to learn so much during the challenge, I learned so many new features in the Procreate app but also was able to diversify my style.

Before I even started I wanted to decide on a connecting element between all 31 art pieces. Joshua gave me the idea to make it all about plants. Since I am a plant lover that idea was immediately settled. I loved the endless possibility of plant names I could write but also the challenge of learning how to draw all the plants and flowers. I also chose a color palette I wanted to follow throughout the challenge. Once these main decisions were settled, I was ready to start:

1 Bevel

The first prompt was bevel. A bevel in design is a sloped or angled surface following an edge. I chose a word with mostly straight letters since that would make the bevels easier to draw. I worked for quite a while to find a way to make the ivy leaves frame the words but I think it turned out well. To create a little more interest I drew a very thin, white frame on top of the art work. I actually ended up using that for all my other letterings as well!

2 Ribbon

Ooff… right away I realized this one would be very hard to do. I was slightly intimidated about the fact that I was already struggling on the second day! I was supposed to write a word as if I laid it down with a ribbon. The problem is that the only way to imitate this is to create shadows and it was very complicated for me to figure out where to draw them. It took me a while to finish. It’s definitely not my proudest artwork, I see a couple flaws but I am proud of doing it halfway decent.

3 Ligature

Ligature in typography is a little trick where you combine two letters into one shape. In my case the two ts are one shape because the horizontal stroke is one line instead of two. It took me a while to figure out which letters I could connect (and to find a flower/plant name with those letters in it) and to still make it legible.

4 Psychedelic

I am very happy how this artwork turned out! It’s one of my favorites. The colors pop so well and I feel like I did a great job interpreting the theme. For this artwork I drew normal letters aka straight letters in Procreate, making sure all the edges were rounded. Then I chose the liquify tool to mess up the straight lines and make the letters look like they are melting. I drew a couple hibiscus flowers and clipping masked them to the word “hibiscus” so it would appear like the flowers are part of the word.

5 Spike

It was pretty clear right away that I had to choose “cactus” as my word to match the theme. Just like on the artwork before I drew normal straight letters but added pointy serifs. Then I used the liquify tool with the crystal effect to create the tiny spikes. The background reminds me of our trip last year to the Saguaro National Park with the cacti in the foreground and the rolling hills behind.

6 Interlock

Interlock lettering is like playing puzzles. You want to find ways to “store” some letters inside others. I knew I wanted a word with an L in it, since that would be a great way to create a bottom line. The interlock lines at the top took some time to figure out, but I feel like I was able to interpret this theme well. I also spent forever drawing all the lavender.

7 Spencerian

Spencerian is an old fashioned type of cursive that was invented in the mid-19th century to standardize cursive for businesses in the US. It was taught in school until the early 20th century. As a letterer I would love to have learned that pretty handwriting in school, as a teacher I can’t describe how happy I am I don’t have to teach this.

It felt just right to choose the word “Baby’s Breath” for this type of lettering as it is so romantic.

8 Sans Serif

Sans Serif describes all fonts without the little lines at the top and bottom of each letter. (For example the font of this text is a sans serif, but the letters on the next post spelling “Dandelion” are serifs.) Famous sans serif fonts are Arial, Futura and Helvetica.

The flowers in this artwork took me a very long time to draw. I designed a big Hydrangea and then clipping masked one flower to one letter. I like how I was able to make a simple font look special and make it stand out.

9 Typewriter

Typewriter fonts have a bit of imperfection about it. The edges aren’t completely straight and the letters themselves can be a bit crooked as well. I tried to implement that by drawing my letters with a dry ink pen in Procreate and using a serif font. I also chose to leave everything black and white and almost leave it in this “sketch” state to match the theme.

10 Steampunk

Steampunk is an artistic movement that blends the old, gritty industrial times with the modern tech. At first I was very challenged by this topic, because it doesn’t seem to connect at all with my flower theme. After a bit of research I decided to draw a rose but make it look like it was out of metal. I added a lot of gears and lines and made it all look like it was out of metal and tadaa! One of my favorite art pieces of the challenge was born.

11 Stroke

The prompt stroke is the idea of only using one stroke to create a line as if it was created with one brush movement. For me that meant it would get slightly thinner by the end of the stroke as if I lifted the brush. The agave leaves reminded me of that style and so I chose to write this word. I like how I was able to make the background look like a linen cloth with a lot of paint on it.

12 Tuscan

Tuscan letters are all serif letters that have at least. two or three spikes at the top and bottom. It’s also common to have spike come out of the middle of the letter. I like how the daisies play into the playful artistic typeface and how my geometrical background turned out.

13 Scrolls

I love to draw scrolls. Once you learn the trick on how to draw them, they are pretty easy. I actually share it here in my free lettering guide. I wanted to use a flower name with two words so I could draw a double banner so “cherry blossom” worked great for that. I cheated a little bit with this one and used flowers I drew a while ago. I still love how they look and so I just had to create the branch and leaves to tie the artwork together.

14 Antique

This artwork is one of my favorite drawings. How I was able to make the letters look and all the delicate lines inside the letters and on the gingko leaves makes me really proud. I chose gingko because it’s actually one of the oldest plants which made it perfect for this theme. I am always amazed by the tiny little lines of the leaves when I see them in nature, so I was excited to draw them. I love how the font turned out with the flourished pattern inside the letters. I’d love to have a book with this art piece as a cover.

15 Pixel

Also not a theme that goes great with flowers but in the end I decided to draw tulips and make them fly out of some light source. This one was definitely a challenge, it’s hard to draw something in pixels and still give it a recognisable form. It’s funny, we get pixels, when we don’t want them but when it’s useful, they are hard to make.

16 Circus

Circus is such a fun theme for lettering. Experimenting with light bulbs, contrasting colors and playful elements was great. I like how there is so much happening inside the letters.

17 Serif

Serifs are the little lines above and below the letters. They provide better legibility for longer texts, because it helps the eye to create a line. Famous serif fonts are Times New Roman und Georgia.

I like how the monstera leaves frame the artwork and how the colors work so well together.

18 Space

Space was another one of those prompts that were really hard to match with my floral theme. A friend of mine randomly suggested doing scabiosa and I figured, why not? I didn’t have any other ideas to match the topic. Drawing the flowers though I realized they kind of look like firework and to have that in front of the space background looks pretty cool in my eyes. Obviously I also had to add a bit of the “Star Wars Tilt” to the word, it’s just too epic to not do.

19 Inline

Inline describes the small, thin lines inside the letters themselves. They can add a layered effect or just be used as a decorative element. I drew this art piece around Christmas time and I can definitely see the influence of it.

20 Medieval

This art piece was the last lettering I did. I pretty much did all of the lettering in order of the challenge but for some reason skipped this one. When I was done with the challenge I realized there were only 30 art works instead of 31. So here’s my last art piece! I like how the camomile adds such a cheerful contrast to the image. I chose these flowers because they were already used for healing purposes and tea in the medieval ages, so it felt just right to use it now.

21 Claredon

Claredon describes a bold font with serifs which was first used in the 19th century. The font is often used in advertising and headlines because of it’s boldness and legibility. I drew this artwork while being in California, so the idea of drawing giant sequoias came naturally as well as adding some fog to it.

22 Seventies

This was a tough artwork for me as I struggled with making my cursive font thick and playful. The bold, psychedelic look is typical for the decade, so I had to find a way to implement that feel. The purple flowers helped and stacking the word on top of each other several times was good to. Overall, probably not my favorite artwork but hey, sometimes done is better than perfect.

23 Tattoo

It took me a while to be able to write in the classic tattoo font but I think I got it at the end. A real tattoo might not have as much shading to it but I think it turned out alright. Once more the flower choice fell because California Poppies are so common in California. (Hence the name)

24 Automobile

Another very suboptimal prompt for a floral theme, I thought. Desperate as I was I asked ChatGPT if there were any cars with flower names. (Yes, I know nothing about cars) So apparently Lotus is a car manufacturer of meega sporty cars. You know the ones, that the 12-year old boys draw on paper and the 20-year old boys buy because they think they’ll impress women. That aside, I couldn’t be more happy about how this artwork turned out. I watched a 30s tutorial about how to create this effect. (watch it here) The rest, I came up with and I think it looks sick! Could be on one of those cars, couldn’t it?

25 Western

I am also very happy about how this artwork turned out. It could be a saloon sign somewhere in the wild west. The Yucca is a plant that grows in the hot and dry climate, so it matched the prompt.

26 Celtic

There were a couple Medieval/Celtic themed prompts and I struggled to make them different. I don’t usually love that age and the art from that time. This is one is by far my favorite since I think I captured the theme the best with this old, expensive looking book and the dark colors.

27 Script

Script describes the third main font type aside from serif and sans serif. Script are all the fonts that connect the letters while writing. For this artpiece I decided to make a lawn filled with clovers.

Blackletter is another medieval themed font type. All blackletter fonts are very dense and have thick downstrokes. Essentially it looks like it was written with a calligraphy pen with a broad edge. To match the medieval theme I tried to replicate an old book cover and just left the flowers in this “sketch” state. I also chose another flower that was popular back then already. Valerian was and still is used for insomnia and anxiety. Plus, my best friend’s name is Valeria, so I just had to go with this word!

29 Geometric

Plumerias have always fascinated me with their geometrical arrangement of the five petals and how even everything looks. It felt like the perfect fit for the prompt “Geometric”. Into the letters I added a lot of geometrical shapes to integrate the theme there as well.

30 Flourishes

What a struggle this one was. So close to the finish line, yet one of the ones that took the longest for me to figure out. I love flourishes (curly lines coming from letters) but I have always struggled to implement them into my own art. I find it hard to keep the legibility decent and to find a way to create natural looking flourishes. I eventually ended up only adding flourishes to the word “flower” and turning the word “corn” into a sans serif font to make everything more legible.

31 Ampersand

The Romans took the word “et” for “and” and made a new letter out of it - the ampersand. For my lettering piece I wanted to show two flowers that are often paired together in bouquets and Zinnia and Dahlia came up. I really love how the drawn dahlias turned out and I think I might use those in some other art pieces!

31 Lettering Pieces in 31 Days – Sage Green Series