Elaina's Journey to Learn Hand Lettering by Elaina Weaver

The Beginning

elainaaweaver — 2024-02-11 22:05:13 UTC

Choosing hand lettering was easy. It is something I've always wanted to do. I struggle to have the patience to learn this skill so I am hoping this project will help hold me accountable.

You have to start somewhere.

elainaaweaver — 2024-02-11 23:27:40 UTC

Today, I purchased a spiral notebook for this hand lettering project. I covered the front with motivational stickers. It's time to stop putting this adventure off. Today is the day I begin learning to hand-letter.

Goal #1: My name

elainaaweaver — 2024-02-11 23:45:49 UTC

There are so many resources out there for learning hand-lettering. I used to spend hours watching Cory's hand-lettering on Instagram. I found her method easy to follow, plus she sells practice sheets on Etsy. This felt like a good place to start.

Is it still an E?

elainaaweaver — 2024-02-11 23:48:09 UTC

I've officially started. This little page of e's is exciting. It's the beginning of my journey.

Cory shows two different styles based on the letter that comes before e. Since E is the first letter of my name, I can choose whichever style I prefer. I like the second style better. After writing only a few of these, they all started looking weird. From my strand of Es on the bottom of the paper, I will have to work on consistency with the height of my letters. I also need to work on slowing down and making my letters look smooth.

E is for Elaina

elainaaweaver — 2024-03-02 00:41:53 UTC

Another day, another page of E's. It's hard to practice because when you make enough of them, they all look weird and not at all like E's.

I didn't feel in as many of the letters today to thicken them. I was working today on figuring out which style was more natural to me.

I'm hoping they will look more like the letter e to me when I connect them with other letters.

A new letter

elainaaweaver — 2024-03-02 00:42:55 UTC

Moving on to the second letter in my name. These all look the same as E's. I struggle with patience. I need to slow down and focus on finding a style I like and then consistently making them in that style.

I'm not sure what to do to make my e's and my l's look different. I'm hoping when I combine the two letters I will be able to see what I need to do differently.

Combining Letters

elainaaweaver — 2024-03-02 00:44:10 UTC

I told you I struggle with patience. I didn't make very many L's at all before I was ready to start combining letters. It did not start off well at all, but it did improve rather quickly. I need to work on making my connections smoother.

It definitely helps making the two letters different heights.

I know this isn't much, but I am proud of myself for practicing.

Ready to move on

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:13:53 UTC

It's been a little over a month since I last practiced. As you can see I only wrote el a few times before I decided I was ready to move on. Maybe it was because I felt like they were looking pretty good tonight, but it was more than likely my impatience.

A is challenging

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:15:00 UTC

I quickly became frustrated with my letter a. It was difficult. As you can see, I only wrote one that I really liked. This letter is clearly going to take some practice. A feels less natural than the e and l did. It feels like I'm trying to completely change my handwriting.

Keep adding on

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:16:11 UTC

Frustrated with a letter? Why not add more to it. I'm not sure why I thought an a would be easier if I wrote an el first. It did make them less frustrating, but I can see that connecting my letters seamlessly is going to be a struggle.

Just dive in...

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:17:31 UTC

This one-letter-at-a-time thing might be the best practice, but it is not for me. Just let me practice a word. Tonight, I moved on to my entire name. I did several sheets of practice with my name. Writing my name got me excited about hand-lettering. I felt like I was making progress and actually getting somewhere.

That's actually not terrible.

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:18:49 UTC

I won't share all of my pages with you, but several in my notebook look like this one. I was feeling pretty good about my work because I kept saying, " That's actually not terrible." At one point, my husband looked at me and asked how many times I was going to say that. The more I felt they weren't looking terrible, the more I wanted to practice. I wanted to keep going until I wrote it perfectly.

A new word already

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:20:44 UTC

It didn't take me long to get bored of writing my name. If I go slow and take my time, I am pretty pleased with how that turns out. I am going to continue practicing, but I decided to add a new word. Being in grad school, I write the word due in my planner weekly. It made sense that that would be my next word. The letter u might be the end of my hand-lettering journey. It is tough! I started trying to copy the way my Instagram teacher does it. But it wasn't working for me.

More me...

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:21:36 UTC

It turns out a little better when I attempt bouncing letters. This is a word that I felt like I needed to make my own. Having a guide to learn from is great. It has been very helpful. However, this is my hand-lettering. It is okay to put my own spin on it. One of the things Cory shares when she is teaching you to write a new letter is what that letter looks like in her natural hand writing. So that's what I did. I thought about how I naturally print the letter u and I'm trying to use that to guide how I hand-letter it.

The journey isn't over

elainaaweaver — 2024-04-29 21:34:02 UTC

I've started. I can't say I have mastered hand-lettering, but I can say that I am learning. That is a success.