Lettering Studies

As a professional working with designers, it is important for an Illustrator to understand formal typography. However, illustrator's may also use distinctly informal illustrated letterforms as a powerful element in their drawings. The following exercise is intended to open the illustrator to some non-typographic approaches to letterforms, and begin a wider visual investigation of words.

Negative Space
Using the brushes provided and the same page of letterforms as the previous exercise, draw out the words, this time filling in the negative space, so that you have white letters surrounded by black ink:
Blind
Eyes
Trace

Blind Contour
Looking at the attached page —not your drawing—create blind-contour versions of each of the words, emulating the fonts in which they are presented:
Blind
Eyes
Trace

Bread
Using the slices of bread provided, create the following words:
[Your Name]
Bread
Dough
Xerox your letterforms, and place the Xeroxes in your sketchbook.

 Bugs

Cut apart the provided images of insects, and create one of the following words:ThoraxMandibleCarapaceYou may wish to make additional copies of the provided pages before cutting them up.

Using two of the lettering approaches from today's exercise, plus two of your own invention, create four cards. Each card should contain a single word, at least four letters long, and an image of an object executed in a manner that is visually compatible with the letters. The content of the cards is entirely up to you, although you are encouraged to consider interesting juxtapositions and resonances between your words and card. The print size for each card is 4"x6", and the cards may be black and white.