A Study in Hand Lettering

The Best View

I apologise for the terrible lighting..

Some people tend to categorise this as faux (meaning fake) calligraphy because calligraphy effects are added manually rather than from using tools. But this is actually more hand lettering than calligraphy. According to Lettering Daily, “Hand lettering focuses on drawing and illustrating the letters. Calligraphy, on the other hand, is the art of beautiful writing.”

The image above is a visual example of the difference between hand lettering, calligraphy, and typography.
Image Source: Lettering Daily

Any way, this is how it ended up looking like!

Hand Lettering #2

This quote by Dr.Seuss reads, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out!” I discovered this quote just a few months into my new school (years ago!) and it meant the world to me!

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~A Little Background~

Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel was an American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss.

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During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children’s literature to illustrate political cartoons, and he also worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army where he wrote, produced or animated many productions – both live-action and animated – including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. After the war, he wrote classics like If I Ran theZoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series. Geisel died of cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in La Jolla, California, at the age of 87. {Wikipedia}

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Apart from how it echoed my ‘new kid’ struggle, I also loved how the quote ends in an exclamation mark, rather than a question mark. It makes the quote sound like something that is already so obvious. If it ended with a question mark, it would appear to have different answers depending on the person.

For example, if I said, ‘The moon isn’t made out of cheese!’, it sounds like it’s an obvious truth everyone knows but if I had said, ‘The moon isn’t made out of cheese?’, there’s a 0.0001% chance, someone is going to say, ‘Why, yes, it is!’

I used a reference image to get the different fonts right and a pencil for the initial sketch, then went over with a black gel pen and a used a fine liner for some parts. And this is what it ended up looking like!

Now you know exactly what to say, when someone tells you, “You need to try to fit in with others’!

Moving on to the last one,

Does it ever bother you when you forget to do something that is seemingly so small there was no way you should have forgotten in the first place? Or when someone smiles at you but you were moving so fast by the time your brain ordered your face to smile, you were already far from the person? Or when someone who helps you all the time asks you for a pencil when you didn’t have a single one and had to say ‘Sorry, I cant help you’?

Sometimes it ruins the entire day when these occurrences start plaguing you with ‘What ifs’. “What if I’d written it down?” “What if I’d walked slower?” What if…What if..?”

As much as I love the quote, I wasn’t happy with how the purple ink wasn’t opaque enough or how the gradient on the word ‘little’ didn’t turn out prominent but I loved the contrast of yellow and purple. This is how it ended up!

The little things hold so much significance and play a crucial role in everybody’s life, whether you want it to or not, whether you accept it or not. They are what makes the big things seem big. How could you say something big has happened in your life unless you had a little scale to compare it to?

So cherish those little things that come your way. The little moments, the little gifts, the little memories, everything you think is little is going to play a big role one day.

Cheers to the little things in life that help us see the bigger picture!

Thoughtfully yours,
-Introverted Thoughts aka D