Watercolor Brush Lettering by Shreya Verma

Love the heading? Want to create something like that on your own?

I’ll teach you exactly how you can do that step by step.

In order to reach there, we first need to make sure our fundamentals are clear. We will be starting with the absolute basics in this post.

Supplies:

1. Script Liner of any size. Here I’ll be using size 6/0.

2. Watercolors. You need to make them watery before you use them for lettering.

3. Card stock or a paper of at least 140 gsm.

Grip:

We will be starting with how to hold our brush. It will be a little different than our natural grip of holding a pen. You want to hold your brush at an angle, like 60 degrees or 45 degrees. It doesn’t need to be exact. It just needs to be at an angle.

How you don’t want to hold your brush is straight, at 90 degrees. This will not only create inconsistent strokes but will also ruin your brush tips.

Also, another thing to keep in mind is to hold your brush gently. Your grip should be light and flexible enough to easily create the letters. Don’t hold it firmly. Let your arms and wrists move without any force or restriction.

Basic Brush strokes:

What if I told you that the above heading is made using only seven basic brushstrokes? Well.... YES! It is. And I’ll tell you what these are.

Before learning the seven basic brush strokes, we need to remember that the down strokes are thick and the up strokes are thin. All you have to do is to be mindful of the pressure you’re applying. That’s it. Easy, right!?

Notice the following pictures and the tip of the brush. That’s the part which when slightly pressed down creates thick strokes.

Upon reaching the end, you release the pressure from the tip of the brush and create a thin upstroke. To create a thin upstroke you’re using just the tip of your brush.

There’s also another very important thing to remember which is to not change the angle in which you’re holding your brush. Your strokes and your letters should be uniform and harmonized with the same slant.

You don’t want your strokes to go off in random directions. This will make your script look inconsistent and not very flattering.

Now, let’s study these seven basic brush strokes.

1. The Entrance / Exit stroke: This is the thin upstroke at the entry of a letter or at the exit.

2. Under turns: The under turn looks like a “u”. It starts with a thick down stroke and ends with a thin upstroke.

3. Overturns: It looks like an inverted “u”. It starts with a thin upstroke and ends with a thick down stroke.

4. Compound Curve: This is a combination of two strokes: the under turn and the overturn. It starts with a thin upstroke, transitions into a thick down stroke, and end with a thin upstroke.

5. Oval: It can be tricky to get a hang of it, but I’ll tell you what works for me. Start with a thick down stroke, make an under turn and join the top two ends.

6. Ascending loop: This is the loop we see in letters like b, l, f, etc. To make an ascending loop, start with a thin up stoke and while creating a loop transition it into a thick down stroke.

7. Descending loop: This is the loop we see in letters like g, y, j, etc. To make a descender loop, start with a thick down stroke and while creating a loop transition it into a thin upstroke.

It wasn’t too intricate or difficult, right?

Just be mindful of all the basics we have covered and you’re all set.

Practising your basic brush strokes the right way will create a strong foundation and develop muscle memory for you to create your own desired variations in the script.

For further clarifications or to clear up your doubts, you can connect with Shreya on Instagram at @galleryofshreya.