Starry Night Lettering Tutorial 1


Hi, I’m Marcella from @lovableletters! This month, the Design Team is creating projects inspired by some of our favorite artists. I chose to make a lettering piece inspired by one of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous paintings: Starry Night. This project will guide you through how I added elements of Starry Night to my lettering. You could also take this idea and add your own favorite painting to your lettering!

 

Supplies Used:

Step 1:

Using your pencil, lightly letter the word “stars”. Then, make the downstrokes thicker to create faux calligraphy. This will be erased later on, so it doesn’t need to be perfect.

 

Step 2:

 

Using the same pencil, create a rough sketch of the painting. I just focused on the major elements since only part of it will be colored in. To make the next step easier, I marked where each color should go with my pencil. It’s best if you put these markings outside of the letters so they can easily be erased once everything is colored in. I abbreviated the names of each color so that I didn’t have much more to erase later on (DB = Dark Blue, Y = Yellow, Bl = Black, etc.)

 

Step 3:

Now that your colors are marked, all you need to do is color in each section. I used short, quick strokes instead of coloring in the letters to mimic Van Gogh’s bold brush stroke style. I prefer to do this one color at a time rather than going letter by letter.

 

Step 4:

Finish coloring each section to reveal the painting within your lettering.

 

Step 5:

Using your MONO Plastic Eraser, gently erase the pencil lines.

 

Step 6:

To complete the quote, I added the words “only in darkness can you see” above the word “stars”

 

Step 7:

To finish the piece, add shadows using your N75 Dual Brush Pen. I followed the rough edge of the strokes instead of making the shadow line completely smooth to make it fit in better with the lettering.

 

Thanks for following along! If you decide to recreate this project, make sure to tag @tombowusa so we can see what you create!

For more star-filled inspiration, check out these blog posts:


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