Script lettering is the fastest and most efficient way to turn your customers. For example, a script name sells for around three to five dollars and takes approximately 30 seconds to produce. That could potentially mean earning six to ten dollars a minute, plus the sale of the T-shirt! Compare that to more artsy pieces, such as a portrait or a car, which usually take around an hour or more to produce, and sell for forty-five to sixty dollars. There's no doubt about it - lettering is king!
If you're like me, you are not particularly gifted with good penmanship. Don't worry! There's hope, because when we are lettering with the airbrush, we use more than just our wrists. This is a whole body experience where your anatomy can play a big part in helping you to create smooth, sweeping lines. The thing to remember is that we are actually drawing the letters rather than writing them.
Good lettering requires a certain amount of consistency in the height and angle of each stroke. (Remember when you were first learning to print in school? You probably used those ruled pads that indicated where the capital and lower case letters were supposed to reach.) Practice the exercises in Figure 1 to develop your muscle control. When performing these exercises, put your emphasis on that type of consistency. To produce good results, the speed at which you are moving and your distance from the practice sheet should always remain as consistent as possible. You'll notice that, when it's properly done, you will develop a certain rhythm. This rhythm is what makes your lettering consistent. After practicing these exercises, try writing your name over and over and over. Notice that there's a certain "bounce" or rhythm that you use while you're writing. This is the skill we want to perfect.
These are a few examples of lettering styles to help you practice your technique. I chose these in particular, because they are all fairly simple, and there's enough variety to develop and learn different skills from each.
The first is called "Broadway Hand ITC" (Figures 2 & 3). I've done this in a simple black one-stroke method with no shadowing. It's very casual and makes a great no-frills approach to lettering.
The second example is called "Informal Roman" (Figures 4 & 5). This one is red with an aqua drop shadow and an opaque yellow highlight. Pay close attention to learning how to render the serifs properly. (A serif is the line added to the tops and bottoms of many letter styles.) Serifs add a certain amount of style and class to lettering.
My next example is called "Commercial Script BT" (Figures 6 & 7). I chose it because it flows and is a good basis for developing your own script style. I've done it in violet with an opaque aqua highlight applied to the bottom of the letters.
Here's a funky example (see Figures 8 & 9) called "Curlz MT". It's a great example of a fun lettering style that is fairly popular right now because our culture is going through the '70s again! It's done in black with a ti, hot pink outline and hot green highlight to help play up the psychedelic look.
Finally, here's one of my own (see Figure
10). This is an example of what I call the "punk" style.
Some artists refer to this as "rock and roll" or "scratch".
It's easily one of the most popular casual lettering styles
that I use.
In the real world, we must be versatile in order to make a living. If we want to make sales, we need to create bright and colourful designs that have more than just a name. I usually have a few custom pieces I use as "eye candy" to attract people's attention. Once I have their attention, however, I would much rather sell them something that I can reproduce quickly. That's where the display comes in.
I put a lot of effort into making my display bright, clean looking and easy to reproduce quickly. The idea is to strike a compromise between the all-out custom shirts that are fun to paint but not necessarily that profitable and the "king of cash," script lettering! To do this, I often revert to the use of stencils. This way, I'm able to include more complex lettering in my designs and produce them very quickly. This design takes me approximately four minutes to paint, and I charge fourteen dollars. That's a little more than three dollars a minute. Not quite a script name, but not bad.
As you gain more experience, you become faster and more efficient in your painting, so, in effect, you get a merit increase as your abilities develop! I have many designs that took me at least twice as long to paint when I was first learning. WCA
