Creative Lettering Techniques in an Artistic Sketchbook
A course by Lucía NolascoDesigner and Lettering Specialist
A course by Lucía Nolasco, Designer and Lettering Specialist
Learn to draw unique letters as you document your daily creative process and explore different textures, inks, and pens
Is there such a thing as two identical letters? In this online course, discover that the answer is no, and that this is precisely what makes the art of designing letters so human. Their unique nature is what inspires designer and lettering expert Lucía Nolasco, who has collaborated with brands like Kipling, Cartier, and the hotel chain ibis.
Following her last course, Watercolor Paint Brush Calligraphy for Beginners, Lucía is back to teach you a variety of creative techniques and styles to bring your own letters to life. She also encourages you to document your creative process daily while exploring different textures, inks, and pens to add depth, nuance, and stylistic flourishes to your strokes.
What will you learn in this online course?
21 lessons & 35 downloads
Lettering
18 minutes, 30 seconds
Materials with their own voice and color 1
13 minutes, 43 seconds
Materials with their own voice and color 2
13 minutes, 18 seconds
Draw caps 1
19 minutes, 39 seconds
Draw caps 2
14 minutes, 54 seconds
Numbers and volume effects
18 minutes, 32 seconds
What's included in this course?
Begin by meeting your teacher Lucía Nolasco, better known as Lunol on social media. Hear about how she discovered her passion for letters and eventually turned it into a full-time career, along with the artists that have shaped and influenced her work.
Get an introduction to what lettering is, the different styles out there, and a few basic drawing concepts. Continue by seeing how to apply color to your compositions, then practice drawing uppercase letters and numbers and creating volume effects.
Next, Lucía teaches you expert techniques to enrich your designs. Discover some stylistic resources you can draw on for inspiration as well as how to add flourishes, decorative elements, and connect your letters through a series of challenges and exercises.
Move on to experimenting with wet mediums like ink and paint and explore the world of possibilities offered by brushes, pens, and other instruments. Lucía guides you through another set of exercises to boost your creativity, such as an alphabet made with watercolor spots and a stream of letters.
With your creativity buzzing, develop a phrase for your final project by playing a game of association across two or three pages of your sketchbook. Finally, compose a personal page of lettering designs using your favorite techniques you learned throughout the course.
What is this course's project?
Create an artistic sketchbook where you experiment with lettering designs and document your creative process.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Anyone who wants to discover freehand lettering techniques and explore their creativity.
Requirements and materials
No prior knowledge is needed to take this course.
In terms of materials, you need brush-tip markers, watercolor pencils, round- and chisel-tip markers (both fine and wide), graphite pencils, ink or watercolors, a fine-tip pen, an eraser, round brushes, and, of course, a sketchbook for mixed techniques.
Reviews
- 4 months ago
Lunol is an amazing artist and her course is amazing as well, I got to learn many good techniques in this course.
- 6 months ago
Un corso davvero molto bello e creativo, lo consiglio!
- 1 year ago
J’ai trouvé ce cours très intéressant, j’ai appris beaucoup de choses. Lunol est très généreuse dans ses exercices et c’est très agréable. Un très bon cours.
- 1 year ago
Excelente curso !!
- 1 year ago
Me gustó mucho este curso. La idea de llenar un sketchbook con ejercicios variados me pareció entretenida y súper útil para experimentar con técnicas y materiales distintos. Es un buen curso para adentrarse en el mundo de las letras.
She has worked on major projects in branding, retail, publishing, events, and packaging, including the "Innato" project—a package design where 80% of the calligraphy was done with a flex nib pen—which earned her bronze at the 2015 Pentawards in London alongside Infinito Consultores.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- About Me
- Influences
- U2
Lettering: exercising for the road
- Lettering
- Materials with their own voice and color 1
- Materials with their own voice and color 2
- Draw caps 1
- Draw caps 2
- Numbers and volume effects
- U3
Compose with letters
- Stamp 1
- Stamp 2
- Potion or Bottle 1
- Potion or bottle 2
- The postcard
- Book cover 1
- Book cover 2
- U4
Flow with materials
- Background and white ink
- How to make a stain alphabet
- The ornaments
- A rain of letters
- U5
Last section
- Page set
- Your personal page
- FP
Final project
- Creative Lettering Techniques in an Artistic Sketchbook
What to expect from a Domestika course
Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
Certificates
PLUSIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Lettering is the art of drawing custom letters, while creative calligraphy focuses on writing stylized letters with specific tools. Both disciplines are explored in this course to expand your expressive toolkit.
This course is aimed at people with basic to intermediate drawing or calligraphy skills, but motivated beginners eager to deepen their lettering and creative calligraphy techniques are also welcome.
You’ll need art papers, pencils, fineliners, inks, brushes, brush pens, watercolors, gouache, and optionally an iPad with Procreate. A journal or notebook is also recommended to track exercises and progress.
You’ll learn how to create typographic compositions, apply calligraphy and lettering techniques, experiment with materials, develop your own style, and document your creative process in a lettering journal.
Yes, the course includes lettering exercises using Procreate on iPad, letting you adapt traditional techniques to digital and broaden your creative options.
You’ll work on paper, wood, and other artistic surfaces, experimenting with inks, watercolors, colored pencils, gouache, and brush pens to achieve various effects and textures.
Yes, you’ll learn to apply lettering and calligraphy to projects like product labels, book covers, and custom graphic compositions, tailoring styles and resources for each purpose.