Lifestyle illustrator: Hand-drawn type and drawing words

I have always loved decorative type – from delicate, swirling calligraphy, through neon bubble writing, spray-painted graffiti and colourful mixed-up fonts, to ornate chalkboard writing. And, my absolute favourite …

I absolutely love the loose, handwriting-style that I can get from a dip-pen or fountain pen – or, more often, my Apple pencil! I like mixing up lower-case and capitals, and throwing in some font-like letters here and there. (I do have to switch off the editor in me, because she can get a bit antsy when I go all out with mixing up lower- and upper-case.)

Hand-drawn type (mostly) on its own

I use hand-drawn type a lot. I use it on its own for positive, life-affirming messages …

… or shouty activism (yeah, I need to do a lot more of this one!) …

… or celebratory words …

Hand-drawn text within illustrations

I use it within illustrations a fair bit. On bottles and packaging or wall art …

… in the words for my alphabet series …

… as captions on individual spots …

… as text in speech or thought bubbles, or not …

… in illustrated recipes …

Hand-drawn type within patterns

I even use it in patterns sometimes!

Hand-drawn type on book covers

Oh, and of course for book covers.

Do you love

too?

What’s your favourite decorative type, illustrated words, hand-drawn text (…)? Leave a comment and tell us what you love about illustrative text. Or link to some of your own hand-drawn type, if you like!

If you’re looking to commission some hand-drawn type, do get in touch!