How to Write Letters in Monogram Style
Monogrammed letters are usually used to enhance the initials of people's names. This is typically achieved through calligraphy, the art of beautiful handwriting. Writing can be categorized as alphabetic and pictographic. Alphabetic monogram letters can be in Roman, Greek, Hebrew, or Arabic. Calligraphy involves the use of pens and brushes to create the lettering. Different stroke widths are achieved by using varying amounts of pressure on the pen or brush and by altering the angle at which the pen is held.
Things You'll Need
- Photocopier paper
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Thin felt-tip calligraphy marker
- Letter guide
- Masking tape
- Fountain pen or dip pen (optional)
- Ink (optional)
Instructions
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Prepare Your Paper
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1
Press a strip of masking tape into a fabric such as a sweater or tea towel a few times so that it becomes less sticky. Then tape down the edges of the piece of paper you will be using on each side of the paper. You want to keep the paper securely in place while you are working on it, but you don't want the tape to rip the paper when you remove it later.
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2
Draw lines with your pencil and ruler on the paper as a guideline for where to place your lettering so that there is consistent spacing between the letters and so that the letters are all the same height. Use very faint pencil marks because you will erase these marks when you have finished your lettering.
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3
Practice pen angle and stroke thickness by drawing lines parallel along the long side of the paper. Draw lines about 1 inch apart. Hold the pen at a 45-degree angle. Draw thick lines at right angles to the pen. Draw thin lines by moving the pen parallel to the nib. Practice strokes by drawing horizontal, diagonal, and vertical lines so that you can see which strokes produce different line widths. Hold the pen at a 30-degree angle to the horizontal level to get a different line thickness.
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4
Practice drawing half-circles by beginning your stroke about the 10 o'clock position and move the pen counter-clockwise to the 4 o'clock position. Repeat this stroke, moving the pen clockwise. Practice making a continuous circle with one stroke. Notice the width of the lines changing according to the direction of the slope in relation to the angle of the pen. Practice drawing larger and larger circles to get a feel for how the pen moves and to make different line widths.
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5
Copy monogram letters onto your paper according to a lettering guideline, which is like a graph. Choose the font you prefer to achieve the desired look of your monogram letters. You want to achieve fluidity and consistency in your letters. Lettering guidelines demonstrate exactly where the letters should be placed on a straight line and so that all your letters are the same height. Ensure that the lines used in the same letters are the same width and that you allow the same amount of space between each letter according to your lettering guideline.
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Tips & Warnings
The height of a letter is described in nib width. The widest nib width is the thickest stroke line the nib makes.
Lettering guidelines can be hand drawn, copied from an exemplar, or designed by a computer program such as Calli-Graphic II for Windows. The easiest, quickest way to achieve beautiful letters is to use computer fonts such as Monotype Corsiva or Script MT Bold in Microsoft Word.
If you are a visual learner, you can view illustrations of the steps above through the website listed in the Reference section.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit lettera d image by claudio from Fotolia.com
