*This article contains affiliate links. CLICK HERE for my full disclosure*
If you have been here for any time at all you know that I love hand-lettering, and do some kind of calligraphy lettering for pretty much all my Bible journaling pages.
Hand lettering is one of those skills that can be used all the time. Like lettering in Bible journaling pages, for birthday cards, for labeling pantry bins, even to make fancy grocery store lists. (Yes I do these things and more). And all you need are a couple of pens or a paintbrush and paint!
In today’s video, I show how I created a Bible journaling page by doing brush calligraphy with a small round paintbrush and watercolors. I also added some little flowers and leaves to dress it up. It was such a great time spent in the Word.
I do tell some good tips and tricks for watercolor calligraphy in the video, but it doesn’t go super in-depth into actually creating the lettering. For that, I recommend checking out my other lettering tutorials, most of which include free printable practice sheets. (See below)
Lettering/ Caligraphy Tutorials
Faux Calligraphy- Three Simple Steps To Creating Beautiful Hand-Lettering (With free practice sheets)
If you are brand new to the world of hand-lettering and have no idea where to start, start by learning faux calligraphy. This will teach you the three strokes (upstroke, downstroke, and midstroke) and how/when/where to create them.
Brush Calligraphy Basics (with free practice sheets)
Once you feel comfortable with that, you may want to invest in a brush pen. Which is a marker that has a flexible tip so that you can create the varying thickness of the strokes, and in turn, create calligraphy and other lettering styles.
Bounce Calligraphy (with free practice sheets)
After you have the basic concepts down, you can start varying the letter shapes up to create a ton of different styles! I have developed my personal lettering styles after years of practice to decide what I like. But my style started with what I would call “bounce calligraphy”.
Watercolor Hand-Lettering
It is at this point, once you are comfortable with brush pen calligraphy, I would recommend trying out paintbrush calligraphy. It is tricker because you have the added element of transferring the paint to the brush and then the paper. This means you have to take into account the consistency of the paint (for watercolors this depends on how much water you use). Paintbrushes are also generally harder to control than brush pens. So overall watercolor calligraphy, or any brush lettering, can take some extra practice. But, it also looks so beautiful and it opens up a whole new world of lettering options. (I mostly use watercolors, but the same techniques apply to any paint, ink, stains, etc. that you can use in or out of your Bible!)
Bible Journaling With Me Video
My goal in sharing this video is to inspire you! Inspire you to get into the Word and also to create something of your own. I hope you will watch this video and try out something like it yourself!
Supplies Used
*This article contains affiliate links. CLICK HERE for my full disclosure*
ESV Single Column Journaling Bible
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors: 48 Color Set– While I have the 48 color set, they do have smaller/cheaper sets, like this 36 color one, or this 24 color one.
Small Round Paintbrush– I typically use a size 6 or 8 for lettering, but it really is up to personal preference. I also use any cheap synthetic brushes; but using a newer brush, or one that is well taken care of, will make a difference. You may want to grab a few round paintbrushes and play with them on a separate sheet of paper to find which one you prefer. Link is to a pack of brushes that I like
Other Tutorials You May Like
- Five Tips For Creating Brush Calligraphy
- Choosing A Journaling Bible
- Eight Must-Have Bible Journaling Supplies
- How To Paint Easy Watercolor Roses
- Brush Pen Calligraphy Basics
- Brush Pen Calligraphy- Bounce Lettering
- Faux Calligraphy Tutorial- Three Simple Steps To Beautiful Hand Lettering
- 10 Simple Hand-Lettering Styles (Plus a free cheat sheet)
