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Commissioned Hand Lettering Piece

I was recently commissioned to do an art piece in a style I am growing very fond of which combines illustration with a form of lettering that uses negative space to form the letters. I was asked to use the picture below of Claudio Sanchez, front-man for Coheed And Cambria, as inspiration and to hand-letter on this image the following lyrics from four of their songs:

“Good Eye, Sniper. I’ll shoot, you run”

“Would you run down past the fence? FBI!”

“Your father’s dead, he passed in his sleep”

“One Eighty Four, lets burn it down”

Gathering Inspiration

The first thing I do is to take some time to study my subject. I listen to the songs, imagining how the style might manifest itself into a unique expression of each word. I learn about the band, their origins and the music they’ve produced over the years. I learn about the fans and the culture that has grown around this band and the stories and messages of their music. I spend about a week doing this before I even put pencil to paper.

Writing Out The Lyrics

Simply writing out the lines that I will be lettering helps to clear my mind of any preconceived ideas I might have about how the words should be arranged or what styles the words should take. In this step I make marks and boxes, sometimes combining words or matching words I feel should have equal emphasis.

After getting a feel for the pacing of the words, I write them out again, this time making line breaks to separate the words and word combinations, further defining the hierarchy. I am careful not to think too far ahead to how the words might be arranged in the image, so that the hierarchy remains intact.

Preliminary Word Placement

This is actually one of the places where I can tend to get a little stuck. The question bounces around in my head, “What if I put the words in the wrong place?” I could sit and stare at that outline all day long, but instead I accept that my first attempt at placing the words is probably not going to look anything like the end product and that sets me free to just draw. I sketch, erase, sketch, erase, mark out, etc. until I feel like I’ve got something close to what I imagine the finished project will look like.

More Placement Work

Now I’ve got a better idea of where the words fit into the composition and my goal is to continue working until I’ve come as close to what will be on the final draft as possible.

Half Size Drafts

These drafts are much closer to the final version. They are 12″ x 12″, half the size of what the final version will be.

1st Draft
This draft focuses specifically on the letter styles and further hones in on the word placement. I only use pencil so that I can make erasures and discover more quickly what the final layout will look like. This is the last step in which I might make placement and style decisions. After this one, they are set.

2nd Draft
This draft is meant to basically be a smaller version of the final. I focus on every detail and ink it as I will the final. This draft is great for helping me to work through my jitters and get the mistakes out of my system, as well as helping me become even more familiar with the styles and placement.

Final Piece

Using the 2nd draft as a reference I use a grid system to transfer and lightly sketch the half size image to the full size page.

As I did with the 2nd draft, I take the following steps:
1. Draw grid/guide lines
2. Lightly sketch the outline and basic details
3. Write the words more or less where they will appear
4. Go back phrase by phrase and draw each letter
5. Make final adjustments, erasures and re-sketches before going to the inking phase
6. Slowly and meticulously outline each letter, just on the outside edge of the letter. Here I also line the outline and other drawn elements
7. Erase the pencil lines leaving only the ink
8. Slowly and meticulously outline each letter with a thicker line that will serve as a buffer for the filling that I also do in this step
9. Draw the face detail and fill in shapes and lines
10. Make any minor necessary adjustments and final erasures
11. Sign it

Here is a time-lapse video that condenses the 7.5 hours I spent on this draft alone into 5 minutes. I also composed an original instrumental song to accompany the video. The song is called “Falling Through the Center.”

Package and Ship It

I include the 1st and 2nd drafts, the final piece, and a hand-written note, wrap it up carefully with edge protectors, bubble wrap and packing peanuts to ensure that the contents make it to the client unharmed. As a bonus for the client, I create and send an HD wallpaper along with the final message and invoice.

I Can’t Wait to Do This Again

I will continue to work on personal projects in this same style and already have several in mind, some for which I will make case studies like this.

For more content like this you can check out my process page that talks about the process I use for designing logos or websites, or you can check out another case study from a logo project I took on a few months ago.