In the last week (and since I inundated my instagram followers with 365 hand lettering challenge) I have been asked many times about my hand lettering process. The majority of the time I use a mix of Photoshop and Ilustrator from the Adobe Creative Suite but I have also somewhat perfected my on the go lettering process. All you need is a smartphone/tablet, sketching things, the following apps and a whole lot of coffee, probably (because lettering is the best with coffee/tea/your choice of beverage. Truth).

If people are interested I will do another post of my tools and perferred pens and sketchbooks but for this post I use the following tech stuff: an iPhone 6S, Adobe Capture, PS Express, Magic Eraser, Over and VSCOcam.

1. Hand Letter
Preferably on plain white paper as it will make the next step easier but if you want to use a grid paper first (which is still my go to as it makes sizing and spacing so much easier) then simply trace it onto the white paper. And optional step here is to ink the illustration with a black pen. Fine liners are great. This again will make the next step easier.

2. Photograph the design using Adobe Capture
This will turn your lettering into a black on white shape. Using lots of natural light with minimal shadows helps here too. Export the design when your happy with it.

3. Optional Step
This step is optional depending on what colour you want your letters to be. I like mine to be white a lot of the time so here is where I open it in PS Express and invert the image to make it white on black. Save this image.

4. Magic Erase
Open the new image in magic eraser and use it to erase all the background. I find that around 70-80% tolerance gets the result I want. But just play around with it until you’re happy. Save again as a hi-res png file (aka no black/white background)

5. Overlaying
Open over. This app now has a plug in where you can select Unsplash photos straight from it or you can use any photo you have on your camera roll (If you want to edit the image I recommend editing the photo before you put the text on in whatever app you like. My holy grail is vscocam). Open the image you want to use as the background and then click the plus sign and add an ‘image’. You should see your new design appear as png. Select it.

Still in over, play around with your design. You can change the size, the opacity, rotate it and blend. Blend is what I use to make it look like my letters are hiding behind certain aspects of the image. Within this app you may like to download other features. This application is an incredible little powerhouse of on the go editing. The main things I have installed for letterinf however is cropping and the ability to overlay images. Once you’re happy, save for the final time.

6. You’re done!
Upload to instagram, your blog or wherever and hashtag it and welcome to the hand lettering community.

That’s really all there is to my iPhone/smartphone/tablet process. I have really enjoyed being able to letter on the go and the things you can now do with a smart phone is amazing. If you try these steps I would love to see your creations or hear about how it went. Tag me on instagram using #delicateandwilde, come say hi or leave a comment below letting me know how it went.

Stay creative,
DW