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Ask a Font Creator: Yes, I even obsess about fonts on vacation.

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We just recently took a short vacation to Las Vegas. It’s cheap and close to get to, and we hadn’t been there in around 15 years. But of course, I can’t just turn off the fonty part of my brain, so I was looking at typography the whole time. It doesn’t help that there is typography all over that whole town. I’ve shared some of my thoughts about the good, the bad, and the ugly fonts and typography treatments I saw over at this week’s FontBundles blog post. Read “Ask. . . Read More!

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Ask a Font Creator: Copyrights & Trademarks

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There’s a lot of confusion and weirdness when it comes to copyrights and trademarks. Are fonts copyrighted? Can I make a logo with a font and then trademark it? What quotes are OK to use on merchandise I want to sell? I tackle all of those things and more over at FontBundles in my blog post about copyrights and trademarks, with the information (as usual) geared toward the designers, crafters, and others who are heavy users of fonts. Check out “Ask a Font Creator: Copyrights & Trademarks” over at the. . . Read More!

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Ask a Font Creator: How Do I Pair Fonts?

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Ah, pairing fonts. Sometimes it feels almost impossible to put two fonts together and have them look just right, especially if one of them is something fancy or goofy or weird. In this post over at FontBundles, I cover the basics of what makes a good pair, some of the classic pairings, and then a number of examples of script fonts in pairings (since most pairing advice out there seems to concentrate on finding a good serif to go with a good sans-serif). Read “Ask a Font Creator: How Do. . . Read More!

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Ask a Font Creator: Catching up on Vocabulary

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As part of my “Ask a Font Creator” series over at the FontBundles blog, I did two parts on the vocabulary of type (and could have gone on for MUCH longer). The first post deals with some basics, as well as categories and styles of fonts. So if someone asks for your favorite sans-serif font, you’ll know what they’re talking about. And if you’re looking for a font that looks a specific way, the list of styles can help you improve your Google-fu. The second post gets into two different. . . Read More!

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New blog series: Ask a Font Creator

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I’ve been invited by the folks at FontBundles to write a weekly blog, and they’re leaving the content pretty much up to me, as long as it’s somewhat related to fonts and/or design. I’ve decided to call the series “Ask a Font Creator,” and I’ve been tackling questions or issues I see come up in the font community. The first post answers a question that several people asked, which is, “What’s your process for creating fonts?” I’d done a post a while back on how to use three free pieces. . . Read More!

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Tutorial: Creating a Mist Look in the Procreate App

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final mist effect

Hello again! Back with another effect tutorial for the Procreate app in iOS. I’m calling this one “spooky,” since Halloween is just around the corner, but I guess it doesn’t have to be — you could draw a silhouette of a superstar singer, or a fabulous something/someone else, and have the lights and mist pouring around them. Anyhoo, my place is not to judge what you use this mist effect for. Let’s learn how to do it! I’m creating this one on the 4×6 size in Procreate; measurements and percentages. . . Read More!

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Tutorial: Creating a Water Drop Look in the Procreate App

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final work with 7 visible layers

Hello, all! I’m messing around again with trying to recreate Photoshop effects in Procreate. This time, I’m doing words created out of standing water! In this tutorial, we’re going to get really familiar with the layer menu. Especially the option farthest to the right: Select Contents. Learning about this option is going to open up lots of new experiments for me. (We’re also going to get quite a bit of use out of the Clear option here.) And as always, we’re going to create new layers for pretty much every. . . Read More!

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Tutorial: Creating a Neon Look in the Procreate App

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13 - add background of your choice

Well hello, all! It’s been quite a while. The blog is taking a bit of a pivot, and I’ll hopefully be posting more frequently with more illustration, lettering, craft, and other artsy-fartsy things. I’ve been playing around with an iOS app called “Procreate” lately (yes, I also think the name is vaguely unsettling). It’s fabulous for all sorts of art, and I’ve used it for both cartooning and lettering projects. I’ve been thinking about trying to re-create some of the text effects I can get in Photoshop, and this is. . . Read More!

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Fun with lettering: paint marker brush pen comparison

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I’ve been working on my hand-lettering lately; I’ve always been able to do several types of regular handwriting, but now I’m getting fancier, so I can fold that skill into my graphic design portfolio. (Did you know that there’s a whole handlettering / calligraphy community out there? Tons of great stuff to check out. The Instagram hashtag “#handlettering” alone has almost two million entries.) I’ve acquired a few brushes and pens, most of them on the cheaper side, to see what I like. In my quest to find something that. . . Read More!

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New art toys: watercolor gel crayons

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I’ve been upping my art lately, now that I have a permanent home where I can unpack all of my supplies, and a nice big desk with good lighting to work at. The other day at Target, I spotted a product that baffled me, so I had to check it out: Watercolor gel crayons? What the heck are those? The instructions on the box make it seem simple enough, and they were less than four dollars, so why not give ’em a shot? The tips are rounded and kind of. . . Read More!