Learning Brush Lettering: Another Update

I am continuing my journey to learn brush lettering for my Networked Learning Project. Since I last shared an update, I have continued to practice the basic strokes and have begun working on letters. Since the basic strokes lend themselves towards writing letters, it has been a natural progression to work towards.

Video 1: A progression from brush strokes to letters using Time-Lapse
Video taken by the author

One challenge I faced has been shaky hands. I thought at first my hands were shaky because this style of writing was new, but as time has gone on, I continue to be shaky. I searched online to see if others have dealt with this problem and what solution they came up with. I found a video from Weronika Zubek where she explains reasons that shaky hands can happen and ways to stop it. I found it helpful to know why this was happening and how I can prevent it from happening in the future.

YouTube videos so far have been the best resource for me to learn from. I find it helpful when the creators share their thought process as they create. Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) discuss that metacognitive instruction should be "explicitly emphasized" (p. 21) for students to monitor their understanding of a concept. I see this within this project as I am better able to monitor what I am understanding from these videos when I hear the internal dialogue from an expert.

Figure 1: Before: My first practice writing letters, After: Forming letters into words
Photographs taken by author

While I have been using YouTube a lot for this project, one other resource I found helpful was a blog post that detailed how Samantha Zabell learned brush lettering 10 minutes a day. She broke down her schedule with what she focused on each day for 10 minutes, which made me see how to progress in practicing and creating with brush lettering.

References
Zabell, S. (2018, July 6). Learn brush lettering in 10 minutes a day (for real) [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.mybluprint.com/article/you-can-learn-brush-lettering-in-10-minutes-a-day

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R.R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368

Zubek W. (2018). Hand lettering: 3 ways to stop shaky hands + brush control exercises [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=26&v=YtAmk9_Jxbw

All images in this post are the property of the author, unless otherwise stated

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