Modern Brush Lettering (Crafts)

by Becki Clark

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Modern Brush Lettering is a tutorial and style guide to a popular and useful style of calligraphy which lends itself to many uses and is especially popular for bullet journaling. Due out in late 2020 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 120 pages and is available in paperback format.

This is an accessible and encouraging guide. The author has a very upbeat style and I found myself just grabbing some brush markers I had from my attempts at other papercrafts and lettering and jumping in. The introductory chapter covers tools and supplies (very easily acquired and inexpensive), followed by basic strokes and mark making, moving on to alphabets and building up to words and phrases.

Following a short chapter on mindfulness and the philosophy of process, the 20 project tutorials are arranged by season with 5 for each: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The projects range from total beginner to slightly more advanced, all are attractive. The projects themselves are a good starting point for further embellishment and I can definitely see myself using them as further inspiration. Each of the tutorials include an introduction, materials and alternatives in a bullet list sidebar along with tips from the author. The step by step instructions are clear and simple. The instructions are accompanied by lots of photos which illustrate each step. They're composed well and clearly formatted and it's easy to see hand and pen positions as well as drawing layouts. Pretty much every page has one or more photos.

The book also includes a very short FAQ and abbreviated resource list with specific paints, papers, and inks used by the author.

I've been spending a lot more time with my journal (mostly in an effort to organise my book blogging) and I've found a lot of really good tips here.

This would make a great gift (maybe with some paper and brush pens) or selection for the home library. There are a number of nice projects included.

Five stars. Very useful.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.