Today I'm going to show you how to create hand lettering illustrations the easy way!
This popular art style combines a silhouette graphic and a quote that is distorted and
manipulated to fit within the outline of the surrounding shape.
Usually illustrations like this would be created by hand with pen and paper, but it takes some
artistic skills to be able to plan and craft the image with no ‘undo’ button!
This digital technique makes use of ready-made graphics, fonts, and textures to achieve the
hand-made look, but with the added benefit of being able to tweak and adjust the layout
until it looks just right.
In order to create this style of hand-lettering piece, we first need a silhouette graphic
to contain your quote.
You could find a stock image and trace the subject using the Pen tool. Once complete,
you can fill the outline and delete the source image.
An even easier way is to make use of some ready-made assets. This collection of hand
drawn animal graphics is just $5. It contains the bear image I'm working with in this tutorial,
plus a selection of other animals that may suit different quotes.
Click the link below to pick it up yourself, and get up to 50% off your cart total if you
checkout with additional items too.
The illustrations are supplied in vector format too, but I'm just using the basic PNG graphic
of image number two.
Select the Crop tool and draw around the image, hold the ALT key and expand the canvas size
slightly, just to provide a little space to work with.
Use the Type tool to begin laying out your quote, but set each word as an individual
text object.
It helps to use a hand-drawn font style to achieve the handmade look. Click the link
in the description to activate the Active font from the Adobe fonts library.
This font even has clever OpenType features that replaces letters with ligatures, which
helps to give the text and authentic handmade look.
Move the words roughly into place to find a suitable layout that will fill the outline
of the graphic.
Select the first word in the layer stack and convert it to a smart object via the right
click menu.
Next, to go Edit > Free Transform, then in the top toolbar, click the little icon to
switch to warp modes.
Over in the Grid dropdown, choose Custom.
Make sure the number of rows is set to 1, but the number of columns can be adjusted
depending on the size of the word. Since ‘Be’ is a short word, just two columns will suffice.
Click and drag the handles around to manipulate the shape of the text so it fits within the
shape and follows the outline of the space around it.
You can also adjust the bezier handles to curve the letters too.
Hit Enter, then repeat the process with the next text layer. First convert it to a Smart
Object, then Transform. Use the shortcut CMD+T, or CTRL+T on Windows.
Click the Warp mode button and configure the grid. This time, use 4 columns since the word
is a little bigger.
Squash and stretch the text into shape to follow both the outline of the surrounding
shape, and the word above it.
It can help to scale the text so it's a closer fit before warping.
You can also stretch the letters quite far out of shape, especially if it allows the
text to flow around the silhouette graphic.
Since artwork like this would usually be drawn by hand, you can bend and distort the words
in ways you wouldn't usually adjust regular type. It all adds to the handmade look.
The last word in my example is stretched all the way down each leg so it completely fills
the silhouette shape. Adjusting the bezier handles helps the letters to follow the outline.
When you're done, shift and click all the text layers and create a Group with the CMD+G
shortcut.
Double-click this Group and alter the Knockout method to Shallow, then reduce the fill value
to zero.
This trick punches out the text from the background silhouette, without the need to make any selections
or masks.
This tutorial is about making this artwork the easy way, so download and open my free
Ink Stamp Texturizer from Spoon Graphics.
In your working document, go to Select > All, followed by Edit > Copy Merged.
In the Ink Stamp texturizer, double click the smart object and paste in your artwork.
This document happens to be in landscape orientation, so rotate the graphic to fit for now.
Save and close this PSB file to return to the ink stamp texturizer. The effect has been
updated with your own artwork.
Go to Image > Adjustments and Rotate to place it the right way up,
This ink stamp texturizer allows you to toggle through various texture layers to find your
favourite. You can even layer them up for additional texturing effects.
If you want to learn how to create this texturing effect yourself, check out my recent tutorial
titled 'How to Create a Distressed Letterpress Print Effect in Photoshop'
In that video I take you through the process of applying textures and Photoshop filters
to produce this popular stamped ink look manually.
The final result is a hand-lettered style quote illustration that looks like it could
have been made from a woodcut print with the help of those ink stamp texturing effects.
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