Your Blog

There's so much good stuff to learn here for free. Read up!

My Top 6 Favorite Brush Pens

After lettering and collecting brush pens for over 7 years now and doing countless “What’s That Pen?” Honest Pen Reviews, by far one of the most common questions that I get asked is, “But which brush pen is the best?” That answer isn’t an easy one! Like most questions, the answer is, “Well, it depends!”…

READ MORE...

Your Lettering Foundation: Basic Strokes

At a very young age (I’m talking “playing with building blocks” young) we learn that the key to a solid structure is a sturdy foundation. Without that solid base – anything you try to build on it will collapse. This applies to so much in life – including your lettering journey! You need to master…

READ MORE...

How To: LEGO Heart Valentine’s Day Favor

A common conundrum that I’m sure most parents come across when it comes to classroom holiday favors is that you want something that is, one, not food with so many different dietary restrictions in every classrooom and, two, a gift that won’t end up in the trash just creating more waste. Last year, my girls…

READ MORE...

“Word of the Week” Free Lettering Worksheet Series

Click the link below to jump to: Free Word of the Week iPad Brush Download Supply List “Hello” Worksheet Tutorial Word of the Week Lettering Worksheet Signup Welcome to the Word of the Week! What is the “Word of the Week”? It is a free, weekly hand lettering worksheet series. After you sign up, once…

READ MORE...

The 12 DIYs of Christmas

It’s here! The holiday season! And while every year, the most special gifts to give and to receive are the handmade gifts, this year more than ever, the ability to “DIY” a gift is key! The less time we have to spend in stores and the more special we can make our loved ones feel…

READ MORE...

Procreate Animation 101

One of the most amazing features that Procreate 5 gave us is, hands down, the animation feature. There is so much you can do with your Procreate animation studio and so many fun ways you can share your animations. In this 2-part tutorial series, you will learn how to create a fast and easy “Cheers”…

READ MORE...

Tutorials of Christmases Past

In addition to the 12 DIYs of Christmas Series, this is your one-stop-shop for all the tutorials and freebies of Christmases Past. I’ve included both Christmas tutorials and also the tutorials that just make great gifts anytime! There’s something for everyone! I hope that between here and the 12 DIYs of Christmas Series, you will…

READ MORE...

It’s Not a Cheat, It’s a Strategy (Quick and Easy Lettering Tips)

If you’ve ever taken an online course with me, you know that one of my FAVORITE sayings is, “It’s not a cheat, it’s a strategy!” Those are the little things that you can do to make your final piece look perfect, even if it didn’t start out that way. Over time, I’ve collected a lot…

READ MORE...

2 Easy Steps to Properly Scale Your Lettering

If you’ve experimented with enough brush pens, you have likely quickly realized that you have to scale your lettering size based on the size of your pen. With every pen, you run into the Goldilocks situation – your letters can’t be too big, they can’t be too small, they have to be just right! But,…

READ MORE...

How To Get a Perfect, Consistent Downstroke for Your Lettering

Having a nice, consistent downstroke is the backbone of all your hand lettering projects. The contrast between the thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes is absolute key! Without this, it’s just handwriting. Which is not what we want! When it comes to downstrokes, the questions that always come up are, “How big/wide/thick should my downstrokes be?”…

READ MORE...
DIY tutorial for making your own hand lettered dishtowel with free tracers from amandaarneill.com

Four Perfect DIY Hand Lettered Dish Towels

One can never have too many dish towels (or so I tell myself since I own 37 of them) and a hand lettered dish towel is the perfect addition to any collection. With birthdays year round, holidays coming up and parties to attend, creating a hand made, hand lettered dish towel is the perfect way…

Read More
Eat, Drink and Be Scary hand lettered pumpkin

Perfect Hand Lettered Halloween Pumpkin DIY Tutorial

  I’m going to be totally honest… I HATE carving pumpkins and pumpkin decorating. My husband likes it so we tend to carve one or two, but I sit there grumbling the whole time (like a mature adult). Sure there are the typical reasons to hate it –  it takes a long time, it’s super…

Read More

How to Easily Personalize a Notebook with foil-like lettering and art

I am awful (absolutely atrocious really) about getting new planners or notebooks and then actually using them. I have amassed quite a collection but fall abysmally short of actually putting them to good use.   As my husband says, there are both important and not important pieces of paper that I’ve scribbled notes on all…

Read More
Creating Custom Lettering Order Cheatsheet Worksheet

5 Steps to Creating Stress-free Custom Lettering Orders for Clients (and Yourself!)

Okay, I don’t know how far into your lettering journey you were when you discovered Tombow pens, but since I found them, I haven’t looked back. I would say that (by a conservative estimate), when I’m lettering, I use Tombow pens 96.742% of the time. I have their pens in every purse I carry, in…

Read More

The 6 “Must Have” Hand Lettering Tools

Sometimes I imagine that I’m stuck on a desert island (PS – I say desert instead of deserted because it’s Hawaii and my kids aren’t with me). Then I thought, I don’t know where to get lettering pens and paper on this island so I would have to bring them with me. Now, what hand…

Read More
What Bad Makeup Taught Me About Lettering

What bad makeup taught me about flourishing

Once you master lettering, you start to look at what is next… flourishing. Slapping some flourishes onto your piece is a great way to make it look uber fancy. If only it was just that easy. Want to know the best way to make your lettering look awesome? … flourishing! Want to know the easiest…

Read More
The Biggest Hand Lettering Mistake You May Be Making and How to Fix it!! | Amanda Arneill

The biggest hand lettering mistake you may be making

I’ve decided to do a whole series on the tricks that you need to know in order to take your lettering from “meh” to “yay!!” These tricks are intended to make you want to run to the closest person and give them a huge high five because of the new fabulous makeover that your lettering…

Read More

Do you want to stand out?

I hope, fingers and toes crossed, that your answer to that is yes. If it was no, keep lettering by copying other people’s work and that’s cool, but you aren’t really growing your own talent. Eek, don’t hate me, but I had to say it. Because I’m will never tell you to copy what I do.…

Read More

Launch your successful hand lettering social media account

I’m going to be totally honest with you… when I started lettering and putting my work on social media and Instagram, I had no idea what I was doing. But there are a few key things that I’ve learned that are pivotal in having a successful social media presence for hand lettering. AUDIENCE The first thing…

Read More

The power of foam core

  Yep. That’s a super weird blog title. But it’s the truth! A single piece of foam core can be the most powerful lighting trick that you use to take the photos of your hand lettering pieces to the next level. So pop on down to the Dollar Store and get a piece or two…

Read More

How to take perfect lettering photos every time. Period.

If you are a calligrapher or letterer, especially if you are someone who wants to gain followers on social media or make a portfolio that pops, clean, crisp lettering photos are a must. I still rock an iPhone 5S and I am able to go from taking a ho-hum photo to sharing a perfect photo in…

Read More

Find Your Own Style

  One of the most important things that you can do as a hand lettering artist (intermediate, advanced or newbie) is to develop your own style. My Let’s Start Lettering online course teaches you a foundation in both printed and script lettering and variations but it also goes into how to develop your own style.…

Read More
How to Choose the Right Paper for Hand Lettering and Calligraphy

PAPER MATTERS!

We’ve all been there. You’ve researched, asked questions and finally pulled the trigger on your first order of pens so that you too can learn hand lettering and they have arrived. The heavens have parted, a ray of sun is shining down directly on your doorstep as you hold the box above your head victorious.…

Read More

CREATING NEW COLOURS OUT OF YOUR TOMBOW MARKERS

I don’t know if you’re like me, with an exploding collection of art supplies, half of which you never use, but, if you are, then the likelihood is that someone has tried to craft-intervention you before. “Amanda, your addiction to art supplies is affecting me negatively in the following ways… we don’t have any more…

Read More
Get a full list of supplies for hand lettering and calligraphy | Amanda Arneill

BECAUSE YOU’RE ASKING: PEN EDITION

I have a large collection of pens, it’s true, and I use different pens for different purposes, but I also have a handful of pens that I reach for over and over again. To save you time (and money!) I will give you the low down on my favourite go-to pens in this Question and…

Read More
Amanda Arneill Welcome
Word of the week title No line

Get free weekly worksheets straight to your inbox. One word, once a week, many different ways to write it!

TINY FINAL Word of the Week Photos 33 (1)
Let's Start Lettering Course Image tiny

Establish a strong foundation in both printed and script brush lettering when you learn brush lettering through Let's Start Lettering! From first strokes through to letters and words and all the way to basic composition of phrases, the course videos and handouts will let you master your brush lettering skills.

Level up your Procreate skills with an in-depth course that dives deep into all of the amazing things that Procreate 5 offers. Learn to create your own Procreate brushes and make animations to make people stop and stare. 

Paint the stunning flowers and foliage that you've always dreamed of creating. With detailed step-by-step videos and a 99 page workbook, your house will soon be exploding with brilliant painted blooms.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL COURSES

From paper to pens to paint and beyond, find out exactly what to get without wasting a single dollar!