Those of you who have been tuning into the Do What You Love series will no doubt have fallen a little bit in love with Jasmine Dowling’s typography. She recently offered to show us exactly how she creates these masterpieces, and I jumped at the chance to see her work in action. The funny thing is that before she walked me through it I had no idea it would be so artistic, for some reason I thought most things like this are done on the computer. I guess I should have known, because in many ways it’s similar to the process typography pro Gemma O’brien uses to teach first time typographers (remember?). I was so happy to see that so much of Jasmine goes into each and every one. Read on to see how she does it! I’m also giving away one print from her recent collab with Molten Store so head to the bottom to enter!
My Typography – by Jamine Dowling
The little story of how I got started on my typography band wagon actually started because of college holidays. Naturally being a stress head, who constantly likes to remain busy it got to holidays where uni students around the world breathe a sigh of relief and hit the pillow for most of their days. I did do that for the first day I admit, but after day that I needed something to do asap between work. After studying a typography class a semester earlier I realised my passion for it, I decided to get back into it but this time without the computer.
I was always amazed by those with extreme hand craft skills and wanted to teach myself the skill of hand lettered typography. A few things I learnt quite quickly was that a) you can not do this stressed b) you can’t drink too much coffee before doing it and c) it takes longer than you think.
Anyway, I started off dabbling in a calligraphy-like treatment without calligraphy pens. Then later falling in love with ink. For those who ask what my tools of the trade are, they aren’t anything fancy. All I use is: paper, indian ink / regular ink pot, a fine brush (I am not sure the type I use, I just picked the one that felt right?), pencil, eraser, oh and water.
Now that I am set, I am ready to create ..
I start by picking an expression, I write it out in pencil making sure it all fits nicely for an A4 print. Personally my favourite thing about doing these, is that it is my own handwriting, that no one else has so try to make it yours as much as you can. After that I mix 2 parts water to 1 part ink into your palette. You can change this depending on if you want it really dark or light. Then I go over my writing, changing the pressure of my brush to paper making sure my brush is always wet. Once I am finished I leave it to dry before rubbing out the pencil underneath. To clean it up I then scan it onto my mac, then touch up the colour and line in Photoshop if I need to.
After it is printed it is put into a frame or taped to the wall surrounded by other treasures and of course flowers!
Giveaway
CLOSED
As I mentioned Jasmine has recently launched a line of limited edition prints in collab with Molten Store (you can get your hands on them here and here), and I’m super excited to be giving away one to a lucky reader!
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below with what you would ask Jasmine to put in a quote if you had the choice! Make sure to leave your email in the email box so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner. Contest closes Friday the 8th November.
I almost forgot to mention, Jasmine also does freelance designs, so if you want anything made up click through to her website and get in touch with her. You won’t be disappointed!
Update: Thank you for entering everyone, so much food for thought in the quotes you’ve chosen! The winner, picked at random is Bethan. xx
