How to Create Those Lovely Curves in Monoline Lettering

London is one of my favorite places and the perfect subject for creating hand drawn vector lettering. In this post designer Chris Olson shares tips on creating Monoline lettering. 

The hand drawn monoline vector lettering process begins with sketching out some ideas for the lettering on paper.  Next scan the art and pop it into Adobe Illustrator to vectorize the artwork. I selected the word London because one of my favorite projects is creating illustrated maps for clients so I thought it might be fun to do a name of a place in monoline vector lettering. 

The lettering process begins with sketching out some ideas for the lettering on paper.

How do I create those gorgeous curves in the hand drawn vector lettering? To make seamless and realistic monoline vector lettering, you must minimize the number of anchor points you create with your pen tool when you are creating the lettering. This means that the Horizontal & Vertical Bezier Handles (HVBH's) will all be either at 0 degrees or 90 degrees. Look at the sample of my lettering below with the bezier handles visible.

The smoothest lettering requires the Horizontal & Vertical Bezier Handles (HVBH's) at 0 degrees or 90 degrees.

I started out with a one-point stroke using the pen tool. This small size helps to make sure you are lining up the curves on the letters correctly. Once you are satisfied with the look, then you can adjust the width using the stroke palette in Illustrator. Also you can modify the end cap. For this project I used a rounded cap.   I also tested out several color variations for the stroke. My favorite at the moment is the lettering with the thin red stripe.

Monoline lettering by Chris Olson

For more information and a detailed tutorial jump over to Skillshare.com and check out Jamie Bartlett's class Monoline Lettering: From Sketch to Screen. Happy Lettering!