Create Lettering for Psychedelic Posters

One of the iconic images of the psychedelic sixties is the twisting, expanding, hallucinogenic writing on the eye-wateringly bright posters announcing the bands of the time. Although this style faded after the Summer of Love and didn't survive punk, you can now recreate the acid trips of the period with your own psychedelic.

Steps

Working from Scratch

  1. Draw out your groovy design neatly in pencil. Try to make letters fit together like puzzle pieces, and try to give them some kind of flow, while avoiding them touching. Make sure that the corners of the letters are suitably rounded. Fiddle around with the letters to make them as big as possible.
  2. Go over the letter outlines with black pen. Fix any mistakes you see or try to fill up any blank spaces on the page, but be careful - the pencil was easy to rub out, this isn't.
  3. Use a rubber to erase the pencil markings around the letters once the ink has dried. This should leave the ink lettering clean-cut.
  4. You can now leave the letters black and white, which can look good for maximum contrast, or fill them in with colouring pencil or ink.
  5. Include some cool peace symbols.

Using Outlines

  1. Count up the number of words in the phrase you want to write, and divide your piece of paper or body part with pencil or paint into this number of spaces.
  2. Tally the number of letters in each word and divide the word spaces up into this number of gaps.
  3. Sketch the letters into the slots with your pencil, filling up all available space (even if the slot is a weird shape). Make sure that the corners of the letters are suitably rounded. Fiddle around with the letters to make them as big as possible, but avoid letters touching.
  4. Go over the letter outlines with black pen. Fix any mistakes you see or try to fill up any blank spaces on the page, but be careful - the pencil was easy to rub out, this isn't.
  5. Use a rubber to erase the pencil markings around the letters once the ink has dried. This should leave the ink lettering clean-cut.
  6. Choose if you wish on the shading. Leave the letters black and white, which can look good for maximum contrast, or fill them in with colouring pencil or ink.
  7. Include some cool peace symbols.

Tips

  • Don't read too many directions when doing this, as it begins to look too calculated. Be creative, go for it, and be fabulous.
  • When dividing the paper up into spaces for words, it is important to make sure that the spaces are big enough (especially width-wise). However, they should not be regular rows running from left to right - curve them up or down, slot them in weirdly, make them expand from left to right and then shrink, leave half the line undone. Creativity is key, but make sure to make each shape separate and different to distinguish between the words.
  • Don't shirk on the colour if you're filling the letters in. Purple, yellow, green, red, and light blue are all good colours to use.
  • Similarly, vary the size of the slots for the letters when you are sketching them out. Just make sure that any progression is smooth.
  • When drawing letters, imagine each one expanding outwards to fill up the universe. But try not to let them touch.
  • Obviously if you're doing a specific piece of work the paper has to be the right size, but if you're just doodling then the bigger the paper, the better - it makes it easier to fit the letters comfortably against each other.
  • Coloured letters usually look best on a coloured background, so try to fill that in as well for the best effect. Be creative, and don't care if it's a horrible clash of colours (this is usually the most psychedelic-looking effect, although red and green should be avoided as they tend to look a bit too Christmas-like).

Warnings

  • Don't press too hard with the pencil when sketching out the letters, or it won't erase properly when you've inked over it.
  • Make sure to wait until the ink is completely dry before taking a rubber to the letters. The last thing you want is smudging. On that note, use as clean a rubber as possible.
  • Make sure your 'N's don't look too much like 'H's. It makes it hard to read.
  • Sharp corners bring bad karma. These are friendly letters - make them curvy!

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