WIP of first piece, with 1 serif and 1 sans-serif font.

Unfortunately, I decided it was very smart to drink ice milo while drawing, resulting in the following tragedy 😄

New piece, redrawn and tidied up (without iced milo on the table)

For this hand-drawn exercise, I decided to go with my chinese name simply because of the choice of letters. It was fun drawing the letter ‘g’ and while in the process of it, appreciate the different curves and structure of the type anatomy. I chose to use Didot Regular for the serif font, as I really like the contrast in line weight and curves within ‘L’ and ‘g’.

For the sans-serif font, I used Gill Sans as my reference.

While drawing, I started to realise the proportions, curves and weight difference of each line and stroke. To ensure the drawing was proportionate and well-aligned, I used measurements to mark out certain points before drawing them. With that, I also made sure that each letter sat nicely on the baseline so that there will be no ‘floating letters’. I also measured the spaces between individual letters to ensure the kerning was consistent. It was a little challenging with the serif typeface, but having a direct visual reference helped.

Overall, this exercise made me realise that the beauty of typography really lies in its details, and I can only imagine how intricate and careful the printers in the past have to be when they crafted the metal plates for each letter. I enjoy the aesthetic of the sans-serif font here due to its cleaner design compared to the serif font. However, I feel drawn to the design of the serif typeface for some reason, as it seems like there is a lot more space and potential to explore in designing one.