There are many variances to Versal letters. I tried to find an easy way to create these for a student who hasn't taken any calligraphy. I've probably put a bit of Creative License in my letter forms, but hey, these are supposed to be fun letters.

I love  the curves on these letters and the flourishability (I think I created a new word, I'm getting a spell check error) of them.

In my normal way of doing these letters I have a tendency to make fatter bulges that have more of a sensuous feel to them.

Created: February 20, 2009
Modified: April 23, 2009

It all starts with a "tree trunk" shape and an "oval" shape and then bulges... the good kind.

I cut out the tree trunk and oval from a piece of stencil plastic and used that to create 90% of my letters. There are always some letters that just don't fall as easily into the set pattern.

Drew them in pencil first, erasing until I got the shape that pleased me, then went over my lines with a Zig marker. The "x" height of the letters is 1". I also have a tendency to go above and below my lines. Can't keep me boxed in.

To make life easier, I usually cut out a stencil from some scrap solid plastic in the shape of the rectangular section of the letter. I make it a bit longer to take into account the angles of some letters, which I draw in by hand later. This ensures all the rectangles are the same size... BIG GRIN.  

I like trying all types of coloring mediums to decorate my letters and I've made the exemplar so I could look back and it would jog my memory or spark a new idea.

All the letters were first drawn in with a light pencil, then I went over the lines with a Zig black marker, then erased all my pencil lines.

It's a good idea to design a letter and then scan and print it out in different sizes. Then start to do your decoration, 1 stage at a time, scan and print again. This way if you've done a very intensive design you can see if you like the patterns you're creating or manipulate your scanned image in a photo editing program.