Free Hand Lettering Practice Sheet: A

Friends, for the next month, we’re going to take an in-depth look at each letter of the alphabet and how to form it in Brush Script. We’ll be breaking down both the capital and lowercase letter into its basic shapes/brushstrokes, then I’ll have a free hand lettering practice sheet for you to download and use as you work to master it. Today, we’re starting with the letter “a.”

Table of Contents + show

About Brush Script

Brush Script is the most popular hand lettering font, and it’s recognizable by the contrast of thick and thin lines within a letter. The downstrokes {anywhere your pen is moving downward on the page} are the thick parts, while the upstrokes and horizontal strokes remain thin.

Brush Lettering Supplies

In order to write in Brush Script, you’ll need a brush pen. My absolute favorite is the Tombow Fudenosuke. You can also use any other pen that specifies a brush tip, like the Pentel Sign Pen with Brush Tip, Marvy Uchida LePen Flex, or Tombow Dual Brush Pen

Creating a thick downstroke

Making a thick stroke simply requires applying pressure to your brush pen as you move it down toward yourself on the page. You’ll want to hold the pen at a 45 degree angle to make sure that much of the tip is able to touch the paper as you press on it. Don’t be afraid to damage the pen by pressing on it; it’s made just for that purpose!

Creating thin upstrokes

When you move your pen upward, release the pressure you were applying. This will cause the line to be much thinner than your downstrokes were.

You’ll want to practice alternating your strokes, making a thick line, then a thin one, a thick one, a thin one, and so on.

Then, try alternating without picking up your pen. This requires you to press down, then release the pressure once your pen starts changing direction. Don’t panic if it doesn’t come naturally at first. Practice makes progress, and it’s a skill that needs to get into your muscle memory. No one does it perfectly the first time {or the first ten times!}. Try going from thick to thin, then from thin to thick. These basic curves and wiggles will become the basis of our letters.

For more practice and info on this basic technique, check out my Basic Brush Lettering post and/or my book Hand Lettering for Laughter.

Now, let’s take a look at how the capital and lowercase “a” is formed. These letters have the same basic shape, one is just larger than the other.

The left side of the letter is formed with a curving downstroke that moves back up when you get to the baseline. On the right, you have a straight downstroke that moves back up at the baseline to form a tail that connects the “a” to the next letter. Use the guide below to help you form these strokes in the correct order. It’s up to you whether you want to do them all in a continuous motion, or if you prefer to pick up your pen before the second downstroke.

To practice forming our letter, here’s a free worksheet you can download and print out as many times as you like. If you letter digitally on an iPad in the Procreate app, you can save the practice sheet to your device and import it into the app. Either way, you can practice by tracing over my shapes and letters, then using the blank lines to write your own.

DOWNLOAD THE HAND LETTERING PRACTICE SHEET HERE

Over the next few weeks, be sure to check back for practice sheets that will walk you through the entire lowercase and capital Brush Script alphabet, one letter at a time! Also, be sure to follow @lettercise and #lettercise on Instagram for more inspiration and styles of every letter throughout the month of June.