Hello Copic readers! In our previous blog, we colored two common greeting card designs, “Yay!” and “Happy Birthday!” using Gold and Silver from the acrea 6pc Essentials set and 5 individual alcohol markers. Today, we’re going to design a decorative monogram using both cursive and manuscript lettering. And with that, let’s pick up our pencils and get started by taking a look at the template below. 

Notice how the left side of the template already has the letters “C” and “A” sketched out (which stands for “Copic” and “acrea”), giving you an example for when you create your own design to the right. It is important to note that the artist relied on the gray grid lines to sketch out the letters to ensure they’ll be at the center of the square. Choosing to use a thick manuscript “C” and a decorative cursive “A”, the artist decided to create some additional shapes surrounding the two letters to create a more interesting design. This, of course, is one way to combine two letters. Let’s see another example below!

The next letter combination is “S” and “M” (which stands for “Sketch” and “Marker”). Once again, the artist relied on the grid lines to sketch the letter “M” across the entire width of the square (“M” is a very wide letter!), and wrapped the letter “S” across almost the entire height. The artist mimicked similar swirls and organic shapes from the “CA” design around these letters as well, filling up the entire composition.

It is important to note here that the artist is using an HB pencil to sketch these designs, pressing lightly to the paper and holding the pencil further away from the tip, as well as using a kneaded eraser for cleaning up any mistakes. However, knowing that the pencil marks will be erased soon, it’s not crucial to have tidy pencil marks, nor is it crucial that they be thin. Loose, light marks are recommended for sketching as they’re easiest to erase later on before outlining or coloring, which leads us to our next step… 

…outlining each monogram! Using a 0.5 Black Copic Multiliner, the artist traced over the pencil sketches in one pass to capture each shape. For the larger shapes, like the curves on the letter “C”, the artist had to pick up their hand and create the outline in a few lines. This is common for adding linework to large, continuous areas. 

Another trick for creating a smooth line in one pass is to move the paper, not your hand. This allows for optimal comfort for your drawing wrist so the lines look effortless and not jagged. The comfort and angle of which you draw makes a big difference in how the linework turns out! 

Notice too the visible pencil marks leftover from the previous step. Those marks are a great guide for outlining and don’t need to be completely covered. What happens next will take care of the marks that remain, which is… 

… erasing your pencil marks and “cleaning up” your line work. What we mean by “cleaning up” is creating line variation, where some parts of each shape are thicker and some parts are thinner. To emphasize the two letters in each design, the artist made the cursive letters thicker and the manuscript letters thinner. They also tried to keep the decorative shapes thinner, as these are supposed to function as background elements. However, these shapes are about the same line width as the cursive letters, so without adding color, everything blends together. This, however, can be fixed in the following step…

…scanning your designs and erasing the gridlines. This can be done with a home scanner and edited via software like Photoshop, or by using your iPad and photographing the linework and editing the design via an app like ProCreate. 

If you don’t want to use a digital way to edit your design, you can also tape your design to a window in your home on a sunny day and then tape a blank sheet of paper directly on top (we recommend using painter’s tape to prevent the paper from ripping once you've finished tracing your designs). Your window will function like a home-made lightbox! This step also sets you up for our following blog, where we’ll show how to color our monograms using both acrea and Copic alcohol markers! 

Print and use this template as an example, then create your own design to the right!

Use this template to create two unique designs!

And with that, we wrap up today’s blog! To give this lesson a try yourself, download either of the above templates here from our line art gallery and print them on a sheet of regular printer paper since there is only pencil and pen sketching involved in this blog/lesson. Then, after you’ve printed the template, grab your pencil, eraser and Copic Multiliner pen and begin sketching your monogram(s)! 

Until next time, don’t forget to follow us across our social media channels @copic_official_us, and sign up for exclusive discounts and prizes by joining the Copic Club! One last thing - use #copicwithus or tag us @copic_official_us for a chance to have your drawings or workspace featured on our Copic US social media channels.

Thank you so much for reading and enjoying Copic markers as much as we do! 😀