This is what I’ve spent the last 2 or 3 hours doing – I lose track of time when engrossed in an artsy project.

After the K monogram yesterday I wanted to try my hand at another letter and I just chose my own initial. I really do need to do some different letters though!

For this one I started by drawing the letter in colour using Copic markers on Daler-Rowney Bristol board. I did do a vague sketch of the letter with pencil very lightly which I then erased.

Black lines to define the letter were next, followed by the lines outside of the letter and the sectioning of the spaces inside the letter.

I wanted to finish some of the lines with some interesting shapes, so naturally I defaulted to hearts and beads!

I used some of my favourite geometric and abstract patterns to fill some of the spaces, along with dots and lines.

The penultimate step was to colour in some of the blank spaces, the hearts and beads using Copic markers.

Finally, I used a glass pen and metallic gold ink from Herbin.

I worked with traditional media to do this one, so I could use gold ink, which is something I’ve not quite worked out how to do digitally.

Having said that, my process for creating this monogram is the same whether I work with traditional media or digitally. The only difference is that some of my ‘overspills’ with the lines in the tiny patterns I have to leave here and accept as it being ‘perfectly imperfect. Also, the colours aren’t as bright and vibrant as they would be digitally, but they’ll do!

Yes, I could add a dangle or three to this design, but, again, I’m happy with how it is…for now! I’m just happy exploring hand lettering in a different way to what I’ve been doing.

If anything, this hand lettering is more about shapes and patterns than it is about letters themselves. I know this is a step forward for me in finding my hand lettering style (or one of my styles at least), and I also know that as I become more comfortable with it and don’t have to work quite so hard at it (working hard is thinking about the lines and working out how to add the embellishments so they feel part of the design and not just plonked there for the sake of plonking them there) I’ll work out how to add to them in a sympathetic way.

What letter will I do next? You’ll have to wait and see!