Draw with Words – Turtle Lettering

Get ready to draw with words as we create turtle lettering inside a turtle drawing.  

I seriously debated between more turtles and a unicorn. I know, I don’t usually head down the unicorn road. I’m a boy mom, after all. But I have a couple of special little unicorn lovers in my life, one of whom will soon have a birthday. That makes me want to pull out the calligraphy supplies, some pink and purple watercolor and  … you guessed it! Glitter. 

I think I’ll save that unicorn for now (it might be the next tutorial … we’ll see). After the last tutorial, Turtle Drawing on an Abstract Watercolor Background, it felt like too much of an abrupt change. We need some turtle lettering first. (And now you have a unicorn warning if I decide to jump off the deep end into a pile of glitter). 

Now, let’s draw with words. On to the turtle lettering! Here you can watch the full video. Then, follow along as I break it down even more and add some extra thoughts.

What you need

• Basic watercolor supplies
• Basic calligraphy supplies with the Ziller Soot Black Ink
• Winsor & Newton Sap Green watercolor paint or your favorite turtle green
• Winsor & Newton Intense Blue watercolor paint or your favorite blue

Watercolor background

Start by painting a turtle shape in green. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. In fact, I tend to like the end product more if it leans toward the imperfect side. There’s something appealing about mixing a loose style painting with crisp calligraphy lines. 

Remember to keep the green on the light side because this is the background. It needs to be light enough for the top layers to stand out and dark enough to add a little depth to the finished turtle.

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Next, use blue to paint some splodgy, splashy water patches around the tail and at each side of the green turtle. When the green of your turtle background is still a little wet, some blending will occur where the blue touches the green. If you love blending, touch away! But if you don’t care for blending, leave space or let the green dry before adding the splash around the turtle.

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Let it dry completely.

Draw with Words – Turtle lettering and Turtle Drawing

When I draw with words, I like to fit lettering into a shape … the shape of the word. Sometimes I add a little outline drawing and sometimes the word is the drawing, like this elephant. 

Today, we’ll draw the word turtle inside a turtle drawing. 

Sketch your lettering design on a different piece of paper so you can play with the design, erasing as much as you need to without damaging your background. 

When you find a design you like, use a light box to trace the drawing onto your background in pencil. If you don’t have a light box, a window will work. 

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Finally, go over the pencil with ink and your calligraphy pen. Use thicker strokes to darken the lettering with thicker lines than the outline of the turtle drawing. This will help the letters stand out from the drawing. 

Let it dry.

Finishing Touches

Now you can add some extra details that make the lettering look like a turtle. Use the lazy stippling watercolor technique (learn more about it when you read How to Use Lazy Stippling for Watercolor Texture) to create mottled spots in blue. Keep the spots inside the turtle lettering. Feel free to vary the size of the spots and leave areas of the lettering without spots to your preference. 

When it’s dry, you’re finished!

As with most of these tutorials, you can start with the watercolor layer or the ink layer. Just make sure your ink is very dry (hours, depending on the ink) before you add a water layer on top of it. To learn more about ink and how it dries, read Ink and Watercolor – testing ink with water on a dragonfly drawing. 

Here’s an example of what it might look like if you start with the ink layer.

I hope your day is a little brighter after you try drawing a word with this turtle lettering.

Happy Creating!