2020 New Year’s Quote Design with Free Printable

Hand lettered quotes are a popular way to inspire and motivate ourselves especially at the beginning of a new year….or a new decade! Erica (@ericalligraphy2) has designed a wonderful quote to celebrate 2020 and is also offering a free printable tracing template for you to download!

Kelly Creates Supplies: Dream Pens Set 1 Rainbow, Dream Pens Set 2 Meadow, Multicolor Bullet Tip Pens, Jewel Metallic Bullet Tip Pens, Small Jewel Metallic Brush Pens, Moonlight Marker, Deluxe Lettering Kit (pencil, eraser, Fineliner), Blank Practice Pad

Other Supplies: optional light pad

Can you believe 2019 is almost over and we are about to enter 2020!? And as we begin another new year, many people make New Year’s Resolutions. Sometimes it’s fitness-related. Sometimes it’s quitting a bad habit. No matter what it is, or even if you don’t make resolutions, creating a piece of art can inspire you to start out the new year with a positive attitude and fresh beginning.

So often, the biggest thing holding us back is the nagging negativity in our minds. Sometimes it’s our own voice, and sometimes there are other people inside our heads.

In order to accomplish what we set out to do in 2020, let’s keep our Eyes Forward and leave Negativity Behind.

One of the things I found most intimidating about lettering when I started, especially with lettering quotes, was I thought the process was a one-shot deal. I didn’t realize preliminary sketches and using guides are necessary and essential parts of the process!

To letter a quote, let’s block out the spaces we will fill with words. I am choosing to stack each word on top of each other. To create visual interest, the boxes are not straight lines.

We will also use a couple of different lettering styles for this quote. I am using a more standard brush lettering style for “forward” and “behind” for this project. Since these will be largest words, I recommend filling in those boxes in first, following the flow and lines of the boxes. Then let’s add “eyes” and “negativity” using a smaller printed serif monoline. Notice that I didn’t love the size of the box I drew for “eyes,” so I adjusted it on the fly. Erasers are a wonderful thing!

Once the words are safely in their boxes, let’s add some simple flourishes to some of the letters.

Now you have your template for lettering your quote!

You can proceed with the actual lettering in a couple of ways. I use a light pad which shines light from below so that I can trace my work. It allows me to make clean projects with no guides to erase and I can make further adjustments as I go. (Some people tape their papers to a window and use that to trace)

You can also letter over top of the pencil guides and erase them. If you use this method, I recommend you make your pencil strokes as light as possible so they are easy to erase.

Using the Kelly Creates Dream Pen in Wildflower, trace over the word guides for “forward” and “behind,” adjusting as needed and add some more thickness to the thick lines if and where needed.

Using the Kelly Creates Multicolor Bullet tip pen in Wildflower, go over your guides for “eyes” and “negativity,” again, adjusting as needed. I wanted to shift “negativity” more to the right so I simply scooted the paper over a touch to shift my guides. And since we are looking toward 2020, add the year to the bottom.

Now for all the details that will make this piece pop!

Add shading with the Kelly Creates Dream Pen in Lilac. For “forward,” pull the darker color down from the peaks of each letter. For “behind,” pull the darker color up from the bottom of each letter.

Using the Kelly Creates Moonlight Marker, blend the light and dark colors. You could also use the Kelly Creates Blending kit instead.

Add a thin shadow using the Kelly Creates Jewel Bullet Tip Marker in Amethyst on the right side of each letter in the brush lettering style, plus add some shadows to the letters in the printed style. Use a Kelly Creates 05 Black Fineliner to bring in some additional depth with more thin shadow lines on the right side of the letters and small strokes on the upper left side of the letters.

Use the Kelly Creates Jewel Bullet tip pens in Amethyst, Silver and Sapphire and the Kelly Creates Metallic Small Brush Pen in Gold to add dots to the letters and add various dot sizes in the white space around the words as well as some flourishes and strategic lines. The Kelly Creates Jewel Pens are an easy way to add shine and eye-catching elements to your lettering.

Now you have piece pretty enough to frame and hang where you will see it every day! Or you can give this as a gift. I hope you accomplish everything you want to in 2020!

Here is my quote design as a tracing template for you to download, print and practice! Click HERE or on the image below to access the template.

Using the art of hand lettering to uplift and encourage is always a beautiful thing! Thank you Erica for showing us your behind-the-scenes of quote design.

Follow Erica on Instagram for more lettering inspiration @ericalligraphy2

To shop the supplies in this project, click the affiliate shopping links below or visit my online store KellyCreatesStore.com. 

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