Creative Toolbox

Six years into hand lettering and I am constantly experimenting with new techniques, brushes or even photo editing apps. I love to see what tools other designers are using for my personal growth, that’s why I’ve decided to share with you my personal Creative Toolbox as well! Let me know if you find it useful :) 

Digital Drawing and Design

• Macbook - I use a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) for everything!
  
  
• Procreate - Super easy and very good for digital lettering! Procreate is my go-to drawing app. 
• Adobe Creative Cloud (especially illustrator) - I can’t live without Adobe! While I majorly use Illustrator & Photoshop, Softwares like Premiere Pro, Lightroom, and In-Design are great too!
• Wacom Tablet - I use a Intous pro wacom! I got in long back when there was no apple pencil and I think it was a great investment to digitise letters because procreate doesn’t give you vectors!

iPad and Pencil

• iPad Pro (6th Gen)  - This ipad was bought in 2018 and was almost the first thing I ever bought with my own money (very proud) and it’s worked so well in the past few years. However with the new IOS upgrade it's causing me some problems.
• Apple pencil (1st generation)  -  Definitely recommended for people looking at digital drawing of any kind! (Please check if your ipad is compatible with a pencil or not before buying) 

Photography & video

• Apple iPhone 11  -  I have never really used a DSLR camera and your phone is the perfect tool for making videos for social media! Easy to carry, edit in and compatible with most of the tripods.
  

Tripods (Iphone specific)

• Lazy Mount Tripod  - I have used this tripod for over 6 years now and I am still praying that it never breaks. It has a clamp that helps me clamp it up on my desk and take flatlay videos and pictures.
• Mini Phone Stand - Useful for really close shots of me writing or painting
• Tripod Stand - Bought a pretty Normal one from amazon and definitely does the work! Best for making videos of me painting time-lapse murals or of me or for talking in the camera and making videos!
  
  Lighting
• Literally nothing. I use natural light for all my work! Just sit near a window and shoot videos! I did that for over 6 years and still doing :)
  
  Video editing (Phone Apps)
• imovie  - I have used imovie on my phone for quite a few years. It’s great unless you have really heavy files, say 4K or so!
• Splice  - This app is paid but works sooo well. I have used it to edit almost all my reels and videos for client work! Works best if you have to edit 4K videos!
  
  Photo Editing (Desktop Apps)
• Lightroom  -  I use this to edit any photos on my phone! Pretty easy to work around! There are tonnes of free presents for this app available online if you want to save time or want the same editing for all photos!
• Photoshop  - Photoshop is great for editing photos and lettering together.

• Trello - I use this to record my creative ideas, organize business goals, and plan my social media calendar
• Google Docs and Sheets - It comes inbuilt with your Gmail. Since I use a macbook, I dont use Microsoft office. Google Docs & sheets save my ass!

• Shopify  -  Shopify is great for ecommerce and for showcasing your portfolio. I used shopify to make this website. They have fixed templates which are super easy to use and are free. Although there is a monthly subscription fee per month, but I think it's super easy to use!

• Pens: Please refer to this blog 
• Paints: I use Gouache (Winsor & Newtons) and I love them.I also use Camlin Artist Acrylics paints. A friendly paper pad for brush pens that also has a helpful dot grid to follow!
• Brushes: I use Camlin & Brustro for my work and like them.
• Rhodia notepads (dot sheet) -  A friendly paper pad for brush pens that also has a helpful dot grid to follow!

• Skill Share  :  I love watching online tutorials and I have learnt most of my techniques in lettering through online classes by Jessica Hische, Lauren Hom, Stefan Kunz etc. Buying online classes by these artists can be a bit expensive, so instead I would definitely recommend buying a membership of skillshare and watch the classes there! It covers a huge amount of skills like lettering, illustration, book design, type design etc.

If you have any doubts, don't forget to send me an email on lettersandallthat@gmail.com