Watercolor Brush Lettering Workshop with Anina Rubio

I have fallen in love all over again with brush lettering. Calligraphy and lettering is something I’ve always been fascinated with and quite frankly, it’s been quite a frustration because my handwriting is pretty terrible (I’ve been told I write in hieroglyphics). I’ve always wanted to be able to do handwritten lettering and while digitally I am quite adept at working with beautiful hand lettered fonts (more on that later), I still wanted to learn how to create artwork and signage by hand. That’s why I’ve been so excited about all the workshops being offered now for calligraphy and different types of lettering like brush and watercolor.

What’s even more exciting is that my good friends Regina Calpo (of Loomy Mommy and Me) and Sasha Temones (of 4 and 20 Blackbirds Bakery) are just as in love (if not more in love) with calligraphy and lettering as me! That’s why we all signed up for a watercolor lettering class with THE Anina Rubio last month. It was our first professional step in the world of lettering and we were all taking it together. Fun!

I’ve actually had the privilege of working with some amazing calligraphers like Fozzy Castro Dayrit and Janine Dario in my line of work with the magazine so I wasn’t completely foreign to the concept (though admittedly Regina and Sasha already had an upper hand on me in terms of practice, and better handwriting!) I was really excited to take Anina’s class after perusing her beautiful Instagram feed (see it here) of pretty lettering and vibrant colors. Her work with watercolors in particular was so attractive. It just made me even more excited to take her workshop.

The workshop was last April 12 at La Petit Cheri in Molito Alabang. La Petit Cheri is a pretty cafe that serves both savory dishes and sweets and has delightful decorations like old books, magazines, pretty chairs and more. It’s actually a fun place to meet with the girls or enjoy a family brunch.

We all arrived together ready and eager to learn. Anina was really pleasant and had prepared all our materials in advance including a Brush Lettering Module she created, worksheets, a brush pen, a Pental Aquash waterbrush pen (I love this pen!), a set of Prang watercolors, a pencil, and some watercolor paper. A very complete set!

The class was great fun! (And even more fun because I got to take it with friends). Anina taught us the basics of working with different kinds of brush pens as well as how to mix watercolors and the basics of working with the medium, and the different kinds of paper we should use. We began with some basic drills and practiced for a little while to get a feel for it. We then ended the workshop by selecting a movie we love and lettering the title.

It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot. In fact, I’m looking forward to joining even more workshops in the future (I’m slated to try lettering with Ella Lama and classic calligraphy with JJ and Ava this weekend)! Will share my experiences with those as well, but in the meantime, here are some photos of our fun and crafty afternoon.

Some samples of Anina’s work. So beautiful!

Tools of the trade.

Anina showing us the different kinds of brush pens we can use as well as taking us through watercolor mixing and blending.

Different kinds of blends (lightest to darkest).

A beautiful example of color blending.

Anina showing us how it’s done.

My initial (terrible) attempts at cursive and block alphabets. I need to work on my thick and thin lines as well as my watercolor blending.

One of my favorite movies (other than the Star Wars and Harry Potter series of course) is La Vita e’ Bella – the Roberto Benigni classic – so that’s what I chose. Tried to blend some purple and blue but I think i was too slow and the paint semi-dried so the blending wasn’t really smooth (I’m going to work on that).

Sasha chose the amazing Dead Poets Society.

And Reg (ever the rebel. Hahaha!) opted for musicals instead of a movie. She lettered some of our greatest Broadway favorites!

Class photo!

I wish I could say I made this, but I didn’t! Maybe one day. It’s an adorable sign of my blog’s hashtag that Anina made for me at the end of class.

The workshop was so much fun. If you’re interested, check out Anina’s website here, she always updates her workshop schedules as well as having fun contests and sharing calligraphy and lettering information and product reviews in her blog posts.

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Michelle Alejandro

Michelle is a former Magazine Editor, Party Stylist, Photographer, and Founder of Peanut Butter and Glitter. Michelle frequently writes and styles for newspapers, magazines, photo shoots, and parties. Her work has been featured in The Philippine Star, Metro Weddings Magazine, Working Mom Magazine, and Smart Parenting as well as blogs like Amy Atlas, Kara's Party Ideas, and Baby and Breakfast.