Push Up + Pull Down

Welcome to the "Push Up + Pull Down" lesson! While we won't be doing physical push-ups in this lesson, we will be exercising some very key muscles for lettering—the ones in our hand. This concept is fundamental and crucial to master if you want to do any type of hand lettering. The drills we'll be doing in this lesson are super valuable and are going to help you build muscle memory and master you how to hold your pen. 

Let's get started!

Just like with physical exercise, any shakiness you notice while practicing is simply muscle building and strengthening. Do not fear your shaky hand! If you are noticing that your hand shakes, I recommend hanging out in this lesson for a while and really getting these practice drills down. Remember, anything worth anything takes time, and any time spent with a pen in your hand will pay off. 

Tips & Tricks:

• Remember, pull up and push down.
• You're going for a thin upstroke and a thick downstroke with this exercise. 
• When you're about to make a turn, slow down to maintain consistency. 
• Try to maintain the same width from the top to the bottom of your stroke on both upstrokes and downstrokes. 
• Try tracing, do it on your own, go back to tracing, try different pens, experiment with different hand positions—you literally can not do this drill too many times! 

I will do these drills before I start lettering all the time. They're wonderful for getting your hand warmed up, and I suggest you fill pages and pages of upstrokes and downstrokes. It may seem boring, but it's going to help you a ton in the long run. Work on this exercise for a while and then meet me in the next lesson. 

ASSIGNMENT: Practice your thicks and thins with the drills I shared in the video. Download the practice worksheets I've attached in this lesson to get started. 

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