Behind the type

Mr Chumley font came to me while labeling freezer bags. Yup, freezer bags—is that weird? I bought a pack of sharpie permanent marker pens for labeling freezer bags. Yea, I do that. I know it's not very rock'n'roll, but there it is. Don't mix your Tikka with your Stroganoff Nothing worse than thinking you're getting Chicken Tikka when you're getting beef stroganoff. Not that I have anything against Stroganoff, that's a tasty meal. Sharpie to the rescue I'd pull out the Sharpie each week to write on the bags. Looking at those scribbles got me to thinking. I could use...

Buckley is my newest font creation, drawn with a fat Copic pen on paper and painstakingly digitized into a fresh new typeface—yeah! I nearly called it Bulldog—here is a Bulldog drawing—nice. Drawn with a Copic pen It's surprisingly hard to draw a straight line with my Copic pen as the nib is so heavy. Even with the lightest touch, it bleeds into the paper. It creates uneven, wobbly edges but I liked the result. It was just the look I was after for this font that I'm calling Buckley—wobbly lines give it personality. Buckley font style I've been looking at...

Brush fonts seem to be very popular at the moment, with lots of really great fonts around. So it's about time I threw my hat in the ring and release my own hand-painted/drawn brush font. Introducing Moorgate, a hand-drawn brush script font. Created with Indian ink, a brush, and a scanner. It has a quirky look and feel with a slight touch of grunge about it. Working on the name I’m writing this story on the tube on the way to work. Trying to think of a good font name. It was staring me in the face—in the form of...

Hey there, quick heads up about this blog post – it’s a bit outdated. I’ve made some changes since this was published. I’ve left my job to focus entirely on creating fonts. Because of this shift, the font mentioned here is no longer available for free. Plus, I’ve moved from WordPress to Shopify, and I’m juggling a lot right now, so I won’t be able to keep this post updated. Thanks for understanding! Thought I would never finish my new font Separator. From the original idea to completion, It’s been a long time and a hard slog, but finally, it...

Well, it's not your typical tutorial, my dear friends. Just on a roll with the Photoshop oil painting technique. This time around, I'll be painting everything from scratch, only using reference material for colors and such. I chose Benedict Cumberbatch because, in my humble opinion, he bore a striking resemblance to Vincent Van Gogh himself. Scroll down to see the video and still image. Little did I know before I painted this that Benedict Cumberbatch has already played Vincent Van Gogh, Dam! I should have searched the internet before I started. Painting Benedict in Photoshop I'm still learning how to...

A step-by-step look at creating a realistic oil-painting portrait in Photoshop using colour matching, blending, cracked-paint texture and a modern portrait photograph.

I initially joined Behance as a backup for my portfolio. My idea was that if my hard drive ever crashed, I'd have a backup to keep everything safe. Initially, I only uploaded one piece of web design work. However, my plan was to eventually upload my entire portfolio. So, I had to get organized, resize the work, and write descriptions for each piece. What is Behance? Good question. Behance is a popular online platform and social network that focuses on showcasing and discovering creative work. It's primarily used by artists, designers, photographers, and other creative professionals to display their portfolios,...

Create an oil painting in Photoshop without dreadful art filters. My straightforward method uses a strong photo, light, shadow and patient editing.

Hello there! Just a quick note about this blog post – it's a bit outdated. Since writing this, I've made some significant changes. I've left my job to fully focus on creating fonts, and I've also migrated from WordPress to Shopify. With all these changes and a lot on my plate, I won't be able to keep this post updated. I appreciate your understanding! Exploring Cinemagraphs Cinemagraphs have been in the spotlight for a while now. If you're not familiar with them, you can head over to HuffPost where creators discuss what they actually are. In my own words, they're...

If you've ever considered crafting your own font, you're probably aware of the significant time investment it typically takes. Drawing each character, scanning, cleaning up scans, and converting them into a font creation tool might sound simple, but trust me, it's a time-consuming process. I've wanted to create my own handwritten font for a long time. The mere thought of scanning over a hundred characters used to give me nightmares. However, if you happen to own an iPad, I've got fantastic news for you! With an iPad, you can craft your very own font in about 5 minutes. Yes, you read...