How to Create Rainbow Lettering

Amylee’s Colourful approach to Creative Writing 

Do you want to use colours in your calligraphy? Here is a very easy technique to follow. The secret is to have good materials and lots of ideas!

I like Pinterest, yes, I admit it. This social network always gives me good ideas, inspires me, and pushes me to test other things. Between 2 beautiful pictures, it is typical to see quotes from artists or writers. You must have noticed that these quotes are often nicely presented.
Rainbow writing is my favourite. You too? And you want to know how?
It’s simple, I’ll show you!

Materials from the Studio

• Graphite pencil + kneadable Eraser
• Watercolour paint
• Acrylic ink
• Watercolour paper
• Water + cleaning roll
• 3 reservoir brush pens
• Pipettes

Find all these products at GreatArt Online or in their new art supply shop in London Shoreditch.

Reservoir Brush Pens | A Great Tool

Practical, easy to transport and made from very resistant synthetic fibres, this brush has a transparent plastic, refillable reservoir and removable cap to protect the tip.

Water flow can be regulated whilst painting by squeezing the brush. This squeezing action also quickly cleans the brush with the water from the reservoir.

There are 2 ways to use this brush: fill it with water or with ink.

Different Brands | The choice is yours

Several brands offer reservoir brushes with different tips. So there are a range of prices.

• Styl’Up Reservoir Brush (Set of 3 brushes)
• Fill’it Reservoir Brush Set
• I Love Art Reservoir Brush (long or short reservoir)
• Pentel Reservoir Watercolour Brush
• Molotow reservoir brush (or Aqua Squeeze Pen)
• Léonard Aqua Nomade

After having tested different models, I have to say that my top 3 are the I Love Art, Molotow  and Pentel

Fill the brush | Easy Peasy

• First of all, take 3 reservoir brushes and 3 primary colour inks.
• Unscrew the handles from brushes.
• Using a pipette, pour different inks into the body of each brush (half is enough). Make sure to clean the pipette well between each change of ink or use 3 different pipettes.
• Now you have 3 reservoir brushes: one with blue ink, one with red ink and the last one with yellow ink.

GOOD TO KNOW: After many uses and rinses you will find it difficult to clean ink from reservoir brush. There will always be residues of the acrylic colours inside. Therefore I take care to use blue ink only in the brush that already has blue. So I will not have to worry about colour transfer.
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How to create Rainbow Lettering?

⇒2 ways of working:

• Draw the text you want to make before you start using colours or start with the brush straightaway.
• Take a sheet of watercolour paper.
• Take a brush filled with ink, wet its tip and load it with watercolour. The watercolor paint must be different to the tank of the brush

Now you have 2 colours in 1 brush: one color in the tip (watercolour) and the other in the reservoir (ink).

• Use a sheet of paper next to you to test the gradient of the colours. Then, you can start to draw your letters.
• Do not hesitate to wipe the tip of the brush if you have too much watercolour paint on it or if the tip rejects too much ink (often when we squeeze too hard).
• Change the brush (and ink colours as well), taking care to soak the tip of the brush in the watercolour before drawing your letters. And so, little by little the letters will change colour and achieve a nice gradient.

Did you know? The most difficult part is to know how to balance having sufficient watercolour paint on the tip of the brush with the flow of the reservoir (by squeezing with your fingers). If necessary, don’t hesitate to do some tests before working on the official illustration.

Cleaning Step | Think about it

After use, never leave acrylic ink in the tank, you have to clean the brush with water and artists’ soap. Cleaning prolongs the life of your art materials.

Some examples in pictures | Let’s Play

Here are a few ideas for making nice cards, creative labels, or just illustrating beautiful quotes. Whilst you look, enjoy this song “Somewhere over the rainbow…”

The content for this post was provided by professional fine artist, Amylee. You can visit her colourful portfolio or follow her Facebook page.

Information for this article was provided by professional fine artist, Amylee Paris. You can visit her colourful portfolio or follow her on Facebook and Instagram. 

Find all Amylee’s posts published in GreatArt online Magazine by clicking here!

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