This week I’ll be explaining the process of drawing with words! These were projects I did in my Intro to Graphic Design class this past semester, and I created all of them in Adobe Illustrator. This project really brings out your creativity and makes you think!

The first project I created using a word was a sloth, made from the word “sloth”. I made the letters curvy, loose and thinner, as sloths are lazy and slow animals. I also made sure to capture the sloths long slender arm and short body using only the 5 letters that were available. I also added the dark shapes that are around a sloth’s eyes to make the letters easier to distinguish as a sloth. 

The next project following this method was the word “snarl”. I decided to depict a snarling dog or wolf with bared teeth. I decided to make the letters thicker to show how bold and strong the word is. A snarling wolf is pretty intimidating! I also chose not to have too many gaps in the letters as I thought it would take away from the boldness of the word, as well.

The last and final project I did is made up of many words, in fact, it’s made up of all of the lyrics to “Welcome to the Jungle”! It may look like just a zebra, but if you look close each and every stripe is made up of words! I drew the zebra on a separate layer and just drew the words inside the lines. I wanted the first thing people see to be the zebra and not the words, so I decided to make the words bold because it is such a bold song. I wanted there to be a distinction between the body of the zebra and the mane and ears, so I made the lines a different thickness. This was definitely one of my favorite projects!

So all in all, this word project really brought out the creative side of me, because it wasn’t as easy as drawing a sloth, a wolf or a zebra, you have to figure out a way to turn the words into what you want! It was a lot of fun, and I would love to try doing this project without the aid of computers. If you’re having an art block, I highly recommend trying out this project!

Happy Drawing!!