What is a 10-minute quickie?

Fun way to go about a ten minute quickie: find one quote you love and letter it in as many different ways as possible (Stacking Type Challenge).

That's right, you heard it

10-minute quickie. We try to fit in as many as we can in a week with a new theme being released every Sunday. What is it you ask? Its a challenge where you take 10 minutes out of your week (that's right, week - not day) to make time to improve your lettering and/or illustration and just be creative.

Tips on how to have a successful 10-minute quickie

Plan Ahead

If you read the welcome post or have been a member of this group for at least a week, you'll know that the 10-minute quickie is released every Sunday and is a weekly thing. This all probably started because you wanted to make your planner look even more fabulous, so chances are you have a planner. Take out your planner, and just like how you schedule a meeting or getting groceries - schedule your 10-minute quickie whenever it works best for you.

Know the theme

Yup. Right there - big picture up top. Can't miss it.

If you can't catch the live video where I announce the weeks theme, don't panic. Check out our videos section to see what you missed, or look at the group photo in the header of our main page. Its not necessary that you participate only in the current weeks 10-minute quickie, but it's also nice to do this weeks theme, then go backward from there.

Get inspired

Since you now know the theme (for example, the week depicted above is mixing type), you can go on Pinterest or even google to find inspiration or even look at how I did it in the video. What I like to do is just see what I come up with (honestly, I have no plan for how I'm going to go about it). Lately, what I do to ensure that I utilize the entire 10 minutes is to look up quotes that I want to letter. See me do that in this video here.

Prepare your area

It's easy to get distracted. Find a place that is optimal for lettering where you have the tools you need, a nice surface area to letter on, and the space that will promote 10 minutes of uninterrupted lettering. Now, I have a pitbull named Kahi, who loves to tell me about her day, and give me tennis balls to throw her way. Its taken her three weeks to understand that I'm doing a live video, but it took me making sure that she was walked and played with before starting my live videos for her to understand that I was about to work on something. Do what you need to in order to gift yourself the time you deserve to become a better letterer.

Check out this awesome post on 10 minute quickie tips and tricks

Get the tools you need

This is the part where people tend to not participate in the 10-minute quickie challenge. There are many times where we feel that in order for us to start something as fancy as hand lettering, we need to go out and purchase special pens, papers, and tools. That is an excuse. Yup, I'm just being straight with you. Get out whatever pen you have, whatever paper you have, and just go for it. In time, you will build your arsenal of specialized tools and materials - if you are just starting, the most important thing for you to do is just that: START.

Share

This is the second part where people tend to not participate. Don't worry about your 10-minute quickie being "perfect." I hate to break it to you, but it's not going to be. I've done these for several weeks now and as much as I dislike showing people all of the mistakes live and on Facebook, I realize its necessary. I don't know everything there is to know about lettering. And honestly, I hope I never get there. I hope to continue learning and challenging myself every day - to find new people to be inspired by and learn from. I hope to have people question why I do things the way I do so that I can share my techniques with them, or to improve and better my style. I've gained so much from this because I've put myself in a position where I feel the need to create new things. I have to remind myself constantly that the purpose is to just get as many ideas out and to be as creative as possible within 10 minutes.

Why is it important for you to post? Two solid reasons (there are many more, but here's my top two) 1. You are declaring/showing (to yourself - don't even worry about us) that you are committed to improving your lettering (whether you are a beginner or an expert). 2. You become a cultivator of the lettering community by inspiring others and being a part of the conversation.

Day one, or one day?

The number one question that I get asked is how do I get better at lettering? The answer isn't to download worksheets or to take classes. The honest answer is to make time for it and practice. Worksheets and freebies are great, but unless you take the time to actually practice, all of those things are just ink on paper. In fact, you could watch every video on YouTube and on this page if you wanted, but until you actually take out a pen and paper, you will never actually start your lettering journey.

Now, I understand that this may be the first blog post that many of you ever read from me - but it is the honest truth. And if there is one thing that I promise to do for each and every one of you, is to never lie. If I don't know something, I will tell you honestly that I don't and probably where I'd go to learn about it. In the case of how do you become a better letterer? Practice.

Making time is hard, but you can do it (and you're not alone)

Many of us have busy lives in which we need to find time to fit in the things we love and need to do. If you want to get better at lettering - this is a wonderful place to start: 10 minutes a week. Take out a pen (it doesn't need to be a fancy one if you don't have one yet), pull out a timer (it can even be your oven timer if need be), and some blank paper and get to creating.

As always, until the next time... A hui hou!