Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, May 31, 2022: David Milan, a Spanish lettering artist and graphic designer (#1583)

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Artist of the Day, May 31, 2022: David Milan, a Spanish lettering artist and graphic designer (#1583)

David Milan is an independent freelance 3D artist and designer, working across multiple disciplines including typography and illustration. He sees letters from another perspective, and likes to get away from the idea of “perfection that surrounds lettering and typography nowadays. He loves working and experimenting with colors, textures, shapes, and forms. His clients include: Facebook, Adobe, Pepsi, Huawei, Procreate, Desigual, Washington Post, NBC, Wacom, Crocs, MTV, and Wix.

An interview:
How and when did your lettering journey started? ( tell us a bit about your lettering history :
Everything started when I was 15 years old as a graffiti writer. Then I began to feel some kind of love for the letters and a couple of years ago I started to making letters again, and here’s when my life begins.

Your style is very unique, where do you get your inspiration from? What helped you the most to develop your unique style?
I started watching videos of famous graffiti and lettering artists. I found Seb Lester’s work and I fell in love with his techniques for making different styles of calligraphy.

After that I found Joluvian’s work and really liked his style! Actually he’s one of my favorite artists. I tried to make the same technique practicing day by day with the same pens and tools as him. It’s wasn’t easy for me, you know, you must practice and practice and have patience, that’s the secret.

We can see that the Crayola marker is one of your favorites, what other tools do you use?
Yeah! I love Crayola markers, but I also love the flow and textures of the Tombow markers, you can also make thick and thin strokes. They’re such great tools for every lettering artist.

As for my digital works I used to work with Photoshop for different effects on my letters.

Could you guide us through the process of your artwork?
Of course! The hardest part of my job is finding a good quote or a word haha. I could spend hours looking for a good one.

Since I have the phrase or word I start to make the sketches in different styles, after having chosen the best one I proceed to do it with a marker, brush or directly digital on a tablet. Finally I place the lettering on a photo or image.

In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes that beginners do? Would you mind sharing a few tips?
I think the strokes are very important element in order to create a nice lettering piece, also the thickness and kerning are very important. Sometimes I have the same mistakes, I usually see different works of great artists to have a better idea of how to do it and that’s how I improve my work!

What do you think you would do in your life if you never started with hand lettering?
I think I would be someone who does things with paint, I really have an addiction for colors and paint.

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