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I’ve never dedicated a blog post to any specific person or group, because ya know…inclusivity and all. HOWEVER, in this live interview, I sorrrta had to. That’s riiiiight LEFTIES, this one’s for you.

And who better to talk about the #leftylife (is that a thing? I wouldn’t know) than The Inky Hand’s Sarah Pearson. Not only is Sarah an amazing left handed brush lettering artist, she’s also the creator of The Inky Box.

The Inky Box is a monthly curated subscription box of goodies focused on brush lettering (though she mixes in other art forms from time to time). It contains lettering tools, supplies, practice sheets AND greeting cards created by a different featured lettering/calligraphy artist every month. (Take a wild guess who this months artist is? *drum roll* SURPRISE! It’s me!)

If you’re interested in The Inky Box, check it out here.

But without further ado, in this interview, Sarah is sharing with us her very best tips for all you lefties out there. Check out the video here or skip on below for a recap.

The links below may be affiliate links where appropriate. This means that your purchase through these links may result in a few cents in payment to me, to support creating further resources like this one! That being said, I will never suggest supplies that I do not personally use and fully recommend.

“It’s not impossible, you just have to work a little harder (as we always have had to do as lefties)” – Sarah

The Inky Hand’s Top Tips for Lefty Lettering

1. Not all supplies are lefty friendly.

Those big beautiful Tombows, yeah…they miiight not be your best friend. However, smaller tipped fude pens are awesome.

Sarah’s favourite pens:

Zebra

Tombow

Crayola

A good smooth quality paper will also be worth the extra cash for lefties. Because you are pushing the tips (instead of pulling like right handers), your pens will fray quicker. Really, it’s unavoidable. BUT you can slow the process down. Tracing paper, vellum and marker-specific paper is the way to go.

2. Be like a supermodel: work your angles.

To avoid smudging, play around with both your paper and hand angles. Typically, it is easier to position your hand UNDER the baseline. This will help you avoid dragging your hand through the wet ink. *Save those palms!*

You can also try to hold your pens/markers higher up. Sarah demonstrated that when she does this, she can keep as little of her hand on the paper, which REALLY helps avoid smudging. Better yet, take your hand COMPLETELY OFF THE PAPER! This definitely takes a steady hand and some skill, but for strokes like dotting i’s and crossing t’s, it’s totally worth it.

3. Experiment!

What works for Sarah might not work for you. You might have to play around with supplies, papers, pens, and other tools until you figure out what feels and performs best for your individual needs. Don’t be afraid to adjust in the middle of a piece, either! There are no rules here.

PSSSSST: as many of you probably know I run the free ShowMeYourDrills challenge (which you can sign up for the next semester here). Inside there, we actually also have some extra bonuses for lefties, too. I recruited some awesome lefty letterers to give us some of their best tips. Sign up for the challenge and you’ll get those bonuses- from Taryn of @tarynsdoodles, Laney of @designbylaney, and Sarah of @vonmaydellcreatives.

Now, Sarah isn’t the only lefty around. You might not have noticed, but some of your favourite letterers might be lefties! Here are a few other lefties you might want to check out:

@logos_calligraphy

@khpletters

@chalkedbymabz

@inkerellacards

Pro Tip: you can also search targeted hashtags such as #leftycalligraphy and #leftylettering on Instagram to help find other left handed artists!

I really hope you enjoyed this interview! Make sure you’re subscribed to The Happy Ever Crafter TV to catch the rest in the series! And one last HUGE thank you to Sarah!

Interested in more of these interviews? You can also join the Facebook group, where these Q&A’s are hosted LIVE, and submit your own questions for future guests.