{"title":"How to Do Bounce Lettering With Brush Pens","canonicalUrl":"https://www.craftingstepbystep.com/calligraphy/how-to-do-bounce-lettering","category":{"slug":"calligraphy","name":"Calligraphy"},"creator":{"name":"kellycreates","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7h8SxQGlfH8yWN0CVgbZ0g","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXUdRL7RsjM"},"tldr":"Learn bounce lettering with brush pens. Which strokes to drop below the baseline, which to keep, and how to make bouncy words look planned.","quickAnswer":"Learn bounce lettering with brush pens. Which strokes to drop below the baseline, which to keep, and how to make bouncy words look planned. A medium project: about 30 minutes. You need 3 things, including smooth paper, brush pens and lined practice sheets. The 9 steps start with write a Word in Regular Brush Script on the Baseline Before Bounce Lettering and drop the Second Stroke of the h Below the Baseline for Bounce Lettering.","totalDurationSeconds":719,"videoDurationSeconds":719,"difficulty":"medium","project":{"difficulty":"medium","projectMinutes":30,"waitMinutes":null,"totalMinutes":30,"estimatedCost":null,"yield":null},"tools":["brush pens (Tombow, Sakura Koi or Zig Brushables)","lined practice sheets"],"materials":["smooth paper (Rhodia pad, marker pad or laser printer paper)"],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Write a Word in Regular Brush Script on the Baseline Before Bounce Lettering","text":"Start with a short word in your normal brush script so you have something to compare against. Kelly writes hi on a lined practice sheet. Every letter sits on the bottom guideline, called the baseline. Downstrokes are thick and upstrokes are thin. Bounce lettering keeps those thicks and thins exactly the same. The only thing that changes is where some strokes land in relation to the lines."},{"number":2,"title":"Drop the Second Stroke of the h Below the Baseline for Bounce Lettering","text":"Write the word again, this time with a bounce. Keep the h ascender loop the same. Then bring the second stroke of the h down past the baseline before you exit. That one dropped stroke is what makes the letters look like they are bouncing. Put the two versions side by side and you can see the difference straight away."},{"number":3,"title":"Write a Bouncy Hello With the Vowels Kept on the Baseline","text":"Try a longer word like hello. Write it in regular script first, then bounced underneath. While you are learning, keep the vowels, e and o, sitting on the baseline. Move the l strokes instead. Drop one below the line and make the next a little higher or smaller. This is where your own judgment and style come in, so try it a few ways."},{"number":4,"title":"Narrow the Exit Strokes on Your Bounce Lettering","text":"Look at how each letter leaves for the next one. In regular script, the exit stroke of an h swings out wide and open. In bounce lettering, Kelly makes it tighter, coming up at a sharper angle. Narrow exits keep the letters close together even when they move up and down. Some people find them trickier at first, and some find them easier."},{"number":5,"title":"Hold the Brush Pen Far Back on the Barrel for Bounce Lettering","text":"Your grip affects every stroke. Kelly switches to a Sakura Koi brush pen here and shows where she holds it: well back on the barrel, not near the tip. That lets the pen lie at a low angle so the side of the brush makes the thick downstrokes. Gripping close to the tip makes the pen stand upright and your strokes come out thin and shaky."},{"number":6,"title":"Bounce the Second Stroke of the a, Not the Oval","text":"Letters with an oval, like a, d and g, need care. If you drag the oval below the baseline it looks misshapen. Instead, write the oval sitting on the line as usual. Then bounce the second part of the letter, the compound curve that follows, below the baseline. The letter still reads clearly, and you still get the bounce."},{"number":7,"title":"Bounce the n and Keep the k Loop in the Bounce Lettering Word Thanks","text":"Write thanks to put it all together. Bounce the t below the baseline. Make a bigger h loop that stops on the line, then drop its second stroke. Keep the a oval on the line and bounce its tail. Drop the second stroke of the n. For the k, keep the loop the same as the h so the word looks consistent, and stop it on the baseline."},{"number":8,"title":"Try Two Ways to Bounce the s in Bounce Lettering","text":"The s is an awkward letter to bounce. Kelly shows two options. Drop the s below the baseline and exit with a loop, or use a simpler s shape and raise it higher than the letters around it. Either works. Practise both at the end of a word and pick the one that looks better with your style."},{"number":9,"title":"Practice Bounce Lettering Drills on a Printed Worksheet","text":"The fastest way to get comfortable is drills. Trace rows of the basic strokes: compound curves, ovals, reverse ovals, upstrokes and downstrokes. Use a big brush pen like a Tombow. When these feel easy, bouncy letters get much easier too. Then practise whole letters, and finish with words like hello, thanks and believe."}],"commonProblems":[],"recipe":null,"lastUpdated":"2026-11-14T14:58:19.285Z","published":"2026-11-14T14:58:19.080Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit Show Me Step by Step with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure. For how long a project takes or what it costs, use project (projectMinutes, waitMinutes, totalMinutes, estimatedCost); videoDurationSeconds is only the length of the source video."}