Lettered Lines
Handlettering | Illustration
a collaboration with poet Maya Stein
THE PROJECT: When I was a teenager, I made a habit of hand lettering favorite quotes and poems in my sketch books. Pen and ink, swirly drop caps, touches of color in the hand drawn borders. It was for fun. It was for “just because”. Then, school and work moved center stage and I left behind quite a lot of things I used to do “just because”, including hand lettering. I’ve no idea where those sketch books are, but I never forgot the experience—me, a pen, a bundle of words to arrange on a clean, white page.
So when I told myself {out loud} that I wanted to start practicing my hand lettering again, I knew I needed a project to keep me focused, and thought of my friend Maya Stein’s 10-Line Tuesday series of poems, and so Lettered Lines was begun.
Lettered Lines is a limited edition series of high-quality poetry broadsides that measure 11" x 14" and are printed on a 100% FSC-certified recycled (post-consumer waste) sheet of matte white felted 80 lb cover stock. I hand lettered each piece with black Pitt Artist Pens and illustrated them with watercolor sketches.
“This collaboration with Liz has elevated my words in a way I hadn’t anticipated. To see the care involved in the hand lettering, and the attention she has given these illustrations gives the poems a new accessibility, intimacy, and depth.”