Hand-lettering
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 at 5:00AM 
If you remember this post, you know that my approach to lettering has slowly evolved over the twelve years of my creating a daily strip. I originally did the completely backwards approach of inking the balloon first and fitting the test into the space (Photoshopping when my guess was completely off). Then I started inking full panels, leaving space for word balloons, but adding both the lettering and the balloons digitally after the art was inked.
And, to be honest, I was quite content with that process until I flew to Los Angeles to prep for Comic Con this year. I was staying the night with Dave Kellett and he was trying to get a handful of strips done before leaving for the convention. I was eager to try drawing at his new stand-up drawing board (pictured above), so I offered to do a guest strip.
To make the process as efficient as possible, I decided to hand-letter the strip. Dave's drawing board as a built-in lightbox, and he has created his own handy lettering template (pictured below) to make his process accurate and quick.