Trying My Hand at the Mason and Dixon Ampersand

I’m currently in the middle of reading Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon for the third time. I have always loved the wonderful ampersand on the cover which was designed by R.J. Palacio.

Now that I have a renewed interest in lettering, I thought I would try drawing it.

I first tried drawing it freehand in Procreate. I was sitting on our couch watching a baseball game so wasn’t in an ideal position. I didn’t realize until I was done how skewed it was.

I tried drawing it a second time in pencil. That time, I sat at a table and drew some guidelines to approach it more deliberately.

Not surprisingly, the version I did properly seated with a more studious approach turned out better, but sketching it out first in Procreate certainly informed my approach for the pencil drawing.