Key takeaways
- A bubble letter is an outline drawn around the strokes of a plain letter, the same distance away all the way round.
- Keeping that distance even is what separates a smooth bubble letter from a lumpy one.
- Leave the holes open. Puff too far and the triangle in an A or the loop in a B closes up.
- Trace a printed outline a few times, then draw it freehand.
Step 1: Pencil a thin skeleton
Write the letter lightly in pencil, one thin line per stroke. This is the skeleton the bubble goes around. You erase it later, so press lightly.
Plain capitals are the easiest place to start: straight lines and simple curves. Leave more space between letters than you normally would, because each one grows by a finger-width on every side.
Step 2: Puff an outline around every stroke
Draw a rounded outline about a finger-width away from the skeleton, all the way around each stroke. Go around the end of a line in a half-circle and around a dot in a full circle.
Where two strokes meet, like the middle of an H, their outlines join into one shape: draw only the outer edge. Keep the gap the same width everywhere. That one habit decides how the finished letters look.
Step 3: Round the corners, erase, ink and color
Smooth any sharp corners where two outlines meet, so the shape looks inflated rather than cut out. Erase the pencil skeleton.
Go over the outline in marker or pen, then color the inside. A dark outline around a lighter color is the easiest to read on a poster or a sign.
How puffy should a bubble letter be?
Aim for an outline about a finger-width from the skeleton at the size you are drawing. Closer than that and the letter stays a plain letter with a line around it. Much further and the holes start to close: the triangle inside an A, the loops of B, P and R, the gaps in an E.
If a hole closes, pull the outline in a little for that letter, or draw the whole word larger so the same puff fits.
Practice with a printed outline
Tracing is the quickest way to get the shape into your hand. Print a letter from our printable bubble letters, lay thin paper over it and trace it five or six times, then try it freehand. Every letter and number has its own page, such as bubble letter A and bubble letter B, and each one has a tip for that letter's tricky part.
To practice a whole name, the bubble name page prints any name in the same outlines. For bubble letters you can paste into a bio or a caption rather than draw, use the bubble fonts generator.