How do you draw an E in bubble letters?
Draw a thin E with arms spaced far apart, then outline it with a rounded back and three round-ended arms. Cut two deep, narrow slots between the arms so they stay separate. Make the middle arm shorter than the top and bottom, then ink the line and erase the skeleton.
- Space the skeleton. Pencil a tall stem and three arms. Put them farther apart than in a normal E, since each one will get fat.
- Shorten the middle. Make the middle arm about three-quarters the length of the other two.
- Outline the back. Trace down the left side with a smooth, slightly rounded edge.
- Wrap each arm. Go out along the top arm, round its tip, and come back in. Repeat for the middle and bottom arms.
- Cut the slots. The two gaps between the arms should be narrow, rounded channels that reach almost to the back.
- Finish. Ink, erase and add a shine on the top arm.
What makes an E easy or tricky in bubble letters
The E has no holes, just two slots, and those slots are the whole letter. Inflate the arms too much and the slots fill in, leaving a rounded rectangle. Draw the slots first if it helps, as two short channels, and build the arms around them. A short middle arm also gives the letter a waist, which keeps it lively.
Lowercase e in bubble letters
Lowercase e is completely different: a round bowl with a small closed eye on top, a bar across the middle and an open tail at the bottom right. In bubble form the eye is the tricky part. Draw it as a little half-moon above the bar and keep it large, because the strokes around it will shrink it.
Cute, 3D and graffiti bubble E
A cute bubble E can tilt its arms slightly upward like it is waving. For a 3D E, the shadow drops into each slot, which shows the arms are separate. In graffiti, the middle arm often becomes an arrow or the E turns curvy like a backwards 3. On the bubble letters A–Z page you can compare the E with rounder letters like C and O.
Common mistakes with a bubble E
- Making the arms so fat that the two slots disappear.
- Drawing all three arms the same length, which looks stiff.
- Closing the eye of the lowercase e completely, so it becomes an o with a line.
Printable bubble letter E to color or trace
Each letter fills a full A4 page (choose "fit to page" to print on US Letter), so it is big enough to color, trace or cut out for a banner. Download the uppercase A–Z PDF, the lowercase a–z PDF or the numbers 0–9 PDF, and print only the pages you need. More sheets are on printable bubble letters.