How do you draw a P in bubble letters?
Draw a straight stem and a round bowl attached to its top half, then outline the shape. Keep the back flat, swing the bowl out in one curve, and put a small oval hole in it. Round the bottom of the stem, ink the outline and erase the pencil.
- Draw the stem. Pencil a vertical line.
- Add the bowl. From the top, draw a round bump to the right that comes back to the stem a bit below the middle.
- Trace the back. Outline the left side straight down to a rounded foot.
- Swing the bowl. Trace around the bowl, then cut in to meet the stem where the bowl ends.
- Cut the hole. Draw an oval in the bowl, closer to the stem.
- Finish. Ink the line, erase and shade under the bowl.
What makes a P easy or tricky in bubble letters
The P's balance is the issue: all the weight is in the top, with an empty space below the bowl on the right. A bowl that is too small makes the letter look like a flag on a pole. A bowl that goes too low turns it into a D. Bring the bowl down to just past the middle and keep a notch where it meets the stem.
Lowercase p in bubble letters
Lowercase p drops its stem below the baseline and puts the bowl in the short-letter zone. In bubble form, the bowl sits on the line with the other letters while the stem hangs down. It is a mirror of the lowercase q, so check the bowl faces right.
Cute, 3D and graffiti bubble P
A cute P can have a heart-shaped hole in the bowl. For 3D, the shadow falls under the bowl and fills the empty corner below it, which balances the letter. Graffiti P's often extend the bowl into a hook or arrow.
Common mistakes with a bubble P
- Making the bowl so small that the P looks like a flag.
- Bringing the bowl all the way down, so it becomes a D.
- Forgetting the notch where the bowl meets the stem.
Printable bubble letter P 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.