Old School Sign Painting

[The Renaissance Man]

While everyone else is off to the races in this year's build off, I'm starting a sign project (gotta pay the bills ).

As I was working today I decided that since I'm not working on my bike, I would start a thread showing the 'sign build' for the fun of it.

I'm from the old school of hand painting signs. Years ago when vinyl signs started taking over the industry, I decided to leave that work for everyone else to fight over while I stuck to slinging a brush. Nowadays there are very few sign 'painters' left. That fact has created somewhat of a niche for hand painted signs. To me there is something about the human irregularities and brush strokes that is appealing in a world of digital print.

So let's start.

There are actually two identical signs that I will be making for a local pizza place called Mater's Pizza. I'll only have a few hours each day to work on them, so it will probably take me a couple of weeks from start to finish.

I like to work from the back to the front if there are any overlapping colors and such is the case here. Today I got everything penciled in and started with the outline for the main copy and the background color on a ribbon. Another reason for starting there was the economy of time being the same color.

Some of this looks a little sloppy but will be cleaned up when the letters are painted.

This will dry overnight and I will pick back up tomorrow afternoon.

 

[KJV]

Cool. Its a dying art,man.
something my eyesight no longer
allows me to do.keep on truck'n, bro.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I'm confident that your eyesight will improve! God will see you through!

(I used to do this without glasses myself.)

 

[BARTO]

I am fortunate enough to have aquiet a hand painted Harley Davidson sign from a local dealer. It's a bit faded but hand painted. As you mentioned, you can see the brush strokes that in my opinion gives it character. In addition, when I needed graphics done on my daughter's AMF Roadmaster I considered vinyl but it looked tacky. Had a local do it by hand and and never regretted it. Drive on R Man!

 

[KJV]

I'm confident that your eyesight will improve! God will see you through!

(I used to do this without glasses myself.)

Sadly when I went for eye exam 2 months ago I couldn't even see the....E

 

[pebblewurm]

I am a sucker for a hand painted sign. My mothers home town had ONE sign painter and I would recognize his work all over the place. Very few are still left now.

 

[fordsnake]

Looking good! I too was a sign painter, I got my start as an apprentice to an old master. I haven't picked up a brush and mahl stick in over 40 years.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I am a sucker for a hand painted sign. My mothers home town had ONE sign painter and I would recognize his work all over the place. Very few are still left now.

That's so true. Through the years I have been around other sign painters in different towns and most of the time we could all recognize each others work. It similar to hand writing in that respect.

Looking good! I too was a sign painter, I got my start as an apprentice to an old master. I haven't picked up a brush and mahl stick in over 40 years.

Cool! You were smart enough to get out of it though. It's hard to make a good living painting signs.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Day two. I applied the first coat of red.

Some of the colors are OK to go with a single coat (I believe that's where the paint name '1 Shot' came from). But red is a different story. I always try to double and sometimes triple coat red. Especially if it is going to be outside or in direct sunlight. Red fades about three times as fast as any other color.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Nothing to take pictures of today. I double coated both colors.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Day four (didn't get to work yesterday). I Added the secondary copy in green and laid down the base coat of green around the tomatoes. I also added some dimensional shading to the the red in the tomatoes. No work on the bike today.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Really impressive work TRM!

Luke.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The weekend is behind me and it's back to the lettering board. With the paint nice and dried, I penciled the details in the ribbon.

Then I double coated the green copy and started adding some dimension to the greenery around the tomatoes.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Finally got in a little bit more progress on the sign. It's been a busy week.
The ribbons are finished and all that's left is some more detail on the veggies and start building frames.

 

[rrtbike]

You do very nice work and should be proud of it. It is looking great!

 

[BARTO]

Really nice work, pft, I can't draw a circle with a template

 

[Hophead]

Nice work, and thanks for the thread.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The signs are finished. The frames are cut and painted (twice). I'll Glue and screw the backing part of the frames tomorrow and hopefully install them Wednesday.

The frames where painted to match the trim on the building that they will be mounted to. They are also a pretty close match to my Kombi!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Great work and love the bus!

Luke.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

My son (Matthew) and I went yesterday and installed the signs. We didn't quite finish with the second one before I had to pack up and get back home to leave town for a gig. We will probably finish up tomorrow and I'll take a couple of final pictures.

Here's Matthew bolting the mounting frame to the wall.

And I'm putting screws in the finish frame.