Learning to hand letter.

[OldPaint]

iam also over there on letterville.........and have been for many years, so your gona learn it all from the computer...ok...if you get into letterville, with many more old sign painters, they will tell you the same as i tell you......PRACTICE... and go to a letterhead meet.....and learn from a person. but i see you found a couple computer videos so your in your element. PIERRE is good friend of mine. good luck again..........oh and theses are SMILES......)))))))))))))))))))))))))

 

[Salmoneye]

Again, you are being a jackass. Did I say that I was going to learn it all from a computer? I want to augment the lessons that I will learn with my neighbor with the constructive advice given from everyone else on this thread, videos, books, magazine articles and practice.

Maybe you could have pointed me towards the basic instruction plainly listed on the site that you are a part of that I am now so tickled to have found.

Go translate what someone else is plainly saying into your fuzzy idea of what they are "really" saying and leave me be. Pierre must be a saint as he has much more patience than me.

You are right, yours is bigger, thanks for the advice, I promise to give up immediately, now leave me be.

 

[OldPaint]

oh iam sorry to have bothered you hahahahahahahaha.

 

[Si Allen]

First off ... Old paint is a personal friend, although we disagree on just about anything political. He comes off as a rough gruff a-hole ... BUT ... he is really a nice guy.

What he has been telling you is correct.

1. Learn the basics first ( the Speedball book is inexpensive, but an excellent guide. )

2. Practice, practice, practice! The brush will soon become an extension of your hand.

3. There are many utube videos that illustrate how to letter.


On the other hand ... you can go to Quebec and study under Pierre ... he is truly a master of the art!

 

[round man]

The guy who taught me to letter over 30 years ago used to say all you need to know to be a sign painter is your abc's and ten numbers,...that being said the rest is simply a matter of practice,..I've worked with guys over the years who couldn't trace their hand and add the lines to make it look like a hand if their life depended on it but they learned to letter,...had one helper who didn't understand enough english to know what he was painting said but he learned to be a damn good letter man,..it's 99% practice and let no one tell you otherwise,...

 

[Spud Murphy]

I started my career as a showcard painter for a department store in Dublin. My boss jotted out showcards as easily as handwriting. Layouts were all just quick pencil lines for size and spacing. Working in the display department, it took me about 6 months messing about before my simple price tickets were acceptable for the floor. On coming to the States I found the signpainting trade to be much more controlled - Replaced my showcard brushes with quills and got introduced to pounce bags and opaque projectors. By the time I mastered a quill, signpainting for Trade Shows had died a fast death in the US.

 

[Tony Q's Kidd]

Hello ladies and gents mind if i jump in?
I don't have anywhere near the amount of years you artists do in this field but I would like to give my 2 cents on it. When my dad started teaching me I was using one of his #4's, the brushes are custom made for my father by an old boss of his back in the day, my dad always told me it was in the touch and in the want to do it. At that time I was in my garage on a piece of primed wood beside my dad watching and following along to what he was doing. whatever he was lettering I would try and mimic it. I always listened and never assumed. after he would finish I would continue with just my basic lines. learning how my brush flows and reacts. palleting the paint is hard enough to learn let alone putting it to product lol, just keep practicing and learning. there are tons of stuff online to help but you will get the most knowledge of the craft by tightening your skills through patience and practice.
like I said though, I am nowhere near the majority of you but I can hold my own and shock a few old dogs when I show up to do a job
just keep at it and take the advice from many of these great sign writers on here. some may come off brutish but they are only trying to help. one thing I learned in this industry is the first rule of lettering is the same as the first rule of a graffiti writer "you suck until further notice" I'm sure you're gunna do awesome and can't wait to see what comes of it!

 

[OldPaint]

 

[ddarlak]

"you suck until further notice"

that's a great line...

 

[Gino]

1. Anyway you wanna learn is only gonna get you there by how much determination you have.

It's all up to you, the individual. Many here, including OP have given you great ammunition to arm you enough to tackle the task you're setting out to do.

If you remember one thing, it's this and this is about every facet of you, your make up and what it takes to be in ANY business....... learning from the internet is a giant waste of time. You have no interaction and will most likely learn a lot of bad habits, because you... being the total novice or not even a half bad hand letterer.... won't know when you're doing something wrong. It's very simple to learn how to letter, but to become efficient and accurate comes with only one major piece of the puzzle. Practice.... and lots of it.

You can have the best brushes, best paint, best teacher, but if you don't practice, you'll go nowhere. Same as if you were learning to play the trumpet, repair motorcycles or swim. You have to practice.

The biggest hint I can give you is practice and go for accuracy. If it takes you 5 minutes to build a letter 'M'... so be it. Just make it well. As you get more and more accurate, speed will follow. If you go for speed first, you'll never amount to a hand painter in anyone's eyes.

So, forget about the utubes and videos... the only one there making money are the guys selling the tapes. They already know how to paint and can only give you a few pointers..... nothing from which you can really learn anything. See what I did today ?? I made a letter 'I' and put a 't' behind it. I spelled a word. What do you mean I didn't pull the letters or my hand dragged through the paint ?? Oh, no one told me the right consistency of the paint to make it last for outdoor use. I thought if I thinned it down, I could go a little faster. In fact, the guy on the video said I could add turps, some fish eye and jap dryer with a tad of penetrol to it. He never told me the proportions so I made it until I ran out of the paint in the pint can, but now I have two pints with all of the extra neat things I added to it. See, just like with vinyl.... I can stretch my paint dollar by adding stuff to my paint. I can letter faster and get more yield out of two cans instead of one. Haha....but am I smart or what ??

 

[OldPaint]

hahahahahaha gino....its the same thing i was saying. i was fortunate in my life to have had a "shaky jake" drunk sign painter hang out at my parents bar when i was 10-12 yrs old. he saw the spark in my eyes, and taught me well in the short couple years i knew him. i say the same thing to people who want to learn TAI CHI from a dvd. untill you got a person who will teach you what not to do........then and only then witl you learn what to do right.
same with hand lettering.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Well it has been just over a week since this post has started....Salamon lets see some results so we can push ya more to learn and keep at it.

 

[Tony Q's Kidd]

that's a great line...

thanx lol, just thought i would pass it along