It doesn't look that hard

[SignosaurusRex]

Me. I worked for a guy that showed me how to speed up my work by using paper cups, mixing the paint in them and using the in side of the cup as my palette. Works great when you have a lot of lettering to knock out, and I knew several others who used the same technique. Of course a index card cup and pallette was still nice for small work.
I was also taught the hand over hand technique and seldom used a mahl stick. Then again I also used a lot of fine line tape if it speeded up the job.

For many years, I paletted my paint on a piece of cardstock and thinned as needed with turps just as I had been taught. I had been doing it that way for about 12 years when I went to work for a real master. His work was amazing and he was incredibly fast. The first two things he made me change about my habits was to learn to use a mahl stick and to work with my paint premixed to the right consistency in a dixie cup held in my mahl stick hand...along with the mahl stick... while working. I have to say that after a bit of struggle and practice working that way, my speed doubled and the quality of my work improved.

Let me ask any of you one question.
When you poured some paint into a dixie cup and added some turps or other additives..... when you were finished with the job.... what did you do with the left over paint in the dixie cup ??

After a while, one can pretty much estimate how much paint is needed without wasting. For myself, If there is any left in the cup, it goes right back into the can. It is so little and modified so minutely that It ain't gonna effect the can one bit and that can isn't gonna sit around long before it's empty.


Yes, the guy in the video displays some poor habits and if not corrected, only handicaps his true potential. The cream always rises to the top...the rest is just fat-free milk. The fat is where the $$ is at.
His website says that he is a third generation sign painter. I'd guess that his dad could paint circles around the lad and for whatever reason, Dusty may have never received much training. Who knows.
I won't knock him...he's working at it. He certainly did not get there over night.

Arlo needs to make some videos!

 

[Billct2]

Remember phone book palettes? I knew one guy that always used them.
The first guy I worked for kept a scrap piece of MDO by the bench and would sometimes use that as his pallette, as time went by he created an abstract nude on the board with his paletting and at some point someone would beg him to buy it. Then he'd start over.

 

[Gino]

I didn't think I was knocking the guy for his ability or creativity, but his attitude for acting like a master.

Like and unlike you, S'Rex, I was taught never to thin lettering enamel ahead of time. Many reasons.... some substrates pull more than others, humid days vs. dry hot days vs. cold days.... your paint will always handle differently. The only paint we pre-mixed was tempera to get the right flow. The paint needed to just barely drip off the brush, yet not fall. When painting full time, I'd go through three to four quarts a day painting signs. When it came to oils or what the old guys called 'Commercial Work' we would pour our paint into a dixie cup or a tin cup and paint directly from that to the palette. We'd mix our thinner, whether it be turps, kerosene or even mineral spirits as we went. I always liked to add a little penetrol while paletting also. Any of this stuff being pre-mixed would change the viscosity and coverage characteristics when returned to the can. Remember, we bought 1-shot by the gallons for most colors, so it hung around a little longer than the guys buying pints and half pints.

For us, we had so many projects going, we had no way of knowing how much paint to pour out. So if we poured a pre-diluted paint back into the can... in a few days or a week with four or five guys doing this.... the paint would be worthless in no time at all.

Paletting on the side of a dixie cup... no problem...... dipping into additives after paletting... no problem. Doing it in reverse, usually made for lousy paint down the road. Many of us used cardboard, old wood pieces, plastic or even the Reader's Digest for palettes, but we still all did it the same way.... from paint to palette to the additive of your choice to the substrate. Most of the time, we only used thinners about every 6th or 7th dipping in the paint. Remember this.... speed comes with accuracy and knowing exactly what your brush is doing in your fingers.... not from thinning it down so you can stretch it out.

We'd get enough paint going on the palette, just like a fine arts painter does and mix it as we went. Ever wonder why some signs used to streak faster than others ?? Usually too much additives of any sorts.

 

[signage]

Come on Gino you are almost as old as this guy and he said he was taught to mix paint before starting

see video!

 

[btropical.com]

Gino please post another wall of text that would be awesome

 

[Rick]

I think it's cool a young dude is doing this, keep painting!

I think a week with a crusty sign painter would cure most of this young man's poor habits. And another week drawing a thousand "S's".

I can't hold up my arms that high for very long anymore and the old farts that taught me probably couldn't either so they used a mahl stick so they made me do it, I never questioned it. They premixed dark letters on light background and tested on light colors on dark, so did I. But that dude has his paint way too thin. His letters and lines would be a lot cleaner with a mahl stick.

His work would fit between the mexican hand painted graphics I see in the latino heavy areas of LA and decent lettering work... too clean to be campy, too wavy to be clean.

 

[Gino]

Gino please post another wall of text that would be awesome and while your at can you please poop on this guys head and paint brushes and life and all his people who quoted about his video . And throw some **** up in the air about Mosh while your at it . And please post a video of you hand lettering . Not that I am knocking you !

:ROFLMAO: I forgot.... that's what I like abut you.

 

[btropical.com]

:ROFLMAO: I forgot.... that's what I like abut you.

crap i thought you would not see it but hahahahahah good for you !

 

[TammieH]

Hand lettering is not that difficult for someone who has been sign writing for 15 - 20 years.
I broke into the sign business back in 77, the owner had me doing bulletins within the 1st year, BUT ...I never developed into a full fledged sign painter because most of my early years, I painted billboards, silk screening (UGH!) and general sign work, by the time I started doing single stroke lettering, low and behold vinyl plotters hit the market. (I remember saying, "These things will never replace sign painters" LOL Ignorance!

But OMG some of the old meat and potatoes sign painting could get so monotonous...

 

[TammieH]

I think it's cool a young dude is doing this, keep painting!

But that dude has his paint way too thin. His letters and lines would be a lot cleaner with a mahl stick.

I agree Rick, I use to over thin as well, I think a common mistake when learning to hand letter. You can tell he has not been at it for that long, but I give him props for taking the time to learn.

There is an old sign painter that I have heard about on the other side of the Sound that still hand paints ALL of his signs. Pretty cool

I have painted a couple signs here , we did a couple jobs for a movie being shot here, so they had to look authentic and old, and since they were used in a movie, you could not see how bad they were!

 

[SignosaurusRex]

There is an old sign painter that I have heard about on the other side of the Sound that still hand paints ALL of his signs. Pretty cool

There still is a pretty fair number of "old masters" in the area that still do everything hand painted. A few of the old wall dogs are still swinging stages in their 70's & 80's.

 

[Si Allen]

Well l l l ... I guess that I have been doing it all wrong for 45+ years!

I do thin my paint before I use it.

I do not use a mahl stick (except when doing gold leaf on glass).

I do not run on my pinkie dragging.

I do not pour paint back into the original can.

I do use cat food cans (2 cats = unlimited supply).

I pour up to an ounce of paint in the can, thin it and hold it at a slight angle so that I can use the bottom as a palette. When I run out of paint, I get a bit more.


Bill Riedel is one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. He will help and teach anyone from a noobie to a master painter ... he is a fountain of knowlege and always happy to share with anyone. He is now a young 84 years of age.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

It's about time you woke up...ya old f*rt!

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

Remember phone book palettes? I knew one guy that always used them.
The first guy I worked for kept a scrap piece of MDO by the bench and would sometimes use that as his pallette, as time went by he created an abstract nude on the board with his paletting and at some point someone would beg him to buy it. Then he'd start over.

interesting..when I was a young teenager we had a sign painter in my family's shop who also paletted his paint on scraps of mdo & then when nearly covered he would paint a 'nude' & take them to the localweekly outdoor arts & crafts market.

I also have seen many palette on phone books & at times our family shop would have 10+ journeymen working on various projects or many of them on a large project together & there would be phone books @ each of their stations on the bench they were working from.

 

[round man]

I have to side with Gino here,...My old "master" taught me that anyone who knew his abc's and ten numbers could be a sign painter and often as not they idolize the person and techniques taught by that person,....but,....in the end you can be damned good at something but be damned good at doing it the wrong way,..there definitely is a proper and accepted way of getting the job done and a way that is considered improper,.....In the real world we are lucky the sign industry rarely has any standards to regulate us as the tradesmen,...unlike plumbers and electricians etc.,....yet there are printed practices and trade union training standards still out there from the past, that often as not are no longer in effect due to the lack of demand by the general buying public for the more traditional aspects of our trade,....I consider myself lucky in that the shops I was trained in had certain standards that they utilized in their training processes,...that doesn't mean I didn't pick up some unorthadox approaches to the way I practiced my trade along the way,....so don't put me in a holier than thou judgement position,... just a position of pointing out the obvious

 

[ucmj22]

It isnt the painting itself that is hard (at least for me), although it takes multiple different skills and techniques. It is the ability to layout typefaces properly with proportion and cohesion. In my design classes, I always got marked down because in my sketches I would always just write in the text, or have a line labeled as text with an accompanying style or font choice, because I can not for the life of me freehand a proper word. me brain no worky that way