DISTRESSED SIGN PAINTING

I took a week-end workshop at Swintons Art Supply (http://www.swintonsart.com) taught by Rick Janzen of Streamline Studios (http://streamlinestudiosinc.ca)  and a wicked local sign painter in the sense of the traditional trade craft.

We started out finding about the history and Rick told many great stories about his experiences. There were many book references and lots of photos of past work to look at. He introduced us to the tools of the trade and all the materials etc. were included in the workshop fee = wicked!!

I have always wanted to learn the skills of the traditional sign painter in order to better perfect what I hope to do in my work. I've taken up many of the skills, from transferring lettering, hand painting on glass as well as learning airbrush. I've done a few murals and some signage(see earlier blog post or visit my website for reference) Brianbatista.com. 

We rolled out some poster paper and began with layout and design of hand painted signs.  I decided to make a sign that I can use at my comic expo booth or elsewhere I offer custom work.

Then I was lucky enough to get to try out his electro pouncer. This is definitely something I'd love to have in my studio, though at around $500 its a little rich for my blood. for now a luxury item I can try out. It used electricity to burn holes int he paper. How it works is you stick paper to a piece of metal using magnets. The electro pouncer has a ground wire that gets attached to this metal backing. You turn it on and use it like a pen. It pulses out a little arc which burns holes. So cool. A couple of people got shocked, which isn't that shocking, handle with care!

This paper is then put on top of the surface. Take a chalk bag and tamp the surface and the chalk will go thru the little holes and create an outline to follow that can easily be removed. This is a great way to transfer a design. here I am using white chalk but if the surface was light or white I would use crashed charcoal instead.  Once the designs transferred it makes it much easier to paint, plus I still have the pounced paper design if I need to make multiples.

Here it is mostly painted.  It takes a lot of brush skill to do this well. Something that only time and practice and bring, as in any real skill worth attaining. I ran out of time to add other colours and outlines but I do intend on working on the sign more and adding some more decorate elements and maybe some gold leafing before distressing it.

What interested me most about this particular workshop is the DISTRESSING part.  In my sacred images paintings I try to get that aged antique look. Often it is tedious and labor intensive requiring lots of techniques and time. This on the other hand was quick and effective. First we need to age the wood so that the ground doesn't look so fresh. there are so many ways I found online to do this from vinegar and steel wool to what we did, which was way easier, stain it with raw umber paint watered down.

After the initial drying we applied wallpaper paste to the surface. This will act as a resist for later when we begin removing layers. I used this heavy duty dryer to speed up the process. Aesthetically speaking, the wear on a sign would be more around the edges and more around the top due to weathering so more paste should be applied there, the middle would have much less distress. rick gave us many fine examples and ways about thinking about how to distress the work to look realistic.

 Then you put on your design. You can use a variety of transfer methods or go the old fashioned routs and draw directly on it like I did.

I created a second test panel where I painted a letter on a fully painted background whereas the first I chased in the background. I designed this letter B based on an old rosewood style font I have always admired. another transfer method is to rub the back of the paper with charcoal and then place it down and go over the lines on the front. This pushes the charcoal on the back onto the surface with the traced design.

Here they are painted in. I decreased the contrast between the off white and black to show bleaching by the sun. The colours I used are harmonious with one another and are heritage colours.  With little time I raced to paint these in, they are rough but it is not going to matter once the distressing comes into play.

Here they are after I finish with the two distressing techniques we learned. I like them really aged :D

The first method is to use a warm water soak to loosen the wallpaper paste and then using a floor brush or nail brush with short strokes to lift the paint off the surface where the wall paper paste is applied. Its wet, wild and fun and works fantastic.

I love how this lake sign turned out by one of the other participants.  Did I mention these are water based paints but it works equally as well for oil based paints. It is the messiest part of the process which is why we put down black plastic garbage bags.

We also tried block ageing which added to my tests. It is a way to make it look as though the painting is peeling off without having to life the paint, instead you add paint of the wood colour on the top. Here rick is further ageing his sign.I think the more distressed the better, as long as you can still make out what the sign says. It was a fun time and by the end of the class we had some pieces to be proud of!

Photo by Rick Janzen

I am so stoked about what I learned, I am pumped to apply it to my practice. I already have grand ideas and an extensive list of stuff I want to do so be prepared to see some major output in the coming months  after I finish all my teaching gigs and I can get back to the studio. I can't stop thinking about it, so much so I skipped past the remaining El Salvador trip inspiration. If this class comes up and this interests you I highly recommend the course.

Until next time = :D

National signage

Some of the windows broke in the antique national doors and Kelly Ryan of Rad asked me to come paint on the newly installed windows.

This is the first door, it needed a wheelchair sign since it was a single user stall, it was getting busy all the time because people didn't realize there were tons more bathrooms down the hall.

After the size and location were signed off by the designer I went to work. I used a liner brush and one shot white to create the outline.

The sign can be seen by both sides so I started with the outline, normally the outline would be done second after the bulk of the lettering, but these need to look good on both sides. Here is the wheelchair outline from the inside of the stall.

They also needed one more door in the back to say private so customers quit walking back there. I traced out the letters from one of the doors I already finished from before. Lined it up so it is at the same height and began lettering in white.

Here is the completed outline for the lettering. I have to wait for the paint to dry and they are going to open so in order to keep the smell down I will come back and finish another day.

Here is the sign with the black line fill. It is in a dark corner so I had to use the flash to take this picture. I may revisit it when it is brighter.

Here is one of the two wheelchair signs from the inside with the black fill line. I used lettering brushes to the fill and with each color thinned the paint down by about 10% to make it flow a bit more. Even then it quickly becomes sticky, so it takes a little bit to get used to working with.

If at first you don't succeed....

Scrape it off and start over

I contacted the designer to meet to get some feedback on my work. After seeing the two days of work, the designer requested some changes. First a thinner white line inside the width of the lettering rather than outside. That way the spacing between each will be more prominent and the black will be slightly thinner.  This is going to make it look even better.  I grabbed a thinner liner brush and a scraper at the art supply store and booked a full day to continue working on this project.

It is good being open to changing the initial work to make it better. I want this stuff to look rad! More importantly I want the designer, the concord group and the National to be happy with what I do for them. I wouldn't say I'm a perfectionist, I'm the kind of guy who is willing to scrape off two days of work and prep to make it better and give the client what they want! Since the glass isn't entirely smooth it was difficult removing the paint.  It took me an hour to scrape over 10 hours of painted lettering. Which proves how well this stuff is going to last!

At first I thought I had placed the lettering too high. The second change designer requested is to move each sign to be moved higher up.  I'm glad I was only half way thru the process and my projected hours. That's the thing about not having test swatches or somebody sign off or see the work before you begin. I had no direction on placement or how to handle the signage.  Cost me two days of work, but I agree it is going to look much better with this feedback. Its a good lesson in working commercially.

Tools of the trade.
A paint scraper, a brass scrubber, some steel wool, windex and some paper towels.
Notice the beautiful floor tiles.

The order in which I painted the lettering changed to what I originally planned. First the white outline, so that they look good from both directions. Then I filled them in with the black. I am excited at how good the new signs are looking =;)

Here you can see the effect from the reverse side, from inside the washroom, while exiting.

Change number three, no stars on the doors. Based on how things turned out, we decided to remove the signage on the lower part of the door and instead paint the white and black classic lettering in the window.  It will definitely create a more cohesive look. It is a little sad to sand off all that gold.

I had to paint the lettering in reverse, standing on a chair. The reverse side of the glass is smoother, can't paint very well on the deeply stippled side. I'm really happy with how it is coming along.

The next step is to repaint a second layer of black, then reline it with a thin white. The reason I am doing this additional work is that I want to ensure the lettering is opaque. I have a really bright work light to shine on the reverse side when doing this. I may also rework some of the letters once I can see them with a fresh eye.

National Signs

a process of a dying art form.

I was asked to hand paint signage for a new venue called the NATIONAL.  It is another development by the Concord group (which I am working on animation for another space of theirs: Clive Burger) National is a really beautiful space. It is designed with a roaring 20's - dirty thirties classic appeal. The woods are deep and glossy, white hexagon tiles are balanced with glossy black sideboards. There are 75 brass beer taps and the feel that there might be a good horse race, so check the newspaper.

My task is to paint the signage on the glass doors for the various rooms: "Ladies, Gentlemen, Private, Washroom and National". The reason I am excited is that I am given the opportunity to venture into the world of a dying art from yester-year.  I went out and picked up supplies. The paint I'll be using is called "one shot", and it is great to work with. It is an enamel that is deep and glossy, rich and powerful. It is also dangerously toxic.

It took me some time and quite a bit of research to put together my quote and get up the nerve to round up all the tools and means to pull this off. I got the Gotham font type they wanted with the -50 tracking and printed them out at a size relative to the windows that would look best.  My plan was to place the printed stencils on the window backs, tape them up then proceed with the lettering on the smoother side of the window. First the black bulk of the letter, then I had to wait until it was completely dry before I can outline in lettering white with a liner brush. I was hoping to have some time to make some swatch varieties for the designer before beginning, but she said go ahead with the job since we have just over a week to get it done.

The windows are from an old historical building (the grain exchange) and needed to be scraped and cleaned properly before I started working. Mostly my time over the two full days of work was prepping the space ad getting ready to apply the one shot. There is  definite learning curve. The one thing that is good is my ability and confidence in painting a straight line.......after all its called "one shot"- You can't keep pulling the line, you have one chance to get it right. It took a few goes to get my wits and my wrists working for me.  Some of the windows aren't smooth which makes it more difficult, but hey, I like a challenge!  I tried to paint on the bubbly or stippled side but you just can't get straight lines. I also learned that the tape across the top and bottom bleeds the paint so its good for lining up the text elements but it doesn't properly mask it out.

They wanted their name on the front door panels in gold upon entry and their star logo on the window. I hand cut a stencil from the illustrator file their designer provided me so I could apply a spray gold to ensure their logo was accurate since I heard the owner was a real stickler for that type of brand identity perfection. The paint on the doors already seemed to be chipping. I was concerned about working on this surface but I went ahead anyway. The starts would have to be painted on the back, the smooth side. I didn't go ahead with them because I was unsure of the placement.

It took a long time to get it placed right, and masked to protect from overspray. Hand painted signage is one thing, masking is another beast all together.  I ended up not liking how it turned out, more so where it is placed. i much preferred the look of the painted windows. Though I did a lot of work here, I want the work to be regarded as perfect, I will be pitching the designer the idea to sand off this signage and to go with the white and black lettering on the window instead. I feel it will look much better on a front entrance door, a little more subtle but much more stylish!

As I stood there, within inches of the work, being that close I noticed every slight imperfection in my work, it was really hard to let go of the fact that hand painted signage would never look perfect. I worried that I wasn't able to produce professional quality work, especially when you compare it to how mechanically perfect computer design and printing on vinyl can be. It made me insecure to think that this wouldn't stand up tot eh professionalism this space deserved. It is the style of the era they are going for. I contacted the designer to meet since I was at the point where I was willing to scrape all my work off before I move on and to get the okay to move forward.  My main goal is to make sure they are satisfied with my work whether or not I lose time and money on this project, I want to continue to get more professional as more connections in the commercial sector.

As well as get better in handling the materials = all pro!