Friday, November 21, 2008

Signwriting practice - first attempt

I thought I might as well be brave and reveal to you my first practice attempt at signwriting - warts and all. There are more things wrong with it than I can list, but here are a few.


1. I don't like the font - next time I'll use something with more exaggerated serifs and wider uprights
2. I forgot to use masking tape at top and bottom of the red lettering to get nice sharp edges
3. My vertical lines are wonky - next time I'll use a marl stick (one of those sticks with a cloth knob on the end) to steady my hand
4. I used whatever paint had to hand so the pale shadowing on the uprights doesn't stand out well enough against the background (a piece of painted hardboard)


Never mind, it's only a first practice, and I've already learned a lot of lessons. I was generally pleased that I took trouble to work out letter spacing OK, and I liked the long hair chisel tip brush I used.


In real life the signwriting would need to be about twice the size which I suspect might make it a bit easier. However the big disadvantage of doing it for real is that you have to work vertically sitting or kneeling on the canal or dock bank. I aim to do a lot more practice before I would dare try. Anyway, I'm enjoying it.

2 comments:

Julia & Mark said...

Wow!! I'm impressed.

Vallypee said...

Well done! For a first attempt, that's brilliant! The only thing I noticed was the slightly skew uprights. For the rest, and from a distance, you'd never notice the slightly rough edges or other imperfections you have listed.