On Thursday, we were all thinking about our final pieces to take home. Much planning and practising going on with Joby giving advice about letter spacing. I opted to stick with my TEA sign, hoping that I could get my straight lines straighter. More arty people were dreaming up words with fancy fonts.
This time I got better with the pounce pad and managed to transfer my pattern in clearer dusty dots onto the board. It seems you have to rub rather than bash with the pad. Joby did a lesson on how to draw shadows from your '3D' block letters. This is not a simple thing to get right, and he showed us many examples of how professional signwriters have got it wrong. As Joby usually does, he has worked out a simple method to get it right. Sadly, simple though it is, you really need to see it, so don't expect me to duplicate it here. Sorry about that.
I did manage to get my lines straighter after another hour or so of practicing boxes and by Friday morning I had my basic letters done and was ready to do the blocking. I decided to do this in two shades of green with the darker shades being where the light would not fall. Here I am with the lighter shade on the sides
Then after waiting for that to dry, the underneath bits.
Its hard to put one colour accurately positioned against another so little gaps are visible on mine. Partly it's just nervousness about making a mistake. Something that can only be overcome with practice, which I why I bought enough stuff to take home and practice over the winter.
At the last minute on Friday afternoon I decided to put some little embellishments on the letters. Little dots and lines on the pink bits. Again being super cautious they are barely visible in the final photo - another example of needing to develop confidence in brush strokes.
So am I now a good signwriter? Goodness gracious no! This course is fascinating and thorough and you do by the end understand how to do it, but actually doing well it is a skill you have to develop over a lot of practice. Everybody on the course learned loads of stuff and I think we'll all go on to develop better skills. I would think about 70 percent of those attending want to go on to be able to earn money by writing signs or to do signs for their own businesses. Others like me just wanted to learn and perhaps do some stuff for their own personal use.
So how would I sum up the course? Is it enjoyable? Yes. Is it thorough? Yes. Joby is a true master of his craft and he happily gives away all his trade secrets and tricks and tips, so I wouldn't think anyone teaches it better. And as he says, you will never look at lettering the same way again. It's true, you do notice all sorts of detail you didn't see before. You will by the end have a good understanding of letters, techniques, materials etc. It's not an easy (or cheap) course and the days are long and quite tiring.
Would anyone who completed the course be able to paint the name on their narrowboat? Some would. If you want it to look reasonably professional you have all the information and tricks you need to do it. With that knowledge, it's all about how good you are at handling a brush which is not as easy as you might think.. For the rest of us, with a bit more practice I don't see why not, as long as you don't expect to be anything like as good as the top guys like Phil Speight or Dave Moore etc.
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