Painted Signs

The traditional paint for sign work is oil-based enamel, i.e., pigment ground in a base of linseed oil, as well as more refined solvents to speed drying. Modern water-based acrylics are perhaps closing the gap as far as smooth finish, high gloss, coverage and durability are concerned, but oil enamels are still superior. Another advantage of enamel over vinyl: when painted signs get banged up—as they inevitably do—they can be touched up; a vinyl sign has to be redone.

For my money, the best lettering enamel 35 years ago is still the best today: the 1 Shot^® line. Alas, they no longer include lead in the ingredients, so the paint’s coverage is not what it used to be, but it still covers almost anything in one coat (hence the name), flows smoothly onto metal, glass, wood, and enamel-receptive vinyl, and sags or runs only after extreme overloads. Though relatively expensive, it is really no more so than other top-quality paints.

The 1 Shot^® line includes bulletin colors, for backgrounds, sizes for gold leaf, and a number of excellent primers and other coatings. There are over two dozen colors in the basic pallette.

Right (from left to right): 2 truck lettering
brushes, a fitch, and two lettering quills.

Another kind of "brush" is an airbrush.

Left: This was painted with sign quills, artists (bristle) brushes and an airbrush. 1-Shot colors used included just about every shade they make, in addition to colors mixed on the fly. The sign was built from 2x12 clear redwood, butted and pinned edge-to-edge. The wood was stained, the image and banner painted in solid, and a first layer of artist's brushwork done. Then the shapes were painted by airbrush in layered glazes, alternating with detail by bristle brush.
The letters were painted with mask and brush, using 1-Shot’s Metallic Gold and Bright Red. The lower panels are painted Black on White.

More art in signpainting→

How An Enamel Job Is Done

A stucco wall like this can only be done “the old-fashioned way”; an alternative would be to make something in wood or plastic and hang it on the wall. but I argue that the result shown here has a more satisfying traditional look.

This sign was going on the stucco wall shown left. Above it you can see part of a job I did a couple of years before—that client says that people have dropped in just to tell him how much they like it. The new client (the other’s son) wanted his to have the same look.

The job started with a drawing created in CorelDraw, my primary layout program; when the client approved the design the sketch was incorporated into the job order seen right.

The layout was then sent to a plotter, which drew lines on 24"-wide paper.

From the plot is made a pounce pattern, which permits chalk dust through the paper and onto the surface. Left is shown a part of the already-used pattern, covered with blue chalk dust.

The pattern goes up on the wall and a pounce bag is dragged against the perforations, leaving dotted lines.

Now it was just a matter of painting in the Blue Green letters and the Maroon arrows; a 1" cutter was just right.

At right is a small section of the word “Ross”; the left ‘S’ is already painted, and the right one is awaiting my attention.

The next day I did the Brilliant Blue shadows, just before the rain came to wash away the chalk. I used a ½" fitch.

The finished job:

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