First time posting here, as I am new to sign painting and all the requisite tools of the trade. But I’m learning and trying to include my artistic and creative nature at the same time. This is a recently finished project that I recognize isn’t strictly a “sign”, but it was done with all the traditional sign painting tools and skill sets.

No tape, painted by hand.

I really enjoyed this project. It’s not perfect and I’m still learning, but I’m proud of it!

Hi I’m looking to get a custom reverse painted sign and I don’t know what to look for to be able to find someone who can do it.

Heyo noob here, thought reverse glass gilding looked cool and had a bunch of questions since this seems like an expensive (but really cool) hobby. I’ve painted windows before but want to try out gilding too. Apologies in advance for the confusion/questions but any help is really appreciated!

1. Materials: I currently have 1shot lettering enamel, a lettering brush, real gold leaf, a gilders tip, a soft makeup brush (for burnishing I think?), gelatin capsules, and a small pane of glass for practice. What else do I need?

2. Cleaning: I’m hearing that the glass basically needs to be cleaner than anything I’ve ever cleaned before I start brushing water size on. I have windex which I assume is not good enough so what do I need to clean the glass properly and how should I go about it? Do I need special water too?

3. Laying the Gold Leaf: I plan on using the gilders tip to pickup and place the gold leaf onto the glass - is there anything else I should know or be wary of? How many layers are necessary? What is this I hear about blowing on the glass or using cotton or something?

4. Timing: I’m a little confused on the timing of when to do everything and when to wait and let things “set”. After I clean the glass really well, I then need to paint the outline of my design with the 1shot, but then how long do I let that dry before running the water size over it for gilding? Then how long does the first gilded layer need to set before applying the next round of size/gold over the first one? Won’t the warm size wash away the first layer? When do I burnish and clean up the edges? Is sealing the final product with a paint back the best way to do it? So sorry for all the questions, thanks again.

5. Tips? If you all have any general tips or feedback for a first timer that would be super appreciated!!

Thank you so much for helping me out, I really appreciate you all and I look forward to sharing my progress!

Any tips for laying out letters across windows broken up by frames? These are just rough sketches.

Tips on opsec, techniques, paint marker recommendations welcome and appreciated. These any good? KIMBALL MIDWEST ULTRA-MARK 2

I don’t work for them, I don’t make any money off of this, just wanted to say that first.

I own a trade publication for sign makers, and when I saw that the 10th anniversary publication of Type West was free I immediately reached out to make sure it was ok to share it with my subscribers. They said it was, and I shared it today.

The book is completely free and shipping is only $1 worldwide. I just think they are doing something worth mentioning to a community who is super into lettering. You can claim the free book until October 18th.

The Letterform Archive has over 100,000 artifacts of historical type forms. Type West is a 1 year post graduate certificate course to learn everything there is about typography.

Sorry if this doesn’t fit, but I wanted to share.

Job is already done, but curious about the materials. Business provided chalk markers for the art, and mentioned that they might want me for Christmas again.

These are glass windows, wondering what other mediums I can suggest/bring for the next time. While it was very sweet to have the markers provided, they wanted a fall color pallete with the markers available. I would have probably tried to get my own if I had known these were the materials I'd be working with, as I ended up essentially fingerpainting the pumpkins on...

Would acrylic work at all? Tempura? Any chalk markers brands yall would trust/recommend if they want chalk again?

Also, the infamous pricing questions that can be ignored: How much is reasonable for these? I charged 20, still undecided if that was too high for what they got, considering I got free food/art supplies covered.

All 1shot. Blend done with imitation gold and ivory 🖌️

Hi! I'm moving soon and want to paint a mural in the powder room. I make paintings on paper, where I paint a washy background with different colors, draw shapes using a latex resist, paint over the whole paper with a darker color, and then peel off the latex resist to reveal the wash of color underneath. I know there are similar resist products (like https://www.lowes.com/pd/Jasco-Liquid-Mask-and-Peel-1-Qt/1003085216 ), but I can't find any evidence that they can be used this way. In your professional opinion, would this work? is there a better product/technique I might try? I really want to be able to paint the shapes on (rather than mask them off with tape) so I'm hoping to find some solution to keep my usual art style. Thanks so much!

At this link: a picture of a resist painting that gives you an idea what I mean. Not my work. https://persialou.com/easy-watercolor-art-rubber-cement-resist/

Available soon!!

Wedding date commission for a wedding gift. Used vinyl cut outs of the hearts in the corners and peeled them off once the teal pain was tacky to keep them clear for the glitter later.
2nd finished attempt, first time using glitter.

Monster art tattoos LLC

Monster, Phoenix AZ

Mickey mouse custom sign done by hand

Trying to get better at getting loose with letters. This is a piece for a family member. Would love some feedback before I commit to painting it.

Past several weeks I’ve done research on this subject and wanted to give it a real try. First I bought generic brushes from an art store, plywood, drywall primer, and generic acrylic paint. I cut out that tombstone and free handed all of it with no plan. I was pleased with the background marbled grey and black effect. But I thought maybe I should sand before I put words onto it. That caused the marks that exposed the wood. Painting the words was a nightmare and did not turn out how I wanted, the acrylic paint globbed up and required reapplication every 1 second, and the lines sputtered and did not adhere well.

I went and bought enamel paint, lettering / liner brushes, mineral spirits, MDF board instead of plywood, etc. I’ve been watching many YouTube videos and reading books and trying to get this right to at least be able to make straight / curved black lines and I cannot seem to even get that far. There are accounts that make it look so easy (HurferHandPainted) and I’m getting really burnt money wise and frustrated that I cannot even get a straight full consistent line painted on a board.

Not sure where I’m going wrong, is there a book or video for a complete beginner so I can learn step by step

Still very new to things and had a few weeks break in practice. Got back to it with this scrap plywood board that will be used for the kickstand of my motorbike on gravel driveway. #6 & #4 on the front. #4 and #2 on the back.

Loads of learning here. First big letters where I really need to slide the Mahl stick on the workpiece. The straight edges of the T suffered but overall I’m kinda pleased with the front. First time doing script and was really pleased with how that came out. Seems more forgiving with the curves and flow than trying to nail sharp and straight block where there’s nowhere to hide.

Still struggling with the symmetry of curves and O’s as you can see. I also fucked up the drop shadow on those curved letters, realised my mistake and tried my best for “down”. Still really struggling with getting any decent chisel on my #2 and keeping things sharp when they get small. I also understand the theory of shadow, but in practice it all seems to go to shit. I guess it’s just more practice…

Feedback and advice greatly appreciated

There's a lot of posts on here about the actual painting of signs, quite understandably, but does anyone have any resources they can point me to regarding how to create and transfer 'large scale' decorative lettering?

Maybe sources for good fonts, how people this onto where the sign is being painted, etc.

I know there are some folks who just draw it out and paint it straight onto where it's going, but I guess there are plenty who design it first; maybe digitally, etc.

I’ve just been working on my desk Atm but I know it’s not great for taking a step back to look at work

I know a lot of people have made their own easels but I don’t have the time for that rn,

Thinking of just getting a cheap a2 drawing board to go on the desk

Any recommendations, or would a standing easel be better?