I have an interest in learning to hand letter, and I have wondered about the best way to go about it. There are so many variables when it comes to learning a skill, and each person has a unique set of characteristics that can either help or hinder the process. Rather than ask a bunch of uninformed, impossible-to-answer questions, I would rather leave my inquiry more open ended. For those that hand letter, how did you get started, what advice would you offer to someone else looking to learn?
Flame away if you feel the urge. Posted by Jill Marie Welsh (Member # 1912) on :
I was always good at art. I learned the basic bones of drawing letters for inking at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (like capital Os are bigger than Es etc) and not to use all-caps on a decorative alphabet. Then I quit school & got married. I ended up helping out a cousin who was remodeling his auto parts store by doing gridded enlargements of cars. Under each one, I wrote the model name eyeballing a typestyle out of a Letraset catalog. He asked me to repaint his delivery van, and bought me some 1-Shot. That was in 1985. I learned to use quills by 1989...all those wasted years with craft brushes...and in 1993 I discovered Mike Meyer through an article in a sign mag. He turned me on to the Letterheads and the Mike Stevens book. It's all been pretty much trial and lots of errors on my part! But I love lettering. Other big influences have been the work of Bill Berberich, John Jordan, Broooce Bowers, Bill Preston, Steve Shortreed, Karen Sousa, Catherine Foster, Pierre Tardif, and of course Arthur Vanson. I learn something every day. Love.....Jill
Posted by Rosemary (Member # 1926) on :
My Dad taught me. And it was just like being in school for another year!
me
Posted by Jeff Spradling (Member # 1615) on :
Russ,
When I was in school I would doodle instead of doing school work. When I turned 15 my father bought me some brushes and paint and taught me what he could...he used to letter a few race cars and letter characters on the lower front fenders of street cars in the 50’s-60’s...I guess that was “the thing” then.
Anyway I messed around learning what I could on my own until I went to work for a sign co. (Avery Sign Co.) and learned some tricks of the trade.
My two mentors Glenn Avery and Roger Foss told me some 20 years ago to find three sign painters who’s work you like...mock their work...add some of your own tidbits and you’ll develop your own style. Problem is these days in many ways finding three “sign painters” in your area might be difficult.
Still look in magazines and such for hand styles you like and practice practice practice....and like others here will tell ya...get to a Letterhead meet...you’ll get all the tips and learnin’ one brain can handle.
Good luck!!
Jeff Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
Jill, thjat was a very cool thing to say... I just might cry...
I learned some lettering skills from my nineth grade art teacher after fumbling around for a bit. I went to work for Jimmy wilke at Wilke Signs in Tonawanda, NY while I was in high school.
Jimmy is the one who really showed me about lettering quills, flats, cutters, fitches, etc. and how each brush had it's own purpose.
I learned a lot from Harrison Todd of Sign Classics in San jose, CA as well as Terry Hubbs of Chapparrell Signs in San Martin, CA.
I have been hand lettering for over 32 years for money now. Hmmmmmmm, and to think I am still a young buck...
If you come here, Russ, I will gladly show you how to letter with a brush but you better be prepared for the DrCAS crash course of sign instruction. It will be intense... Know how a PHD and a broom work? Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
My brother, Wayland, and I learned to hand letter together. Back there in the 50's, no one would tell you anything, so we picked up pointers from watching the area sign painters. Luckily, we found some gentlemen that would show us a few things - especially about the brushes and paints.
It's just practice, practice, and then a little more practice.
Beginning in the May issue of Sign Business I will have a series of articles on hand lettering. Now, I'm sure that my articles are not going to make sign painters out of anyone, but they may spark an interest anyway. I'm working on the June issue right now - has to be in Colorado tomorrow. It's very dificult to put into words what your hand and mind do together.
Good luck. It's a great feeling to be able to push a brush around and have something pop up that you've created. Along the line there is really a lot of frustration, too.
P.S. At the Sign Business Shows (Best In Graphics) this summer I will be doing a short hand lettering demonstration on the exhibit floor each Saturday morning at 11. The first one is in Fort Worth (May 7) and then also at Columbus, Ohio, Long Beach and Charlotte. If anyone wants to drop by and ask questions I'll be glad to help...or you can show me a few things and I'll be the student.
[ April 19, 2005, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
Posted by Louie Pascuzzi (Member # 1373) on :
Russ,
I started hand lettering after a few years pinstriping and doing airbrush work on motorcycles. My first jobs were stock cars and I tried to copy letter styles I saw on other cars and at the drag races in New York and New Jersey. New jersey alway had the most awesome cars with guy like Glen and Mr. J and custom paint shops like Circus. I was in NJ when I bought Bob Fitzgerald's book at an art supply store near his home on the way back from the races.
I didn't realize how little I knew until I enrolled at Butera School of Art in the Sign Painting course. My teachers were Stan Morrisson, Glen Silva and Mr. C. For the first year it seemed like all we did was plain gothic letters. Now I know if you can paint a plain block letter you can paint anything.
Also watching my classmates paint brought a lot of inspiration. Mike Lavalee was the most awesome artist in the class, he was better than the kids in the Fine Art program. Bruce Deveau, Danny Robinson, Al Esposito and Bill Crosby were all very good hand letterers. Danny could paint a perfect hevetica alphabet from a charcoal stick letter layout in his first year. My favorite technique then and it still is now is glass gilding which Glen Siva taught in the second year along with surface gilding and smalts work. By the end of the second year I think I had a pretty good feel for it and was ready to go out and make a living. Almost 30 years later I'm going strong and I still owe it all to the great program at Butera.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Learn to draw letters first. When making letters with a brush, they're built. It's like an assembly process, with a correct order and system. You learn to visualise the completed sign and then break it down to the line of copy and the letter and the stroke. You learn to look at the space created inside the letter and between the letters, and learn they are at least as important as the letter itself. You lear to exagerate corners and curves that appear to diminish with distance. Then there's the learning to stroke the brush and properly pallette the paint for an even flow. It's real simple. You get someone to watch over you and tell you how to do it right until you excercise every bit of self control you can muster to not take a swing at the guy, and then you start learning.
Posted by Terry Baird (Member # 3495) on :
I learned from a 75 yr. old showcard artist named Carl Hermansen. He was also somewhat of an actor and had pics up all over the shop of himself with different stars (John Wayne, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, etc.). A friend owned the shop and I used to visit after college classes ended for the day. I used to watch him letter and was fascinated at the fact that he could use a brush as fast as I could use a pencil. He used to watch me watching him out of the corner of his eye and one day asked me if I wanted to give it a try. I just about vaulted over the counter. He trapped another one! I quit college the next semester and with my new wife, opened my first sign shop. It's been all downhill since (ha).
[ April 19, 2005, 06:44 PM: Message edited by: Terry Baird ]
Posted by Bill Preston (Member # 1314) on :
It was nice to be included with such talents that Jill mentioned---thanx, Jill.
Pretty much self-taught back in the early 60s. Bibles at the time were one of ECMatthews books and a Speedball pen lettering book. The Speedball shows letters formed with a wide nibbed pen, and the strokes are very similar to what one would get from a flat. Matthews was more for layouts and letterstyles of the period.
On the "gothic" letterstyles---truth is, the plainer the letter, the harder it is to get it right---every flaw shows. With the fancier styles a flaw might be called artistic license.
Once the basic letterforms have been learned---as in what is thick and what is thin---the next most important things are paint that flows easily, and covers well, then brushes that work with you and don't have to be fought with.
Last, but by no means least---practice, and a lot of it.
FWIW.
bill preston
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
I learned a lot of basic lettering skills and calligraphy in high school. Speedball and croquill pens mostly. When I first started out in the sign business, I masked every letter off and sprayed them on with an airbrush or aerosol can...whatever worked.
When doing a race car one day, they had a brush and a can of One Shot that the guy who'd lettered it the year before had left behind for touching upthe numbers. I'd never seen either before and they let me take it home to practice with. I came back a few days later and hand lettered the driver's name on the roof.
Been practicing ever since...and always will be... Rapid
Posted by Bob Burns (Member # 268) on :
I learned from thr great Von Dutch, and Slimbo, in the '50's
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
Self taught here too. Found an old copy of E.C.Matthews sign painting course and bought some lettering quills, crushed some red berries up and made my own paints with a binder. Learned how to snap lines with chalk and string with both hands. Made me a mahl stick from an old fishing pole. Then it was practice practice practice.
I was lucky to be the only paint slinger in town so the money was my incentive to get faster and better. Always wondered what it would have been like work in a sign shop and learn the right way up front. Oh well I guess if you want something bad enough you will go after it.
Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
After High School, I thought I wanted to be a commercial artist. The local Junior College had courses, but...filled. They said "take the sign painting class for a month, then the comm. Art class will thin out, you can transfer.
Never Happened! After 5 days with a #6 & #10 Grumbacher showcard brush, I was hooked. Took the course for 2 years, moved to Canada, worked for shops for 17 years, then started my own, ,got into computers in '86, sold shop and equip. in 2000, only hand lettering now, just because.
John
Russ, if you love it, it will come, finding a signwriter that will teach/advise will really speed things up, plus, he/she will, no doubt, have a FEW STORIES, bout back in the day!!! lol
Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
Russ, I don't think that there are many places like that Jr. Coll., or trade schools, around now. It was very intense, hands on, we made lots of the signs for the College, events, etc.
Now there's computer training and programs.
Posted by Judy Pate (Member # 237) on :
I learned to hand letter by working at area shops. I started off working at a silk screen shop..on top of learning silk screening, I learned how to layout a sign, draw letters, and cut green Ulano film with an Exacto knife. I went on to work at area sign shops where I learned to hand letter. I picked up tricks of the trade from 4 or 5 other sign painters who worked with me at various sign shops. I learned the basics in about 5 years and started picking up speed after that. It has been 25 years since I started my business and there are still things I haven't mastered..like a flowing script. We never stop learning. Russ, I see you are out in Utah. Lazy Edna is in Utah. Maybe someone out there knows how to contact her, she could give you a pointer or two. Good luck! Judy
[ April 19, 2005, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: Judy Pate ]
Posted by Joe McGillicuddy (Member # 4229) on :
Got a degree in Advertising Design, but learned to hand letter in the Sign Arts courses I'd taken because it included screenprinting. Letter strokes, single stroke sequences, single letters, then words in gothic w/poster brushes gave the basic skills to advance to enamels and goldleaf techniques and applying those skills on varied substrates. As others have mentioned, control and speed comes w/practice practice,practice.
Posted by timi NC (Member # 576) on :
After a couple of years at art school I figured out if ya want to eat ya got to work,....got a job at a local billboard company and had to start rolling panels out and fill in behind the journeymen painters there,.....Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if I wanted to get beyound rolling out panels and cleaning the older guys brushes I had to learn to letter,...Helm Woztkow wrote an excellant text on hand lettering that you can still find copies for sale here and there if ya do a search.
Posted by Myra Grozinger (Member # 327) on :
I'm swamped with work, and still working at 10:30 since 7 this am...Spring has sprung, and I must take care of the regulars- - though I right now send the new people on to friendly competitors- that means I can't read all the replies and see if I may be repeating things.
The most important thing I did, other than constantly studying the shapes and forms of letters was to take the newspapers classifieds, and turn them sideways. They would give me columns of same sizes. I would then take a quill and thin down any water based paint and make strokes. Half moons to the left, and half moons to the right. Start in the center of an O and do half of it and then do the other half.
I did it in my kitchen, on the counter, while I watched the Watergate hearings, imagine that.
I would make straight strokes side by side by side until they all looked identical.
It is not a talent, it is a craft. The ones of us who are top artists in visual talent and abiltity, who then aquire the craft, are way ahead of the rest. Etc. It builds.
All I ever turned into is a person who understands enough of what is involved on all levels to combine it to make herself saleable.
My main point of gratitude about what I have done for the last 30 years in various ways, is that I am still not bored.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
I was always drawing & painting a lot when I was a kid and during high school. Even when I started drinking at a very young age and getting stoned and getting in trouble . . .
At various points before I left home at 16 I was doing oil paintings and collages, wood-working and filling notebooks with drawings of floor plans for houses, taking stuff like clocks, etc, apart and putting them back together again, writing poetry and trying to learn to play the guitar....it was all just 'tinkering'....
I was only bored & had the 'traveling-Jones'. . .
After I left home I was pretty sure I was going to do murals...I painted the walls almost everywhere I lived . . .but just had no way to define my direction. I believed if I could just travel around I'd be OK...
. . .continuous mind alteration tends to make most every direction & decision very vague & unfruitful
Then when I was about 20 I wound up back in my hometown & started goin' to church and someone there mentioned I could draw & paint so I started doin' bulletine boards which was a lot of creative fun.
Then a man in that church asked me to paint some signs for his car-lot...then I got a few other jobs . . .eventually gettin' hired into a sign shop because I could draw, and where I learned what all I had been doing wrong at 'painting signs'...
My first boss once told me, "I can teach anyone to hand-letter, but I can't teach anyone to draw..." He felt like if a person could draw they could 'see' details and also do good layouts and pictorials and he felt like that was an edge.
He also told me that I could not make a living just painting signs because I would work myself to death . . .he was right in many ways, but I've been very blessed to be able to support 2 kids by this sign business...
People often ask me how I got started in the sign business and I always say: "The Lord blessed me with this business to help me get off food stamps & government housing, and because He knows I have NO taste in men and would need SOME way to support my kids. . . ." Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
I learned from Mr. Richard Earnest. He was the Sign Graphics instructor at Los Angeles Trade Tech. College. I took the whole two year course. Best thing I even did.
Posted by Chuck Peterson (Member # 70) on :
I didn't really have one teacher other than the few signpainters in the area who would answer my questions and reading "Sign Painting Techniques" by Ralph Gregory. I did a lot of re-painting old faded signs where I could see the faded out brush strokes and follow them. I had a lot of trouble with the casuals and scripts until I found out a lot of signs I was re-painting were done by a guy named John Matthews who was left handed. I recall a signpainter stopping when I was lettering a window and showing me the right way to chisel and pallet the brush. Don't know who he was but thanks.
Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
Myra, ya, the classified section on the side, that's how we started in sign class!!
and...."and, not bored..." AMEN!
cheers, John
Posted by Bill Lynch (Member # 3815) on :
I'm another Butera School of Art "Alumnus". A local sign painter that I knew convinced me to go after high school. I got a job after my first year. After that it was lot of doing things over and over and over till I got it "right".
Posted by Mike Contreras (Member # 1571) on :
How did you learn to letter? Hmmm... Should be more like, How the Hell are we gonna get out of havin to go to work with Dad after school Or how did you learn to walk? I would have liked to had the choice to be a Sign painter...I or my 3 brothers didn't.
My Dad has a Sign shop. He was self taught. We always heard the stories of... Your dad Lettered my first truck under that old Oak tree when he was 18. oh yeh by the way he is 70 and still painting. by himself though...
He would always tell us boys.. My Mission on this planet is to teach you boys my trade.... After seeing the end results it was good..I still wonder which planet he was from..
But I would NEVER force my kids the way my dad did.. They want to be useless and work with a squeegee that is their decision... I know many will disagree.. ( come on I had to add that.. Hey I'm kinda jokin about the Squeegee comment) )
But did you ever work for your dad?
And do you still like him like you Like the Worse boss you ever worked for???
I am very thankful for what I have learned and I Have told him. but the Anger My brothers and I have towards him will last a Lifetime.
The One thing I hate about his Biz....
the Plotter.... any one see the Terminator when they went back in time to make a small adjustment in the way technology went... Well I haven't gotten to far on my time machine.. But the idea is there...LOL
Gimme More Lead & Speed up my Death....
VINYL TRULY SUCKS....
Good luck on your Quest Russ..
Posted by George Perkins (Member # 156) on :
I'm another self taught graduate. My best friend Bob Cosgrove got me interested in the trade and he was a major influence...but we lived a thousand miles apart so it made things difficult. I bought all the books available at the time, Bob Fitzgerald, both Ralph Gregory books, one by Stave Prohaska and anything pertaining to lettering. It was a struggle but well worth it. I remember attending my first Letterhead meet in 85', having had 13 years in the trade and watching Ken Millar give a seminar on letter formation....boy could I have really used that ten years prior. He made everything seem so simple with his clear explanations. Working at a number of shops over the years and attending a bunch of meets. I've seen all different ways of hand lettering. The major difference I have seen regards layout and letter formation with the brush. ALL signpainters can make a tight layout and produce really tight lettering with this method. Not everybody can work "off the brush" and follow a chicken scratch layout. I thought I made some simple marks til I worked with Monte Jumper at a meet a few years back. I think Monte's chicken was missing some toes Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
i posted this a couple times in the archives of letterhead site. but i want to add to what sheila's teacher said...about being able to draw. if you can do this your leaps and bounds past the people who cant. i like sheila spent most of my time in high school drawing. the "rat fink" and roths wild cars with crazed cartoon people driving them...was one of my favorites to draw. i musta filled 3-4 school tablets with them. also being able to draw has an added dimension to the imagination.....and the ability to translate from the mind to paper..without any thing else.
Posted by BILL BERBERICH (Member # 4081) on :
Russ, I was between art schools and went to work for a sign company. Jim Dolan was the head artist and signman. One day he took me under his wing, which was rare in those times, and taught me the biz. There are many books still available that show letter fonts and tricks of the trade. The best thing is take a straight letter style, helvetica preferably, layout as you see it in the book and learn to letter the basic styles. They are the toughest because there can be no mistakes. I learned by taking some MDO board and just practiced straight lettering over and over and over, you have the idea. A big influence on lettering, styles, layout and color combination was a guy by the name of Chester Cunningham. I saw his work and BANG, look what you can do with imagination. If you ever get a chance to go to a Letterheads meet, GO!!!!! I have only been to one but the people and advice that you acquire at these are irreplaceable!! As Mark Zilliox told me, practice, pratice and practice, GOOD LUCK! Berberich Painting BZRK52@aol.com
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to respond. I really do appreciate your sharing your knowledge with me. I'm amazed by the years of experience that are concentrated in this group.
From your posts I find that practice is the universal admonition, and a mentor, or mentors, can make a big difference. I really do plan to get to a live meet - hopefully this year. It will be great to see at least some of you there, working your magic. If I could find a way to take a course I would certainly consider it.
I've ordered a few of the books that were suggested, and in my search for them I have run across additional resources on the web.
I'm kicking myself that I never learned anything from my friend's dad, who was a sign painter. This was a friend from high school, and we were so busy doing nothing much that I never even saw his dad's shop. Youth is certainly wasted on the young.
I want to order some brushes and other equipment to practice with. I know where to get paint, but brushes are another matter. I looked at the Mack site and got stumped by the sheer number of brushes.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Russ...email me your mailing address. I'll send you something.
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
Russ, c'mon out, brother! I will teach you. Seriously.
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
Bruce, I would love to take you up on your offer, and I don't take it lightly. If I can organize things enough to make it out your direction, I will do it.
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
It would be cool to pass what I know on. Others have done it for me and I feel like I owe it to them to do the same.
Let me know!
Posted by Rovelle W. Gratz (Member # 4404) on :
I have always done a lot of drawing since I was a kid, but my start in the lettering field was in 1962.
I was in the Air Force, stationed at Robins Air Force Base, in Warner Robins, Georgia, where Ricky Jackson's Shop is now.
A friend, an aircraft controller, worked at a local Sign Shop next to a Restaurant I used to frequent.
I went over to the Shop and started hanging around. The Owner, Charlie Jones, told me if I was going to hang around there all the time He would have to put me to work.
I told him I would gladly work for nothing just to learn to paint signs.....He said I couldn't work without being paid, so we finally agreed that I would work for 50 cents an hour.
I did that for about a year before he insisted on paying me more, I don't remember how much it was then.
The experience was great, because his was a full Commercial shop, doing silk screen printing, hand lettering on signs, paper and showcards.
I ended up doing all the hand cutting of the silk screen stencils. We used to do some pretty elaborate hand cut multicolored silk screened stuff for the buses and phone companies, etc.
We lettered everything from aircraft, train cars, moving vans, trucks, windows, to include Gold Leaf, real estate signs, walls, banners and a lot that I can't remember.
After working there part tine in the evenings for a few years, I opened my own shop in a neighboring town. I still did most of the hand cutting of silk screen stencils for a lot of the shops in the area.
After leaving Georgia, I was stationed in Bermuda for three years, where I did a lot of show cards for the clubs and hotels and worked part time in a Sign Studio.
After painting signs all over the country and even in VietNam, and upon retiring from the U S Air Force, I opened my own Commercial Sign Shop in Warner Robins, Georgia.
The short of it is that I learned from a well rounded group of talented Artists and Sign Painters.
One thing I took away from Charlie Jones was, when asked "How long did it take you to learn to paint signs?" He replied, "Oh...about eight hours
a day for ten years.
Learn the techniques and the basic strokes and they will take you a long way.
Posted by Jill Marie Welsh (Member # 1912) on :
Hey Russ, you might wanna wait till August and come to Jill's Jamboree. Lots of hands-on teachin' and plenty of good eats and fellowship. Rumor has it that Brooce-n-Dana will be here... We already have 5 registrants and their spouses! Stevo & I would love to meet you...we think you are one kick-ass illustrator! Love....Jill
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
I've been working on him Jill - told him that it was THE meet to be at this summer. :-)Heck, if I'm flying all the way from CA for it...
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
If I can get the stars (and funds, and vacation days) to align, I will be there. It's a priority to get to at least one meet this year. It sounds like a great experience.
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