posted
I see this on ebay.... CLICK HERE and was wondering if anyone has see or tried this program...I have been doing vinyl and thermal printing work in the Phoenix AZ area for a few years and graphic design for many years....was thinking of learning how to letter by hand and the course looked interesting.....has been hard to locate any info on sign painting or anyone who wants to teach someone that wants to learn the original way of doing signwork in the Phoenix AZ area...If you know of a good rescource or someone that would like to teach a beginner let me know....Thx for you time...
posted
It looks like a good enough course, and will teach you how to practice, which is all any instruction can do.
The only skill I can think of that has a comparable learning curve to brush lettering, is playing a musical instrument. No one knows how to begin with, and no one can teach it, all a teacher can do is provide examples and practice techniques. That said, having a teacher to tell you what you are doing wrong, to encourage you, and to provide goals is very valuable.
The essential, inescapable requirement to competent hand lettering is practice. Hours and hours of it. You are training hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, which require concentration and repitition to develop. Nobody in this trade picked up a quill and lettered perfectly the first time.
So have I discouraged you yet? Well, here's the carrot to go with that stick - you will be learning a skill that is now practiced by a continually decreasing number of people, and as such, can and will become more valuable. You also develop the satisfaction of having mastered a difficult skill, one which will also, by extension, train your eye to understand the details of letterforms - you will be far better at identifying fonts at a glance, and better at seeing errors in kerning, etc. that go right over the head of those who letter exclusively with a computer. And best of all, at some point - this is hard to describe - brush lettering can take you away. You'll be working on something and find yourself in the "zone", where the paint palletes just right, your brush snaps perfectly, and the letters pour smoothly out of the end of your quill like oil from a jar, or like notes from a well-played violin, and it will feel so damn good you'll be sorry to finish and have to clean up and go home. You'll have a kit with brushes, soaking in oil, lovingly maintained, with your favorites always the first to come into your hand.
Your whole outlook on signs will change. You'll see signs that were hand lettered and you stop and look, to admire or criticize. You'll start recognizing other painters by their styles, and start developing your own. And the trade will stop being a job, and turn slowly into something you feel good about, something you love.
That's an awful lot to get out of a few hours of practice and a stick with hair on the end. Only you can decide if it's worth it.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Hey Cam! You described the process of learning hand lettering as well as I have ever seen it described. Great job!
Mike Jackson
-------------------- Mike Jackson Golden Era Studios Jackson Hole, Wy www.goldenstudios.com/ Posts: 390 | From: PO Box 7850 | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Wow, Cam, what a great description of both learning and doing. Right now there are readers of those words with tears in their eyes and others with a question mark.
That "zone" thing is something not easily explained. Suddenly you are in a space and time that has no space or time....and all without doing anything illegal. Back when I did a lot of show cards there would be times when the feel of the brush against the card was almost intoxicating. The rythym and feel were so special that you were in another world.
Well, now I have to go stick on some vinyl.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
As others have already exclaimed...It is absolutly essential to find the rythm and execution to become a good signwriter. Along with an ability to form the most simple styles of lettering, will come the eye for seeing what you can do as a true art form. When a student can accurately brush a simple letter style like a medium Humanist or Helvetica, and nail it,then you are on the game. Moving on to a simple serif letter is next,and so on. Usually, the student who tries to go for the classic scripts or Old English, styles that have a lot of swing right off the bat will have a harder time getting in a groove that makes you feel right about taking the correct approach. So, if you are serious. Take it a step at a time. You might even see if you can find an old speedball book that has a brush stroke guide in it to follow and that book may be on ebay. Good Luck, and I hope you can be the one to keep the paint flappin'.
CrazyJack
-------------------- Jack Wills Studio Design Works 1465 E.Hidalgo Circle Nye Beach / Newport, OR Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
It's almost midight, I've been here all evening gilding gemini letters for a job that will go out on Monday (so I can leave for the meet in Ireland on Wednesday). To be complimented here by two friends and sign heroes made my evening. Thanks guys.
I learned by practicing "brush casual" after hours in the shop I worked in in Phoenix. My employer, Brad, showed me the basics and said "You'll either learn this or not." I'd practice after work for a couple hours (he was one of those talented but struggling painters who worked long hours for not much money) and I'd be diligent for a week or so then slack off.... sooner or later I'd be packing to leave for the day at 5 and he'd growl at me, "You goin' home already? I aint seen you do much practicing the last few days." So I'd hang out for a few hours and practice, while he worked on some job or another... those are good memories, of the shop in the evening when the phone didn't ring and we'd just talk, and paint.
Brad said if I learned a decent casual and a decent freehand script, I could letter any other style. I still don't have a decent freehand script, and its been a long time since I've lettered a line of quick brush casual, but he was right, it taught me the control to do other styles. When I came back east in '88 and opened on my own, I did nothing but hand lettering and pencil layouts for the first six years, which taught me an awful lot out of necessity.
So now I have these computers and a plotter and Edge, and almost everything comes out of those, but I still make it a point to hand letter something at least once a week. I get to pick and choose what to brush or vinyl, which keeps it from getting tedious. And every so often someone will come in and ask for something basic - like a 4x8 "For Sale" sign - and I'll save that for an evening, when the phone doesn't ring and there's a Red Sox game on the radio, and I can pick up a yardstick and a stabilo and a number 12 Mack, and it reminds me why I still love this job.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6806 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Andrew...since you don't show your whereabouts it's difficult to suggest anything to you ...however check out Ray Chapmans post on "handlettering" there's an opportunity for you to learn something from the "best".
Hope you can do it...where are you anyway?
[ August 04, 2003, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: Monte Jumper ]
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
Thanks for all the repiles so far...I may have to make a road trip someplace to learn from one of the best...it is great to see people on this board that want to lend a helping hand and teach someone that wants to learn...i just think that hand lettering and good sign design is becoming a thing of the past.. i know everyone here knows what i'm saying...or just take a drive around town and look at some of the new vinyl cut signs....the thing that i have noticed is that more computer people are now making signs and not enough artists....too many computer people are jumping into the sign market forgetting that it is an artform not just a bunch of words stuck to a board to make a fast buck...i took the gold guilding seminar from kent smith at this years isa show and was glad too see how many people had signed up and wanted to learn something new to them...even tho most people at the show were cut and stick people and know one displaying at the show had anything to do with sign painting...all the vendors were just selling stuff like..buy this and you too can open a sign shop this week...this was just my little mini rant...thanks for reading...
posted
Cam, very well put. I also have a strong desire to learn hand lettering. I'm hoping to pick up some good practicing tips in Tomahawk this month.
But for now I am exclusivly computer but I take exception to one comment of yours. The concept of kerning does not go over this computer operators head. As soon as I realized how important design was to signmaking, I noticed how badly computers kern letters. Until it became a habit of mine to check the kerning on all lettering before it goes to the plotter, I put a little sign on the computer monitor that said "KERN IT DAMMIT".
Just didn't want to be lumped in with the bad kerners
posted
I didn't mean to say that computer letterers can't "see" bad kerning; but with hand lettering your eye will improve dramatically, it will become second nature to look at things like letter construction, negative spacing and the subtle details of a line of copy. It won't teach you how to center, though. After almost twenty years of this, if left to my own devices I still crowd left. Parallel I can see - I can spot a crooked line of copy that's off 1/32 of an inch in six feet. But I can't tell you where center is, got to measure every time.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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