As far back as I can remember I have always been fascinated with things that were hand made. Drawings, paintings, wheel thrown pottery… these things would keep me captivated for hours. My father was a graphic artist who was a founding parter in a silk screen printing business, so as a kid when he would come home from work, I would ask him to draw me things just about every night, just so I could watch him.
This passion for the hand-made eventually turned into creating things with my own hands. That passion is still very much alive to this day. One of the many ways that I have found more recently to feed this fascination with the hand-made has been hand-painted signs.
In the above image you will see some snapshots of my process. I start off with a rough sketch of the layout I want, then I move on to more final, tight drawings of the piece to scale. From there I move on to either transferring the final drawings on to the surface I will be painting on, or redrawing it directly onto the final surface. After that it’s all painting and trying my very best to stay within the lines and pulling those lines as straight as I can muster!
This process requires a great deal of patience and discipline to slow down enough to achieve the level of concentration needed for a high quality result. Taking the time to make sure everything is set up and at fingers reach at all times, mixing the paint thoroughly and making sure it is the right consistency, cleaning, oiling and making sure all brushes are maintained properly… the list goes on. It is a tedious process, but a process that can be very rewarding when you get it right.
