When I was learning Chester was so different and bold that anything we did to resemble his work turned his name into a verb. I remember my father looking at an order and saying I'm going to Cunningham this one, as he started painting panels on a board. It was a sad day when I head of his car acciden...

Ever since oil cloth disappeared years ago I have had issues obtaining quality banner stock. The last few years I've been using solvent based printing media banner. I would wash it with laquer thinner before painting. The paint was very slow to dry, crawled and sometimes it would get tiny flecks chi...

I will give it a shot. My next step is another steroid shot. It disables my arm for over a week and hurts like ..

I'm a left handed signpainter. Started out in the mid 70s, using using a mahlstick, pretty much exclusively. Some time ago I got a case of tennis elbow so bad it needed a steroid shot. Six months later, elbow's fine. Just for kicks I decided I'm not going to use a mahlstick on a 4x8 that had a lot o...

It's tedious but whenever I have to letter on cloth i use a coat, sometimes two of blockout as prime. I'm pretty sure you can use poster color as well. It dries faster and doesn't want to bleed. After your n first coat the other go easy. The cloth will be stiff when you are done. I've used this proc...

Moderators delete this if illegal. I have an unopened pack of Hastings 1'' loose leaf roll gold that my father had for 20 years before he died in 1985. I haven't done a window leaf job in eons so I put it up on ebay. I think the price is reasonable as my experience is that old gold has less cracks a...

What I was taught and have used is palette a larger brush that has a real good chisel, maybe a #4. Using just the couple of hairs from the corner I can sign my work with letters as small as maybe 3/32nds of an inch. Its not beautiful but it's discreet.

I had this book for 30 years before someone jacked it. It was like a bible to me.

http://www.amazon.com/Sign-Painting-Tec ... 0911380299

My father taught me, back in the 70s, to look at your letters and imagine the negative space being sand. Try to have equal amounts of sand between letters as much as possible. I was a way I was able to understand proper letter spacing.

I'm left handed as well. Having you thumb on the wrong side of your dominate hand can make it difficult to emulate a right hander's style. You will have to improvise as you improve. I always use a mahl stick and hold my paint and palette in my right hand, for instance. I work from left to right but ...

I saw this one pop up on Ebay. The case looks bad but the high tension lead is in good shape. I paid $175 for my used one 4 years ago.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FMS-120V-ELECTR ... 1e86f07735

My father was signpainter as well as I. His bread and butter work was single stroke work. I learned primarily that way. When I was young he used to have men who were daily workers that "built" their letters in multi strokes as you have depicted. I would be mesmerized by the technique as it...

I think I'll try a Kafka, It looks like it has the characteristics I'm looking for. His grid template was somewhat intriguing as well.

I want to "brush up" on my pinstriping. The old macks I have are trashed. Any recommendations to try a new brush? I usually just do decorative work, no long straight line stuff. Oh yeah haven't laid a line in over 15 years.

Hi. I also learned the old way in the '70. I painted billboards, shocards, trucks and glass gold. When computers took over I became a "computer guy" around '92, and put my brushes down. The past 3 years I have been doing nothing but hand lettering and it gives me great satisfaction. I woul...

I bought a roll of 16 lb. butcher paper from a restaurant supply. It is a 9'' thick roll and last a long time. When the time comes it's great for patterns as well. I think is was about $35.

Having started hand lettering over 35 years ago I remember when the Gerber machine came out and dreaded it. I knew that it would eventually ruin our business. I adapted to computer exclusively about 1992. Now, or should I say about 2 years ago I started to practice daily with the brush again. Hand l...

Hey Joe, don't know much about Solo Horton but I can share past experience with Luco. Years back Luco and French Master were my choice for quills. Then I started seeing just what you described, coarse wirey, sometimes whitish colored hairs that just didn't belong in a nice Brown Quill. These hairs ...

Can't hurt anything. I'll try it. Thanks

After hanging up my kit for a dozen years I have forsaken the computer to concentrate solely on handlettering. I have 25 years experience. I recently needed to replenish some of my small brushes #2's and #4's. I bought what used to be (for me) excellent brushes, Solo Horton and Luco. My problem is t...

After watching this video and reading the comments I thought I would put my two cents in. While some sign painters may painstakingly follow a pattern, whether computer generated or not, and complete a nice clean job it doesn't make them what I would call a true sign painter. We used to call them lin...