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Back when we hand lettered everything I worked with a man who never seemed to get paint on him or his clothes. He very rarely carried a paint rag, yet his hands stayed clean. I found out that when he was out lettering a window or panel instead of wiping paint on his pants or shirt he would put his hand in his pocket and clean his hands on the inside of the pocket. One day he turned his pants pockets inside out and they looked just like a paint rag, but there was not speck of paint anywhere else.
He's dead now, but I vividly remember how neat he always presented himself. He wore cowboy boots and smoked a pipe. Most of the time he was either cleaning the pipe, poking something into the pipe, or trying to keep it lit.
I'm just the opposite. There must be a paint magnet inside of me because I can just walk past a wet panel and it jumps up and grabs me.... unless I wear an old pair of pants and shirt to do some work - then I don't get any on me. It's just when the clothes are new. I even wear an apron and I end up getting paint on the collar, or sleeves, or I'll back into something wet and get a stripe across my rear. This month I was in Atlantic City doing some lettering in the Bullpen and was wearing an apron (AMAL by the way) and trying to be very careful. When I took the apron off I had splattered some paint on the apron and it had gone through and stained my new "Sunday" shirt. Must be something in my DNA.
So, how do you manage to keep clean?
Dan Sawatzky
Keep clean??? Not possible - at least not for me.
I've found that paint (or other grundge from the shop) can jump at least 20 feet (or more if I have new clothes on). The steering wheel on the truck, the telephone and even the doorknobs in the house seem to be magnets for paint as well at our house.
Like my son Peter (when he was little) said as we came in from work one day "Man! We worked HARD today... just look how dirty we are"
I like to think I'm putting all my attention to the work and not my surroundings. If I concentrate on keeping clean I am distracted from the work at hand.
-dan
Kent Smith
I often tell the story of stopping by the shop on the way to a wedding, dressed in a new suit, just to grab a set of keys off my desk just inside the front door. There was a droplet of yellow paint hanging out waiting for me for when I stepped into the car, there it was on my trouser leg.
I was reminded of this yesterday as we began taking inventory. My feet were sore so I wore my better shoes, figuring we were only counting. When we headed home last night, my grandaughter noticed a white rim on the heel of one shoe. I have no idea whre it was hiding but it surely migrated across the floor to attack me. I had not thought of the internal magnet concept but it must be inherent in the type of individual who ply our trade.
Sarah
I never learned the secret to keeping clean either Raymond. I remember when I first started out in advertising art. It never failed that I got India ink on my clean clothes. It was a relief when the hippy days came about and I could go to work in my grubbies.
Rick Sacks
We use alot of rags and paper towels. If I don't use my daily quota, what would we use to start the fire the next morning?
Not wiping my hands on my pants was a difficult pattern to alter, but with years of loving gentle nags, anything is possible.
I remember when the paint smears were even on my steering wheel!
Janette Balogh
I have the same magnetic personality when it comes to paint messes.
I can do a simple quick touchup that ends up all over the place because without realizing it I've dabbed my hands with paint and then everything I touch after that gets infected until I discover it!
Dave is constantly shaking his head over the paint drips & dabs on our cordless phone.
Billy Bob
The problem w. enamel paint is that even the smallest speck spreads around and gets everywhere! I also wear an apron for the messy projects. For regular lettering, I have pieces of (cut off) "painters" pant legs that I insert in the wiping side pocket of my trousers. If I forget to have one ready, it never fails that i'll compulsively wipe my fingers on my clean pants!
It seems back in the day, the sign guys wore button up shirts and ties with dressy pants, and lab coats. I have been doing this for 8 years, and as Von Dutch used to say, I don't own any clothes without paint on them. Hmmm.... Was the switch to getting paint on yourself after the soldiers/signpainters came back from the war, where they usually wore t-shirts and fatigues and it didn't matter if you got paint on them? Even the Ralph Gregory book Sign Painting has an illustration of a guy in an all white uniform talking about appearance.
The worst spillage I ever had was working on an M.Levin Banana truck.It was summer,& I spilled a quart of 1shot canary yellow rite down the front of me.I had to finish the background color on the bananas(6ft.tall clump) I did O.K.till the paint started setting up & making my legs stick together!!!
When I worked for Harry Koffman I always kept a set of work shoes and shirt at the shop and changed into them each day (sort of). It was during this time I walked into the back to view something I was asked to look at just as I was about to leave for the day and blonk...stepped straight into an open gallon of orange with my brand spanking new sneakers! Now I ask has anyone here ever managed to get their foot into a gallon can let alone one that was full? Anywho...a few weeks ago, working on some large glass pieces I had an open cup full of "arterial red" sitting next to one of them....they were quite large and had to move one over a foot or two on the bench...yuppers like a magnet although this pair of sneakers had lasted a couple of years. Some things never change!! The shop floor looks like someone slashed their wrists while agonising over some layout!
A few years ago I turned over a gallon of Gary Anderson's Rhino paint (red) on the shop floor. After it dried I drew one of those body outlines with white chalk like they do at crime scenes. No one seemed to think it was funny but me.
A couple of months ago I was getting ready to outline some graphics on a lowrider and when I was getting ready to lay down on the creaper, I didn't compensate for the angle, with my wrist and dumped the custom creamsicle orange color right on my chest! What a mess! All over my nice clean 1-Shot shirt.
Doug F.
FALLOUT Grafix
Port St Lucie, FL
Formerly from NJ, Formerly from VT,
Formerly from SF, CA, Formerly from NC,
Formerly from CO, FINALLY settled in FL!
Okay....just an aside, Ray, you've seen me in the/my old days (or better old Daze) as the young apprentice, but at that time, everything that was handy was an eraser for that "stray" bit of a letter and became a rag.....t-shirts included. There was alot of uses for "erasers" All the same those early years were a blast of creativity, education and mess.
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads