posted
Been practicing on on off, but I'm not sure that I have the right/best brushes.
I have the following:
Quinn Mack 4 & 6 - they feel to long and soft. Mack outliner 838-1 - totally useless, can't pull an even line. Jenson swirlyQ 1 - ok for oulines, otherwise long and stiff. Specter flat brush small sizes(old danish brush)- short and stiff, don't hold 1shot, works better with waterbased.
Have been watching videoes on youtube, and are confused about what to use, flats, quills, lenght, hairtype ?????????????
Would like some suggestions on an basic set of brushes, including outliners.
Would love to be able to go to a shop and look at the brushes, but here in denmark no one sells letteringbrushes or know anyting about lettering.
posted
Quills are all you'll need for 90% of sign work. I like red sable ones, but if you are a beginner, anything is good (as long as it's not losing hair). For long lines and smooth strokes, thin your paint, and/or load your brush so that it's almost 'falling off' of it.
posted
If you could get to a Letterhead meet in UK, that would answer more questions for you than months of you-tube & reading!
Experience, or 'the knack' is an aspect that is easily overlooked.
The right brushes is one thing, but the right paint & the right consistency is another. All this will fall into place at a meet, if you don;t get to figure it out before.
Practise, practise & practise again. In the early days I used to hate brush lettering, it was so hard to do!
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Quills, brown, 1.25 inches out have worked for me for over 52 years, also flats and swords for striping.
-------------------- Len Mort Signmaker1.com 11 Juniper Drive Millbury, MA 508-865-2382 "A Good Business Sign, is A Sign of Good Business"(1957) Posts: 811 | From: Millbury, Ma | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
Would love to go to a meet in england or even participate in Pieres bootcamp, but rigtht now thats not an option.
Been reading back in the post here, but are still confused regarding size, is there an rule of thumb relating to the size of the brush an size of the letters?
Have decided to get some brushes from Macks water based line, and will get some flats and quills. Using waterbased is more practical for practice(I think). But again what size???
posted
Teddy, you're going to find there really aren't too many rules of thumb regarding brush size. It can vary quite a bit from painter to painter and how they work. For instance take a 3" Helvetica like letter. I'd probably use a #6 quill, heavily loaded and make the stroke in one pull. Others might use two pulls to "build up" the letter and might be more comfortable with a #4. Some folks really work the palette and chisel the brush, pulling in one stroke and they might use a #8.
Do you have a VHS player? I've got a VHS tape I made at a Letterhead meet in 2003 three. I has about a dozen different folks hand lettering up close. e-mail me your address and I'll send you one if your interested.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
Ok George, makes sense. If only I could see the brushes "live", it's not easy to shop online, and being used to the metric system doesn't help either.
Regarding the tape, it's an generous offer, and I could probably dig an VHS player up somewhere, but it would be an PAL machine an your tape should be NTSC??
posted
Converting to dvd should work, It would be very nice. But consider another digital format like divx, you could upload it to you homepage so that you don't have to mail the dvd. I know it don't cost much, but I feel a little bad that it will cost you.
posted
This may sound elementary but there is of course a world of difference between the oil based paint brushes and water based brushes. Once you put a squirrel's hair quill in water, it's dead. My personal preference when lettering with oil based paints is to not put too much paint on the brush so it has more "pull" to it. Just practice a lot and you will develop a feel for it.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1268 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic