r/SignPainting
▲ 95 r/SignPainting
Letter Structure
Trying to get better at getting loose with letters. This is a piece for a family member. Would love some feedback before I commit to painting it.
u/Serious-Bed3751 — 5 days ago
▲ 9 r/SignPainting
Complete beginner questions
Past several weeks I’ve done research on this subject and wanted to give it a real try. First I bought generic brushes from an art store, plywood, drywall primer, and generic acrylic paint. I cut out that tombstone and free handed all of it with no plan. I was pleased with the background marbled grey and black effect. But I thought maybe I should sand before I put words onto it. That caused the marks that exposed the wood. Painting the words was a nightmare and did not turn out how I wanted, the acrylic paint globbed up and required reapplication every 1 second, and the lines sputtered and did not adhere well.
I went and bought enamel paint, lettering / liner brushes, mineral spirits, MDF board instead of plywood, etc. I’ve been watching many YouTube videos and reading books and trying to get this right to at least be able to make straight / curved black lines and I cannot seem to even get that far. There are accounts that make it look so easy (HurferHandPainted) and I’m getting really burnt money wise and frustrated that I cannot even get a straight full consistent line painted on a board.
Not sure where I’m going wrong, is there a book or video for a complete beginner so I can learn step by step
u/Minimum_Ordinary_243 — 5 days ago
▲ 42 r/SignPainting
Back to practice
Still very new to things and had a few weeks break in practice. Got back to it with this scrap plywood board that will be used for the kickstand of my motorbike on gravel driveway. #6 & #4 on the front. #4 and #2 on the back.
Loads of learning here. First big letters where I really need to slide the Mahl stick on the workpiece. The straight edges of the T suffered but overall I’m kinda pleased with the front. First time doing script and was really pleased with how that came out. Seems more forgiving with the curves and flow than trying to nail sharp and straight block where there’s nowhere to hide.
Still struggling with the symmetry of curves and O’s as you can see. I also fucked up the drop shadow on those curved letters, realised my mistake and tried my best for “down”. Still really struggling with getting any decent chisel on my #2 and keeping things sharp when they get small. I also understand the theory of shadow, but in practice it all seems to go to shit. I guess it’s just more practice…
Feedback and advice greatly appreciated
u/Easy_Effort7985 — 6 days ago
▲ 8 r/SignPainting
advice on how much to charge for freelance work
hiii everyone !
so i’ve been doing sign art for the past 5 years now but primarily at Trader Joe’s so I haven’t ventured out into the freelance space. I’m planning on doing a permanent a frame for this vintage pop-up in my neighborhood and am unsure about what a normal amount to charge is? or how i should go about calculating my rates in general. any advice ?
u/somethingsfornow — 13 days ago
▲ 3 r/SignPainting
My colors are off can someone help?
I’m making this sign for my wedding in 2 weeks and I hate how it turned out. The colors are not right but I cannot place it. I’ve purchased a bag of little pine letters and done all sorts of finishes on them and none of them are right. I want the name to pop. Can anyone help?
u/PuppiesandPlants402 — 13 days ago
I built Stencil It to catch floating islands before a stencil gets cut. Could use a reality check.
Anyone who’s cut a letter O, a detailed face, or a complicated multi-layer stencil probably knows this problem:
It looks completely fine on the screen.
Then you cut it… and half the little centers and islands fall out of the sheet.
That was one of the reasons I started building Stencil It.
I’ve tried a bunch of stencil making sites, image converters, Photoshop plugins, etc., and one thing that was annoying was a lot of them feel like stenciling is something they also happen to do, not to mention that many felt too hands off in my opinion.
They’re image editors, effects, plugins, or general design tools that can produce something stencil-like.
I initially built this as a resolution to my frustration lol, and I wanted to build something where stencil making is the entire point.
Something designed around the problems that actually matter when you’re going to cut and paint the thing.
So Stencil It separates an image into layers, analyzes each individual stencil sheet, detects disconnected islands, automatically places bridges to keep them attached, and exports SVG/DXF files along with a suggested paint order.
The core Studio is free to use:
I’ve also been working on the bridging system pretty heavily.
On one original four-layer lettering test, the software detected 33 floating pieces, placed 42 bridges, and reported zero unsupported pieces remaining.
I want to be transparent about that number, though: that’s a digital validation test. I haven’t physically cut that particular sample yet, so I’m not going to pretend that means the material test is already proven.
The larger goal is to make Stencil It think less like an image converter and more like a tool that understands:
“Someone actually has to cut this, keep it together, line the layers up, and paint it.”
And that’s where I’d really like input from people here who actually make stencils.
What do existing stencil tools consistently get wrong or ignore?
Tiny counters?
Bridge placement?
Bridge width?
Registration between layers?
Too many bridges destroying detail?
Paint order?
Handling really complex portraits?
Something I’m not even thinking about yet?
I’m trying to build this specifically for stencil artists, so I'd rather hear what actually annoys people doing the work than just guess what features they want.
And if you like what I’m building and want to help me keep developing it, I also set up a GoFundMe here:
No pressure on that at all — honestly, even trying the Studio and telling me where it screws up is useful.
Stencil It:
https://stencil-it.io/studio
u/Far-Pickle-4179 — 13 days ago
▲ 4 r/SignPainting
Tape recommendation please
People have recommended 3M scotch tape to me in the past, honestly I’m tryna find one for my next painting but there’s so many options for scotch tape Im kinda confused about which one to actually choose?
In my last painting I used 3m 271 tape which was too thick and ripped up the paint from the background so I need something less like that but that I can still use to paint over.
u/dinosaurjunior123 — 13 days ago
▲ 3 r/SignPainting
Anyone use rustoleum paint for glass signs?
Im curious if anyone use rustoleum for sign writing wether it be for reverse glass signs or anything else ? What makes one shot more superior? And if anyone use rustoleum does xylene or penetrol as a reducer to allow more flow?
u/Beautiful_Day3480 — 13 days ago