Beautiful sign, type i would like to learn how to paint. Could you give a quick tutorial on how you painted the sign
thanks
don
Thanks, once the sign is routed and depending on its size, it must be sanded a bit and air blown to get all the grit off of it. We then either brush and/or spray two good coats of a water based primer filler made by Coastal Enterprises which manufactures SignFoam brand HDU. The material is super porous, so the smoother the desired surface, the more sanding and coats of primer needed. I've cut a sample piece after painting to see how far the primer and paint soaks in and its between 1/16" and 1/8" saturated. That creates a really good bond with the foam, IMO superior to wood. The foam and paint will expand and contract in unison unlike wood and the wrong types of paint. I've seen thousands of sandblasted wood signs painted with hard enamel paints like 1Shot and all eventually swell and fail. Wood needs to breathe, so solid color stains are my first choice when using wood as a substrate.
Once it was fully primed, we did three coats of the burgundy background using a high quality, 100% acrylic exterior enamel. After that we started applying the gold paint. We use Modern Masters brand for any metallics we use when using acrylic paints. The center address panel and numbers were made separately for added depth, so we painted the individual white numbers and the panel itself then glued them together. The area where that panel was adhered to was routed flat 1/8" into the surface, so the whole address "module" was glued into place after painting.
It all depends on the desired look and setting its going in. You also aren't limited to routing or sandblasting this stuff either. you can hand carve it, distress it, machine it with grinders, Dremel tools, etc. Whatever your imagination can come up with. We are hardly experts with it either. There are some really fantastic craftspeople and colleagues in our area and we're just trying to do them and ourselves proud on every job we get.
You can use automotive paints, lacquers, stains, glazes, etc. on this stuff. The May/June issue of Signcraft magazine has a whole article chocked full of resources on finishing routed and blasted signs.
The HDU comes in different densities, so if you want a real tight, slick surface aesthetic, you use the highest density material and harder coatings like automotive paints, etc.
The technique for painting this type of sign comes mostly from practice. Its not like "lettering" something in the slightest. We typically lay the sign flat and brush most of the details with the flat brushes laid on their edge in a dabbing motion being careful not to slip over the front plane. If there are separate elements, we'll break out the spray gun and shoot them so the depths or "returns" are the same color as the faces like the white numbers on this sign. We then assemble it all after painting with low foam polyurethane glue.
After 35 years of being a signmaker, starting as a strictly hand painted billboard and commercial signpainter, I'm a great painter in general and an accomplished artist away from the shop, but my wife is the one who paints nearly all of our routed signs now. She works full time at the shop. She has a knack for it and I get interrupted too many times a day to fully concentrate on what I'm doing. I'll help her by blasting on the background colors or primer, but she handles most of the finish and detail work. She and I collaborate on a lot of the design ideas, but I do most of the design work to present to the clients and work from. Here is a real detail pig she did a few months ago. That sign is only 36"x36".