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La Bajada Hill, recreating a lost 100 year old sign

tsgstl

New Member
I was fortunate enough to get to recreate a long lost 100 year old Route 66 sign outside of Albuquerque New Mexico.


I am not a sign painter, honestly I have never hand painted a sign. The customer whom I have done other sign work for, is also a loose acquaintance. He is a friend of mine on Facebook. Earlier this year I was asked to paint some (ultra realistic) portraits for an art show. I posted them on Facebook as I finished. The client saw these and asked if I would be interested in this project.... So I agreed.


This client is a very serious Route 66 enthusiast. I knew there were people like this but I never gave much thought into how devoted they are.


......


Now that this project is completed it has taken on a life of its own. He wants 66 2'x3' duplicates made for sale (which I made a thread here for sources) And this morning I woke up to a link where you can buy shirts of it.


The client lives here in St. Louis. He commissioned me to make the sign then he welded a indestructible frame so it couldn't be stolen. He then drove over 1,000 Miles to erect it (23 bags of concrete) and then drove home.


....


The sign itself was fun. I didn't enjoy the prep. I wasn't anticipating how long it would be until I could actually get started painting the fun stuff. I also wussed out on hand lettering the text. I stenciled it. I had spent so much time on the back I wasn't confident enough to possibly have to cover it up and redu the weathered yellows for the background. It was also a challenge to paint with One Shot. I have only painted with oils. I also wanted to change the skull. It is hard to tell from the photo if it had teeth or not, so I added my own style for them but besides that I knew I was hired to recreate the original.


This is a video of my part of the project

[video=youtube_share;kNBz2ieBgEI]http://youtu.be/kNBz2ieBgEI[/video]
 

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tsgstl

New Member
Thanks guys, I thought some might get a "kick" out of this (pun intended). It's a nice change from the everyday ho-hum sign job.

And thanks for the replies from the other thread. FireSprint had by far the best prices and prompt response
 

tsgstl

New Member
That's what we were hoping for. We were originally going to duplicate the war wounds but..... 1. the steel was too thick 2. I just couldn't come to defacing it after I worked so hard on it.
 
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