Painting 12 foot tall letters- how would you do it?

[Gene@mpls]

I don't actually have to do the painting... we have a customer who is a commercial painter. A couple weeks ago we did paint masks that were 8 ft tall and his peeps
had a terrible time with the masks. These are larger yet- you cannot get far enough away to project them. It is a block wall- I am thinking about using them as a
grid system and laying it out that way- maybe with templates for parts of the curves. Anyone have a better idea? Thanks Gene

 

[phototec]

Gene, I think you are on the right track, the concrete blocks are all the exact size and usually the joints are pretty much the same, so I think the grid approach will work fine.


My only suggestion would be to make all the dimensions from a datum point, like any control joints or expansion joints in the wall so that you don't get any cumulative errors if the joints between the blocks vary any.

 

[OldPaint]

if you know an old sign guy.........he could knock this out in no time..........not a hard job with a little smarts. FIND CENTER...........get the higth and length.....in corel you can lay it out up to 150 feet long......150 tall. USE MEASUREMENTS.....CENTER, HALF THAT BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT .....CHALK LINE VERTICAL(get diamension from corel layout) LETTERS...curves........now you need to eyeball these or string compass.....old guys know how to do this....you need to make any letters that rounded top and bottom....TAD TALLER then straight lined letters....its an optical illusion, when done they wont look bigger, but if you dont make em bigger then when done....all rounded letters will appear smaller)))))
your in MINN............. how far from mezzapopa?? MIKE MYERS....could do this job for ya easily
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Meyer-Sign-Painter/253709194689693

 

[visual800]

If this were my job i would make paper pattern with pen. Take to job roll a couple letters out tape to wall. Take exacto knife and cut all corners of letter out and make on wall with sharpie ( you can stritline these later with chalkline) cut all curves with xacto and make with sharpie. Worst part of this job is getting letters on wall.

We buy butcher block paper online cuase its cheapen than pen paper made for plotter. You can waste this stuff.

 

[MikePro]

projector and a paint brush, working late hours.

 

[OldPaint]

LIKE I SAID.......chalk line all the verticals.... and do the layout in corel......TAKE ALL THE LETTER MEASUREMENTS........ simple block letter, 12" rollers....for fill, sponge brushes for cut in...........waste of time with paper/projector.....

 

[StudioSignsInc]

+1 on paper pattern. I haven't done it Visual800's way with the chalklines (sounds straight forward though) so I'd just pounce the pattern and use pounce chalk to get the outlines on the wall. Draw a rectangle around each letter to make them easy to align. And, yes, butch paper is the way to go.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

Forget the paper pattern ideas. Do the math here... 12' tall letters x roughly 115' length + bottom of ampersand = approx. 400' linear (minimum) of 4' paper. Not to mention plotting the image and pouncing time.
Use the 'scaled grid' method on paper. Pen plot a 1-1/2" = 1' (1/2" = 4") scale layout with grid. A 3" = 1' scale is even better. Use a chalk-line to recreate the grid on the wall and chalk or charcoal to draw out the letters on the wall in relation to the grid/paper layout. A three-man seasoned Walldog team can knock it out in a couple days.

 

[Jillbeans]

Considering your location, I would sub it out to one of your local signpainters and let them worry about it.
I'd say a grid would be the best way forward, maybe a pounce pattern for the small stuff.
Love....Jill

 

[Gene@mpls]

Thank you all- also the people who took the time to PM me and make drawings. I just wanted to confirm
that I was on the correct path. I set up a grid system using the 8x16 inch blocks to locate the corners and
pivot points for the curves which works well for most of the letters. Some letters like the ampersand and 'S'
will take a bit more calculation but it will work. There are enough doors/windows/openings so that I can
break this into manageable sections. I am preparing a couple sample letter layouts for the general contractor
to understand what we are proposing. Gene

When the forum works... it works well. And I love Flexi- setting up projects of this size to actual scale.

 

[Jillbeans]

....remember that round letters are always a little bigger than straight ones.

 

[Baz]

Forget the paper pattern ideas. Do the math here... 12' tall letters x roughly 115' length + bottom of ampersand = approx. 400' linear (minimum) of 4' paper. Not to mention plotting the image and pouncing time.
Use the 'scaled grid' method on paper. Pen plot a 1-1/2" = 1' (1/2" = 4") scale layout with grid. A 3" = 1' scale is even better. Use a chalk-line to recreate the grid on the wall and chalk or charcoal to draw out the letters on the wall in relation to the grid/paper layout. A three-man seasoned Walldog team can knock it out in a couple days.

This!!!

Grid method is the way to go. Super easy to follow.

When i started in 1988 - The first job i was put on was to help hand letter a banner 64'x32' on a modified 6'x32' table. This had multiple text lines and a cartoon character. Never saw the whole layout/production job we did but i did hear that it looked great after it was installed.

 

[TheSnowman]

Sounds like you've already got the plan, but the projector method is pretty easy too, if you can do it in the dark. Works well for us on bigger stuff.

 

[Techman]

Forget the paper pattern ideas. Do the math here.

+1
Right. A 12 ft tall paper mask is just plain difficult. No need to paper mask something this big. As said above many times.. Grid is the way to go.