By signcraft
Posted on Tuesday, September 21st, 2021
In years past, many artists found their way into the sign business because painting signs was a practical application of their art and design skills. They often put their art skills to work for the client by adding illustrations or pictorials to their signs. A pictorial can add a lot of appeal to a sign and make it a more unique piece of advertising than just “letters on a board.”
Tim Peterson [Flat Earth Art Co., Spearfish, South Dakota] has used this approach throughout his sign career. He learned early on that pictorials can also set your work apart and give you something unique to sell. It’s a big hook to both the viewer and the customer. He went on to become both an award-winning artist and sign designer.
“I like to include an original illustration on my signs when it’s appropriate,” he says. “I’m a strong believer in using images instead of just letters on a board. A pictorial immediately makes a sign more interesting. It also gives me the opportunity to throw in a bunch of colors that accent the rest of the sign. I tailor the colors of the pictorial to complement the sign that is around it.”
Designing the pictorial
Usually Tim creates a pictorial that has the look that he’s after for the sign. It relates to the business and helps create a unique feel.
If it’s a basic landscape pictorial, he has painted so many that he can usually just create one off the top of his head. Other times he uses a reference image as a place to start for his pictorial. He has an extensive morgue file or sometimes finds an image online.
He begins by drawing the image on the substrate with a graphic pencil or grease pencil, depending on the background color. He either draws that freehand or uses a reference photo. Other times he projects an image onto the panel and draws it.
“The classic National Parks posters are a good source of landscapes that have been posterized,” says Tim. “They were broken down into colors for the print process so they’re very graphic and have a lot of impact. I have a couple of books of those. Sometimes I just use a section of one of those images as my entire pictorial. Many of these are in the public domain and not copyrighted, so check that before using them.
“Images that are not in the public domain are subject to protection from theft by copyright laws and rightfully so. When I use a pictorial image for reference, I always make alterations to the pictorial. I will only reproduce an image accurately if I have permission.”
Tim says that if you don’t have confidence in your drawing skills, find a printed image that you like and project it onto the panel with an opaque projector. Draw the image on the panel then paint it. If you’re doing two sides of a sign, you can make a pattern if you prefer. “Anyone can do pictorials like this,” he says, “you just need to make up your mind that you want to do it.”
Ready for paint
Tim begins by scuffing the finish of the panel with a Scotchbrite pad. This gives some “tooth” to the surface and improves adhesion.
Once the drawing is roughed in on the panel, it’s time to start painting. Tim uses 1Shot enamels with 1Shot hardener added. He finds the hardener improves durability. For brushes, he has a full set of Mike Lavallee Pictorial Series brushes from Andrew Mack. They have synthetic hair, and Tim says they are stiffer than a lettering quill. Other times he uses the airbrush to do the illustration—often to create the look of an antique sepia tone photograph on the sign.
Tim then begins applying his colors working from background to foreground and top to bottom. When complete, he lets the pictorial dry thoroughly. The pictorials are usually part of a flat sign panel, so he clear coats the panel with automotive clear.
“If the work needs to look like a studio-type painting, I start by applying a coat of Smith’s Cream,” he says, “which is a wonderful additive that makes your lettering enamel behave like artists oil paints. They slip and slide and blend easily. It’s semi-transparent so it doesn’t hide your layout lines. It stays open for five or six hours depending on temperature and humidity. The downside is that it greatly slows drying and makes clear coating impractical.
“When you start applying your 1Shot, though, you have to work quickly as it will flash over rather quickly. It gets sticky and won’t blend like it should. You can’t re-do areas unless you let them dry completely and reapply the Smith’s Cream and start over.”
Clear coat for UV protection
Once dry, Tim scuffs the panel with 1500-grit sandpaper or a white Scotchbrite pad to improve the clear’s adhesion. Since the paint in some areas of the pictorial can be quite thin, be very careful while scuffing. Of course you can’t scuff an airbrush panel at all.
“I do the clear coating right out in my shop,” he says, “so sometimes the clear may pick up a little dust. I don’t worry about that because the signs are usually seen from a distance. It’s really just to increase the durability.
“If a body shop or someone else is doing the clear coat, I explain that they have to dust the first coat on then leave it until that coat is dry to the touch. That’s usually about a half an hour. Then they can follow with a couple heavier coats. But if you put the first coat on full and wet, the automotive clear may cause the 1Shot to lift. Don’t use hot reducers or aggressive hardeners in the clear, either.
“The Lavallee brushes tend to apply the paint a little heavier in some areas, which can be a problem sometimes when you clear over it. The paint needs to be completely dry, even in the heavy areas, when you clear coat.
“1Shot Hardeners make the enamel chemically compatible with the automotive clear enamels. A lacquer-based clear, though, will destroy any enamel finish and is to be avoided.”
A unique look
Tim says many people don’t realize that the pictorials are hand painted. In our age of computerized everything, they sometimes assume that he just grabbed a piece of clip art online. But if they look closely, they can see that the illustrations on each side of a sign aren’t identical. They’re similar, but Tim painted them independently so they’re always a little different. The result is a unique pictorial that adds visual appeal to the sign.
“It’s something they can’t get anywhere else,” Tim says. “There aren’t many people who still paint pictorials like this. I’m one of the last ones still standing that does this on their signs. It’s what I do—my background is in fine art, my degree is in fine art. I entered the trade with that already in my holster.”
Here’s the finished pictorial before it was mounted on the Bender Park sign.
This pictorial was airbrushed from reference photo.
The portrait was airbrushed from a photo reference. Tim did the pictorials for the two sides simultaneously to minimize the changes of colors and equipment.
The sepia tone effect gives this airbrushed illustration the look of a period piece.
“The city contracted with a company to create these murals as bas relief sculptures in the brick,” Tim says, “with no color. They were very costly, but you couldn’t read them or easily tell what they were. The city was frustrated that they weren’t legible, so they added some highlights and lowlights with paint to create shadows, but it turned into a mess.
“They hired me to do one in color to see what it would look like. I scrubbed the brick down and put on a coat of Chromatic Acrylic High Build Primer then painted it with 1Shot enamels with hardener added. They liked the result and had me do the remaining five murals.
“Most were along highways. Once they were painted, some became traffic issues because people would stop on the road and get out to take a photo with the mural. The city ended up hiring a landscape architect to design parking areas near some of the murals to accommodate the tourists.
“They were fun. I even gilded the nugget in the miner’s pan. I felt bad about painting over the original artist’s work, but the city wanted the murals to be more visible.
“I intentionally painted them with maximum impact both color-wise and value-wise, darks and lights. I treated them similar to my sign work to make them pop and project. They’ve been up for about nine years and they are holding up well.”
