I used to have a rather successful graphic arts business in my younger years and I have no idea how many signs I hand-lettered. I've painted showcards (my favourite), vehicles and even enormous artsy murals on the sides of buildings. But one of the most unusual things I was hired to paint was a huge blimp in the shape of a killer whale. When you're looking at a blimp from the ground and it's hundreds of feet in the air, it doesn't seem so big. However, when it's sitting on the ground and the whole thing is completely white, the size overwhelming, it's a different story. I had two professional sign painters working for me then and the three of us stood in awe as we gazed at this massive blown up vinyl-shaped orca, even larger than the actual whale. Where does one start...well...I sharpened up my blue Stabillo pencil that writes on basically any material and with the aid of ladders, I simply eye-balled the thing and drew in the distinctive markings of a killer whale. Then, brushes and rollers in hand we went to work. When the job was completed, it was difficult to tell if we had really done a good job because it was mainly a series of huge black and white shapes but when Ruthy the Rutherford Whale was floating in the air, she looked like a killer whale.
I once painted a huge pictorial on a hotel brick wall that was 40' feet off the ground. It wasn't that difficult to paint once I had basically drawn it out. I painted the wall with the use of a scaffold that was on wheels, which was a little difficult to move around. However, since there always seemed to be someone gazing up and watching the procedure, I could usually entice a bystander to give me a hand moving it around. When the job was finished and it was time to take the scaffold apart, since it could be somewhat dangerous, I decided to hire someone to help me. Since the street was busy with pedestrians, I noticed this young guy who was sort of be-bopping along the sidewalk. When I caught up to him and came alongside of him I tapped him on the shoulder. Well...did that guy ever jump and when I looked into his eyes, I could see that he was sort of high on something. Not to be deterred, I offered him ten bucks to help me dismantle the scaffold, his response being, "Hey man. Yeah, I can do that." Before I knew it, he was scampering up the scaffold like a monkey. As I followed behind him, being a lot more careful to what I was grabbing onto and standing on, I was beginning to regret my choice. This guy was definitely on some kind of drug because when I arrived at the last stage of the scaffold, he was standing on the very top rung of the steel rods holding it together and seemed to be still trying to climb higher, his fingers holding onto the indentations of the brick mortar. Why he never fell is beyond me and I didn't breathe easy again until we both had our feet on the ground. No doubt about it, he was definitely wrecked and I was a wreck by the end of it all.
The world of the computer has basically taken over the hand-lettered signs and as unbelievable as it seems now, I have become a dinosaur in my own time. However, although sign painting is basically a hobby for me these days, there are still people around who appreciate the talent it takes to dip a brush into a pot of paint and actually hand-letter a sign. So, if any of you readers, if you managed to read this far, would like a hand-lettered sign or even a poem done in calligraphy (used to teach calligraphy), just message me or check out the sign listing at our Etsy store.
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