Popular Science Monthly 



465 



Some Short Guts to Hasten Work 

 in Sign Painting 



THE prime factor in getting out sign 

 work is speed. The expert who is 

 not speedy is not in it. His work may not 

 be perfect, but this is not so much con- 

 sidered if he can hustle it out. There is 

 great competition in this art, or business, 

 and I have known of one of the finest and 

 oldest established shops going under be- 



Fig. 1. A scale sketch of letters to be made 

 one foot or more in height from original 



cause it could not attain the quick gait. 

 Nor could it come down to doing such 

 work as present day requirements demand. 

 All this being true, it is surprising that 

 so many will take the longest and most 

 laborious way of doing certain kinds of 

 sign work, that can be done in a far better 

 way. Some think that the expert sign 

 painter has merely to take a survey of the 

 job before him and form in his mind's eye 

 the whole lay-out, without bothering with 

 calculations or measurements. It is doubt- 

 ful if any sign painter now living could do 

 this. It is perfectly proper to train the eye 

 for this work, for that will enable the work- 

 man often to do certain work without 

 taking time to measure or lay it off ac- 

 curately. A large portion of sign work is 

 done in this way. But he should not rely 

 too much upon the eye alone. For certain 

 large sign work, the "scale sketch" is the 

 thing. It enables one to get all the letters 

 right as to form and space; otherwise there 

 would be some trouble at the end of a line, 



■8R» W 



Fig. 2. Dividing lines in which an enlarged 

 layout can be made by measurement 



say, where letters would either have to be 

 cramped or extended. 



Perhaps the most convenient scale is 

 that of i in. to I ft., giving eight 

 eighths of I in., thus representing I ft. or 

 12 in. In Fig. I is shown a 12-in. letter 

 in this scale. With this scale you get the 



proper widths of both vertical and hori- 

 zontal strokes, and this will be found a 

 great advantage when the lettering is from 

 2 to 5 ft. in height. 



The scale sketch is particularly useful 

 when the sign work is high above the 

 ground, and must be done from a scaffold 

 or ladder; still more especially where the 

 lettering takes a line so long that the swing 

 stage must be moved once or more. Or 

 when done from a ladder which must be 

 moved several times. You simply take the 

 sketch up with you, and set out the letters. 

 Of course, the surface that is to be lettered 

 must be measured and laid off in spaces 

 the size the letters are to be when finished. 

 Then it is simply a matter of reproducing 

 the letters from the scale sketch to the 

 wall. And with two or more copies, two or 

 more painters can work on the letters, each 

 with a certain part of the work to do. Or 

 the workman may begin at the end, or in 

 the middle, anywhere, sure that the work 

 will be perfect. 



This laying out of a sign at an altitude 

 may be done where possible by counting 

 the rows of bricks, four to the foot, or if 

 there are no bricks, the width of the sign 

 can be had by measuring along the base 



Fig. 3. Large elliptical curves may be drawn 

 by angular lines, then jdrawn in freehand 



of the building, this for making the scale 

 sketch. The width may be laid off on the 

 wall with the rule. 



The illustration Fig. 2 is not drawn to a 

 scale, but is intended to show, by its 

 dividing lines, how a man working from a 

 ladder could set out and paint in the 

 letters as he goes along, always measuring 

 from the last upright on the sketch. Get 

 the dimensions as previously suggested, 

 from the ground, etc. The upright lines 

 serve as a guide and the lettering is fancy, 

 not standard. This is a very easy and 

 quick method of lettering, and gives a 

 good appearing sign, too. 



Large sweeps or elliptical curves are dif- 

 ficult to form from ladder or stage. An 

 easy way to form such sweeps, as they are 

 called by the workmen, is shown in Fig. 3. 

 The sketch explains itself very clearly. 



