Posters & Showcards: Brushwork

[Pat Byrne]

more brushwork

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[Pat Byrne]

Some dayglo posters, all done with one stroke brushes with two guide lines for height

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[Pat Byrne]

more showcards, using Plaka Paint and bullet point marker for lines and small copy. Finding it harder to get supplies of Plaka as the demand is slowly drying up. At one stage I was using up to 10 x 500ml. tins a month
now I decant small quantities of paint into 50ml. jars to keep tin fresh.

Anyone else doing one stroke lettering ?
Pat

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[Martin Cole]

Good Stuff Pat!
Looking at your bench there, with all the cards on, in my old place every
sq inch of space used to be used up with tickets and posters waiting to
dry.

There used to be good money in that work, used to charge a pound for a
written 300mm sq ticket they used to take about 1-2 minutes to do.
Saying that the fireworks poster took about 8 minutes and charged
a tenner.

Ah well! back to sticking vinyl on plastic.

[Pat Byrne]

Yes Martin, , could make some good money in the past, all what was needed was bench, few rolls of paper/card and paint. No looking for vectors/fonts and everything else .
If a mistake was made, tear it up and start again, no big loss
Pat
Ahh! the good old days…..cue the music for the Hovis ad 😛

[Carrie Brown]

Nice work Pat …. you must have steady hands and quite a bit of patience. They look great!!!

😀

ps. by the way I split your stuff into a separate thread as you can now see.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Wow these are nice.
Fun to make and fun to look at, and even funner when you get paid!
I love work like this.
Good job, and great to see more brush work around here.
Carrie, it doesn’t take a steady hand, really.
The brush does the work, and the more you let it do its thing, the bouncier your lettering!
Nice marker and dry brush accents too.
Love…Jill

[Leigh]

Only wish I had that kind of talent!
Nice work – didn’t know part of that was called “dry brush work” until Jill noted it. It’s the first thing that caught my eye
very nice

Leigh

[Stevo Chartrand]

Nice stuff!!!!!

Always refreshing to see some nice hand painted work around here!

Stevo

[Alan Cooper]

Yes nice work Pat.

Like you I used to hand write posters and showcards as well as vinyl banners using vinyl inks. At one time there were 3 of us turning out this sort of work all day long – as you say “The good old days”

P.S I hope those beer prices are in euros and not pounds!!

Alan

[Martin Pearson]

Nice work Pat, I have to confess that I am one of the people working in vinyl only that has contributed to this sort of work dying out.

The worst thing I think are home PCs, I see so much rubbish in shop windows that the owner designed (not) and printed on his desktop printed, stuck in the window with 1/2 mile of selotape!!!

[John Singh]

Great to see Pat
Luvly stuff

I have done a few posters and tickets for shops but that was sometime ago now. My one stroke brushes are now being used for things they were not intended for – sad really!

I’ve had the odd calligraphy job as well
Oh and of course marking up wine bar chalkboards with these new water based pens – all a bit of fun

But your work is a pleasure to see

[Pat Byrne]

Hi John,
My one stroke brushes are long overdue for replacing, Can’t remember when I last bought some, must check if shop still stocks them.
When I started out in Dublin there was at least 12 guys/shops making a living from posters/ banners, now I think there is only one shop that is still turning them out.
As I’ve already said, I might not get poster work for weeks on end and then a lot comes in
The biggest hand lettered dayglo banners I ever did were 120 to 150 feet x 5 feet,( full 50 yd. roll) did quite a few of them, needless to say I never got to see them as a complete sign as they were installed in a wholesalers in Cork. I was working off a 24 foot bench and they were painted a few letters at a time ( letter height 24 inch in two rows) Drew up 24” templates for caps/lc Helvetica and it was only a matter of working out postion, was only ever a few inches out . Client was happy with them as I got a few repeat orders and were real good money spinners at the time.
Ahh…..Things were a lot simplier then.
Pat

[David Rowland]

very good Pat, I just don’t know where to start in brush strokes.. I actually wish I had an oportunity to do Art at school but I applied late and ended up doing Geography.. shame, would have come in handy by now.

[A Misselbrook]

john, where can you get the pens you mentioned for chalkboards? would you have to get them from somewhere like Handovers?? I thought I’d have a little go at a chalkboard. Ive always used one shot poster paints for the posters that Ive done in the past, how do the plaka paints compare?? 😎

[Pat Byrne]

Plaka paints can be mixed with water ,but dries to a velvety waterproof finish. Very durable outdoors, have seen outdoor posters where the weather has taken washed away the paper and left the lettering ( sometimes they last too long…no repeats)
Have used one shot in the past but can’t remember if it needs to be mixed with water or spirits. I found that for very small lettering ( inch or smaller) Plaka is easier to work with than one shot.
The only problem with Plaka is sourcing a supply.
Pat

[Martin Cole]

Hi Pat
One Shot is oil based.
I used to prefer Plaka, the disadvantage though
is it used to bubble the paper up if mixed to waterey. But the work I
did ie, tickets I prefer ed it watered down more, better for very fast
one stroke work but not so good for block lettering, here I would
thicken the paint much more.

I remember One Shot used to dry quicker though.

I can’t remember where I used to buy Plaka from, obviously dying out
as you say Pat, can you not still buy the little jars in art shops, saying
that I can’t recall seeing any.

50ft long poster, that’s a beast!! How did they fit it, did they paste it on?

[Pat Byrne]

Martin,
Unless one shot is mixed correctly, when you start to letter, the spirits can flood the paper and leave a stain
As far as I can remember they used staples to fix the banners.
I buy what I need now in Paris, where I go as often as I can….great excuse to visit my favourite city :lol1: .
One shop carries a great selection of colours , both in 500ml. tubs and small jars and a lot cheaper than what I paid here in Ireland.
Pat

[justchalkboards]

quote aj:

john, where can you get the pens you mentioned for chalkboards? would you have to get them from somewhere like Handovers?? I thought I’d have a little go at a chalkboard. Ive always used one shot poster paints for the posters that Ive done in the past, how do the plaka paints compare?? 😎

Nearly a year out of date but the pens i use are Zig posterman markers. they come in wet-wipe, semi-permanent, and flourescent wet-wipe and are the standard for chalkboard signwriting.

if you want to have a play the cheapest stockist ive found is http://www.stuartsco.com.

Alternatively Poska chalk markers, i think, are better although much harder to source.

regards
Aaran

[justchalkboards]

quote Pat Byrne:

Here is some of the stuff I did yesterday, like Martin I would spend at least three full days a week doing dayglo posters and showcards.
Now its all either vinyl or digital but still get to keep my hand in.
I was working when I read Martins first post and took a pic to show how showcard was started
On this card I cut vinyl for logo
Pat

Hi Pat,
I currently signwrite chalkboards for pubs, bars etc all over the country. For ages now i have wanted to get into poster signwriting as all the travelling is starting to get me down and i would eventually like to work from a workshop or even home. Unfortunately i dont know where to start.

Who would i approach as potential customers and what sort of prices should i be charging?

sorry for picking your brains and cheers in advance
Aaran

[Pat Byrne]

Hi Aaran,
Can’t really advise you on pricing as costs here are a lot different. As already said in previous posts, sourcing materials/ Paint/ Day-Glo paper etc. is getting harder because the demand isn’t there anymore.
Digital and vinyl costs are coming down and thats what most clients want. For example, in the past,many of the supermarkets I work for very happy with hand brushed posters/showcards/banners/POS but now they want
images of promotional products included on all POS.
If you decide to get into brushwork,my one piece of advise is to make sure you have a long bench with plenty of flat drying space.
If you intend doing posters with markers etc. the finish will not be with a lot of see-through and on large letters you will see the overlay of colour and some clients might question the cost ( the usual response is " they are only markers… I could do that")
Only yesterday, one of my long standing clients who got banners/posters on a very regular basis has decided to switch to digi prints and window displays in vinyl ( which suits me)
Sorry to be so negative, but thats the way it is here in Ireland.
Pat

[Nicola McIntosh]

i missed this one 😕

anyway really nice work pat 😀
sure brings back many memories…. ed did mention the other day, the poster days were the best he ever had 😉

nik

[Harry Cleary]

Brilliant work Pat, thanks for posting it, reminds me of my dads workshop full of drying posters and show cards for the local cinema, (people used ring our house to find out what was coming to the cinema 😀 ).
Every time I turn on my cutter I regret the passing of this skill. But it’s called progress…..right? 😀 😀

[Bernardo Maldonado]

Very beautifull work! I really like the spontaneity of brushwork and showcards!!! Beautiful!

bernardo maldonado

[Cabrera]

Great stuff you got there Pat! is nice still seeing someone do this kind of work. 😛