Sign painting 101: Lettering tips & tricks

Learning how to make your own artwork shouldn't be scary. If you love hand painted signs, I'm here to help you get over the jitters and pick up that paint brush to make your very own signs for pennies compared to those interior designed catalogs like Pottery Barn. So... let's learn some tricks and tips on how to paint signs!

First things first, I always use an outline. I do it by tracing the outside edges of the letters through carbon paper onto the wood. As you can see, mine is NEVER perfect – I straighten it all up with the paint.

For fine fonts like this one above – I used a Liner #1 so that I can get into the corners.

I dip my brush into my paint straight up and straight back out. In my mind it keeps the bristles in the right place (‘course it might just be me…)

M’kay… lemme see if I can explain without going in circles. If there is a sharp angle, like the top one (with the blue arrows), I swipe my brush from the corner in, then from the corner up, and from the corner across. Then I use my brush like a magic marker and swoop around the loop.

On the bottom part, I go from the corners in on each side, connect the corners with another swipe, then swoop around the edges. The swiping in from the corners helps to keep them crisp.

  I use straight strokes to do the straight lines, one beside the next to fill it in and barely overlap the carbon paper lines.

Don’t be afraid to turn the sign to whatever angle you need to get those swoops in the right direction. I always think it’s easier to stroke towards me, almost like writing.

No matter if I’m doing big, chunky fonts or thin precise ones, these tricks always help me keep the corners clean and lines crisp. I hope some of these ideas helps you, too :)

Want more tips? Be sure to see the other posts in this series:

Pick the perfect brush with tips in the Sign Painting 101: Brushes

Choose the perfect paint with tips in the Sign Painting 101: Picking Paint