These workshops with the globe-trotting Mike Meyer offer a crash course in the essentials of sign painting and gilding, with fun, lettering and laughs throughout.
They are suitable for complete beginners, and those with previous experience, with Mike providing one-to-one input throughout. We have a number of flexible booking options so that you can select the days that are most relevant to your learning goals and budget.
The first two days are focussed on setting out and painting Gothic (Block), Casual and Script letter forms through a hands-on process of practise, personal critique and expert guidance. It all starts with a pencil, drawing and developing an understanding of the basic letter forms. These then form the basis for building your brush skills, with input on paint, brushes and other specialist equipment used to paint letters.
With the basics under control, the next two days allow you to develop a range of techniques to add a little something extra to your painted letters. Mike will guide you through a variety of lettering effects, including: basic shadows; outlines; bevels; convex and concave lettering; masks; cut and roll fades. The aim is to accelerate your ability to create more distinctive lettering for all sorts of purposes.
The last two days provide a chance to expand your skills by introducing the basics of gold leaf gilding for lettering and signs. Working on a number of parallel projects you’ll be exposed to techniques for gilding on glass and flat surfaces, with everything at a basic level to keep it simple and get you going with gold. You’ll be creating matt and shiny effects on glass, and experimenting with different burnishing techniques while receiving input on materials, preparation (including cleaning glass), making size, laying gold, burnishing, and backing up.
The workshop is designed for those new to gilding, or with a little previous experience working with gold leaf. You should have some basic signwriting brush skills, which you’ll pick up by taking the lettering/effects workshops beforehand. The class size will be kept small to allow plenty of individual support, and all participants will take away their work on pre-designed panels and glass pieces.
Find a more detailed illustrated breakdown of the lettering and lettering effects syllabus on this blog post, and keep in touch with updates via the dedicated Facebook event.