Friday, December 3, 2010

Peeling Paint Letters

Note how the letter shapes of “SELLES sur CHER” alter as the thin blue material shrinks.


Starting with the small peninsula-shapes, it delaminates and curls back. There’s a faint line remaining at the original boundaries of the letters. It would be fun to design a type face using this idea.

5 comments:

David Glenn said...

It would be cool.

Anonymous said...

Even Gurney deserves a day off from blogging once and a while... :)

billspaintingmn said...

Actually that is not paint, but a reverse vinyl cut sign.
What probably happened was it has gone past its longevity.
As the adhesive lets go, and the vinyl shrinks back, somethings got to give.(direct sunlight can speed up this process)
Sometimes the adhesive stays strong
and the vinyl srinks. In colder climates, the vinyl cracks. That can look cool too!
A new font is born!

Moish said...

Thank you for this profound post!
The lesson here is powerful. Real art starts in the mind. Before all the technique there is how the artist is looking/perceiving. James, you are on your game.
This post should be the introduction to one of your books.

James Gurney said...

Thanks, Moish. I'm always noticing weird little details, but I suppose every artist is the same, but maybe everyone notices slightly different things--which is why I love looking at other people's sketchbooks and paintings.

Bill, you're right, it's a vinyl layer lifting up. I used to work in a sign shop with positive vinyl letters, but never the reverse kind and never used it outdoors.

Miniatures--I know what you mean--I've been signing a lot of books lately, so I'm doing a few relatively light posts here and there.