Making the most of the weather

With wonderful spring-like days last weekend I decided it was time to try out my sign-writing skills I acquired at the training weekend I attended last September. The course was tutored by Meg of Scribe Signwriting and I found it made me confident enough to ‘have a go’ on Jannock. OK I was not going to be starting a completely blank panel with all the setting out techniques that we learnt, I just had to go over what was already, albeit fading fast, there.

I started off by over-coating the grey lettering on the side name panel. I used the Masons Corfe Grey that Jannock’s roof is done in and added plenty of One-shot reducer to make it flow better. This coupled with a long chisel ended sable brush made it quite easy to follow the edges of the existing lettering and then fill in the middle. Once the lettering had dried I used Masons Mercedes Red to create the shadowing and also re-paint the panel border.

When I had finished the panel looked like this. Much better than the weather worn panel I started with. Full of confidence and time to spare whilst I waited for the various coats of paint to dry, I decided to have a go at the bow name panel as well – both sides!

I painted the name first and then re-did the white back ground around the letters. A slightly tedious approach but it meant I could re-do the back ground without having to re-do all of the  lettering from scratch. I got so involve that I ran out of time and had to return again on Sunday to complete the task. It was more difficult doing the off-side panel by hanging over the top of the gas locker and painting upside down but the finished item looks as good as the bank-side one.

I have taken the day off work tomorrow in order to push the boat across to the towpath and complete the job by re-painting the starboard rear name panel.

Graham

www.jannock.org.uk