Personal Professional Practice

I emailed Dave Smith to ask him about my dissertation, but unfortunately he was far too busy at the time. Luckily enough, however, he told me to ring him a few weeks later for a general chat about sign writing and for some really useful tips!

So I rang him up one evening and we talked shop. I made sure I had a pen to hand and quickly scribbled down loads of tips from him:

About his workshop:
He holds workshops every month.
5 day workshops: £3000
3 day workshops: £2400
1 day workshop: £1000
£100 deposit.
Bring your own leaf, but are taught all the techniques like acid etching, what brushes to use, etc...

Hotels nearby are £25 a night.

Tips from Dave:
Do loads of pencil sketches and study letterforms closely and continuously to get better. Try tracing over fonts and drawing letters to study them. Do A to Z over and over and over.

Try using quill brushes.
Buy yourself a mall stick to help with keeping a steady hand and not smudging your work. Also start painting upright, it will help with your work loads!

Send over some photos of signage in Leeds whenever you want - always interested in seeing what you're up to.

Have a look at Johanna Dawson - she learnt under Dave and now does signage and glass work for Disney.

Buy some Lefranc oil size. It's a 3 hour drying size and will work much better.
   - Brush the size all over with will brush in clear area. Make sure you keep it thin. Let it tack off for a few hours and check with your finger on a corner of the side. You want it to be squeaky when you lift your finger up!

Make sure you leave your guild overnight and burnish it the next day. Then use a metallic gold enamel to back up your work. This will help to hide any imperfections in the guild.

Buy some Nazdar black enamel for the outlines. Mix this with 10% one shot hardener to stop the enamel from coming off the glass. You could even try using some fine wire wool to key the glass down before applying enamel - this will create grooves for the paint to cause friction against for grip and stop it from sliding on the glass.

Conclusion
I found this phone call with Dave hugely inspiring and really helpful. Although I won't be able to attend any of his workshops for a long time due to the expense, he was really kind and offered to crit my work or give me tips whenever I want!! But in the meantime all of his tips were really useful and should hopefully help with work in the future!