Today, in between other tasks we started in on the painting of the Laughing Tortoise Beer sign. First up was the base colors. The greens were Modern Masters Metallics, while the tan colors were General Paint 100% acrylic house paints. Everything was double coated. A shop fan speeded up the drying process.
A light brown was the first glaze. It was applied over the tortoise and around the edges of the scroll. As I brushed it on I followed with a soft towel and dabbed it off to blend it to the base color. The glaze remained full strength in the cracks and low areas and on the edges of the scroll. We make our glazes by using 50% clear base paints (without any added pigment) mixed in with 50% of normal paint. Both the clear base and paints are General Paint 100% acrylic exterior house paint.
The next glaze was a dark, dirty blue we call blue jeans. It was applied over the green areas of the sign and toweled off carefully. Once I had finished going over all the areas I went back and second coated the ridges around the letters. This will make the painted letters jump on the final sign.
There's still some green glaze to come on the tortoise before a final dark glaze before the gold on the letters. Stay tuned...
-dan
