I have been doing some form of masking off paint on panels for as long as I’ve made signs. Generally that is because I’ve wanted to achieve durable custom colors with crisp precision. Of course, many types of printers have made some of what I’ve learned obsolete, but I still find uses for a few of the techniques. Occasionally masking can solve a sign painting conundrum that can’t feasibly be done any other way. Other times mask techniques have helped me create more artistic gilded signs because I can do them quickly and accurately and they’ve become more dependable to execute. Every one of these “easy” projects I’m going to show weren’t much fun the first few times around. This month I’ll focus on some of the tips and tricks that have made this type of first surface work more reliable and interesting for me, so that hopefully others can give them a try without too many headaches.

 

Bleed Coat Masking

Paint mask vinyl needs a good seal to get a crisp result, which isn’t usually possible on porous or matte surfaces. The paint will always bleed under the vinyl and look like failed mask work. The answer is to intentionally bleed a color similar to the background that will not show as it fills in the voids.	Once the mask is removed, the final layer of color should be perfect even using flat house paint as a top coat, which I used for this faux finish sign.
The trick is to use one or two coats as the bleed layer. This technique works well on odd surfaces such as awning fabric or relatively smooth wood surfaces. A bleed coat of varnish on wood will completely disappear if the background is varnish, or if a top coat is applied to the whole piece at the end. For awning fabric, a clear coat can be used when there is no color paint that would be suitable.	The world famous design firm BBDO was very particular and originally wanted their logo silk-screened on the wall. I was stumped by the request until I discovered that the original wall paint was available for use. I pre-bled the mask with two coats of their flat latex wall color before painting on oil enamel. The result was similar to silk-screen quality.

 

 

 

 

 

Surface Metal Leaf

This sign was my original experiment with applying 23k gold leaf through a mask. The art is very fine, and I was sure I couldn’t do it the traditional hand lettered way so I opted to use a mask. I sized and gilded all of the graphics and then removed the mask as the last step. I learned to rub on the gold very lightly because the burnish can become spotty when done through the mask.	A great challenge is making sure the background doesn’t rip up at the end of a project. It is inevitable that some tearing will occur, which can be touched up, but I still hate it when it happens. Tears can be greatly reduced by scuffing and de-greasing the prime coat before painting the top layer. When removing the mask, go very slowly and don’t congratulate yourself until the last bit of vinyl is patiently removed.
This shows a close up of an A-frame with imitation silver and imitation gold (brass) leaf. Clients are much more impressed in general by any type of gilding than they are by paint. (Especially when you call it brass instead of “imitation gold leaf.”) One gets the impression of a very high-end job without the high cost of genuine silver and gold.

 

Gild With Outline

For a large job I’ll roll on fast-size and immediately brush out the coat with a foam brush to insure even coverage. You can’t go wrong by doing fewer letters at a time. Heavy leaves don’t stick very well once the size is too dry. It is important to be conservative until you develop a rhythm by doing continual tests to judge how much tack time is available.	Here I am using patent aluminum leaf, which can be easily cut into different sizes to conserve leaf. It is possible to cut the entire book to a convenient size or by the sheet. It is best to buy entire boxes of heavy metal leaf, which can bring the price down below $5 per book. If I don’t have patent leaf (with the paper attached) I sometime roll out whole leaves directly from the book, which is easy once you get the hang of it.
I press in the leaf with an ordinary paint roller. This is the correct way to get all of the leaf to conform in around the edges of the mask. I try to roll over the overlaps in such a way that there aren’t many cracks between the sheets. There will be some but they are usually invisible at a distance.	In this case I first pulled up a pre-cut outline just after sizing, then I did the leafing operation. Finally, I hand painted an outline with 1 Shot, which is very easy because half of the line was already masked off. I then cleared the leaf and the outline together, which assures good shine and color-fastness. The background of this sign is pre-finished black matte Alupanel. Masking is always a bit easier when the original surface cannot possibly tear up when it is time to remove everything, which I do only once all of the coats are dry.

Advanced Golf Leaf With Mask

The traditional way to surface gild is to rub on Kaolin powder before sizing so that the gold won’t stick to unwanted areas when hand lettering. Here I am trying an experiment that worked quite well. I put on the Kaolin, and then applied a mask over the powder. I sized the lettering through the mask then and then pulled it up before gilding. This technique made it possible to smooth out the gold without any interference from the masking edges.	Applying 18k lemon leaf with a gilding tip. The size has tacked up just right and the gold will not stick to the oil enamel background because of the Kaolin powder.
18k gold is not generally recommended for exterior use. In this case I clear coated the entire sign with Frog Juice, which protected the gild and the rubine red 1 Shot simultaneously.