Tag Archives: design

Sign Painting – The Limes

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sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotionBack at the start of the first Covid lockdown in spring 2020 we were delighted and grateful to secure weekly fresh fruit and veg delivery from The Limes. It’s a lovely, local, family business in Burnham on Crouch.

Our closest supermarket is also in Burnham, and on my way there and back I’d pass The Limes, see their sign (perfectly functional but a bit rough and ready) and daydream about painting them a new one. Painting food is one of my passions afterall.

I made a Photoshop mockup incorporating some of the fruit and veg drawings from my sketchbooks and sent it to them with my proposal. They were really enthusiastic, suggested a couple of design changes which led to the final version below.

mockup, sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotion

I got a full size (110 x 125 cm) copy printed in black and white and used it to trace the design onto both sides of the board after they had had a couple of coats of exterior gloss paint. Important to remember to flip the arrow on side two!

sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotion

I worked from the bottom up, turning the board over after each section had dried to paint both sides to the same stage. I didn’t fancy completing one side then having to start from scratch on side two. Below – my supervisor does his quality control check.

work in progress, sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotion

I used One Shot sign painters’ enamel for the text and decorative parts. It’s a durable, high quality paint with a lovely, creamy consistency. 

one shot sign painters enamel

It’s also expensive, so I limited my order to six colours: white, lettering black, medium green, reflex blue, fire red and primrose yellow. I planned to mix all the shades I needed from them. You can see a colour chart I mixed using the red and yellow below.

colour, mixing, one shot, enamel, paint

As I painted the fruity parts, I used my sketches and real fruit for reference. The sketches for a loose approach to shape and the real fruit for accuracy of colour and detail.lime, work in progress, sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotion

My limited palette of colours worked perfectly until I got to the cherries. I just couldn’t get the shade I was after by mixing the fire red with reflex blue so I had to order a pot of kool [sic] crimson.

work in progress, sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotion

I worked slowly and steadily, averaging a couple of hours a day over three happy months. I enjoyed painting this sign so much and I hope that it shows in the finished product.

The good folks at The Limes are very happy. I’ll add some photos of the sign in situ once it’s been installed. In the meantime here’s my supervisor taking a well earned rest.

sign, sign painting, sign writing, hand painted, illustration, fruit, vegetables, one shot enamel, shop local, burnham on crouch, essex, fresh, sun burst, asparagus, cherries, peas, strawberries, lime, mushroom, pears, advertising, promotion

 

 

Signwriting – Mary’s Living and Giving Shop

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I recently did a bit of signwriting to update the sandwich board for the Mary’s Living and Giving Shop in Bermondsey Street.

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, vintage, secondhand, volunteer, sandwich board, freehand, sign-writing, text, illustration, blackboard, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycleI liked the Save the Children symbols (the little red figures) that the previous Volunteer had drawn so I rubbed out around them and incorporated them into the new design.

Lucky those chalk pens are weather resistant!

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, vintage, secondhand, volunteer, sandwich board, freehand, sign-writing, text, illustration, blackboard, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle

It’s a lovely place to volunteeer and it really is full of treasures! (No staff discounts!!)

Springtime – Window Painting

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bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycleTo herald the arrival of springtime the good folk at Mary’s Living & Giving Shop in Bermondsey Street (where I work as a volunteer for a few hours each week) invited me to design and execute an illustration for their window.

What a lovely project – and right up my street!

I decided on a flowers, birds and bees theme in a loose art nouveau style and made a sketch to scale.bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, sketch, design

Before embarking on the window I had a little practise with the chalk pens on a small sheet of glass and assigned colours to the different elements of the drawing….

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, sketch, design

…while Kerry kindly cleaned the window in preparation for the obligatory ‘before’ photo.

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london

(You can just see my  two remaining  ‘Pre-Loved Fashion’ drawings hanging up there behind the manequins.)artist at work, kathryn hockey, artist, illustrator, bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london

artist at work, kathryn hockey, artist, illustrator, bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london

 

 

                 Artist at work!

 

 

 

Here are a few photos of the completed drawing, which took a couple of sessions to finish…bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle…needless to say the ‘here comes the sun’ caption is more of a wish than an observation during springtime in Britain! 

I really had so much fun with this project and am so grateful to the Mary’s Living & Giving team for trusting me with it – thank you!

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recyclePost script

As well as being right up my street this project is also a trip down memory lane (pun central…sorry!). About 20 years ago I did some window painting at The Honest Cabbage Restaurant, 99-101 Bermondsey Street (below left)

honest goose, restaurant, window painting, bermondsey street, london, illustration, decoration

honest cabbage, restaurant, window painting, bermondsey street, london, illustration, decoration

and her sister restaurant The Honest Goose on The Cut in Waterloo (above).

 

The Cabbage has since been converted to The Garrison Public House – my artwork didn’t survive but that tends to be the way with mural art unless you’re Banksy.