FLAT SCROLLS.
The flat scroll is distinguished from the relief scroll in that it is lacking in all forms of relief ornamentation. The flat scroll is vastly more simple in its working out; hence many workmen essay the flat scroll who under no circumstances would attempt to execute a relief design. The flat scroll is almost invariably first placed upon the surface through the medium of the pounce pattern, and it is then filled in. The design of the flat scroll once laid out on paper, the painter used to manipulating a lettering or striping pencil can readily fill in the outlines. The designing of the flat scroll can best be done upon manilla paper, the tracings being executed with a lead pencil. Then lay the paper over a double thickness of, say, railway car plush and pick out the lines with a small awl. On wagon work the flat scroll put on by means of stencils is not often seen. In the railway car paint shop the flat scroll is usually stenciled on.
Some decidedly captivating examples of flat scroll work are to be observed upon many business vehicles in the larger towns and cities. Many of these scrolls are laid in plain gold or aluminum, in a variety of colors, as well as in colors and gold, and very often aluminum. Frequently the heaviest parts, leaves, etc., are edged with some richly adorning color, and quite as often the veining of the leaves is traced into prominence. The accompanying eight illustrations of flat scrolls, corner, end, and center panel patterns, will, it is hoped, afford at least a helpful working idea of the possibilities of the flat scroll style of vehicle ornamentation.
CHAPTER X.
LETTERING: WAGON LETTERING AS DISTINGUISHED FROM SIGN WRITING—POINTS ON LEARNING THE ART—LAYING OUT, SPACING, OUTLINING—SHADING—PUNCTUATION—ALPHABETS: ROMAN—MODIFIED BLOCK—ORNAMENTAL—GRECIAN. DESIGNS FOR BUSINESS WAGON PANELS, ETC.
Of late years the art of sign writing, or, in the speech of the shop, lettering, has come to be so generally regarded as particularly distinct and apart from the other branches of painting, having a literature rich and diversified in its resources, that, at first thought, it would seem perfectly feasible and proper to omit from these chapters any attempt to deal with the subject. Nevertheless, upon further consideration the writer has preferred to accept the art, for the present at least, as an indivisible part of the carriage and wagon painter's shop practice; and while a thorough exposition of modern sign writing would necessarily trespass immoderately upon the space allotted to the numerous and vitally essential phases of carriage and wagon painting, and cannot, therefore, be entered into, to ignore the branch altogether might fairly be branded as too palpable an oversight to merit excuse. Happily, however, the art of sign writing has been so extensively treated upon in numerous books devoted specially to the subject, and in hundreds of exhaustive magazine articles, that it becomes necessary in this chapter to touch only upon the salient features of the work as they directly concern and apply to the interests of the carriage and wagon painter.
Roman Alphabet.
Not later than fifteen years ago the standard styles of the wagon letterer consisted of about five alphabets. The modern sign writer and letterer, encouraged and directed by the forces of recent business development, has to a large extent demolished this standard, substituting therefor what is generally accepted as up-to-date sign writing—a style that readily admits of the employment of whatever form or style of letter will best and most vividly advertise the business it is intended to herald. Complaints have been sounded in widely read publications to the effect that "it was at one time the wagon letterer's good fortune to possess an occupation and a name above that of the sign writer." "His work," we are told, "could be quickly distinguished from the ordinary letterer or sign painter by its boldness and the care given to details. These days have gone by, and we find the well-known and approved style of the wagon letterer prostituted to the idiosyncrasies of house and sign painters."
Roman Numerals.
Such complaints, we are free to say, are in the main exaggerated. The wagon letterer has not been, nor is he in any present danger of being, Othello-like, without an occupation. Moreover, despite the adoption by the wagon letterers of those styles which most completely respond to the dictates of modern business, there still remain certain marked characteristics of the vehicle letterer's work which distinguish it from the efforts of the most finished sign writer. Not that the work of the wagon letterer differs conspicuously from that of the expert general sign writer—the field of up-to-date sign work having merged the two branches into close relationship—but the difference is manifest, as before said, in characteristics most plainly unmistakable. Naturally, this variation should occur.
A sign that would appear legible and clean cut upon a building might, if transferred to the panel of a more or less rapidly moving vehicle, prove unreadable and hopelessly indistinct. A sign attached to a building or other stationary object admits of study from the various points of the compass, from near by or afar off. It is not a fleeting show as in case of the vehicle sign, subject to laws of propulsion which vary to meet existing business exigencies.
Modified Block Alphabet.
Perspective effects, heights, widths, thickness of lines, etc., because of the usually generous sweep of space at command, as secured by the sign writer, do not come within the scope of the wagon letterer's activity, save in rare instances. Ordinarily wagon spaces to be lettered are of dwarfed dimensions and quite commonly cast in irregular outlines. In wagon lettering, whenever possible, the extended letter frequently has the preference. An able and widely observant critic says "it might almost be said that the customary speed of a vehicle can be measured by the degree of elongation which the letterer gives to his work, the lightning express car representing the ultimatum in one direction, while the mammoth furniture van, with its high art panels, is characteristic of the other." The chief distinguishing feature of wagon lettering, as contrasted with the average results of sign writing, is found in the wider variety of elegant color effects to be remarked of the first named. The wagon letterer essays glazing with many of the beautiful transparent pigments, and in this wise brings forth charming combinations in color seldom attempted by the sign writer.
The wagon letterer's work is done, as a rule, with quick drying colors or size, and almost invariably is varnished over. Surface smoothness is therefore with him a matter of the first importance. The art of the wagon letterer is composed of many difficulties, each of which must be surmounted ere the learner can hope to stand among the select few and quaff the foam from the beaker of success.
However, let me say that a thorough mastery of the art is worth all the toil, patient study, diligent practice, and applied energy the aspirant may choose to expend.
To achieve proficiency in this branch of painting, it is advisable to practice outlining letters with a chalk crayon, or, preferably, pipe clay on a goodly sized blackboard. All lines, straight or curved, should be drawn in free hand, and the practice ought, properly, to be regularly continued until the workman acquires a reliable degree of precision. Ease, freedom, and a masterly command of the hand, coupled with a fairly unerring accuracy of the eye, are justly indispensable accomplishments in sign writing or wagon lettering. Absence of mechanical aids will render free hand and eye work more assured. Many admittedly first-class sign writers practice marking out with rule, compass, and line every letter which they produce, insisting upon mechanical accuracy in "laying out" as the only correct means of developing style. Such workmen, unfortunately, were probably indifferent, in apprenticeship days, to the advantages to be derived from free hand drawing, and being strangers to them they find themselves greatly handicapped thereby.
Modified Block Numerals.
The free-hand and rule-rivalling-eye mechanic goes to his space to be lettered and after a swift, accurate study of the limitations and contour of that space, as a basis for the letter construction, including style, height, thickness, etc., he snaps the necessary top and bottom lines and proceeds to rapidly, but lightly, sketch out his letters. Fairly marvelous examples of this manner of mechanics are to be encountered in sign and wagon establishments. Such men are rarely ever in search of a job. The job is mostly in sharp search of them.
Such skill and facility in execution of lay outs is not gained in a day. An eminent vehicle letterer once told the writer that he "was glad to have acquired the 'knack' of accurate free hand and eye work after years of practice." At present there are boundless fields of originality awaiting the sign writer and vehicle letterer. Imitation of the styles of expert letterers may with the beginner lead up to nobler examples of the art—for has not the sage whispered that genius knows only the right of conquest?—but to the apprentice, fired with the sacred spark of ambition, copying will not long suffice.
The acknowledged best examples of sign writing and wagon lettering should serve as the beginner's model, rather than the work of any single practitioner of the art. The fact that the work of every letterer has a certain, positive individuality of style furnishes the best possible reason why the learner should strive to avoid copying continuously the various alphabets of any individual expert to the exclusion of all others.