Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting / A Treatise on the Painting of Carriages, Wagons and Sleighs, Embracing Full and Explicit Directions for Executing All Kinds of Work, Including Painting Factory Work, Lettering, Scrolling, Ornamenting, Varnishing, etc., with Many Tested Recipes and Formulas

by M. C. Hillick

SHADING.

Many sign writers contend that shading a letter is nothing more or less than making an artificial representation of a raised letter, and consequently requires a fine light shade upon the top and left side of the letter, and a dark one upon the bottom and right side. Formerly, vehicle letterers did not admit the propriety of this way of shading, insisting that the shades should be on the right side and bottom. Only in case of sunk-bottom vehicles were the shades cast on the top and right side. It was considered deplorably out of form to throw a shade to the left of the letter.

But the swift tide of up-to-date letter work has left its impress upon the style of shading in vogue, and it is now remarked as admissible to cast the shades at any desired angle and upon any desired side of the letters. Nevertheless, it is the leading custom among vehicle letterers to cast the shading on the right side and at the bottom of the letters. Expert exponents of the art aver that indiscriminate shading of letters robs their work of its individuality.

Properly, the shade of a letter as it is generally understood may be defined as that letter's thickness or depth. However, that which is strictly and correctly the shade of a letter is the "cast shadow" and it belongs to the side opposite the thickness of the letter. The "cast shadow" usually consists of a thin wash or glazing of the ground color, and excepting its use upon light colored grounds, it is not extensively employed. The wagon letterer resorts generously to letter shading, using single, double, and treble shades, as the requirements of his business suggest. In this work, skill as a colorist of the first order is demanded, a large amount of shading being executed by the manipulation of glazing colors. In double or treble shading it should be remembered that the darkest shade invariably belongs nearest the letter. Moreover, the letter, and not the shade, should display the most prominent color. In respect to letters laid in gold, silver, or aluminum, it is advisable to make the shade touch the leaf. Letters done in pigment are frequently given a "free shade" which consists in permitting a small space of the surface color to separate the letter and the shade. The "close shade" describes the shade that is allowed to join the letter. A shade looks ungainly and ill proportioned if made wider than the bars of the letter, excepting, of course, the treatment of the bottom shades, which are often made a little heavier than the perpendicular ones. This heavier bottom shading is based upon the assumption that the sun casts a heavier shade to the bottom in proportion to the angle of light. While the shading is generally cast against the letter at an angle of forty-five degrees, it is necessarily inclined more nearly to a perpendicular when the bottom of the letter is more heavily shaded than the sides. Some alphabets do not admit of shading, and others require very little, as compared to still others. A portion of some letters in certain styles of alphabets would present a choked up and inharmonious appearance if tricked out in a shade of uniform weight. Thus, B, K, G, N, S have body angles which do not admit of so heavy a shade as perpendicular or bottom letters. In shading it should be a paramount rule to closely study the tone of the ground, to the end that the most natural shadow be chosen, one that is in strict harmony with the colors of both the lettering and the groundwork. Harmonious and effective color schemes have greatly to do with fine results in the art of wagon lettering.

Gold lettering on black and white grounds may be effectively shaded with almost any color but that of the yellow order. A well-known authority advises the use of the richest and most permanent tones of red, green, blue, and umber shades in shading gold letters placed on colored grounds. Reds, especially the intense and most brilliant reds, are warm, advancing colors for shading gold letters. Imagine, if you please, a more strikingly handsome combination than a gold letter shaded with red cast against a ground of some one of the fashionable greens. Or reverse the style, and put the gold letter upon a ground of carmine glazed over flamingo red, shading with green. Blue, as a shade, produces a cool, distant effect.

Black letters may be usually shaded with any of the primary or secondary colors. In shading it should be borne in mind that complementary colors cannot always be tastefully combined. As, for instance, yellow and orange would not look fetching to any extent when shaded with blue, although regarded as complementary. The learner should apply himself studiously to the study of happy and harmonious color effects in the matter of shading.