Post #1460518
2026-04-03 18:33 UTC
@dominika There doesn’t seem to me to be a clear delineated between written letters and painted letters when it comes to brush lettering. The terms ‘sign painter’ and ‘sign writer’ are used in various places for the same profession.
I would say that something like David Jones’ inscriptions are painted, i.e. built up and worked over (and that is how Nicolette Grey characterised them in her study), while Roman capitals and a lot of brush signage are closer to writing, even when their stroke construction is not cursive.
Replies (1)
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@TiroTypeworks@typo.social 2026-04-03 18:37
@dominika Either way, I would say that you’re not drawing letters with a brush unless you are painting outlines rather than shapes. [In this distinction, I follow my father. I remember him shocking a group of onlookers at the National Gallery in London, before Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, dismissing it as ‘Not really painting.’ He meant that Leonardo was primarily a draftsman, and this was a kind of coloured-in drawing, in contrast to e.g. Titian who is building up an image from layers of paint.]