Our First Ice Cream Party!

Finally finished the lettering on one side of the van!  Hardly breathed through the process... takes a bit of bravery to do outlining.  I learned its easier to pull the brush towards you or away and not do any wobbles, but very hard to be neat if drawing the line sideways with the brush!

But anyway, I am pleased with how it turned out.

These photos show stages in the painting of the ice cream cone.  I am still not 100% finished with this.

The Whipped Up Cafe van getting ready for business!

Here the van and gazebo are set up for our first ice cream party :)

Thank you to all those who braved the rain and supported us!

Lesson Learnt

After meticulously masking the lettering, I sponged on the colours and also the shading.  It looked great until I tried to remove the masking tape!  Disaster!  I used ordinary masking tape instead of the green painters variety and it was a big mistake.  When I pulled at the tape it lifted some of the underlying paint and all the edges had bleed.

I tried just retouching with a paint brush but didn't like the untidy result, so ... I am once again masking all the letters and sponging the background colour around them!!  Crazy!  But I do like the result.

Now I just need to outline the letters!

Whipped Up Cafe van

There has been some progression on the van.. although I haven't had much time lately!  These letters are still masked ready for some shading.  Then I will outline them and do it all again on the other side!

Lettering process

Work on the van stalled for a while but I was back doing some more today.  I have removed the green masking tape from the stripes and they look really good.  I then decided to do the lettering... I am not a calligrapher or sign writer so this posed a bit of a problem!

I stuck to what I understand and adapted a familiar process to what was needed.  I typed up the words in a typeface that I liked and magnified them on the computer screen.  Then I traced the letters from the screen onto tracing paper.  Next I drew a grid over the traced letters.

I drew a corresponding larger grid on old manila folders and enlarged each letter individually.  When drawn, I cut them out with scissors.  Next I placed the cardboard letters where I wanted them on the side of the van.  This took a long time to get the spacing right!!  Once stuck in the correct place, I traced around the shapes and removed the stencils.  Voila!  Large words on the side of the van.

After meticulously masking some of the letters, I painted the first coat on in lovely gelato colours.... pastels in blue, green, yellow and pink.  I meant to take a photo of it but forgot my camera!

In the Pink!

On went the pink stripes today!  The masking is very time consuming as everything has to be measured, but the actual painting in of the stripes was very quick.  In these photos you can see the masking tape is still present.  The stripes will appear more even when it is removed.  I'm a little nervous about painting the ice cream cone... I want it to be realistic and that's always nerve wracking!!

On the other side of the van the painting will be quite similar, but I am thinking of adding a teacup or a stack of teacups as the van will eventually supply coffee as well as ice cream.