Ambition

This very large (20x30) canvas is going to Lisa Patton. Lisa is a nursing instructor and one of her students came up with this quote. As Lisa tells me, this student persevered through some rough times to make it to graduation. She wanted it in her office to remind her not to give up.

I've had some comments and emails asking me about my lettering. First off, let me say that I get my fonts from dafont.com. They are free and there is a lot of variety. I do not trace or project them in any way. I sketch them out lightly by hand. You can see my imperfect sketching in the top photo. I do use a ruler to get multiple lines of text straight and to measure to center things.

Then I start painting. With a good sketch, it is almost like coloring in the lines of a coloring book! Most lettering gets two coats. It looks kind of chintzy with just one. Here you can see the "at" with one coast and the "th" with two. On the second coat I also like to add a little white highlight. It just adds a little extra something.

The finished product! This is my absolute favorite font. It's called "Ballpark Wiener"! It is a nice thick cursive that shows up well and is not too frilly. Lisa said her walls are institutional gray and they needed something to brighten them up. I understand...my classroom is institutional beige. I thought this cheery yellow would do the trick and I love the yellow/gray color combination.