Empi Equipped & Auto Repairs signs

I really hate the winter time, the long cold dark nights means you have to stay indoors for most of the day and it can get really boring. So I take the opportunity to create some more signs... I was thinking that maybe I'll make lots of these signs and try to sell them at VW shows in the summer months, I'm not going to get a fortune for them but a little bit of beer money would be nice. Anyway onto the signs.. The two signs I have recently created are just bare 3mm ply and all I used was 2 permanent marker pens but the result is quite effective.

My friend suggested that I could produce (for
him I think he meant) the Empi Equipped sign.
OK, I thought it'll be something that I haven't
done before. Sorry there aren't many pictures
for this sign, but I simply forgot to take more.
So after preparing the board, getting the design
down and positioned centrally was the next job.

The beauty of pencil onto board is that should
you need to correct something you simply use
an eraser to remove the lines and you can start
again, and I did on numerous occasions until I
was happy with the design. Once the design
looked right I simply used a fine tip marker pen
to go over the pencil lines.

Finished apart from drilling some fixing holes,
the sign looks really good in monotone.

Having made the Empi Equipped sign earlier
I thought about another sign again just using
the marker pens. I decided what I was going
to do and prepared a piece of 3mm ply to the
correct size.

Again after the board has been sanded down,
it's time to get the design onto the board, a
good pencil, pencil sharpener and a BIG
eraser is all you need...

After sketching out the design, time to bring in
the ruler to get some good strong straight lines
 

A better picture of this stage, I will not be using
any protective varnish on the two signs because
I'm hoping over time the board will mellow into
the darker brown as shown in the above photo
which I think will suit the sign better than the
light colour it is now.

So, once I was happy with the design and the
wording, out came the marker pens. I use two
markers, a fine tip Steadtler Lumocolor, and
an Edding 300 marker with a bullet tip.

Then it's simply a case of filling in the design,
a bit like painting by numbers you did as a
kid, you did do painting by numbers as a kid
didn't you..?

For any of my readers that do not know what
painting by numbers is, it is a book of various
outlined designs that you could colour in using
paint or felt tip pens and at the end you would
have created a work of art.

It really is that simple. The monotone of the
sign makes it really stand out. I think I'll be
doing a lot more monotone signs because they
are quicker and easier to produce and look
great.