Hand Painting
The Hand-Painted Touch
Hand-painting is the art of applying pigments or dyes to a surface using only hand tools, as opposed to machines or mechanical processes. Hand-painting, therefore, refers most often to small-scale productions, the results of which could be considered to be unique, since no two hand-painted items will match to the same precision as two items painted by a machine. Hand-painting is currently seen as something of a craft or folk art, as large-scale painting is both more common and less expensive for the consumer.
Commonly hand-painted items include crafts produced on a small or custom basis: furniture, sculpture, portraits, and home decor. The most common hand-painted item you're likely to see is the house sign, an item of luxury home decoration esteemed for its "folk art" roots. Houses once were painted by hand, but today they're more likely to be painted using a wide-nozzle spray gun, which, although hand-held, is arguably machine interference.
Tools Used in Hand-Painting
Hand-painted goods, such as the home sign, have an edge over mass-produced and painted goods mainly because it is possible to achieve a much higher level of detail. For this, painters use small-tipped paintbrushes, contrasting colors of paint, sculpting tools such as chisels or hooks, and carving tools and knives. These are all used on the house sign to create unique, personalized designs in the process of painting. The actual shaping or carving of the house sign is usually done by a different artist.
Outside of the tools used while actively painting, there are numerous additional preparatory supplies required by the painter. Drop cloths, paint trays, spatter sheets, and smocks are all necessary to catch the run-off that may occur while painting. Though your ordinary house number sign isn't more than a foot wide, painting more than one at a time, or working a great deal of detail into a house sign, can cause quite a mess. Some painters also use gloves to keep their hands clean and reduce the chance of smudging.
Hand-Painting vs. Machine Painting
When the painting process is controlled by a machine or a computer, it is almost always difficult if not downright impossible to include small details or customized work. Ornamentation created by a machine is typically soft-edged, meaning its color and shape bleeds into the paint beneath due to a lack of control on the part of the machine. Continuing with the example of the house sign, a digitally printed house sign would appear more uniform and symmetrical in design, but the actual shapes and forms within that design often appear blurred.
Painting by hand allows the painter time between coats of paint, the ability to move as carefully as possible, and attention to detail which machines cannot possibly rival. Additionally, while computer-generated symmetry was highly fashionable in the early days of digital printing, modern house sign enthusiasts appreciate a folk art appeal to their house sign - meaning asymmetrical or wobbly lines increase the value rather than diminishing it.
A Unique Gift
A hand-painted house sign, or any other hand-painted article, is definitely a one-of-a-kind gift. In an age where everyone goes to the same stores, buys the same types of clothes, and consumes food from the same restaurants, the value of unique gifts and experiences is increasing daily. Painting your own personalized house sign earns admiration and respect; owning a house sign painted by someone else, rather than a machine, is a symbolic gesture of support to hard-working machine-free artists everywhere.