The amazing skill of John Wren Sign Board Artist creates chalk board art, with paint marker color overlay. The Zig Posterman Marker is great for complex designs like this since once dry you can write over the marks without damaging the work you have already done.

Ever write over a dry erase marker and find it destroys the mark? That won’t happen with these unique markers available in many sizes, colors and finishes!  The opaque matte finish Zig Posterman Calk Marker allows the artist to put color on color in any display.

How to Create Paint Marker Color Overlay

To start the artist letters in “Meals from around the world” using a 15 millimeter Zig Posterman Marker.  That’s 5/8 inch for us yanks’ he then adds a brown drop shadow. Finishing with 6mm chisel tip white highlights and brown with some neon drop shadow. This is a technique anyone could use, just watch the video and give it a try yourself.

Notice the guidelines in light chalk on this board.  Those can be removed when done, with an eraser, your Zig Posterman marks will not smudge or smear.

John then uses a Zig 15mm marker to create a green oval shape looking a lot like a football here in the United States. Watch carefully as this part is in fast motion, he creates the outside of the oval with the green. He then switches to the white 15mm marker to create a gradient and a 3d affect.

Editors Note:

I could not help but notice the frame that John Wren is using, the saw marks can be seen on this clearly recycled wood that come from a vertical saw. Likely from a time before neon and LED full motion signs.  In the United Kingdom and here in the United States these distinctive saw marks date the wood between 1700 and 1860.  How quaint that the sign artist is able to use old wood on an old school chalkart sign.

Then after the oval has dried in this video he uses a clear acrylic varnish to “fix” the paint so it will have no chance of running with the future layers he plans to ad.  Depending on your design you may not need this method for paint marker color overlay.  The reason for this is Zig Posterman semi-permanent markers can be drawn over when dry.  Test your design to determine the best option for your application.  If the marker does not dry fast enough you can use heat to cure it.

Detail Time After the Color Overlay

Following the shape of the oval a pop-out 3d affect is created, this is a plan ahead project, you don’t want to run out of room for your letters. Silver and black highlights or in the case of black more appropriately shadows are added by John to give even more of a perspective.  Layering the Zig Posterman marker on top of an existing mark is no problem.  In this video he could have completely recovered the white “World” text, but instead highlights the center.

Using the guidelines text is added to the blackboard. “Try a different dish every week” in this case the text is gone over twice for that nice bright white on the blackboard. Even if think you can not letter that well give it a try! The Zig 6mm chisel tip markers give a nice look to hand written text, almost a calligraphy marker look.

In the end making sure with a tape measure our artist adds “This Week and Next Week” with a nice simple parchment box framing what will soon be the specials on this restaurant board.

Here’s a tip on Paint Marker Color Overlay!

Now that you have your board done, you can add your specials to the menu board and change it every week!  Use the Zig Posterman Wet-Wipe markers so you can wipe the board clean with a damp cloth.  Your menu board design will not come off because you need Windex to make that happen.  Why not try the over 23 different colors of the Zig Posterman waterpoof Marker? Or test the Wet-Wipe marker for indoor applications with 27 colors and three tip sizes.

Another Zig tip, chalk board artist John Wren offers on demand downloadable DVD videos on how to create artwork like this be sure to visit his website and tell him, “Cohas Chalkobard Systems sent you!”

These Markers were used in this project.

White 6mm used for fine lines and text touch-up

White 15mm used to make the larger text and highlight larger text

Green 15mm, this marker made the football shaped object

Yellow 6mm used for highlights, 2 coats provided extra bright color

We did not include the black 6mm John used to put the website on the back of his hand.