Whats the difference between acrylics and vinyl?
is the paint used by Nick Hallard to hand-paint all images on Eyebright Traditional Inn Signs. It is very versatile, and can be used much like oil paints, but has the capacity to be diluted and used like watercolours. The recipe has hardly changed in 100 years, yet it is very durable and perfectly suited to extremes of temperature, light and weather. It forms a kind of rubbery surface when dried. Drying times are between 15 – 30 minutes, so complete images can be hand-painted over the course of just a day. Vinyl has a similar ruberised texture, but instead of being applied with a brush in the form of hand-painting, it has a glue back and is applied as one sheet or as individual lettering. Much used on company vehicle ‘sign writing’, it can shrink and expand with temperature. This has the nasty habit of leaving glue outlines around the sticker within a few seasons, which in turn picks up every speck of grit and dust. Vinyl also cracks and leaves a raised surface which too picks up dirt.
