Methods of making retroreflective articles include mixing a metal pigment with a binder material. The mixture is applied to a surface of a substrate. The surface can be a flat planar surface or be contoured or have arcuate regions. The binder material forms a binder material layer and the metal pigment forms a leafing pigment layer near a top surface of the binder material layer. Transparent microsphere lenses are embedded in the top surface of the binder material layer. The leafing metal pigment layer conforms to a rear embedded surface of the microsphere lenses to thereby form a retroreflective article. Related retroreflective articles are also disclosed.
