Pinstripe Chris

Custom Vw Beetle Rendering

2012-01-29T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last night while we were watching a movie I decided to break out the new pencils and get something down on paper. Since I now own an old Vw Bug, I thought what better place to start. There are a good number of Bugs running around here each with their own little twist... but I've got a couple new ideas I wanted to demonstrate. Starting with cutting the roof down significantly while retaining that nice sloping shape that the Bugs have. After having driven around in one of these tiny things, I can safely imagine that if you cut the roof down enough on one of these Bugs, you'd need to move the front seats back a little bit- so the front doors need to be a little bit longer. I also removed the frame around the door and and side windows making it into a 'hard top' style. The fenders are modified to allow for over sized wheels and tires to fit once the car is lowered as well as having exaggerated body shape to them. The hood is cut down so that it sits back off the front of the car allowing the fenders and lights to appear to stick out a little past the hood. The hood is also at a more gradual slope to unify the low cut shape of the entire car. This car would take a million hours to make- however it only took the length of the movie to draw. And as unrealistic as it seems, who cares- That's what putting concepts down is all about!

Sharpie Mural

2012-01-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

Today I started yet another Sharpie job- but unlike most of the others I've done in the past, this one is on a wall in a house. The house happens to be owned by my brother Jake. Many months ago we agreed that it was a pretty cool idea to do given the large blank area in the kitchen at the end of the table. We also agreed that a new color should be put down in the area to be Sharpied... something different. So orange it was! We also agreed that it should be framed like a picture in a contrasting color when done. We masked out the area to be painted first, then rolled on a few coats over the course of a couple days to get the orange to cover evenly. I painted it when I was on 'vacation' last year, so I had some free time. That quickly changed and I was unable to manage enough time to move forward with it. With our 'deadline' nearing, I decided it must be done! And I'm sure Jake will appreciate not having a huge orange rectangle in his kitchen. So here I am laying out the rails of the design around the cross sectioned V-8 I drew initially. The V-8 was sketched out in pencil first using a small picture for reference. I did it in pencil initially because I wanted it to be as proportionally accurate as possible and as centered as possible. I went over all the lines with marker and Wa La! The beginnings of a very cool thing.

The Sharpie Laptop 2- The Sequel!!!

2012-01-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I picked up a laptop from one of my favorite customers to be Sharpied. My goal was to get it done in the evening hours and bring it back to him the next morning. And so it was! I spent some time on it last night trying a different approach- use a fresh marker with a clean point to make a finer more condensed piece using some of the ideas that are more recent to me. I had to be a lot more careful with this one putting exact width lines down on the first try, but it all worked out. I do normally try to scale what I'm doing to be relative to the amount of surface I'm working on, but since some of my ideas and methods have changed, I wanted to try and scale them down as well. This particular laptop has a thick clear plastic cover that snaps over the top and will serve as an excellent protective barrier.

Another happy customer!

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 13 & 14

2012-01-02T18:14:00.000-08:00

At this point, all the panels that I cleared last week were wetsanded/prepped by Miguel so that the entire car could be uniformly cleared- but first the pinstripes have to be done. The owner and I had talked a lot about the color choices to outline everything on his car and eventually arrived at Green. I was certain from the beginning that I'd be pinstriping by hand with a brush (because I'm pinstripe chris)... but it seemed this car had other plans for me. After a lot of last minute running around to try and find the colors to make the shade of green we imagined- on a holiday weekend looking for a paint that no one sells- eventually we found enough to make something out of. I made a few variations of clean bright greens and ran a few test stripes on the hood scoop for comparison. After Steve picked one, we went into the booth to lay it down. I spent a good amount of time trying to get nice lines down the edges of the panels, but ran into several problems. Rather then make excuses I will just flat out say that I wasn't able to make the lines as nice as the lines I managed to make with Sharpies on the rest of the car. I could do Ok, but not enough to do the rest of the job and car justice. So a new idea was born- Pinstripe it with Sharpies. The next morning we set out to different locations to find Sharpie Paint Pens in a usable shade of green. We found a green that worked and Steve bought as many as they had (just in case). The application was done by using fine line on just 1 side of where the stripe would be (the sharpie panel side) and very carefully running the marker like a brush against the edge. The result is a prefectly located stripe that still has some of the hand done qualities to it, as well as a very nice opaque color that dries very fast. Best of all worlds I'd say. Since I could only run the tape for the straight lines, I did all the corners free hand with a slightly smaller marker using the same green. The color really does look awesome against everything else that's on the car, and no job is really complete without pinstripes. So this car was really Sharpied through and through. I was finishing up the 'pinstripes' while Miguel was masking up the car for final clear. Miguel is the painter/bodyman at Steve's shop, Auto Italia in Rockville, Maryland. He really knows his stuff and is an excellent painter. He did the main bodywork and initial paint job on this Camaro- so the car was really nice long before I got to it. He'll be taking the car from the point where I finished up the pinstripes all the way to finish. It's really nice to share a big job like this with someone where we could each work in phases rather then 1 person doing everything. Next up will be cleared pics!

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 12

2011-12-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

I've lost count of how many times I've been told this can't be done- clear coating over Sharpie I mean.

Today I unmasked the car and we rolled it out of the booth. The little drop shadow around the borders really made a difference. This was the first time we could really step back and look at the whole car- turns out it's kinda big. With eh car out of the booth I was able to get the chin spoiler and hood scoop on stands, cleaned, airbrushed, and cleared. So now all the parts are at the same stage. Next the panels will be wet sanded down and the rest of the car gone over to get the entire car ready for re-clear. But before it gets re-cleared I'll be pulling long lines by hand a round each panel to finish it out and clean up the edges.

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 11

2011-12-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today mas mask up the car and clear day. The goal here was to continue masking only the panels that were Sharpied (instead of the entire body). Reason being that it's best to concentrate the need to get the clear to cooperate with the Sharpie in the smallest amounts possible. Since the car has been laid out as a panel paint job, then this works out perfectly- requiring concentration of technique over a slightly smaller surface area. Slightly. The car is nearly covered with Sharpie really, but not totally. And since the entire car is going to get cleared again, I can basically use this step as a lock down for the Sharpie so that the guy clearing the car doesn't have to worry about it. I masked the car all the way to the ground since the drive line is installed and quite pretty. Also the bottom and inside of the car has been nicely painted- so I'd like not to get any overspray on these areas. After the car was masked I went in and cleaned everything very carefully. Then I added some drop shadows around each panel going a little heavier on central lines and drop lines to simulate overhead lighting. After that I went right in with clear coat. I tried not to build up too much so there wouldn't be too much of an edge to knock down later, but wanted to make sure I had enough to protect the Sharpie. Next I'll unmask the car and we'll decide on the pinstripe!

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 9 & 10

2011-12-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

Today was Sharpie the chin spoiler day. It was decided that the smart way to do it was to continue down from the artwork off the sides of the car where the 2 pieces would meet (chin spoiler/fender). So I prepped the spoiler and Steve mounted it up to the car so that I could make a decent attempt at connecting the rails from the artwork on the fenders as well as the lower valence onto the spoiler- thus making all the artwork look continuous and connected. Once that was done and remounted the front end looked as complete as the rear. From here there's no more Sharpie to do, but there is still plenty of work. The next step was really to continue looking at the car as a whole and decide on 2 things- drop shadows, and pinstripe. The order that the remaining work would be done in is mask up the panels, airbrush any drop shadows, clear panels, unmask, prep panels, pinstripe, reclear. So where we're out now it's important to make the drop shadow/pinstripe choices. Rather then trying to explain what I imagined, I went home and did test panel. The panel I did on white and used a red pinstripe only because this panel is also for me and can be used again later- I just wanted to get the basic idea down. When I was Sharpieing on the car I intentionally ran ll the artwork off the edges, as well as connecting them to adjacent panels- trying to achieve the look of being continuous under the paint rather then just being a block on the paint. The next step to visually achieve this is an accurately placed drop shadow. The pinstripe is more of a finishing touch then anything. So next I'll be masking up the car to possibly do some airbrushing, as well as shooting clear.

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 7 & 8

2011-12-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

These 2 parts nearly complete the Sharpie portion of this job- the hood scoop and the lower valence area. The hood scoop was done off the car so that I could get around everything as easily as possible while maintaining to connect the rails from the hood to the scoop itself. The artwork goes under the front edge and back edge of the scoop. Once it was set in place it really unified the front end and helped with the overall awesomeness. With the addition of that, it's clear that we're close to the end of drawing. Or so I thought. Steve pointed out that if I was to do the front chin spoiler that it might be a good addition to do a small area that connects it to the center stripe artwork. I wasn't sure about it at first, but after a few minutes of thinking and imagining I got it. The car is conveniently on a lift so it wasn't all bad trying to draw upside down- at least I was able to stand up. It still wasn't easy, but definitely felt like a good fit after it was done. It isn't super obvious from the ground that that section is done, but that doesn't make it count any less. Last piece to do is the chin spoiler, and with that in place the fender edges and lower center stripe will be unified. From there we move on to the more challenging stages- Clear and Pinstripes.

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 6

2011-12-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

Today was Sharpie the spoiler day. I was bent in various ways twisting my wrist in directions it's not meant to go to get as nice of lines as possible in these obscurely shaped areas. The front wasn't too bad- just kind of a sharp downward angle. The backside was a bit more challenging since it has few angle changes in areas as well as being partially upside down. Making nice lines from one shape change to the next was interesting to do, but not impossible. I did the front side first before we decided on the back side. Steve made the call on doing the back side and what a difference. The sides and the top have a really good unified feel to them now- you can look down the car from the front and see the flipped edge of the spoiler and it looks great, or down the car from the back and see the opposite side of the spoiler unifying the back end. From here the scoop and chin spoiler need to be done to achieve the same finished feel of the front end. There doesn't seem like there's much blank space left on the car, but what is blank really keeps the balance.

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 5

2011-12-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

I nearly got the roof done on the day I started it, but time restrictions meant I had to stop a little earlier then usual. So today I finished up the roof and started/finished the trunk. It's been a whole mess of hours, but it's been great. There's nothing I enjoy doing more then this. At this point the car isn't covered end to end (although some might say it is)- it's been split up into sections and panels to carefully distinguish where and where not to Sharpie. The balance of the main body color and the panels is very important. Initially after the sides were done there was too much body color showing on the top of the car. We've certainly cured that. It wasn't until I got on a ladder to take some of these pics that I really saw this piece come together. At eye level you really can't see quite as much at one time. In fact, you really need to walk around it several times. The contrast of the black Sharpie against the bright silver is also super clean- no loud colors that would otherwise make this busier then it is. Next step is the spoiler and the hood scoop... then we move onto masking up the rest of the car for a little airbrushing and clear.

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 4

2011-12-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

I spent the end of yesterday and the beginning of today getting the hood done. It was necessary to remove the scoop so that I could put designs all the way up to the tape, and so that later it would be easier to do the scoop itself. From that point Steve (the owner) and I stared at the car and walked around it until we were both convinced that the roof and trunk should be done in a similar fashion to the hood. Originally I wasn't thinking the car would need much more then the sides- but with the sides and hood done, the rest of the car seemed a little bare. So I spent some time running long lines of tape over the car while being careful not to touch the sides... until I got a layout that matches the hood and runs to the trunk. So next up will be the roof!

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 3

2011-12-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

So here we are- the other side finished! At least with Sharpie. Now I'm moving on to other parts of the car to try and complete the look. Currently I've got panels laid out on the hood and that's what I'll spend the next day working on.

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 2

2011-12-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

This is the accumulative of about 20 hours worth of drawing. I worked from back to front without a plan while alternating ideas to fit into particular shapes and spaces. We had decided on a level of density that was appropriate but not over kill. Everything balanced out really well. This isn't the final stage for this side, but for now the Sharpie part is done. So now I'll move onto the other side in a manner that doesn't duplicate the first side, but mimics it's density and balance of silver and black. I'll probably try and refrain from looking at the side A while working on side B so I don't get distracted with comparisons. I'll be back with more on side B...

The Sharpie Pro Street Camaro Part 1

2011-12-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

Why yes, another Camaro. But this one is far from being just any Camaro. This is a well built 1971 pro street like no other- fresh out of the paint shop with it's initial color and clear laid down. The car is unique and full tilt, and as it turns out, so too will be the paint. Once the car was painted it was re-prepped for the next round of paint. After some exchange of ideas and drawing a few things out we arrived at the least likely but most unique idea- Sharpie. But instead of just putting Sharpie down in the usual layout or manner, it was decided that it was best to make good use out of mixing old with new (since laying Sharpie on a 1971 anything would be just that). So I laid out upper and lower panels down the sides of the Camaro where I wanted to fill- and in place of using the time period correct lace, I would do Sharpie art. There are additional tricks, but I'll get into that later. So here is the car with it's initial layout before I started drawing...

Sharpie Camaro FINAL PICs

2011-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well It's been a blast- but now this one's done. Good but sad. Good in that I can finally catch up some some sleep- Sad in that I won't have something cool like a Sharpie Car waiting for me at work. No worries though... there are already a couple of potentials being discussed :)

Sharpie & Paint by Pinstripe Chris
Photos by Beverly Jensen

Sharpie Camaro part 7

2011-10-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

At the very last minute I decided to call a pro to take final pictures of the Camaro. This is Beverly Jensen. She came out late Friday night and spent at least a couple hours at the shop taking some awesome pictures. Everything that I've seen if Beverly's is excellent, and her work truly speaks for itself. She has a very good sense of what makes photos professional in every sense, and is quite knowledgeable in her field. I washed the car up nicely before she arrived and it was decided that the best place to take the pictures would be in the paint booth. And why not? The lighting was ample and all the artwork is contained in the middle of the car. Many many many photos later we we're all done for the night. I've seen some of the proofs, so I know the awesomeness that lies ahead. But good work takes time- so when the time comes, I'll share the finished pics of the Sharpie Camaro. And believe me, it's an excellent reflection of both Beverly's work and my own. That's mainly why I don't want to post up any of my pics... because they basically look like disposable camera pics compared to Beverly's... thus not really doing an justice to the job itself.

To view Beverly's website and gallery you can click her name or go here: http://beverlygailjensen.com/
Lots of cool pics, contact page, and just a cool website really.

Sharpie Camaro part 6

2011-10-06T17:15:00.000-07:00

I am already ahead of this, but I'm not ready to put up final pics yet. So here we are ready for clear. The car is all masked up and carefully cleaned before the careful clear process.

Sharpie Camaro part 5

2011-10-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today (and the past couple days) I spent wrapping up the inking process. Now the spoiler is complete as well as the left over spots on the roof and the back end. Lots and lots of ink and time went into getting the artwork to this point- and it was well worth it. The whole job looks aaaaaaaaaaaaawesome! Next I'm going to mask up the stripes and car entirely to receive a little bit of airbrushing and then clear. This stage is vital for protecting the Sharpie permanently so extra care is needed here. I haven't run into any issues with the Sharpie running/streaking using the process I use- but it's still important to be careful and take the time necessary to do it right.

Almost there!

Sharpie Camaro part 4

2011-09-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Yes... I'm a little behind on updates. I've been super busy trying to keep up with everything and dedicating as much time as I can to this jobbie here. But- this jobbie is going super awesome!!! The roof is finished minus a couple spots that have a purpose that will be covered later. I'm working on the deck lid areas now and bringing the designs across the rear. Getting close!!!

The Sharpie Camaro part 3

2011-09-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today I got the rest of the 1st stripe filled up and got started/finished on the other stripe. Basically, I got the front end done. The artwork ended up being a lot more dense then I've done in the past, but that's Ok... looks super awesome this way. I tend to do the artwork to the scale of the area I have to work inside of. So an entire car can have more open looking artwork. A stripe or a specified area doesn't have the space to really allow for that and make it looks as good as it can I don't think. Next I'll get started on the roof and carry on from there. It's pretty interesting to look at... so much to see!

The Sharpie Camaro part 2

2011-09-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Once the car was cleaned and ready, I moved it into the booth to get the best lighting to get started. Day 1 of actual drawing was about 5 hours worth and got me most of the way down the 1st stripe. I'm going to do this piece front to back. And since the front ends and hoods of cars are basically the focal point, I wanted to make sure primary attention was put on that. I also use the beginning as a way of putting down new ideas that I will use through out the entire piece. So far everything is looking GREAT!!!

The Sharpie Camaro

2011-09-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind in getting this post up and going, but better late then never!

The owner of this Camaro drove up here (Gaithersbrug, Maryland) from Little Rock, Arkansas to have Sharpie stripes run done down the middle. Initially the car already had stripes, so I removed them first. Then I began the process of getting the new stripes where they looked best, and per customer request, ran them all the way across the bumpers front to back. Once the stripes were masked out, I sanded and prepped the areas to receive Sharpie and clear coat. The concept of this piece is interesting... but I'll cover that as I get into the artwork more.

These are basically the 'before' pics!

53 Belair Flames part 5 FINISHED!!!

2011-09-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

Once the car was outside I called Mike (the owner) over to come take a look and pick a pinstripe color. We both agreed that Orange would go really nicely with the Green. And so it did. Before I left last night I got from the middle of the hood down the passenger side done. That meant that I only had to do the remaining half of the car today. And so it is done and outside in the sunlight for all to take pics. The color I used is 1 Shot Vermilion, and I used a new Mack 10 series #00. The car looks toooooooooooootally awesome!!!

53 Belair Flames part 4

2011-09-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

Once the paint was dry it was time to start the careful process of un taping everything. All the tape came off very clean with no over or under spray issues at all. I rolled the car outside for a couple pics... it's an overcast day so the green is at its least crazy. So now the flames are complete... but they need the right pinstripe!

53 Belair Flames part 3

2011-09-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Today I got the flames painted! Yay! The base color is a cool lime green I made using a greenish yellow and a royal blue. After enough was put on to cover the black (3 coats) and it was dry, I came back in with the green/gold pearl mix to go over everything 2 more times. The pearl reaaaaaaaaally made this color. It instantly had more personality. Once all the base coats were dry, I put 2 coats of clear on. I want to make it shiny and pop, but I don't want to create a massive edge to try and stripe over. Tomorrow I'll nib a couple of small pieces of dirt, and un tape the whole dealy. I might even start pinstriping tomorrow. Oh that will be fun! Of course, this means I need to get a gallon of ivory pinstripe paint first...

53 BelAir Flames part 2

2011-09-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today I got the masking done on the flames as well as the sanding. About 3 rolls of masking tape went in to masking the surrounding areas before I pulled the plastic out to cover the rest. Tomorrow I can basically walk in, mix some colors and apply paint. The color going in the flames is a 3 stage color with a bright green base, a gold pearl over top, and then clear. Right now tho, it's very late, and I'm very tired. I got in late so I stayed late to get the car to this point... thus making tomorrow easier :)

The 53 BelAir is back for FLAMES!!!

2011-09-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

I picked up Mikes 53 today to start laying out the flames. I think I got a little carried away, but I had fun doin it. Flames everywhere!!! I got everything outlined tonight, and I'll come back tomorrow and tape up the car and shoot some color on it. I was going for a different style then I normally put down... longer flowing flames. Then again, I don't do a lot of traditional flames. Actually, this is the biggest flame job I've done to date. Looks like it'll need a gazillion miles of pinstripe :)

Cars at the Shop...

2011-09-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

We've got lots of neato stuff at the shop right now... even though some are personal vehicles. None the less, there are lots of cool jobs in right now and more to come!

Left to Right:

Falcon Sprint Convertible, New Camaro (Sharpie to be), Old school Cadillac, 66 Corvair, Econoline Pickup, Classy Ford Thunderbird.

Some more pinstripe practice!

2011-09-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

A little more practice goes a long way. Yesterday I got a couple new brushes in the mail... one of which is a Kafka brush. These things are all the rage apparently, so I thought I'd try one. $14 investment isn't too bad. What can I say... It's Ok, but not great. Probably because I'm used to the Mack brushes already. The Kafka can definitely do some things the Macks can't easily do, but not better and not faster. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool brush... But it made me like the Macks so much more after trying it. Luckily, I also ordered a new Mack 10 series #00. I didn't use this one because it's new and it's a back up to the other #00 I already have. So instead I grabbed the #00 I already had and whipped up a couple quick panels. After trying the Kafka, these Macks are butter. Fast. Consistent. And straight. Love. So here are these 2 panels. One is Vermilion and Bright Red on an obscurely painted panel... the other is Black and Ivory on a gold painted panel. I've even started signing my name with the same pinstripe brush I use for the designs... makes em tiny, but legible.

Fun Fun Fun!!!

Even more pinstripe practice

2011-09-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

At the end of each day I've been trying to spend just a little time getting pinstripes down on something. The last couple days culminated into this panel. I started by spraying Rustolium Florescent Pink on a blank white panel... then layed out the gold size... then applied gold leaf... then engine turned... then airbrushed in a little black here and there (just to see what it would look like)... then I outlined everything in dark magenta (to keep the initial contrast down)... then added some more to the design using process blue... then finally I made a lime green to border the whole dealy. Another panel made it all the way to the end! Yay! And good thing, because I'm trying to have as many as I can for some upcoming shows. I'm also trying some new stuff, so these panels make good practice and excellent education.

Some more pinstripe practice!!

2011-08-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

If I'm to follow my dreams then I need to practice practice practice more. With some of my free time in between real work this weekend, I did just that. If I'd have known this panel was going to make it all the way to being finished, I would have done a time lapse video. But since it was just a practice piece I wasn't sure that it would make it... but it did!!! So on this particular piece, I started with a blank white panel. Duh. Then I laid out a design in Vermillion, then Aqua, then Dark Magenta. Once that was dry I masked up the design with a little edge around it, as well as a border around the entire panel. Next I sprayed the open area with flat lime green. Then, I airbrushed in some dark green and white green in the shadowed and highlighted areas. After every thing was unmasked I airbrushed in a little more darks and lights to finish everything up. Last but not least, I outlined the border of everything with Magenta. Bright pretty colors... lots of fun!

Custom 54 Ford F-100 Rendering

2011-08-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

3 Blog posts in 1 day!!!

And yet another time lapse video. My brother Jake owns a 1954 Ford F-100 that he's been trying to get some idea of direction on before he really gets into it. It's great to have ideas, but it's harder to visualize them sometimes. So I thought I'd try my hand at a rendering of a few of the ideas.... which are: Extended cab with short rear door, pillar-less doors (like a hard top car), removing the bottoms of the fenders where they would normally join under the doors via really bulky step side (thus chopping out some of the body), chopped roof, a slightly more modern looking bedside, and of course, newer fancier wheels on a lowered body. So it's really many ideas mixed into one. While drawing it out I made some extra changes which mainly consisted of slanting the cab and it's posts a little more forward, and adjusting the shape and angle of the front grill area. I also put in a bared grill, but that might not make it to the final. This initial drawing will serve as the 'original', and from here I'll use it as an underlay on a fresh piece to test out some coloring methods. This way I don't damage the original, and my finished drawing is on a clean piece of bristol. Hopefully I'll be able to start coloring in the next couple days!

Time Lapse Drums!

2011-08-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

^^^ This is me ROCKIN' OUUUUUUUUUT!!!

So today, contractors showed up at our rent-a-disaster... at just short of 7:00 am. I know that's not terribly early for most people, but I'm still trying really really hard to enjoy my 'vacation', and this was an unannounced time. So they immediately came in and started destroying the 1 good room in the entire house- the upstairs bathroom. Why? I have no fucking clue. But what I will tell you is that it was louder then hell at our house at 7:00 am. So Caity and I went back to my brother Jake's house so she could shower and I could get some more sleep. Once I woke back up I was ready for revenge. Two cups of coffee later, I had an idea. These guys didn't mind making me wake up to unseemly noise, so I figured they wouldn't mind working through mine. That's right. I played the fuck out of some drums. I did ask their permission first and they said they wouldn't mind- but I knew they had no idea what they were agreeing to. Oh well. So I set up my time lapse camera and played for about an hour solid. In between songs I could hear Fred's car alarm going off. Now this is trivial- Fred sets off his own car alarm when I play drums (always)... and this is somehow less annoying to the other neighbors then my drumming? I don't think so. I guess he hopes that I'll be so annoyed with the sound of his alarm that I'll stop. WRONG. What it actually means is play louder. The construction guys never complained, so I guess it was cool.

Anyways... back to my time lapse video... The pics were taken at 10 second intervals for a little over an hour, and are played at about 0.25 seconds per frame. Occasionally you'll see me switching songs on the Ipod, or getting a new drum stick. Oh yes, they break. Millions of frames, lots of fun!! It's a time lapse, so there is no sound.

I love to play the drums and I know I look goofy doing it, but seriously, sooooooooooo much FUN!!!

Ferrari 355 Rendering continued...

2011-08-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Quickly after I started doing the 'paint' on this piece I realized I was really doing this the hard way. Yes, I can admit that. But at this point, if it's going to be finished then it must be finished in the manner I started. So I've been masking areas, working color transitions... dark to light, then light to dark, then highlights... then some more pencil to freshen up some lines. After all that, I untapped the main mask to reveal exactly where I'm at at this point. Everything looks Ok... not wonderful, but not a total waste either. Next up would be the wheels and windows. I am also getting ready to get started on at least 1 new rendering today of something else entirely. It'll give me something to bounce back and forth on. Hopefully by doing that I can combine a few coloring techniques and new ideas to make things look better.

The pic is a bit darker then the rendering actually is... but yea. Some areas still need to be darkend, and some still need to be lightened/highlighted more- but I'm figuring on doing those touches very last.

Again, even if this particular rendering becomes a wash, I've still learned plenty of what to do and not to do on the next ones. Can't learn without making a few mistakes, right?

Ferrari 355 Rendering

2011-08-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Since I'm supposed to be on 'vacation', I decided to spend some of my time reacquainting myself with a few things as well as trying to learn new things. In this case I decided to mesh a few things together- Drawing, Airbrushing, and Ferrari's. All things I love. If I were to practice painting a Toyota Corolla, I might not care as much for the finished product. Even if this piece becomes a disaster, I've still learned from it. My initial drawing is on smooth bristol paper. I masked out all the body color areas as well as the ground reflection so all of the coloring could be done at the same time. And it's a good thing too because it's taken layers of different colors to get everything where it is... so duplicating them at this point would be a challenge. I've been using Golden Brand Fluid Acrylics for all my shades of red. Rather then paint the whole picture red and go over it with transparent black and white for shading- I'm using different shades of red to build shape. The body is close to being done.... it needs the appropriate pinks in the right areas to show highlighted reds and to add a gloss look. Then the addition of the grills and scoops will clean up some of the edges as well as deepen those areas. So far not too bad... I managed to burn up one of my airbrush compressors yesterday by over use. I'm havin lots of fun tho!

The pic doesn't quite do it justice... the painting isn't that grainy and there is much more distinction between reds. Straaaaaaaange...

New happenins

2011-08-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

So I've technically been on vacation for 2 weeks now... with 1 week to go. But I'm getting restless and eager to keep myself both busy and entertained. I recently got a time lapse camera as a birthday present from sister Tammy, and I also recently decided that I wanted to put some time into drawing on paper while I have the chance. These 2 things are a perfect mix. My subject matter is a 1999 Ferrari 355... I didn't find a picture of it in the angle I wanted, but I found one that's close and used several other reference pictures to achieve the angle I wanted. I set up the camera and set it to 30 second intervals and worked in 2 stages- main body shape, then wheels. Ferrari's are quite curvaceous... so transposing the curves of the cars into lines can be tricky... especially if you're changing the perspective from your reference photo. Wheels, while more straight forward, still require good balance and perspective. I decided to turn the front wheel in a little bit (better pose/stance) as well as just making up the wheels (instead of going with the originals). It took a few tries to get them how I liked, but I got it to work. I also added a wet ground reflection to help make the pic more interesting. I've gone just about as far as I'm going to with pencil. A few more little refinements and it'll be ready for paint. Yes, I'm actually going to try to do the color/shading of this one with an airbrush.

More videos to come!

Thanks Tammy!

The Sharpie Mustang part 7 FINISHED!!!

2011-07-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

Today was wet sand & buff the clear on the Mustang... then get it outside for pictures. The buffing went really well- I cut it with 1500 on a DA first, then went back over that with 2000. Buffed like butter and shines like glass. Now this is permanent ink! This is the only Sharpie car I know of that has been clear coated... I could be wrong on that, but I don't think so. Most everyone who has an opinion on it says that you can't clear over sharpie- thus no one really ever does. So here's proof that you can in fact clear over sharpie. And it looks damn fine.

I took a million pics during the process as well as short videos outside. I'll assemble a cheesy little video here in the next couple days.

The Sharpie Mustang part 6

2011-07-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Today was clear the Sharpie car day!! I got the car masked off last night before I left so I could get here early this morning (before it got too hot) to just shoot the clear. Everything went great! Over the last year I've heard alot of "you can't clear over Sharpie" talk... I'm here to say it can be done. And without a single problem. The clear really makes the black ink look even blacker. Everything looks alot richer and deeper. Last step is to wet sand and buff tomorrow. I'll keep the car in the booth and taped up until it's all the way done as to keep the sanding and buffing mess off the rest of the car.

Final pictures coming soon!

The Sharpie Mustang part 5

2011-07-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day for drawing. I had a couple areas to button up as well as writing 'Sharpie' into the artwork. Then, I put a couple extra lines across the white arrowed lines... this helps break up the continuous white space. Last but not least, I signed my name as a sign that the Sharpie portion of this piece is done. Next I'll be taping it up and clearing the roof.

The Sharpie Mustang part 4

2011-07-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Thankfully this mornings task went quickly enough that I could get back to what I really wanted to do- SHARPIE!!!! I get pretty far today- finished up the roof and got most of the way thru the drivers pillar. What I've got so far is the accumulation of about 24 hours of sharpie. The little corner of the roof that's still white is being saved for the signature at the end. I should be all wrapped up with sharpie stuff tomorrow... which is just in time since I need to let it sit a day or 2 before clear and I need to give some attention to other jobs I've got. For now...

Almost there!!!

The Sharpie Mustang part 3

2011-07-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Day 3 on the Sharpie Mustang! Despite my lack of sleep over the last couple nights I made decent progress today. I moved over to the drivers side of the roof and just started running lines in whichever direction felt right. What's slightly confusing about doing the driver side is that I naturally want to draw from left to right. That made the passenger side feel natural enough... the drivers side required a little pre-thought. So what I ended up doing to make it simpler was to start from the arrow ends at the front, and draw to the right. So essentially it's backwards, but I don't have to force myself to do it- it's just more natural. That being said... once the 'rails' with arrow points were layed out, it was again time to fill the blank spots with random randomness. I'm going home a tad early so I can rest my back and try to get some actual sleep. Tomorrow I have to start the day with a different job I'm working on, but if there's time enough left in the day hopefully I can put a couple more hours in... we'll see!

Dense with a side of crazyness does not even begin to explain how this looks in person.

The Sharpie Mustang part 2

2011-07-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Back at the shop today after a complete day off... but I couldn't wait to get back to working on this one. Today I got the 1/2 of the roof I started on Sunday finished up and extended out as far as I could reach before I went for the side pillars. I randomly took blank areas and filled them with randomness. Amazingly, it looks somewhat thought out- but I assure you, there is zero planning involved here. I think that if it were all planned out it would become hectic and complicated to both apply and enjoy. But that's not the case here... I'm enjoying the hell out of this canvas of randomness!

We're about 1/2 way here... who know that drawing on someones car with permanent marker would be so much fun... and that you could make a living doing it

The Sharpie Mustang part 1

2011-07-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Among the many things I'm working on at the shop, by far the coolest and most interesting is this Mustang. The layout for this car is to do the roof and the adjacent side pillars in Sharpie art, then clear it all when it's done. Once the car was dropped off I got it washed up and ready for prep. The next step was to wet sand all the areas to be Sharpied and cleared followed by another washing. Once the Sharpie really gets started there won't be as much freedom to clean real heavily, so as much pre-cleaning as possible is done now. And once the artwork is started, the car wont go back outside until it's cleared as to protect the open paint from contaminants. Today I really got to put some time into doing the artwork... this is about 4.5 hours worth of Sharpieing here. I got out a fresh box of Sharpies and the Ipod and got goin. I start out by doing what I call the "rails" of the design... this helps define the open and closed space of the designs that I will later fill with randomness. I end all the forward rails with arrows. Once they're done, I start going back and working in other things into the blank spaces trying to keep in mind the black/white balance. So far everything is going great. I'll come back in Tuesday and spend another day of blissful solitude working on this one.

Sharpie Doodles from dinner last night

2011-07-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last night I had dinner with Caity and Alix... Caity is my fiance and Alix is one of my bestest friends ever. Together with coffee and pancakes at the local IHOP, Alix brought out her Mac-Top that I previously Sharpied at the same IHOP a while back. The top had neatly faded around the corners but needed to be touched up just enough in some areas to bring it back to life a little. After a little touch up was done, we flipped it over and began drawing on the back. I think we got many strange looks but who cares. Oh what fond memories I have of being at IHOP and drawing on things... they're just lucky that i draw on my own things!

Harley Davidson Ford F-350 Pinstripes

2011-07-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

A bunch of months back I did a couple pinstripe designs on this Harley Davidson truck. At the time that the designs were done I had talked with the owner about outling the flames that came with the stock paint job on a later date. That later date was a couple days ago. I picked the truck back up from Neal Owens (of The Sunbox Company) and brought it back to the shop where I had to make lots of space to fit it inside. Since the truck was a Harley version, I thought it was missing some orange- so I used 1 Shot Vermilion to outline the flames. Initially the flames were a bit more subtle... but after the orange outline, the truck really had a more complete look to it.

As with always, this was a lot of fun to do!

The Bagger with LOTS of Pinstripes

2011-06-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks back I was asked to pinstripe a full set of bagger parts off a Harley Davidson along with the matching helmets. The customer brought me all the parts fresh out of paint- the tank, front fender, 2 side covers, front faring, both saddle bags with lids, rear bag lid and 2 helmets. I decided the best way to execute the designs without introducing too many new colors was to start with blue designs on the yellow parts, and yellow designs on the blue parts. After the initial designs were layed out, I went back with white to add a little more to the designs. 1 Shot Reflex Blue, Lemon Yellow, and Lettering White were used. On the gas tank where the blue/yellow paint job was split, I did the designs 1/2 and 1/2- Where the tank is blue it has yellow pins, and where it turns yellow I switched to blue pins. Made a subtle, but neat effect. None of these designs were pre-planned, not even the matching ones.... just one line at a time fun. 14 designs in total.

The Moto Lady Helmet

2011-06-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

Jeff of Saint Motor Bikes gave me this silver metal flake helmet to jazz up for our mutual friend in Portland, Oregon- The Moto Lady. After emailing with her a few hundred times, I had enough info to go on to get started. The reason for the vast number of emails was basically the creation of the Moto Lady logo on the back. I'd sketch out an idea, email it to her, she'd make her revisions and we'd move on to the next drawing until we landed at this one. And a fine one it was. Early on I had decided that most of the pinstripe design was going to go around the logo, so the logo had to be designed and lettered first. Once it was down, it was a simple process to allow the design to take shape with the logo as the center piece. I ended up using 1 Shot Black, Ivory and Bright Red, along with the use of synthetic gold leaf to complete the helmet. Everything came out suuuuper cool. I snapped a bunch of photos and sent them off to her for approval, and she returned them back to me in this beautiful package.

This is the Moto Lady: http://themotolady.com/

More Pinstripe Practice

2011-06-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

I swear I have a regular job with many many many hours every week devoted to my jobs. However, in order to maintain my sanity and keep up with practice, I try to as frequently as possible break out a blank panel and experiment on it. Today's experiment was a combination of things. Not all panels make it to the end like this, but this one did. So I started with a panel painted really bright orange. Next, I used a stabilo pencil to draw out the design I wanted to fill with gold leaf (faux). After the design is done, I brush in a mix of Sepp brand Gold Leaf Adhesive, a little 1 Shot Imitation Gold (for tint), and a drop or 2 of Mineral Spirits, using a Mack 10 series #1. I brush it in freehand instead of using tape to outline the design- I find that in each subsequent step not having the tape edge helps a lot. Now the gold leaf adhesive (or "size") has to setup to its tacky point... with this stuff it takes between 3-4 hours. After the adhesive is at its proper tack, I applied loose leaf gold leaf over the entire design. With loose leaf there is a bit more mess, but I feel like the leaf lays smoother. Once the leaf is well pressed into the adhesive, I clean off the excess with a make-up brush and careful rubbing. As soon as I was done I took a drill equipped with a velvet end and turned the leaf. Faux gold leaf doesn't turn really great, but it turns Ok. Even this isn't the best example. Once the engine turning is done, I use the same Mack 10 series #1 to brush clear coat over all the leaf. The brushed clear will go a little past the leaf, but with no tape edge leaves no built up edge to outline. After the clear was set-up I outlined everything with 1 Shot Process Blue and added a little to the design as I went along including some floating borders using a Mack 10 series #00. Once the blue was dry, I went back in with 1 Shot Aqua and added a little more to the design and to the straight lines using the same brush. Even tho the gold leaf didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, everything else came out great. Outside the colors really jumped. So here's a panel that made it alllllllllll the way to the end!

The Suzuki Boulevard on FIRE

2011-06-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

This past week I got to work on a few interesting things... this particular one is a Suzuki Boulevard. The customer wanted airbrushed real fire in real fire colors (red, orange, and yellow) over his existing pearl white paint job. This automatically means a couple of things; the colors will turn out extra vivid because they're going over white instead of the normal black, and that a smoke grey will have to be used around the flames to clean up the halo effect caused by bases and kandies over spraying onto the white. When doing a job like this over a black paint job the smoke is not necessary and wouldn't really be visible anyways. A black background will hide most if not all of the halo and over sprayed bases and kandies. Also, it's easier to come back with a little black in the airbrush and clean up some unwanted spots. Not something so easily accomplished on lighter, 3 stage, or metallic background paint jobs. So instead, a little more care is taken in placing everything where it should be, and try to be mindful of the halo areas. This particular bike also posed another challenge- the tank and radiator covers needed to be airbrushed together ON the bike so that everything would line up and the color transitions would be clean. Normally this type of job on a motorcycle can be done completely disassembled with little worry of the artwork lining up with an adjacent panel. But just like on a car; if there are adjacent panels that are going to be included then the paint job needs to be done assembled. In order to properly prep the parts of this bike it had to come apart first (tank, radiator covers, front fender, and headlight cover), then get cleaned and sanded. Next the bike was wrapped in plastic and protruding parts, like the handle bars, were wrapped in aluminium foil so that everything could be wrapped up as tight as possible. Next the tank and radiator covers were reassembled on the masked up bike. The front fender and headlight cover were done on individual stands. The first color to airbrush in was base coat red- this gives the general layout of the flames and begins the color build process. Next was base coat orange to start building the more structured pattern of the flames inside the existing red areas. Kandy orange was sprayed over everything at this stage to both deepen and enhance vibrance to the existing colors. Next was base coat yellow, and using the orange layer as the guide, I built up the shape of the flames a little more. At this stage I can see just about how the colors and pattern are going to turn out- so I mix up some base coat grey and start fogging around the edges of the shapes I've made staying slightly to the outside of them as to avoid getting grey on the yellow. I do it lightly and build up the grey until I've got it to a density I like and fog it out a bit to give a little trail. At this point things look a little messy. The trick I've found to getting the fire to blend back into the smoke is to go back with some base coat red in the airbrush and bring the red areas out into the smoke areas. This allows for the red to stay vivid over the red parts and to be a darker more purplish red as it gets into the smoke areas. It also helps make the smoke look like it comes out of the fire instead of sitting on top of it. Once the grey and red are done, I go back in with base coat yellow and resharpen any of the yellow that has been over sprayed with either red or grey. Then I hit everything with Gold kandy to give everything a nice glow. Now I'll go in with a yellowish white and highlight some of the hot spots. After that a little more Gold kandy is sprayed to make everything nice and even. Then the airbrushing is done! I carefully disassembled the bike, unmasked it and rolled it out of the booth so that the parts could be cleared. Any areas that were covered up during the airbrushing on the bike were touched up at this part to make everything look continuous. All the parts were set up on individual stands and cleared. The next day the bike was assembled and ready to go outside for some pictures.

While white is not so forgiving as black for something like this, I definitely prefer to do this type of job over white because you end up with such vivid colors. The smoke adds contrast to the flame colors and really helps them jump.

This customer was working with a budget in mind so it didn't get as crazy as it could have. He really wanted it done so we came to an agreement and took it from there.

As always, this was a lot of fun to do!

Some Pinstripe Practice

2011-06-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

Whenever I have enough time to break out the brushes, I try to put them to good use. Lately I've had a lot of good use for them. But for once I just wanted to practice. While waiting for some gold leaf size to tack up a few days ago I did a few small pinstripe pieces on paper. I also set up a little stop watch to try and get myself to be conscious of time as I was practicing. Each piece has 2 colors, so there was the time to lay out the 1st color, plus the time to clean the brushes and mix new paint, plus the time to do the second color. Each color took about 15 minutes to do and each piece was completed in around 30 minutes. It was also neat to just do something without the worry of who it's for or likes and dislikes. Magically, these designs were quick, simple and soothing.

Pinstriping is FUN!

It's the Little Things...

2011-05-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of last year I was asked to do some kind of stripe that would split up a 2 tone paint job being done on a truck. The owner and painter of this truck is Casey of Classic Powder (classicpowder.com). He was totally open to any ideas I had... which was great. He had already painted the top of the truck black and the bottom a nice bright metallic green when I got there. The only specification given was that he wanted it to taper from the front to the back. So I masked off the area to be striped and thought about what would be cool to do in an area this small, but still have some impact. Traditionally when I'm asked to do stripes I'm thinking I'm going to be pulling lines with a paint brush. This job was a paint through a gun. Again, not my norm, but I figured I could put a cool twist on it. Since Casey was open to anything, I decided I would try an engine turned look on base coat. We agreed that bright silver would be the best starting point. After the silver was dry enough, I made a turning tool out of a dixie cup and a scotch brite. I took the scotch brite and cut it into a circle the size of the bottom of the dixie cup, then glued the scotch brite to the bottom. I glued 2 layers of scotch brite (one on top of the other) so that the outside edges of the bottom of the cup wouldn't dig extra hard. Then, from front to back I pressed the 'tool' into the base coat and turned it by hand 180 degrees, overlapping each rotation by 50%. The look and the lines came out so clean that no additional colors or outlining was necessary. Casey cleared it all up and it came out great. It seems like a simple little touch, but it really adds something to this already cool paint job.

Another happy customer!

TRON style Motorcycle Helmet

2011-05-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to do a Tron styled motorcycle helmet for a customer. The helmet started out covered end to end with stickers and needed to be sanded flat. Once it was sanded flat, I painted it with Chrysler PXR (metallic black) base coat and clear. Once that was dry I prepped the helmet again for more paint. I began by laying out the designs in 1 Shot Metallic Silver. I decided the way I was going to do this was by pulling all the lines free hand with a pinstripe brush (as I commonly do)... this would keep me from having to mask out all the lines and spray them. Also, it would keep the edges smoother instead of sharp. The widest stripe was masked out and sprayed so that it would look consistent. Once the 1 Shot was dry, I followed all the lines and circles lightly with an airbrush that had transparent white in it. This would allow for the halo effect to be really effective after the next step. The idea is to get the lines to glow like a neon sign. After that, I mixed up some Alsa Corp Blood Red Kandy and went over all the lines until I got the desired color. It took a good number of coats since I was going over whites and silvers with red kandy... this meant that the colors would start out very pink until I had applied enough to make it red. The amount of kandy used also influenced the way the glow popped in the sunlight. Inside, the helmet has a deep red look- but outside, the sun light really makes this effect jump. The look of everything worked out great. 3 coats of clear and it was done! Doesn't seem like a whole lot of steps, but mixed in with some other work, it took some time. Thankfully, the customer was very patient and happy with the results.

Pinstripes on Jake's 66 Mustang

2011-05-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

At this point in time, Jake's Mustang has under gone several changes both aesthetic and mechanical. Prior to the flat black with gloss red racing stripes paint job it has now, it had a wicked primer paint job over top it's previous red paint job. So in some places where it was sanded a little bit of the red came thru the primer which looked pretty cool on his 66 Mustang. A few months prior to knowing I was going to be blocking, sanding, body working, priming and painting the car, I decided it'd be fun to a pinstripe design on the deck lid for the time being. Jake was cool with it so I brought my box over and had some fun with it one afternoon. The result ended up being one of my all time personal favorites. The colors used were: maroon, bright bred, vermilion, imitation gold, chrome yellow and white. Maroon was used in the inital design, and imitation gold was used to make the 2nd layer. All the other colors were used as highlight colors for the existing 2 layers. I remember thinking once I got the main designs done that I wanted to try and make it look more interesting without adding a 3rd layer. I had seen other artist do this technique before, and I had done it on flames... but not on a design yet. So this was my first go at it. And since then I've used this technique on many of my designs.

Sadly, I had to sand the pinstripes off when it was time to prep the car for paint. But the pictures will last forever!

Guess what... More Pinstripes!!

2011-05-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

After yesturdays production work had winded down it was time to dive into another task. Earlier yesturday Mike of Iron Works brought me a set of tins to be pinstriped. Mike is the painter there and does an awesome job at it. The set he had painted required him to grind the all the parts to bare metal, then grind multiple layers and passes of flames into the metal. After that was done, he masked up the areas that would later be flames, sprayed everything else solid black, then went over it multiple times with flake. Once un-taped, you can see the over all effect. My job was to outline all the flames with Black. This (like so many others) was a lot of fun to do. Black is not the most forgiving color to run stripes with, but certainly adds to the bold contrast. All the stripes were pulled completly freehand and all came out very clean. The tricky part was getting a nice flow in those tight curves using the same brush. Next, Mike will take the parts and shoot Red Kandy over everything to deepen the entire set. Kandy over the black stripe will have no color shift effect, but the stripe will serve as a constant dark border as all the other colors change.

Since the Cadillac and other big jobs this year, jobs like this are becoming simpler and simpler with less mistakes requiring correction, more accuracy, and quicker finish times.

Im growing into my appointed name!

Pinstripes and even More Pinstripes!!!

2011-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of weeks I've had a couple of neat pinstripe jobs come my way. 1st up is a saddle bag off a Harley Davidson painted satin black. The customer wanted me to duplicate a pinstripe design he has tattooed to his leg. He gave me a print out of the original design the tattoo was based off of and I used that as the guide for the design. I used Bright Red and Ivory to complete the design. The Ivory is definitly the way to go against any satin or flat black... it just has a better more classy look.

Next up was a set of West Coast Chopper parts- gas tank, front fender and rear fender. The parts needed to be re-painted flat black before I could start doing the pinstripe designs. So each part was sanded smooth, cleaned, and re-painted. The flat black came out super clean and smooth. After they dried a couple days I began the pinstripe process. The customer had asked me to try and duplicate a set of designs off a toy version of this particular bike. After a few attempts and transcriptions, I decided the toys' designs weren't very flattering and I would not like the result if I kept trying to duplicate this design. Instead, I made up my own design and used some cues from the toy- leaving out all the parts I thought just didn't look right. I drew a center line down all the parts and just went for it. Completely made up as I went along.... and the center line really eases the centering and balancing process. I pulled all the red lines on the 1st day, then all the ivory lines the 2nd day. After the designs were all done I lettered the West Coast Choppers logo, added some dots and signed my name. These parts were a blast to do and they came out great. Bright Red and Ivory make it work again. The design on all 3 parts starts off the same and changes after a certain point based on the shape of the part. The front fenders design goes from front to back.

Lots of fun was had here and I can't wait for the next ones!

Sharpie Harley Davidson

2011-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Where to start, where to start. So...... very very late last Monday night (roundabouts midnight) I was woken up by a phone call from Jason of Infidel Customs. The reason for the late night call was not actually to wake me up, but rather to commission me for a Sharpie paint job on his Harley Davidson. The catch (since there always is one) was that it had to be done in time for a Thursday photo shoot. That's 2 days to start and complete the job. And in reality, it was even less since my day job consumes all waking hours. The other catch was that it had to be done at the location of the new shop, and also done on the bike (instead of disassembling it first). So this was one hell of a task with a number of obstacles. Getting up to Hagerstown from Gaithersburg with enough coffee to keep me going was difficult enough... but I love a good challenge. The first night I arrived around 11 pm. I got 1 side of the gas tank done and 1 side of the rear fender... so 1/2 was a good stopping point for day one. I got home about 3:30 am. Day 2 I arrived a little earlier, closer to 9:30 pm and got around the other side of the rear fender and gas tank. Day 2 definitely went alot smoother and faster. And around 2 am I was done. Sleep deprived with a drive ahead. The bike was completed and it turned out freaking cool. Jobs like this are hard to tell how it's going to turn out exactly. You don't really know anything until you're done. Airbrushing and pinstriping are about the same way- You can envision everything, but until it's done you really have no idea. Free handed artwork tends to be like that. Risky. But that's the excitement in it. Not to mention the rather individualistic look when it's done.

This job was done using Silver Sharpie Markers over the existing gloss black. All the artwork was done freehand with no pre-planning what so ever. The materials I brought with me to do the job was a pack of markers and an Ipod to keep me moving though the late hours. These particular markers can be tricky to use for many reasons. Doing parts on the bike means you have to try and keep the marker always feeding downwards... which means you have to contort your body a bit to position yourself properly to get the markers to operate properly while maintaining nice lines. Also... after a little bit of use, the felt tips begin to 'break'... this leads to a change in line thickness and what's called 'pushing'. The trick is to pre-break the tips a little bit to try and keep things consistent from marker to marker.

These jobs are a blast to do. I hope to be doing more in the future!

So I've got a few Hotwheels... big deal.

2011-04-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

As I'm making preparations to move west, it's necessary to go through all my junk and figure out whats what. To see what'll fit in the car... what'll fit in a truck... what can be given away...and whats trash. For me, the bulk of what I own is in 1/64th scale cars. But not just a few... I mean thousands. And not all of them are your typical Hotwheels 1/64... some are bigger and some are stranger. This is my retirement fund so it has to go with me. It's always fun to sort through some old stuff and go "oh wow, didn't know I had one of those". I did that over and over again. It was fun! The hotwheels in the deep tubs are stacked about 8/9 deep... the thinner boxes have hotwheels stacked 4/5 deep. The luggage carrier has some of the odd shaped packages but still managed to hold a whole lot of toys. I'm still finding hotwheels around the house that have been accumulated over the last couple years.

It's not an obsession.

I think...

The most recent of Happenins'

2011-04-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I had a customer come by to get his 2012 Fiat 500 pinstriped. All he wanted was a simple red stripe that went down the sides and around the back. After the pins on the Caddy, these long lines we're a breeze. The stripes were not pre-taped nor did I use a magnet as a guide. Pure freehand. The red really went well with the brake calipers and the accent ring on the wheels. The next task of that day was to remove and repaint the wheels on the Caddy. Jake helped me get the car on jack stands and break all the lugs free (since many of them seemed to be rust welded on). Prepping the wheels was a dirty job, but had to be done. Next, I got the wheels onto the booth floor and covered them in plastic... cut out the wheel section... then taped the edge of the plastic to the edge of the tire. Clean a little more, then hit em with flat black. Done. And speaking of flat black... I also have a set of motorcycle parts I'm workin on here that got flat blacked and are waiting for pinstripes. Amongst everything else that I'll be workin on in the next few days, I'll be trying to get the stripes done up on these cycle parts. Busy time for the pinstripes... and everything else... high five!

Lyrics can mean things too!

2011-04-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

I'd like to share the lyrics to a song that I've liked for a pretty long time. I first heard the song and the band in middle school... and today the song is always playing in the back of my head. Might not mean anything to anyone else, but I love the long. The song is Carousel, by Blink 182. It was on their 1st, 2nd and live album (best version). The beginnings of the song were created in the very first jam session of Tom and Mark ever. Were talkin early 90's. Simple as it may be, the words have always held meaning to me.

Carousel:

I talk to you every now and then
I never felt so alone again
I stop to think at a wishing well
My thoughts send me on a carousel

Here I am standing on my own
Not a motion from the telephone
I know not a reason why
Solitude's a reason to die

Just you wait and see
(Just you wait and see)
As school life is a
It is a woken dream
Aren't you feeling alone?

I guess it's just another
I guess it's just another
I guess it's just another night alone

Now as I walk down the street
I need a job just to sleep in sheets
Buying food every once in a while
But not enough to purchase a smile

A tank of gas is a treasure to me
I know now that nothing is free
I talk to you every now and then
I never felt so alone again

Just you wait and see
(Just you wait and see)
As school life is a
It is a woken dream
Aren't you feeling alone?

I guess it's just another
I guess it's just another
I guess it's just another night alone

To here the song in its live album version awesomeness, go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urIXDF7KbOs

Custom paint on the Cadillac (aka Cattle Smack) Part 3

2011-04-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, there's more Cadillac goodness to be had. The design for the trunk was left up to me... the only request was to make the "Sacred Heart" the center piece of the design. I got that squared away 1st so I could work around it. Once it was done, I mixed up a couple different greens to use as the initial color for the trunk and decided against it completely. The green looked ok, but just didn't provide enough front-to-back contrast to me. I knew I was going to use the same Ivory that was used to outline the scallops so I sisn;t think it necessary to just plain duplicate the color layout. So instead I went with a nice classic- Process Blue. I think the blue and green work well together, but on seprate parts. I laid the blue part of the design out 1st, then came back in the next day and chased my ideas around with ivory. I wanted to make the design partially classic looking, and partially more of the complex intertwind designs I like doing. Once done, the 2 colors looked great against eachother. I moved the car outside and snapped some photos since the weather was decent. The green glows in the dark and the car looks bad ass at night. The last task on this job is to black out the wheels. It will kind of finish out the look, I think. I'll post some pics when the car is in it's Finished stage.

Custom paint on the Cadillac (aka Cattle Smack) Part 2

2011-04-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Once the Caddy was cleaned up and parked in a comfortable space, it was time for the pinstriping to happen. Having not done many long line jobs before, this was both a huge challenge and a great learning experience. 1 Shot Ivory was the color used for the outlining of the scallops. Every line was pulled 100% free hand with a Mack 10 series 00 Pinstripe Brush. No guideline was used, no tape to follow, no magnet to ride. Nothing. Which made it that much more, fun, shall we say. And striping on this flat black was like trying to pinstripe a chalk board... very not smooth. I started with the hood because I thought that would be the easiest to get started. Wrong. I'm a bit short for the kind of reach necessary to pull the lines on the hood the way I wanted to. After I'd had enough of that battle, I moved onto the scallop on the passenger side hood edge, and then to the remaining scallops on that side from top down. The sides ended up being a bit easier (since I'm short) but still challenging (since I'm learning). But everything came out great. I resumed working on the hood so that i could get at least to a nice half way point. After several different variations on technique I decided i just needed to get on top of the hood and work like that. So I did. I held my body weight with my left arm and pulled the stripes gently with the right. And magically, cameras appeared! Oh we have fun. At some point I found that the best way for me to get the left side stripes was to pull it with my left hand. The first day of pinstriping ended shortly after midnight when my body couldn't keep up anymore. Day 2 of pinstriping went waaaaaaaaay better, smoother, faster. After a little sleep I was pulling longer lines with better seams and making very few errors that required correcting. When I was done Jake and I measured out the length of each stripe and added them all together. The total dinstance of pinstriping was around 2200 inches. Day 2 ended about 6:00 pm, thank god. My body was killin me from the bending, stretching- just general fun having. But i still wanted to go home and play drums as loud as humanly possible, so i did. When I got in today I cleaned off the remaining baby powder (used to allow the hands to slide across the surface) and the Caddy looks awesome! The ivory was just the right color- gave it a real classic feel and really finished the scallops off well. The last remaining touch on them was to take a little brush and go inside the door/fender edges a little to make the overall presentation better and cleaner. Next up is the deck lid pinstripes!

Custom paint on the Cadillac (aka Cattle Smack)

2011-04-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

This post is going to end up being broken up into at least 2 parts since i have a bunch of pics. Scott from the Frederick School of Rock brought me his 64 Cadillac to paint scallops on, pinstripe, then pinstripe some more. The car is fresh out if it's body and paint receiving today's latest and greatest- Flat Black. This is much too big a car to be blank... so the idea was to do scallops off the front end in panels (as opposed to painting the whole front end the scallop color) using a color called Chronic Green, then outline them with 1 Shot Ivory. The masking/layout process took 2 rolls of fine line, 3 roles of masking tape and several football fields of other materials. The green didn't cover real gracefully, but I kept at it until it was right. Once everything was unmasked the vision had started to take shape. But, nothing is complete without pinstripes, and this 64 Caddy is no exception.

Alright, we've got some catchin up to do....

2011-04-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Howd'y folks! I've let myself get behind on the blog stuff... so were gonna play a little catch up here. From where i left off... I was working on a set of motorcycle parts that were painted black with red inserts by a guy named Phil. The request was something new for me... but I love a new challenge. The stripe was to go around the outside of the red insert leaving a gap in between it and the gold stripe as wide as the stripe itself. Essentially, what is called a floating stripe. It doesn't actually 'contact' or outline the 2 colors. Gold is high contrast to black... and the lines had to be as right on as possible. Each piece got easier and faster. It was a lot of fun and it came out really well for having been pulled free hand with a paint brush. Next up was what is being referred to as 'the golf cart incindent'. The cart was to be painted to match the Ferrari F430 Challenge that i repainted at the end of last year. The cart was pretty well... used, shall we say. I took it petty far apart... fixed lots and lots of golf course damage... primed, preped, painted, wet sanded and buffed (yes the golf cart), and reassembled it. Probably could have been done a bit faster if not for the numerous other things going on here... but still, it turned out flippin awesome. It was an expensive paint job too. Next up was the red Cafe tail I started on a while ago. This guy was super patient, which was awesome. The weather's starting to break here so it needed to be finished so he could get back on his moto and go. I finished up the tail, repainted it red, and wet sanded and buffed it. Then i mounted the upholstery (that i made/stitched) carefully to the newly painted piece. And wa-la. Done. The guy super happy and now he can ride even more stylishly then he did before. Next up is the Cadillac... but that's for the next post...

Pinstripes and Ferrari's

2011-03-21T18:21:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on a billion different things... most interesting of the last couple days was a pinstripe job I did for Cycle Finish, the stripe down the latest Saint Motorbike, and being able to stare at the Ferrari California over at Robbie's shop while I wait to work on it. The parts for Cycle Finish were 2 saddle bags that were nicely painted with orange flames outlined in green. The idea was to use those 2 colors and a reference photo of another artist style of pinstripes, make a new design, then apply it to both bags. The stripes and the design came out great- identical, vibrant and smooth. I added a little blue to the design to help with the feel of the colors and the design. I definitely look forward to doing more work with Ron at Cycle Finish. Next up is Jeff's latest cafe bike parts. Jeff painted them black then I prepped them for stripes and re-clear. The stripe layout was Jeff's idea and it was perfect. I masked everything out in 1/8'' fine line tape, then sprayed white through it. All the lines came out really clean and smooth. A little clear, a little wet sanding and buffing then it's all done. Last but certainly not least is the 2010 Ferrari California. Robbie has been repairing the front left corner of the car... and when he's done I get to do the paint work, yea! Aside from being able to look at the car I also get to occasionally start it up and drive it in and out of the door. Very exciting.

Lots more cool stuff to come!

Mattholumeuwe's Latest Cafe Racer part 2

2011-03-10T07:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I got Matt's parts blocked and ready for paint. The first stage of color in the paint scheme is a extra sparkly charcoal I made using Black and and Alsa Corp Nevada Silver. After the color was dry enough, I ran a scotch brite thru the parts in 1 direction just before clearing them. The subtle streaking will serve as part of the weave look on that layer of carbon fiber. Hopefully. After the parts dry a couple days I'll re-prep them and begin the next layer of the pattern. Hopefully the next post on these parts will include a step-by-step of the technique I'll be using since I won't be doing it the 'traditional' way.

Mattholumeuwe's Latest Cafe Racer

2011-03-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I picked up the parts to the cafe Matt's building. The tank and tail are both made of fiberglass and are in pretty decent shape... just a good going over with a sander and then blocked to see where were at. At this point the pieces are starting to look mighty colorful as we see all the pretty colors they used to be. Then I get to stare at it to look for and take care of as many imperfections as I can before primer. About a million tiny things were addressed... nothing major, just wanted to make it as nice as possible at this stage. Both the tail and the tank were primed and are ready to be blocked/prepped for the initial color. The paint scheme on these parts is still being decided on. I know for sure that I want to incorporate carbon fiber as the dominant paint feature. That being said, the first color will be a charcoaly silver (something tinted to match the lighter weave in carbon fiber) and it will be applied entirely to both pieces then cleared as to lock down the original color from the additional layers it will receive. More on my particular method for doing carbon fiber to come!

Comments are open to anybody, so please feel free

Back to work... Pinstriping and Sharpie that is

2011-03-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weeks I've been busy with the cool stuff- Pinstripes and Sharpie. Now if only I could have an opened minded enough customer say do both... that would be cool. So the pieces I've been working on include a very nice bass guitar, a bass drum head for a music school, a helmet and some more panels. The bass guitar, while very cool by itself, had a special request of flair. The idea I came up with for the face of the bass was to do the body from top down instead of bottom up (which is very commonly done)- reason being that when you see designs from the bottom up on a guitar, it looks good on a stand, but not while it's played. This way, it looks good while it's played and that's what i think is most important. The designs were done in black then silver, and started heavier at the top and thinned out towards the bottom (as to not just cover the entire thing). On the back side i layed out a more traditional/symmetrical style design that ended up being 3 colors (black, silver, ivory) that intertwined quite a lot with one another. It's truly one of the coolest most intricate pieces I think I've done without involving flashy colors. Next up is the bass drum head for the Frederick Rock School. I did this piece as a favor since I like the guys and their cause is noble. Originally I wasn't sure what I was going to do since it looked like the head had been beat up a but with a small chizel and hammer. But careful placement of lines allowed me to avoid distorted looking lettering and stripes. I put a bunch of colors down on that... red, blue, silver, purple, magenta, white, ivory, bright green and yellow. Last but not least is the Sharpie Helmet. Last minute request, but it all worked out fine. The guy who gave me this helmet to do said they normally give it to this other dude to pinstripe and put their name on, but he really liked the Sharpie Art so he said put the name on their however you like and sharpie it up... but use silver. That's the first time I really ever used silver sharpie that extensively and I think it came out really cool.

Sounds like there are more motorcycles and Ferrari's in the near future!

"You Are Here"

2011-03-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

Life is a funny thing- sometimes its complicated, sometimes it feels simple, sometimes it feels wrong... but its always worth living. There's no way to calculate the time we have, just ways to fill the blanks of what we'll do next. These things define us whether we realize it or not. These are the how and what we will be remembered for. At times when we realize these things, we reflect on ourselves and sometimes in comparison to others. Where have we gone in comparison to the one next to us, similar to us, or against us? And by this measure we are found on the map of our life's staring down at the "You Are Here" dot in relation to where we've come from and where we're going. May not seem like a long journey has taken place with thousands of miles and landmarks before our eventual destination. Our destination is representative of the things we want most- accomplishments, gratitude, humility and the righteous feeling of finality. But is our destination goal set in the kind of place that is specifically out of our reach? If so there are a lot of us that will strive to a destination that has no arrival time. But like a lot of good things- it's the journey that makes us. Accomplishments or not, people can be marked by either their accomplishments, their personality or any of several other delightful details. There doesn't seem to be a mathematical formula to calculate the yes's and no's of our lives, so it becomes important to just go with it. Take each yes and go in the direction it takes you, and take each no as cosmic shift that has cautiously led you away from potentially worse No's. The yes's tend to lead to optimistic and sometimes arrogant routes, but is yet another road that is bound to teach us something- even about the no's. The no's are just as important- blockades to a potentially dangerous route... but sometimes, the no is the question to an answer that just needs to be asked differently. For example, you don't get an assignment or task based on your presentation of question. In careful observation, one can see these no's as opportunities not to change route, but to set determination in gear. This can be discouraging at times but can also provide the necessary drive to ask the question again. Determination is usually what sets us in motion to begin with. And sometimes No is just not the right answer. However, determined as you may be, several no's in a row will send you back tracking and circling your own map which will lead to potential doubts and questions inward instead of outward. This is honestly the best time to shine. Prove to yourself you can keep it together by reflecting and seeing your eventual path by looking backwards, not moving backwards. Take your no's and evaluate their similarities... what is it about each different case that had the same outcome? Searching for flaws not to dwell on, but to improve on. Perhaps there isn't a similarity between them... sometimes you find yourself at crossroads that are more of a temptation rather then a destination. Each place different, new and exciting. But inside, you know it's not you and isn't the best route to your destination if at this point it is still where you want to go. A temptation will lead you off path and hold it's appeal until you realize that your no longer on the map. This moment is defined in a reflection that is set in motion by an undefined event that tells you to look inward again and see yourself for who you are right at this moment. More importantly, where on the map you are. It's necessary at times to admit our own faults and guilt's, but not to necessarily feel at fault or guilty. A clear understanding of these things can really lead to a positive attitude. Knowing that the bad, done by you or in part by your actions, can be just as important as the good by acknowledging it. Define these markers and set out to use them as good. Our goals and ourselves will often intertwine with others of the same goals- and these people truly enrichen the journey. When others join our journey something deeper then friendship is at work. They walk with us through storms, deserts and rocky roads sticking with us as if a symbol that this path is the right one. Even if just for part of the journey a companion exists, it is remembered in the best way. Who knows if were meant to make it to the end of our road. Maybe destiny is that we make it to the final road close enough to feel the reward of the end, but without fully making it. Anticipation is sometimes so much greater then the thing we anticipate. We face disappointment equally as much as excitement- so in a way, not knowing is better. Ignorance is not what's meant here- simply that the journey may far exceed the destination. Not to say that the destination won't be great- just that if we got the opportunity to experience it could diminish the meaning of the journey.

"If it can mean anything, then it means nothing" -Matthew Quinn.

Whats new in the world... this week

2011-02-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

I finished up a pinstripe panel i vaguely started working on just before the Timonium show... something a little different then normal. I tried lots of new things and i pretty much liked them all... i just wish i had made enough space to continue expanding. This week is pinstripe week it looks like; a customer dropped off a new bass guitar to be completely done up (maybe even the case), I spent yesterday and will continue on today pinstriping a 2007 Harley edition F350 (a very gigantic truck by the way) and i should be getting some panels started as well as tool boxes for the upcoming bike show that i will not disappear at :) Also many big jobs are in the works, but it all comes down to mula dinero cash moneys. I'm not sure how someone can ask me to do something for free... because honestly, if you don't have the money for the crazy stuff, then don't ask for it. I'm sure everything will still look good even without the extra touch... but you may get noticed slightly less. What I'm saying is if you want awesomeness, please budget for it. That's all. Not real complicated. But i sure do get a kick out of the sob stories i hear... man i should write a book... or carry a mini recorder :)

In the Worx... (plus my kitty)

2011-02-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's been a slamin busy... forever and something. It's been a lot of that, yes. In particular tho, everyone in the Maryland Consortium has been spending late nights completing tasks and dealies for this weekends Timonium Show. I've been working on pinstripe panels in every aspect- finding something to make panels out of, painting the panels, doing an artistic frame, and occasionally, pinstriping them. My goal is to have blank pieces to do at the show, but to make the panel itself look a little cooler to begin with. I tested out some new things for fun- airbrushed carbon fiber effect, wet on wet enamel thru mesh, flame tipped flames, slash striping, water droplets, marbleizer... all good and fun, but there isn't much time left. I've also completed some 1958 Ducati parts, some Saint emblems, and another of Matholemeuw's parts... I'll save pics of that for later. Busy Busy. Today I'm off to Baltimore to do real work!

Also here is a picture of my kitty... i think he looks how i feel. It's also very funny.

Today at the factory...

2011-02-02T20:26:00.001-08:00

Im working on a few neat things at the house while things are a little slower at Robbie's shop; the Honda Cafe tail upholstery and paint, a 1958 Ducati paint and pinstripe, and some paint panels/pieces for the upcoming Timonium show. This first piece im working on isn't done yet, but i wanted to experiment with a bunch of things at once so if it got ruined at any point i wouldn't be bothered by its destruction. So on this piece i tried the water droplet effect with blue candy, kiwi green marbleizer, an array of colors made from 1 color, and a different design to start with. Since it hasn't gotten ruined yet, im going to keep adding to the design... and if it doesn't die, i'll clear it when im done. I've got a bunch of panels cut out so i've got plenty of surface to play with. Lots of cool stuff. The Ducati is going really well... first i re-did all the colors and clear, then i sanded it down and pulled the Ivory lines followed by the Maroon lines. It's had a couple days to dry so it should be ready for re-clear, then wet sand and buff. It ought to be super nice and clean when it's done. And since its the beginning of the year, im looking ahead to possibilities both long term and short.... it's hard to guess what will happen, but usually about this time of year i start making a serious plan for the upcoming year as far as what direction i want to go, what styles are 'in', practicing new things... generally being open minded, but focused on a goal. But thats for another post...

Yet another Honda Cafe-Racer

2011-01-31T16:15:00.000-08:00

Must be trend...

This particular seat/tail piece is paired with a gas tank i did about this time last year... The owner used a hammer to make knee dents on either side of the gas tank and my job was to finish it up. Not enough credit is given to the guy who did this, i don't think. The sides came out very even and equal in just about every way considering his method, so the remaining finish work was minimal to get it to paint. The paint only accentuated how well the plan had come together and he later warned that i might be doing the upholstery and tail section at some point. That point has come. The 1st order of business was to repair some cracks in the fiberglass and prep it for paint. Once that was done, i carefully removed the old upholstery to start making paper templates. The new seat was to have pleats sewn long ways instead of sideways... this means more planning, measuring, and pieces. If i had enough time to stop in between each step i would have a million neat photographs but i wanted to stay on track while i was working. 1st step is to measure and cut the pieces for pleats allowing for seam allowances and pleat shrinkage. Next i adhered that to 1/2'' foam, and adhered muslin material to the bottom of that creating a sandwich the sewing machine can eat thru. Find the centers of everything, measure pleat widths, mark out where you want the pleats to go on the BACK side of the material (in this case the muslin) since top stitching is usually a no no with certain types of materials. Stitch all the pleats, sew the 2 pleated pieces together, then sew in the flat fell seam where they meet. Measure and cut 2 side pieces, a front and a back strap. Stitch on the sides followed by running a flat fell seam to finish them off. Stitch the front piece across all 3 pieces (pleat part and both sides), then run a flat fell seam stitch across the front. The last piece is the hardest since if it's wrong the cover wont fit properly and since its a single piece that joins others in a specific way to work. Stitch the back strap piece on careful to get it to join the 2 side pieces correctly (this is not a straight line although it looks like it when its done), then flat fell the seam across the top. Take the remaining material and fold it under based on measurements of where you want the final lip to be, then sew the seam and your done. Test fit in every step! If you need to back track at some point it's easier to go back 1 step instead of several... this will make you want to kill stuff. Stitching and flat fell seaming thru the foam sandwich is also not that simple, but if you take your time and be careful, you'll be ok. Now I've got the seat cover fitted and held in place with envelope clips... since this cover is made to fit THIS piece, over stretching wont be necessary to mount. You don't really want to have to stretch the material much because that's what happens when you sit on it... so if it's stretched to mount, then sat on, eventually something is going to give. That's not to say the material wont stretch and relax, its just that if you do your math right you wont have to worry about it. Now that the seat fits, i'll paint the tail piece, then mount the cover when it's all done... i'll have finished pictures soon!

Surfboard FINISHED!!!

2011-01-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

Alright, it's finally done! This piece was a lot of fun and an educational experience. Every letter, color, outline and shading was done completely freehand with either a brush or an airbrush. To give you an idea of the number of colors used, here's a list:

Starting with the Yellow vinyl...

Grey (mixed from black and white)

Imitation Gold

Metallic Silver

Polar White

Transparent Blue

Transparent Black

Transparent White

Lettering Black

Emerald Green

Metallic Gold

Ivory

Process Blue

Vermilion

Bright Red

Aqua

Magenta

Purple (magenta mixed w/ process blue)

and a Sharpie

Many colors were used multiple times for fun. The last touch was cutting a few flame licks out of the Yellow vinyl, then drop shadowing them, then chasing the entire border with Magenta, then fading the flame tips in from Purple. Pretty freaking cool. I'm sure there's going to be some cool signs out there, but none as unique as this!

Consortium Surfboard Continued...

2011-01-26T13:44:00.000-08:00

Today was another one of my favorite kind of days... a snow day where i get to stay at home and work on something here. While i would have liked to have made it to work today, the repairs on my borrowed car are stacking up as it is so im less willing to take risks with it since it's not mine. But anyways... i got the last 3 names on the board; Draft Cycle Works, Barefoot Racing, and Pinstripe Chris... each done differently. I did Draft first so that no matter what space was left afterwards, it was on there and i could figure the other ones based on remaining space. I pulled the letters in bright red, then airbrushed drop shadows in bone black as well as fogging the bottoms of the letters a little. Then i chased all the litters in polar white... really made it jump out cleanly. Next i did the Barefoot Racing letters... to break up monotony, i did Barefoot and Racing differently, but i outlined them in the same color to tie them together. The Barefoot was done in black, then airbrushed in some white from the middle of the letters faded up as well as the top corners of each letter. The Racing part was done in bright red, then airbrushed drop shadow. Since Robbie is a retro dude, i thought his name should have a retro colored outline... so i used aqua around the letters, but on the Racing part, i paletted the brush carefully so i could make the outline extra skinny. Last but not least, i did the Pinstripe Chris part. Using the remaining corner of the board i whipped out some ole' Sharpies and scribbled my name down. Afterwards, i airbrushed drop shadows below each letter. I decided my name didn't need an eccentric outline color since it was weird enough, so i used metallic silver to go around the letters. Everything came out really cool and clean- each persons name is a little differently shaped, filled and detailed. I still have a few more cool colors i haven't used yet and i might still do some airbrushy stuff so its not quite done, but all the names are done.

Consortium Unite!

Consortium Surfboard

2011-01-18T19:46:00.000-08:00

Today was a snow day... or an ice day... ok, snowy ice. Either way, i didn't drive up to Robbies today because our neighborhood does not get taken care of by the city and the good ole' boys in charge are frederick educated at best. In other words, they were done around 4 pm after having done an OK job. But anyways... true as always, if I'm at home for a day i can finally accomplish some neat stuff. I get Matt's seat stitched last night and all the mounting done today... I'll get into the details of that when it's done. I also put a couple names down on our Consortium sign. I did the Saint Motor Company letters in emerald green, then airbrushed in some acrylic black on the bottoms while wet (to force cracking), outlined in metallic gold, then highlighted in ivory. I did the Zen Angel 13 a little more interesting since Kyles' purpose is different (as is every one's so they're all going to be different). I splashed down some process blue, then airbrushed the bottoms with a little darker blue and fogged the 13 with the same blue. Then i went around everything with vermilion... pretty eye catching... i hope he likes. Every ones will be a little different both in color and style. I'm going to put everyone elses names down before mine to make sure there's enough space for it all since it wont bother me if my name is the smallest.

Since it never happened, here are the pics...

2011-01-13T19:00:00.001-08:00

I actually got the last touches done this morning before i left for ye ole ferrari shope. Every part of this was done free hand- everything. All the letters, airbrushing and stripes were done without a guide of any type. As mentioned before, once i got the spacing i wanted, i pulled all the letters in a gray i mixed. Next i airbrushed in some lighter white areas, followed by some black in the lower areas, followed by some up top blue, followed by some lines done in sharpie, followed by some more white, followed by more black sharpie, followed by white in a paint brush, followed silver around the letters, followed by pinstriping some of the black lines, followed by the yellow shadow. This was really done with a variety of materials too... anything i could find really. I used an automotive enamel white mixed with rustolium semi gloss black to make the grey (since it was the color i needed the most of ). All the airbrush stuff was Golden Brand Acrylics. I used some Sharpie and some 1shot colors... lots o stuff. I like it... i might still do just a little more tho.

Consortium Unite!

The Things and The Stuff

2011-01-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

This week seems to be flying by, but it's goin well. I got a chunk of Matts bike parts painted and back to him... im currently working on the seat paint/upholstery along with another cafe seat paint/upholstery. I got started on a Ferrari 550 Maranello and a Jeep Srt8 over at Robbies. I got started on the Timonium Show sign. And best of all, i found a nice inexpensive drawing table on craigslist. The last couple weeks I've spent a lot of time drawing and i knew that if i were going to be doing this as much as i want, i need a table that changes angle & height so my back isn't always yelling at me. And i had great success on craigslist... $30 for a fold able, portable drawing/drafting table. Very nice. So i had to try it out! Makes for good comfort while i spend time sharpening some techniques. Our Timonium sign was a blast too... first thing was to cover the bottom in contact vinyl so that when this is all done i can pull it off and start again clean. The vinyl came out perfect even though it was like wrestling with an octopus driving an 18 wheeler hitting a squid. The yellow is cool against the surfboards' orange, at least i like it. Trim up the edges and then make all the measurements necessary to fit "The Maryland Consortium" across the top. I talked to Matt to get names and spelling just to be sure... because once it's on there... yea. Then i would just have to compensate by spelling everyones' stuff wrong... The Maryland Constipation featuring Saint Motortrikes, Drafty Sycle Werks, Zen Angle 47, Pinchris Stripe, and Bear Claw Racing. That's pretty catchy! We won't be forgotten... just not remembered properly. Anyways..... once i got the letter layout very vaguely done in pencil, i mixed up the main color, pulled all the letters, and proceeded to airbrush in some white, then some black, then some blue, then some more white, then hit a couple spots with white and black in a paint brush... then outlined the whole deal in silver. It didn't take very long... the longest thing was getting around all the letters with silver. Buuuuuuuuuut... since that part is about 90% and not 100%, i won't post pics just yet... you can imagine tho. If i can get home before midnight tonight I'll put the last touches of that part on but we shall see!

Mattholumeuwe's Build part II

2011-01-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Today i got the engine parts and the tank to Matts current build painted. YEA!!! My apologies dude, i've got myself involved in a few things and im not great at concentrating on multiple things simultaneously. However, whatever it is i am concentrating on gets significant devotion. For example, the motorcycle parts came out excellent. The tank is now a fine piece. It came out very straight and smooth. Tomorrow i'll wetsand and buff it a little, then get them over to Matt so he can get to it. Then i can get into the tail section & seat of this bike... along with the other things im working on...

Mattholumeuwe's Build

2011-01-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well the journey is moving onward. Once i received the tank and tail off of Matts current bike build it was easy for me to asses that these were the most F-ed parts ever. Nah, im kidding, they're not so bad. The tank is a bit large, so some here and there damage is to be expected. The tail was made out of several pieces, so some sunken and raised spots are to be expected. No surprises here... except for the leak on the adjacent side that was already repaired due due leakage, due to age. My brother Jake did a very nice job of tig welding up the area quickly and cleanly as to keep me moving forward. The tank also had badges on it and the area where the tab was needed to be filled. Some spots required filler, some required even more. But no worries, the body work came out great. Everything was etched and primed last night at which time lots of little grinder divits came to focus. Again, no worries. Today i blocked the parts down and marked the remaining spots that needed attention. A little of this, a little of that, then a little more primer, then were go for paint. The tail will need to be measured and templates made for the upholstery before it gets painted. It's a goin!

A Knight with wings Killing an Anacanda while staring at a Naked Chick

2010-12-30T13:51:00.000-08:00

As with any of my stories, this one will likely be long. No detail spared. My last post mentioned an airbrush job that i was working on that required re-doing because the frisket mask i used had left adhesive residue on, around and under the freshly applied paints. Removing the residue effectively meant starting over; which thankfully was ok with the customer. I started by doing a ridiculously thorough cleaning job on the airbrush, and starting fresh with all new materials. New frisket, new paints, new exactos, new stabillos, and new stencil material. It's quite difficult to find opaque frisket... which would have been really helpful since the base color of the fender i was working on is black. I did not find any and i made a lot of trips to look. What i ended up using was a matte clear frisket. The idea of using an opaque masking material is so that you can transfer the design easily to the mask, then transfer the mask to the painted surface. Like drawing on paper, then using that drawing as your mask. The black just just made it challenging- not impossible. So instead, i taped the drawing i did onto a table, then taped a piece of wax paper over top that (since it's fairly transparent), then took a sheet of frisket off it's backing and applied it to the wax paper. This way i could see the drawing thru everything. Next step is to trace out the millions of lines... and the more accurate, the better. The best thing to use for this is either a white/red Stabillo Pencil, or a white/red Sharpie Mark All Pencil. I used red because the contrast was easier to read then the white (found this out by testing it several times). Also i misted a light coat of rattle can fixative to the frisket so that the lines would not smear. Next step was to position the mask where it would stay for the remainder of the process. It's low tack, so repositioning it is simple enough. What was difficult was getting the mask to conform to as many of the contours as the fender had. It didn't really conform, but i decided that since i was only working on one section at a time, i could address each area or re mask each area as needed. All this work and i haven't even got to mixing color yet! Once the mask is layed out, each piece can be cut from it individually. I try to work top - down, or in pairs (no pun intended). For example, i did the gloves together, the arm and leg together, the wings together... this ensures that the tonality will come out close to the other. Especially difficult when pieces are done individually, but it works. Working from dark to light is also a little different, but i like it better since it allows you to build up color slowly. I started by shading from black up to gray (using opaque gray) in areas that were going to be lighter, then switched to white and followed the gray as a guide. Using gray also helps transition from dark to light rather then relying on the transparency of the white since it white itself will quickly and accidentally become to strong. Later the shadowed areas would be hit with a transparent black. Many many parts and pieces make up just the knight guy... the shoe alone is made up of about 30 stenciled sections. Once he was done, i got started on the snakey dude. First i lightly dusted the entire thing with gray so that i could come back in with a pencil and draw out all the scales. Although faint, i used them as a guide to color all the scales first with gray then highlighting the necessary ones with white. Once that was all done, that side of the design was covered and the lady part cut out. I also cut out a set of acetate stencils for the lady part since i didn't want to shade her like i had with the knight guy. The acetate stencils served as free hand stencils as opposed to masked out pieces. This would allow for a softer transition from part to part instead of trying to paint her like a robot. I'm still new to a lot of this so don't judge too harshly... i understand that with practice i will hopefully be better at doing people, faces, and portraits, but this is what I'm capable of at this moment. I'm not saying it's the best, but i don't think it's bad either. The theme was 'fantasy', so i think that gave me a little more space to practice without having to be photo exact. Making form and skin out of shades of gray is a little challenging as well... i can already see where i would do some things different in the future. And that's how we learn, right? By doing. Once the lady was all shaded up, next i did the details of the face. Mind you that the face is the size of a nickel. I don't find it entirely necessary to do everything with an airbrush- so the eyes, lips and hair were all done using a paint brush. This certainly adds to sharpness (a little too much sometimes) but makes the application of small things a whole lot easier. Each strand of hair was done individually with a paint brush... first with gray, then white, then shaded with a little transparent black, then white again in a few spots (using an airbrush to offset clarity). The original concept called for her to have blonde hair, but after everything was applied i thought that that would be the thing that would divide this picture. Keeping everything in the black-gray-white realm really holds the fantasy feel, i think. Especially since the effect of transparent white over black gives you a slight blue hue. Once the entire thing was unmasked, i went back and added highlights to some of the metal surfaces as well as softening the feathers in the wings. Since my deadline was this morning and i was just finishing up, i didn't want to get too carried away... but i think i could have worked on this piece another full day and really gotten more out of it. I really like the way it came out tho eventually we have to stop and go 'ok, were good'. Last but not least is the signature under the snake and then bam, it's done. It was a 3 day bam tho. With little sleep. Ohhhh sooo mush typing... and it's not over. I would also like to mention that i used a different kind of paint for this piece and i highly recommend it. I have found that with automotive basecoats when you go back in to do another layer of shading on a previously worked area and you mask it off you will pull the most recent layer off the previous one. Scuffing in between layers is out of the question since your barely putting any paint down anyways.... adhesion promoters work, but will help build the edge on your graphic. I found both these to be problems on the 1st attempt at doing this piece. The 2nd time around i bought Golden brand Fluid Acrylics along with the same brand Airbrush Medium and Transparent Extender. This stuff works great- very sprayable, the colors are great, and they are very permanent. Acrylics are usually water based, but when dry they cannot be reversed with water (like basecoat with reducer). Acrylics dry with a shell to them rendering them quite durable for masking and remasking. They also adhere very very well to themselves in multiple layers even after dry for a few days with NO unmasking problems at all. The tendency to use water to dilute acrylics is where you run into problems. The paint is designed with color and adhesion in mind... like anything else when you add water to it, you dilute its' properties thus effecting it's adhesion and vibrance. I spent a lot of time researching the product before i committed to it and in that found that using the Medium and Extender allowed for proper sprayability and adhesion without any sacrafices. This stuff works great and the line of colors are excellent. I will definitly be using them again.

Well that's enough blah blah blah for one day!

Now ask me why a knight has wings, is killing an anacanda and is staring at a naked chick next to him... where did her cloths go anyways?

Pics: The first 2 are finished pics before clear, the 3rd is part way thru the knight, the 4th is part way thru the first time around (so you can see the mess of stencils and tape), the 5th is the drawing i did to work from.

Second Chance... Some Assembly Required

2010-12-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

A lot of things in the refinishing world are built in with 2nd chance scenarios (it's done right because it's done twice), but not everything is that simple to do twice. Or even once. Up until yesterday i was working on a Harley fender for Mike at Iron Works that has quite a detailed piece being airbrushed on it. A knight with angel wings killing a large snake whilst a naked lady is kneeling next to him. Pretty sweet. Round 1 ended when i found that the masking had left hideous residue everywhere in on and around the paint. In the end, the remedy was to sand off the residue because it was ON THERE. I cleaned it off, ready to either start again leave it blank. I got word from Mike that the customer said give it another go. In order to make sure the same problem doesn't happen again, i started by getting a new frisket mask. And to ensure that everything goes smoothly, i decided to disassemble and clean the airbrush... because i couldn't remember when the last time i had. The airbrush i use the most is an Iwata Hp-C Plus gravity cup. It, unlike the other Iwata i use, uses a 0.3 mm needle/nozzle setup. And anything that small is going to be picky about being clean. This airbrush works great all the time tho... it was messier then i thought, but it didn't seem to affect the performance any. I've broken 2 nozzles in the past just trying to remove them... but i managed to get this one out without breaking anything and without losing it. The nozzle is the piece on top of the penny. I spent probably an hour and a half cleaning everything inside and out. I straightened the needle, wet sanded the tip smooth and sharp, then polished every piece. Careful assembly and Wa LA. This airbrush works excellent and is well worth the money. I think i spoiled myself a little by getting an Iwata airbrush as my first one tho. I have tried others... and that's why I've bought 3 other Iwatas since the first. But it's like giving someone a Ferrari for their first car... they're likely not going to think: " This is pretty cool... but im more curious to see what an 89 Corolla is all about".

Busy Busy... Flame On!!

2010-12-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

Another day at the banana factory! O glorious bananas. Anyways... todays major task was to layout the flame pattern on the hood of a new Jeep and hopefully get it thru the first stage of paint. The layout went well... it didn't take as long as i thought it'd take to get the fine-line tape where i wanted, but masking was lengthy as usual. I don't like to bother with perfectly mirroring flame patterns because i think it looks less interesting that way. I can appreciate someones work who has done this, but if it's left up to me, i just try to keep it balanced. Once everything was masked off, i based the flames in black (per customer request). Once dry enough, i peeled off all the tape and cleaned up a few edges that bled thru. It's hilarious how long it takes to layout and mask flames in contrast to how long you actually spend painting. Once clean and ready to go, a couple coats of clear are put on. Tomorrow i'll sand out as much of the edge of the flames as i can before they're pinstriped. Breaking up the clear into a couple phases helps sink the flame edge in between pinstriping so that on your final clear you're pretty much left with the pinstripe edge to cut (which is minimal compared to the paint edge since it's done free hand w/ a brush and enamel after the first edge is cut). Also on this job, the pinstripes will be cleared over, so another phase of clear (2 total) is a good way to separate the process. I would rather not try and use enamel over base coat anyway. Once all that was done, i moved back to the remaining Ferrari parts and got them ready for paint... paint them tomorrow to try and wrap everything up with that car. Lots of stuff to keep busy with right now which is great because im usually trying to find new things to learn at this point in the year since not much else is going on... but not this year!!

BSA Letters Today

2010-12-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

After many strange dreams i awoke to see that it was snowing. After a failed attempt to leave my neighborhood, i stayed home. While most places were probably safe to drive, the area i live was not. So no going to work today... but the upside was i could do work at home. Yes, that's an upside for me. Today's primary task- the BSA logo/lettering on Jeff of Saint Motorbikes latest build. With a couple ideas rolled around, i quickly got to work on a plan. I found the BSA logo online and used it as the piece to work from. The space where the logo went were the recessed circles on either side of the tank. First step was to gold leaf the circles... apply size... wait... apply leaf... drink coffee... burnish leaf... brush clear over leaf. If the tank were in the middle of the paint process i wouldn't put clear on it, but since the paint is done, the gold needs to be protected. When the is dry, i lightly trace over the logo leaving a slight print in the leaf. I used black to fill the letters, then red trace around them. Each color adds interest to the circle, but hasn't quite completed it yet. So then i ran ivory around the outer edge of the leaf followed by red inside of that circle. Once tacky enough, i put one last black circle in between the first two for contrast. Wa La. Always fun doing stuff for Jeff- thanks man, for the opportunity to learn, practice and apply... hope you like it!

Pinstripes and an Eyeball

2010-11-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Last night i finished the pinstripes on the Roadster i was working on... everything came out really really cool. Since the car is nice and clean i thought it best to not kill it with pinstripes (despite wanting to) and to keep the designs simple and clean. So instead of doing a 2nd layer design, i filled some areas and highlighted the stripes with 2 more colors; peacock blue and white. It's a really cool look, and it's a nice way to emphasize detail when not going for a full fledged design. The eyeball was also shaded using a few different shades of gray. It was alot of fun and i look forward to the next one!

One for the record books

2010-11-26T18:06:00.001-08:00

Earlier this year i met Troy Mason, owner of a 65 Vw Notchback ProMod. Jeff Mullins had built up this race car for him, John Buttrey had painted it, and Troy was looking to really make it stand out. Previously, a different (and more well known) airbrush artist had sketched out an idea for him involving traditional flames and skulls. Since Troy seem to like the idea but trusted me enough to do what i thought would be cool, i went with a more lively version of that idea. A Vw skull on the hood with blue fire, and blue fire streaming down the sides. Definitly one of the coolest things i've been a part of. It was alot of fun to do and Troy is a great customer. Following the car i did his helmet, the deckild of the the car containing the names of the people involved, and even redid a part of the car after an unfortunatness. As promised by Troy, here's his car in this months Hot Vw Magazine. I've had a lot of customers tell me that by giving them a break on (the cost of) ta job that they'll really push my name... or that it'll be good advertisement. I've lost count of how many times I've heard this and had faith enough to go through with it. Troy never BS-ed me for a second, he was straight with details and very involved. I wish more customers were like him. He had told me that his car would eventually be in Hot Vw... and man was i happy when he told me that it was. This is the 1st time anything of mine has been published like this, and i am very grateful. Thank you Troy for everything, i look forward to doing business with you again soon.

Life returns back to normal...ish...

2010-11-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

Now that my head is kind of attached properly again, real work has resumed. The Olds is great... im still looking carefully at things and going on a few test drives a day to get her back in the swing of driving. She runs great and loud... could use an exhaust. But now that I've spent the money on the car and the trip to get her (another post) i needed to get back in the swing of things here at Robbie's shop. First in line (i really love my job) is our latest Ferrari F430. I was working on getting that one prepped for paint before Matt and i left for new york. Upon returning, i painted the once silver Ferrari 'Blanco Avus (white)'. It looks killer, she's gonna be overly classy for a race car, but smooth as silk. It was quite a trip trying to keep the white clean thru the paint process. Later i'll get to doing the rest of the Ferrari parts. Next in line to work on was pinstripes on a neighbor of ours Roadster. The car is plenty cool painted kandy blue, or as the uninformed people dabbing into the paint world call it: kandy apple blue. I go out of my way to correct people when they say this, but not by pointing out, rather by inquiring the last time they had a blue apple. Anyways, the car was painted excellently by its builder, but he wanted a little bit of stripe action. He said do whatever i thought was cool- my favorite customers say that. I haven't finished yet, but i got all of the 1st color down. When i started thinking about the trunk area i kept looking at it thinking 'this needs an eyeball'. I have a couple colors left to do both on the eye and designs, but i think everything is lookin pretty cool and not too over powering. Tomorrow I'll finish up the pinstripes and begin the wetsand and buff process on the Ferrari. Ahhhhhhhh the Glasurit clear... i may never use anything else ever again :)

Radioactive Drinks!!!

2010-11-22T13:04:00.000-08:00

Well... not really, but it sure does look like it to me. The sunlight was coming into the shop right at my Gatorade and made it go kablamo. I know these new fangled drinks are supposed to be good for you and stuff but pool water doesn't even glow like that and it's categorized as something not recommended for drinking. I may now be reluctant to drink these 'x-factor' G-aids... thats right i said it. Or we can call it Gayds for short. Gays With Aids? Now you've crossed the line... we all know thats not true. Buy a drink and find out...

Or ask fred.

Sorry, sugar makes everything funny.

The New Old car to be...

2010-11-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

Since the accident with Anna Belle, I've been scrubbing the internet like crazy trying to find something else at least as cool. I've had a bunch of old cars, mostly Buick's, because they truly have personality to them. And that personality is very very important to me. Your closest friends are people you care for, get along with and generally like. Same can be true about the right car... you care for it, it takes care of you, and you like it. What's better is when a cars' personality is an extension of your own. That's when style and taste come into play and it's different for everybody. In my case, I've been searching for another car since October 11th... little over a month now. Actually, on October 11th, my brother Jake, our friend Courtney and I all drove out to Carlisle, PA to look at a 61 Buick Special. I used to have one so they're particularly special to me. That was a no go for the same reason a lot of my prospects were- everyone seems to want a lot of money for not so nice cars. I ran into this A LOT. And since the insurance company denied my claim, I'm financially on my own for getting another car. Between craigslist and ebay I must have communicated with a couple hundred people via telephone and email about cars. Most people wanted too much and were just a tad too far away to justify the cost. For a while I set out to find another 64 LeSaber to use as doner parts for my Anna Belle. There aren't many out there, none close, fewer in my price range, and even less that were worth cutting up. But i kept looking. I looked at 80's Porsche's, 50's fords, 60's anything... I was covering the map- so long as it appealed to my style. I went and saw a lot of cars... I even had a 61 Buick LeSaber brought down from New Jersey. What a disappointment that was. It's rare for me to turn down a Buick like that, but I had to. Clearly, I've spent a lot more time thinking and working on this task then anything else- even work. If not for the computer at the shop who knows if I'd show up at all... (just kidding, I'm working on another Ferrari and i love it!). After many phone calls, numerous emails and countless searches I found something unique, on ebay of course. A 1961 Oldsmobile F-85. I know what your thinking; it's not a Buick. In reality though, it's damn close. In 1961, the BOP line (buick, olds, pontiac) launched an economy car line all to be built on the same platform; the Buick Special, The Pontiac Tempest, and the Oldsmobile F-85. This line only lasted 3 years with the aluminium 215 v8. In 64, everything changed, the gas crunch had dissipated and mid sized cars were indistinguishable from full size. The 61 models of these cars are identical in a lot of ways with some trim differences. As mentioned before, I had a 61 Special and used as a daily driver for a long time. Since the sale of that car, Specials of that year are seemingly popular and becoming costly to obtain. Tempests have always been desirable. Leaving just the F-85... a car that wasn't even popular when it was made. When I found this one I couldn't stop looking at it and talking about it (which is bad luck when your bidding). I talked to my dear friend Matt about helping me get it back from New York in the event that I win. The auction ended this morning... I couldn't sleep and I had to come over to my brothers house (thank you jake) to watch the end of the auction early this morning. I WON!!!!! Anyone who has ever tried to win a something cool on ebay know what it's like to watch that counter until it's over. Refresh Refresh Refresh!! Now we must carry out our travel plans to obtain the F-85 this Sunday... and hopefully she's as decent as described. I'm working on a name for her, and I'm open to suggestions.

I can finally go to work and WORK. I'm sure Robbie will appreciate that.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone....

Thanks everyone, for putting up with me through this time
And thanks for the help and suggestions

Fun continued...

2010-11-07T12:19:00.001-08:00

I got the other colors on 2 of the panels im working on for the upcoming event... then i ran out of dixie cups. These styles are a little different then whats considered normal for me, but trying different things keeps everything fresh.

Me likey pinstripey.

Having More Fun

2010-11-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

I began striping a few of the panels today... got one color on 3 panels. Per request of Jeff, here they are. Nothing crazy yet, just getting the colors organized and laid out. But they're all going to have atleast 2 colors, and i'm going to try stuff out of my norm.

How to Have Fun

2010-11-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

There is an event taking place next Saturday that i volunteered to be a part of involving lots of tattooed people. My part in this is pinstriping. Im going to set up a little table, as a vendor, and have a few pieces to show and 1 or 2 that i'll be working on. With me, the most challenging part of pinstriping is finding something cool to stripe on rather then just stripe some random thing. That sometimes works out, but usually some one's saying 'why does that have pinstripes on it?' Usually i say 'why doesn't that have pinstripes on it?' but whatever. So for this event i needed some new blanks and i needed to make them interesting before it even has stripes on it. The idea is to catch the eye to draw them in. If you can get their interest, the art work sells the rest. I also try to do things i haven't done before as a way of practicing new techniques while incorporating them into my work. For this, Racecar Robbie gave me new floor sections to his Model A. I guess he didn't like them. We took the sections and cut them into usable pieces- some have beads rolled into them with strange shapes, but the odder the better. After the pieces were cut i decided to try my hand at doing grinder effects into the metal. It went really well- i used the angle grinder to do engine turns, wiggly lines, curves, circles and waves. It was pretty fun to do an pieces this small... might not be so much fun on a whole car tho. The next step was to take them all home and set them up in the paint room. I bought a quart can of lacquer clear from Advance Auto Parts, and i have a ton of Alsa Corp Kandie Concentrates that needed an excuse to be used. The kandie in the lacquer made the process go fairly quick. I also had a blow drier in one hand and a fan going... that probably helped too. In light of trying new stuff, i also did a fish scale pattern in one of the pieces and i picked up some lace for the other piece. I used kandie red, brown, orange, yellow, fuchsia and green to make these few panels. Next, i brought them to the shop with me for a little rubbin. Hand rubbin that is. I lightly went over all the panels with 600 dry, then rubbed out each panel by hand. The goal here was basically to knock out some dirt nibs and make the surface even and smooth enough for stripes to glide on. I have a few left to do, but i saved the most intricate for last. But as far as these, they're ready for the Pinstripes.

With the exception of using an air compressor and paint gun, everything is being done by hand.

Truly old school.

P.s.- Despite our position in the global chronograph, Fred is sill gay.

My dearest Anna Belle...

2010-10-10T15:07:00.001-07:00

At around midnight last night, an out of state, over the speed limit, elderly gentleman hit my buick. Hard. We were at a dead stop when he hit us (doing around 50/60 mph) about 2 miles from the house. We're all ok... and when i went to go see if the other driver was ok (which he was) he asked me what he had hit... as if he weren't sure. Well what i can say for sure is that my car is demolished. And just one month after i got her in michigan. The guy who hit me is from ohio and had just bought the dodge minivan (which no longer exists) here and was returning home. I should be extremely angry about this... but im trying to be calm. There is alot more i could say about the whole thing but it changes nothing.

Im glad everyone is ok.

My Anna Belle is not.

I must now find another Buick.

If we were in a honda civic (or any other car for that matter), i wouldn't be typing this today.

The newest member of the family

2010-10-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back my brother Jake and I went to Michigan to pick up this 64 Buick Lesabre... drove her all the way home. The guy we got her from had a name for her but we couldn't remember what it was... prolly because it was strange. But in our recollection session, we came up with a good one. This is Anna Bell... the Buick. She is my 5th pre 69 buick, and yes, they all had names. I love old cars but buicks for some reason are special to me. Like the step child that no one really pays much attention to. She replaced the sharpie car as the new daily driver... and there are plans in the works...

Kitty Caity

2010-08-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

This is my Caity, although i call her Kitty. She recently dyed her hair a very platinum blonde... just in time for me to have a wacko hair cut. People stare at us when we go places... it's nice to have someone you can be odd with :)

How many 'last straws' can there be?

2010-08-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

As some know, i've been working on plans to leave this state behind. Far behind. And even though i've been ready to go for quite some time, i still try not to let things that happen (whether repeatedly or not) make me want to leave more. I already know i want to go, believe me, i don't need any other reasons. But if there were a list... this would be reason #105,630,023: My neighborhood/neighbors. And you can tell me 'just move somewhere else' and i'll tell you 'i plan to'. Today i left work early (i left working on Ferrari's early) to go get fitted for my $170 tux for my sisters' wedding next month. The cost was a surprise since i had been given no warning. So i was home 5/6 hours earilier then normal- a good opportunity to play drums when complaints will be directed on whether or not i suck at it as oppose to the time of day. Not 20 minutes after playing im ready to leave and go get my brother and head to my other brothers' house. When i sat in my car i noticed a peculiar sound... like fresh ice in hot water. My freaking rear window was completely shattered, intact (good ole saftey glass) and still crackling. I quickly found the broken out chunk on my dashboard. It was obvious that something had hit it from the outside and made the window go kablamo. When i had gotten home i had noticed the neighbor (who owns the trailer park at the end of our neighborhood) mowing the grass next to our house and driveway (since thats where our property ends. He also rides this lawn mower up and down the road which happens to be covered by lots and lots of rocks. My guess is that he ran one over and it hit may car (explains some other shit too, but whatever). Guess he didn't notice since there wasn't a note anywhere. So i said fuck it, im going to go over there like an adult and ask him about it. This did not play out like i thought it would. I told him i wsan't trying to be a prick or anything but my window is cracked, likely from a rock. To which he responded: " No, ya see; my (ride on) mower bags the stuff, and it has a filter and a metal mesh screen- ain't no rocks goin outta there. I don't know what to tell ya but i ain't takin responsibility for that. And if i'd actually done it i would'a stopped and fixed it." -Mother Fucker. I don't care if you told me everyone in the world has mentallity like this- i wouldn't fucking believe you. I've lived and seen more place in my short life then anyone i've ever known my age- there ain't no place like frederick. I calmly left and begun taping up my back window so i could get it out as easily as possible. New rear glass for these cars doesn't exist. Might be lucky and find a used one but i've got a cooler plan. What really gets me... is that inbetween my arrival home and getting back into my car, i cut my hair in about the wierdest fucking way i ever have. And with my new do i went over to this guys' house and talked to him like a gentleman- probably not what he was expecting. He must of thought something was wrong with me because of the way i looked... but on the contrary, i thought there was something wrong with him to look at me and lie straight to my face (weird fucking hair and all) about his mower w/ mesh screen theory and not have even be concerned about what happens when you fuck with crazy people >:)

I can tell im not welcome here... my fault really. My hobbies are loud and i was born 1/2 deaf so i don't know the difference.

Seriously tho, repercutions from a crazy person?? I'd rather give em' 50 bucks and say sorry then go- ' nope nope, ya see- rocks can't fly.'

Fuckin asshole. Well despite my language, i took the whole thing pretty well and worked on cleaning the glass up until dark. I get back into it in the morning. On the plus side, it should be neat driving the car with the windows down, sunroof off and back glass out :)

Like a convertible with extra panels lol

P.s. my haircut is all in fun. Like a unicorn. Or a triceratops spike. Crazy.

Good Ole' Old School Flames & Pinstripes

2010-08-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

I have a customer named Phil who occasionally calls me to do a little pinstriping, lettering or airbrushing. This time it was a set of Harley parts painted bright blue with neon green flames. I generally like traditional flames, but not all examples are good ones. That said, Phil did a killer job on the color choices and layout of this particular paint scheme. His request was a bright yellow pinstripe to which i suggested the addition of a drop shadow. Everything came out beautifully. I always feel like the pinstripe is what completes these kind of ideas, and this is definitely a good example of that. And a little touch of airbrushing can go a long way too.

Fun Fun!

Sharpie Fiero @ Jimmy Cone

2010-08-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

While i was at the Jimmy Cone car show in Mt. Airy a nice man was photographing me drawing on the car. He also mentioned that we would like to put up an article about the car on his blog. A few email exchanges later, Wa-La. Just as fast as i could type it, this guy was editing it and posting it. He took a couple really neat pictures of the car too. And should you find yourself on his website, check out his gallery and look at some of the things he's doing with his photography of cars and bikes- way freaking cool:

http://cruiseinpix.ning.com/profiles/blogs/living-room-or-garage?xg_source=activity

The Sharpie Mac-top

2010-08-19T22:23:00.001-07:00

I call em Mac-tops because there a Mac, but they're a loptop. I had dinner with Caity and our friend Alix tonight at the Ihop in Rockville. I think Alix brought the mac-top on purpose so i sharpie it up while we ate dinner. We ate, i sharpied, it was cool. The mac-top certainly ressembles the Fiero. Fun fun!