Part Deux

The Artwork 

 

 

Well, now that you've spent hours and hours prepping and patching and sanding and painting, it's time to start splashing paint.... right? WRONG! .... Now we have to begin the most delicate part of our project. So why would we consider just jumping in to it without careful planning and preparation. This project still required that I carefully plan out the size of my artwork, colour and theme balance and which pieces will go where to create a visual flow. In other words, what am I trying to accomplish with this project?

I begin by choosing which pictures will go where on my bike. I draw sketches of each to the size of the bike piece on which they will be painted. Choosing the piece that I plan to work on (in this case, the tank), I begin by masking off the tank area only where I will be working. Use non. absorbant paper to mask off the the rest of the tank. Do not be frugal on this step. Make sure that you have enough overlap to prevent ANY overspray from finding it's way into places that you did not want painted. (If you get some overspray, and you probably will, very light sanding of the affected area should do the trick.) The next step is to transfer your sketch onto the tank. Don't know how?  CLICK HERE  and I'll share a little trick.

 

Before you can even begin painting, I always reccomend that you meticulously choreograph the step by step process that you are going to use to tackle the project. If there are many steps, then I'll even write them down. I look at two concerns when approaching my project. 1. I don't want to be doing an inordinate amount of colour changes therefore I try to identify all the areas of like colour. 2. I do not want to be doing additional masking or cutting. so I look to determine which areas will allow me to continue to remove mask and at the same time will not be prone to picking up overspray. A little effort up front can save hours of masking, cutting and reduce the chances of missing areas.

 

Since we now have a game plan, it's time to "dig in" and get started. I begin by carefully cutting out every line and piece on my mask. I do this up front because once I start shooting, much of the artwork can become obscurred. Although I could erase the paint and probably re-establish my linework, why bother? It's all got to be cut out sooner or later so why not do it now? Also, once the linework is cut, it becomes a snap to relocate even if the drawn lines become obscurred.

 

Note: When cutting, do not get cheap with the blades. I changed to a new blade 3 times during this project. I trace the outline of my sketch very lightly mainly relying on the weight of the knife to acheive the correct cutting depth. When the knife demands any pressure, it's time to change blade. With practice, you will actually be able to feel the "drag" of the blade over the tank's surface (without leaving any cut marks).

 

Helpful Hint: If you're not committed to using the old standard "exacto knife" try using a scalpel holder. They use the standard exacto blades (although I perfer scalpel blades) and the have a better feel and balance

 

Cut marks WILL show up in the finished artwork

 

We start by removing those shadows that have very hard edges, the shoe areas and the bow pieces in the girl's hair. To these areas I apply dark brown. Continue to remove and shoot the shoe and bow areas until completed.

 

Since we'll be utilizing the gold tank colour to show the edging on the dress, thus separating the dress area from the skin areas, I chose to shade in the darker shaded areas of her body and "flesh out" the muscle contouring. This way, I'm still using the same brown colour

 

Using that same dark brown, I remove the areas of the dress and lay in the loose masked and free-hand vingnettes that become the folds and creases in the dress

 

As shown in the previous image, I discreetly use white to enhance the contouring, accent highlight areas and to "knock down" or "blend in" the shaded areas.

 

Light brown (tan) is blended into the flesh tones of the skin areas to complete the blending process. I then come back with white to re-establish the highlighted areas.

 

Note: Quite often I'm asked by my students "what is the flesh-tone colour and how do you mix it"? As you may have noticed, I do not mix colours (with few exceptions). Instead, I prefer to try to emulate nature by building the desired finished colour through "layering". Some might disagree with this approach but I feel that this technique makes it easier to create that "depth" that turns a two dimensional picture into a popping three dimensions. I spend a great deal of time reinforcing, to my students, the importance of looking into the subject that you wish to paint and painting from the inside, outwards to the surface. Sometimes I find myself laying down colour that I completely cover over later. However, experience has taught me that the end product becomes very believable to the viewers eye. In other words .... if you shortcut a project by leaving out a step or colour, there most certainly will be a price to pay in the end result! Paint what you see!

 

Adding.a drop of black to my dark brown to darken it up just a little more, I finish detailing the dress and complete the shading process. Follow up by applying the final white highlights.

 

White is the most powerful colour in the artist's palette and must be treated with great respect. There is a fine balance required to "create the illusion". This may require an ongoing "knocking down" of the white and then re-applying it until the best results are acheived....so use white sparingly and with discriminate care!

 

In case you didn't notice, I haven't yet broached the subject of the girls's face or hair. That's because I approached this project in four basic steps or in other words, I approached it as four seperate project's Namely:

1. bow and shoes

2. body

3. dress

4. face and hair

 

Begin the face by carefully removing the eye sockets and lip area and shooting these areas with white. I do this because I want the lips and eyes, being the only "colour" in this piece to be vibrant. The lips were then painted red. When completed, I replaced the eye and lip masks.

 

I remove the mask around the hair and shoot in my base orange colouring. Be careful not to "over do" it around the head area or the hair will look like a poor hairpiece on Burt Reynolds.

 

Remove the face masking and "knock down" any hard edge between the face and the hairline. Using Light Brown, shade in the face area. Using a 5-0 nylon brush (I find this brush works very well with my acrylic paints) and Dark brown, add all the facial details (eye brows, eye lashes,eyeballs, hot spots on eyes, lip separation, white highlights on lips, nostrils and all other assorted creases and wrinkles. Don't forget the strands of hair. When completed the subtle white shading and highlighting to the face and hair is added to finalize the contouring of the facial features.

 

I hope that by reading and understanding the processes involved in doing this project, that you've also come to appreciate the value of careful planing before taking on an airbrush project. More importantly, the ability to "see" the colours contained within the subject material allows you create the "illusion" of depth and texture. I find that teaching the basic mechanics of airbrushing is not difficult. Learning them is just as easy. All it requires is
practice, practice, practice but to truly understand your subject material, you have to discard all the axioms taught to you from childhood. For example ....... that red corvette through your eyes should appear as transparent red over a white base with blue-purple shadows, white hotspots with possibly, red-tinged brown down by the bottom of the doors and lower fenders.The cracks between the body panels are black (but not stark). The windows and headlights are a combination of blue, white with a hard masked light black areas...... Can you see where I am going with this? YOU MUST PAINT WHAT YOU SEE!

 

Sorry for the lecture but I got into my "teacher" mode there for a short while. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this "How To" session and please stop by my home page to provide comments in my Guest Book.

 

Please continue to visit my website 'cause I'm always updating it

 

Best Wishes & Keep on Shooting,

 

  Doctor Airbrush