My Airbrushing Odssey: Let the JOURNEY begin.

[AnthonyJr]

Turned out pretty good. The cracks look good, the tears look good, and the scales have great depth.

Great job and keep them coming

[Diviner]

Objectives

• Flame Design
• Large Logo spanning over different areas

What worked

• Flames. Pretty easy all things considered.
• Gunmetal black vs straight black.
• Overall Design. Design elements + flames not getting in each others way.
• Not putting on a third knock back flame color. 2 plus white accents was enough.

What didn't

• Too many flames cluttered the design
• Lifting of gunmetal when doing Logo
• Flames needed to be more at an angle to create a sense of motion

After watching true flames videos I went with the blue flames. In summary:
1) base white for heat source
2) template white and free hand for softening near tips
3) Push back with a candy color
4) repeat 2 (or more) times varying color on the third time.
5) Fill with black to hide mistakes
6) Accent with final white.

Step 1) Templates & Paint
Started by googling "true flame templates" and found public domain flame set. Cut them out of card stock. Well, I didn't have any candy color so I used semi opaque process blue and transparent deep blue (didn't use purple pearl for flames even though I intended to).



Step 2) Practice > Layer 1
Shooting on black paper.
(L) White with template and freehand
(M) Push back with process blue
(R) Starting with 2nd layer of white



Step 3) Practice > Layer 2
(L) Pushing with 2nd round of semi opaque process blue.
(M) Pushed with transparent deep blue (didn't add another layer of white)
(R) I didn't like any of the templates. Not enough gullets so I made my own of different sizes.

Step 4) Taping and first bands.
The theme was fire and ice so I need to get red in there somehow. After it was taped up it had a batman look (L). I kept the lower front free from design elements and planned for the windshield to be dark so the flames could pop. I did some basic whisps on the lower area (M) and did a stepped gradient on the top blue band (R).


Step 5) Rest of the Canopy base.
(L) Purple windshield with diviner logo (just like I did 250 Moxy).
(M) Waiting for field area. I chose to add black to metallic silver rather than go just black.
(R) The white pins were too strong against the dark colors so I pushed them back with transparent black when I was putting on the corner accents. In retrospect I don't think this was needed since the multiple coats of flames knocked them back.



Step 6) Flames Layer 1
(L) White dusting at flame source + freehand (a little sloppy)
(M) Template white work + freehand tips.
(R) Blue wash coat. Layer 1 done.


Step 7) Layer 2
(L) Repeat white and deep blue wash. 2nd layer done. I stopped at the second layer as it was already too busy.
(M) I went back with black to create more negative space.
(R) Final white accents. A bit sloppy.


Step 8) Logo
(L) Mask over transparent medium sealer (not enough however).
(M) Lifting. I ran out of medium and didn't bother to refill the the cup (too lazy). I thought there was enough coverage. I didn't take into account the mask size. Plus the blue tape is more sticky which I needed so I wouldn't get leaching.
(R) I thinned the white too much and didn't press the tape down enough because I was afraid of lifting. I repaired it with a Qtip passing a paint brush.




COMPLETED PHOTOS

[Diviner]

The journey is nearing the end.





Just 2 more posts left . . .

[Diviner]

Here is the fleet.


and a detail shot



Final words of wisdom.
1) To avoid lifting use transfer tape (lightest tack as possible). I bought it from Beacon Graphics. Masking tape has too much tack.
2) When locking down layers with transparent, let it dry overnight. Even at 4 hours of dry time I still had lifting.
3) .2mm tip is too small. It got clogged too often.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

[amcutem]

You skills and patient make me sick. nice work