The Sharpie Helmet

                                         ^^ All of these were taken BEFORE clear coat^^

                                          ^^ Here it is in the booth getting cleared by me  :)

                                          ^^The original helmet

Yesterday afternoon I was handed a brand new Simpson Racing helmet that belongs to one of the customers at Cw Restorations... and it was white. With the owner only asking me to incorporate a few details- he said the rest was up to me. So naturally, I say Sharpie! A little diss assembly and prep later and I was layin' some ink down. The helmet was a really interesting shape to draw on-  constant curve. First it was one of those fun new challenges, then it was the catalyst for the flow and shape of things. A little bit last night, and a little bit this morning and the ink was done. I incorporated the owners name (Mike Wong), shop name (CW), car name (Cam-Manche), and my name/site (C. Dunlop/www.pinstripechris.com)-  I got everything in there and in a way that isn't too distracting I think. Next step was to run over to the shop and get it the rest of the way ready for clear, and clear it. A short while later and it was SHINEY. I'm still having debates with people about the effects of clear coat on Sharpie... but that's alright. Here's another example of the possibilities. I'll post finished photos soon!

TRON style Motorcycle Helmet

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.

Back to work... Pinstriping and Sharpie that is

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!