I have another group art show coming up faster then I can handle at the moment and while stalling to do the real work I figured that some people might has seen some of the stencil art work from skate board shows of the Committed Few decks I have done and might be interested in the process behind the finished work… well here is a bit of a rundown of the last Committed Few skate deck done to tour the country for various board exhibitions.
This design was off insipration to do a gasser but I didn’t want to do a Willys or a mid 50′s chev as I had seen alot of done well already so decided to roll out a sweet old vette. The design stage takes more time than the process of the cutting so there are no real exciting photos to show you so we will move right along to the stencil:
This is the break down of all the layers I’ll need to cut out to make my art work…. a long night ahead and about 3/4 a bottle of whiskey and 1/2 doz brews – power on!
I use a scalpel and surgical knife blades – Number 10A’s, everything is cut by hand so I can add or subtract details and get real precise where I want, I use medium thickness paper to aid in maintaining detail but this also means I get about 3 sprays out of the works if I’m very careful in application.
This shot gives an idea of the sort of detail I get into a work, it is a balancing act of going very delicate and fucking up the whole work when it falls apart or half assing it with a crap lazy low detail job – I go for the close to fucking it up option every time, call me a SUCKER!
This probably shows it a bit better, alot of little holes.
Well after the cutting is done on all the layer, I check out my spray can stock to find out that I am out of the main colour I need or I change my mind and go with a new colourup at the last min – by this time I am usually keen to hammer it out and put the paint down – reality and experience has taught me that this is where everything can go the most wrong and is harder to go back from a mistake…. so my advise is enjoy the fumes and crank up some tunes while you watch paint dry and you will be rewarded.
Once the first layer is down you are committed – everything sits on where you placed the first background so get it right. I add in over and under spray for fill and texture on my work – it’s just what I do as I find people think it is a print or a screan print if it looks to perfect.
This is the stencil layer for painting in the size for the gold and silver leaf work I do. Some people do it differently, this is just how i like to put it down, from here I lift off the stencil then lay down the leaf work and let it set for a bit and rub it away with a soft cloth and a dry brush…. just don’t sneeze that foil shit goes everywhere.
I again following on with the imperfect finish I try to flake out or lightly apply some of the foil in areas and use broken sheets of leaf over eachother to give lines in the gold.
Final Layer… ready to put it down!
Well thats the basic cut and foil and paint and basic end result – from here It got all the coats of the varnish which gives a bit of a yellow/ brown tone to the thing and I like how it really pops but still looks hand done with the streaky rought gloss paint job, once it has done it’s tour I’ll get some nice studio shots of it and the first Pontiac Woodie wagon one we did.
