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A
Study in Chrome and Reflected Surfaces by A.D. Cook ( Part 1 ) Published in Airbrush Action Magazine, April 2001 |
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Title: Indian Summer |
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Size and
Surface: 48” x 36” on 100% pure cotton duck stretched
canvas.
For the purpose of this painting, I’m working on Monet Master Wrap Canvas
by Masterpiece Artist Canvas. Additional preparation includes several thinned
coats of acrylic matte medium. |
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Equipment and Materials List |
| - Artograph Projector - Shark Great White Compressor - Iwata HP-C Airbrush - Hand Masker Paper/Tape Dispenser - Masking Tape - 1/8”, 1/4”, 1/2”, 3/4”, 1-1/2”, 2” and 3” rolls - 12” Masking Paper (rolls) - X-Acto Knife with #11 Blades - Artool Freehand Airbrush Templates - Mahl Stick - 4” Chinese Bristle Brush - Acetate Sheets - Canvas - Golden Matte Medium - Frisk Canvas Mask - Com-Art Transparent and Opaque Paints - 3M ReMount Repositionable Spray Adhesive - Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating |
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| It started in October
on a beautiful Indian summer’s day. In Oregon, those kind of
days are rare - especially for autumn. So, I called my buddies at
Indian Motorcycle of Portland
and asked them if they had a bike I could borrow for the afternoon.
They were kind enough to offer me anything on the floor, and a hot
red Indian Chief caught my eye. I've been wanting to take one of
those out for a spin for quite a while, and the day and the opportunity
where perfect. The Chief and I made our way to a cool Portland park
with a pristine lake. So after shooting a couple good rolls of film,
I had reference material for my next painting - the fifth in an ongoing
motorcycle series of works. I prefer to work from my own reference photos because I like knowing the painting is mine from beginning to end, and I enjoy the process of shooting good reference material. The process also helps me to better understand the subject matter at hand. Additionally, I know there won’t be any copyright concerns using my own photos, versus painting from someone else’s images. When I process the film I always order two sets of prints. This allows me to have a backup print in case my reference material gets damaged or lost in the process of working on the painting. You don’t want to be left without your reference photo under a tight deadline and have to wait for new prints to be made. |
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Step 1: Transferring
Your Drawing to Canvas |
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| I start each painting by projecting my reference material onto the canvas and draw it with a 9H drawing pencil. Once the image is drawn, I spray the complete canvas with workable fixative which allows me to work on the piece without smudging the lead. The goal when projecting your image is to simply put enough information on the canvas to work with. Not every bit of detail is necessary in the drawing process, but you will need to draw enough to fully understand what you’re about to paint. |  |
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| I’ve apply several coats of Golden Matte Medium thinned with distilled water over the drawing. Matte Medium works as translucent ground to prepare support when an opaque gesso is not desired. This process will help to smooth out the canvas’ surface and create a nice surface for spraying. I lay the canvas flat and use my hands to massage the Medium into the surface. By doing this, I’ve also completely sealed my drawing into the painting, which assures me that there is no way to smear the pencil drawing. Allow at least a day for the Medium to dry between coats. This painting required six separate applications of thinned Matte Medium. | ||
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Step
2: Masking |
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Because of the scale of
my work I tend to work with masking tape and hand masking units
with masking papers. Don’t cut corners on the quality of
the masking tape. In my experience, 3M masking tape works best
because it doesn’t leave residue on the canvas’ surface.
I keep 1/8”, 1/4”, 1/2”, 3/4”, 1-1/2”,
2” and 3” rolls on hand. For masking paper, I prefer
12” wide rolls commonly used by house painters. Additionally,
I find painters tape [which is available in 2” and 3” wide
rolled paper with a light adhesive on the back] very handy for
the quick masking of small areas. All of these tools and materials
are available at most hardware stores, sign supply shops and home
improvement centers. I initially start by outlining and masking the shapes with 1/8” and 1/4” tape and other sizes as needed, then fill in larger areas with tape and paper. Burnish down edges of tape everywhere with your fingers, and where they cross over other pieces of tape use your fingernail to burnish the intersections. Burnishing prevents paint from seeping under the tape and which would leave a rough undesirable edge. For highly detailed sections, you can lay down a large piece of masking tape or Frisk Canvas Mask and cut pieces out with an X-Acto knife. Always use a new blade and be extremely careful not to cut into the canvas’ surface. |
| It’s important to make sure you thoroughly mask and paper over everything that you don’t want overspray to find. Don’t assume that because an area is several inches from where you’re painting that it won’t pick up overspray, as overspray has a tendency to travel quite a distance, especially when painting larger areas. | ||
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Step 3: Painting
the Background
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| I start spraying my background
with an Iwata HP-C airbrush. Com-Art transparent and opaque airbrush
paints will be used for the complete painting. The water background
in this painting is actually a murky duck pond, so I’ve started
to block-in the water areas with a mixture of Opaque Phthalo Green
mixed with Opaque White to create a soft watery green. The darker
of my blue-greens is a mixture of Opaque Phthalo Green, opaque
Chrome Green, Opaque Cerulean Blue and White. These are only base
colors, as I will add many other colors to create a realistic,
yet soft-focus background. Additionally, I use a little transparent
Forest Green thinned with a couple drops of Transparent Smoke
to give the water a murky look. I paint my water with my canvas
flipped over so that the top of the canvas is at the bottom. Flipping
the image makes it easier for me to see the shapes of the water,
rather than what I “think” water should look like.
I start by spraying wavy patterns with the blue-greens and blue
blends. I lightly spray over the entire area with various blends
of White mixed with Opaque Cerulean Blue of the colors to soften
the background colors. |
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Step
4: The Sidewalk
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Unlike the water, the warm concrete sidewalk ground is painted to look rough. I start with light cream colors, which I’ve made by mixing White, a little Opaque Raw Umber and couple drops of Transparent Black to create a dirty white for the concrete’s base color. For the cast shadows on the ground, I’ve mixed some White, opaque Black, added some blues and a little opaque Orange. Before painting the sidewalk, I copy what I have drawn on the canvas onto acetate. This is important because shadow position will be critical in creating a believable resting place for the motorcycle. Be sure to mark the acetate for position so that it can be accurately repositioned later. I’ve painted the complete sidewalk area first with my lighter colors, and then placed my acetate templates with 3M ReMount Repositionable Adhesive and airbrush the shadows. Next, I use my Iwata HP-C airbrush with the nozzle off and the air pressure set low to add stipple texture in the ground. |
Step
5: Stenciling Details
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Using a stencil burner, I burn several
holes of various sizes in a piece of acetate to create a mask for
the stones in the concrete. The template I’ve created for
this painting is about 8” x 6” with about 30 holes
in it. Most of the holes are only about 1/4” in diameter,
and other are as large as 3/4”. By making the pattern erratic
enough, you can simply rotate the stencil and cover a lot of ground
without it looking like a small stencil was used. Using assorted
blends of browns and blues, I paint the stones and complete the
ground texture. Once the paint is dry you can remove the masking
tape and paper. I like to give the painting a least a day before
masking over painted areas to make sure that it is thoroughly dry. |
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Step 6: Tanks and Fenders
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I
start the motorcycle by painting the tanks and fender first,
leaving the chrome for last since all other colors are reflected
in the chrome. I like the colors in my reference photo so I’m
painting the bike pretty much as I see it - red hot! |
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Step
7: Spraying The Red
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Before starting, I mix enough paint to do all the reds and still have some left for the chrome areas and touch-up later. My primary color mixture for the tank and fenders is opaque Deep Red, opaque Toluidine Red, and a little opaque Naphthol Red. I spray the red areas entirely with this color before considering shadows or reflections, which will come later. I’m simply establishing the bike’s base color at this point. I start with horizontal strokes several inches away from the canvas’ surface. I follow those up with vertical strokes and then again with diagonal strokes. Lastly, I apply strokes that follow the bikes lines. Between applications, I rotate the canvas to help assure color evenness - this is a good reason to make sure that the canvas is thoroughly masked to avoid overspray. My goal here is to have solid areas of color without any visible strokes or pattern. I’ve applied about tens coats overall to achieve an even color distribution of the red. Since I’m using opaque colors all of the drawing on the canvas will be covered. That’s why it’s important to transfer this information to acetate before painting in your base colors. |
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Step 8: Masking
The Tank
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| Once the base “hot red” is
finished, I carefully mask the tank to isolate it from the fender.
Since most of the tank is already masked, I use 1/4” masking
tape to outline the edge and use 12” masking paper to protect
the fender areas. It’s important here to remember to burnish
the edges of the tape down with your fingernail so that the intersections
[where one masking tape crosses over another] are crisp. I mix approximately two parts “hot red” with one part opaque Phthalo Green [creating a deep red] for the dark shadow areas. I’ve used the green for this because it is red’s complimentary color. Many of the larger highlight areas include opaque White mixed with my hot red, and a few drops of opaque Magenta added to brighten it up a little. As I get into lighter and darker areas I adjust the colors as needed. I also use straight white to under-paint some of the hotter areas and glaze over with the other reds. Additionally, the tops of the tanks which get the most light, will receive a light mist of transparent Bright Red to warm it up a bit. Since there is already some Magenta mixed into my opaque Red highlight color, it doesn’t take much to warm it up - I just want to push the white back a little. I slowly building up my colors while painting the shadow and reflections by airbrushing freehand, and with a combination of acetates and hand-held shields - no additional masking is used for these areas. |
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| The hot spots and glows are sprayed
with straight opaque White. Often, you’ll
see these glows with a little red halo (or glow) around them, but when they’re
on red the halo goes unseen, so just using white is sufficient, so long as it’s
not overdone. As we get into the chrome areas the red halo will be more obvious. Once the tanks are done, I allow the paint a day to dry and move on to the fender. Because the fender is further from view than the tanks, I paint the shadows and reflections with a much softer edge. This is done by doing a little more freehand spraying, and when using templates, I keep them away from the surface enough to soften the edges. This can be done by hand-holding the templates or making a loop of masking tape and putting it behind the acetate to hold it away from canvas’ the surface. When doing the later, be sure to spray with low air pressure [under 20 psi], and build colors slow so that the paint doesn’t sneak behind the acetate and leave a shadow of the tape. |
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© 1989-2008
A.D. Cook - ADCook LLC. A.D. Cook Fine Art Studios — Las Vegas, Nevada USA — (702) 875-5676 |
