blazing six string (airbrushing flames on a guitar)

7/29/2019 Blazing Six String (Airbrushing Flames on a Guitar)

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BlazingSixStringbyJanLarkman(Airbrushingflamesonaguitar)

By Jan Larkman

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Think hot-rodding is only for cars? Think again. Artist Jan Larkman flames out a guitar.

Hot-rodding a guitar is a project Ive wanted to undertake for quite some time. After doing some paintingson motorcycle gas tanks with Createx Auto Air jamming, if you will I finally bought my canvas, a

used guitar. Although the instrument was in bad shape for playing, the body was suitable for painting.

Before anything else, all the old or non-working parts had to go. I replaced them with new, suped up

hotrod parts, many of which I had to special order. While I was waiting for the new parts to arrive, the

concept for the paint job came to me: 1970s-inspired flames on a black and white checkerboard. I was

ready to get to work! Heres how it happened.

Step 1. After removing the old parts, I will the screw holes with Standox filler. Then I wet-sand the area to

be painted with 240 grit sandpaper. I mask off the red inlay and sides of the body with frisk film.

Step 2. I apply a Standox primer and wet-sand the surface with 400 grit sandpaper. I then spray Createx

Auto Air basecoat and dry-sand it lightly with 600 grit sandpaper.

Step 3. After drawing my design on tracing paper, I turn

the drawing over. On the back I retrace the whole design

in pencil. I place the paper right side up, and transfer the

design by rubbing a pencil over it. Here I am careful to

leave a very fine graphite line over the body.

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Step 4. Where theres smoke, there must be fire! After

the design is transferred, I start masking the flames,using 3M blue fine-line tape, amnd masking tape.

Step 5. Now for the fun part. I start airbrushing the top

of the flames yellow and the edges orange. (All of the

colors used on this project are from the Createx Auto

Air line, by the way.)

Step 6. After I layer in the yellow and orange, I airbrush

the ends of the flames with fire red. I then trace the

edges of the flames with red to enhance the demonic

glow.

Step 7. I carefully remove the tape from the body of the

guitar. Once the tape comes off, the intensity of the

flames is completely visible. At this point, I can clearly

see what the colors of the flames look like. If I have to

go back and correct any mistake, now is the time.

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Step 8: I want the outline to be made up of two sharpcolors side by side no pin striping. Thats why Ive

masked the outline with blue fine-line tape and the rest

of the body area with masking tape.

Step 9: I airbrush the outline blue and the tips of theflames violet.

Step 10: Before airbrushing the white checkerboard area, I mask off the blue and violet outline with blue

fine-line tape. Then I cut the tips of the flames with a Swann-Morton surgical knife. When this is done, I

mask over the black area.

Step 11: After I spray the white part, I remove the masking from the black area. I cut a slightly bigger

square on thick paper. I mask the black area with tape, which I can easily adjust to change the size of the

area if I have to. Next I start applying the final black color.

Step 12: At this point, I remove all the tape and prepare a new masking for the clear coat. I apply blue

fine-line tape around the body, following the edge of the red inlay. The rest of the guitar is protected with

masking tape. The body is now ready for the final step clear coat.

Step 13: After the first round of clear-coating, it seems the guitar needs some more coats. I wet-sand the

body with 800 grit sandpaper to prepare it for several more clear coats.

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Step 14: Heres where all the work pays off. I fit the neck and the hardware to the body. Wow! What a

difference the new parts make!

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Here are the old parts I scrapped from the guitar.

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About theArtist

Helsinki, Finland native Jan Larkman is a self-taught airbrusher. Jan has been

hooked on hot rods and dragsters since reading his first issue of Hot Rod magazine

in 1964. He bought high first airbrush, a Badger 100XF, in 1976. Jan does body

painting, comic strips, aviation art, and pinup work.

Tech File

Airbrush: Olympos HP-100 B 0.2 Air Source: Jun-Air compressor with two moisture separators

Paint Media:Createx Auto Air Masking: 3M Blue Fine-Line Tape, masking tape

OTHER: Swann-Morton surgical knife
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blazing six string (airbrushing flames on a guitar)

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