Like everything I do, its in a reverse order. I want to bike someday in a KSR. That’s about the only bike short enough for me. Do I have a bike? no.
Do I have a license? no.
So to start, I got my own helmet. Nice start right. Not even sure if I will end up getting the bike. Hehe.
Anyway, I saw some cool airbrushed helmets online and I thought I would look great with a Transformers Autobot Bumblebee helmet. Everything must be yellow. Even the bike. And of course I planned my outfit already. Now.. a bike.. errr…
I shelved this project many times. At first I tried doing it with airbrush, it was a complete failure. I couldn’t get it done with masking, nor was I good enough to do it freehand. I kept it outside my house and it collected lots of dirt and dust. The glue from the masking melted into the rubber, bad bad bad.
And to top that all, I have forgotten where I placed the visor, rubbers and styrofoam I removed so long ago.
After months of sitting in dust, I finally took the liberty and slapped some acrylic on it. OMG, it was so much faster with brush and acrylic. Still the details were a pain to duplicate for each side.
This is all painted with acrylic and I am hoping that the factory I always send my car and gears for repainting can slap a huge amount of lacquer on it to protect the paint.
Turns out it costs only 40 bucks to lacquer it. Good connection helps! Really helps. Let me know if you need to repaint your car, I can recommend you this factory. Usually if you send it to car workshops, they’ll still send to a factory. And money get wasted on the way. Doing direct is the best!
This is how it looks after lacquer and all the parts in place. So proud of my bumblebee helmet. Hope you get to see it on the road soon enough. Just look for the smallest bike where everything is YELLOW!!
This Saturday I had the greatest time of my life at that Art of Speed in Publika. You can still catch it today(Sunday 24th June). I recently took an airbrushing class and is really excited to see what the Malaysia artists have to offer for this event.
Vintage Japanese and Italian Bikes
KY and I went there to be greeted by vintage bikes. Not much art going on on those bikes but they are still a beauty to behold.
A really beautiful airbrushed vintage bike
Our first moment of gushing came when we saw this bike. It was a black shaded airbrushed art of skulls and flames. The skills of the artist is really evident here. Plus the bike is beautifully lacquered.
Scrubbed to shine
Every part of this bike is really shiny. I wouldn’t mind having this bike. So beautiful
More Vespas?
There were a lots of Vespas on that day restored to 70′s colors.
A vespa 3 wheeler
This cute little truck is officially classified as a motorbike and only costs RM 2 for it to be road legal. I would love to see this on the road, might cause a traffic slowdown for other drivers to gape at the doorless little thing.
Lots of Impala's that day
Most of the pinstripes on cars were done on Impalas. Thinking of how they got the cars into this area….
Interior of one the Impala
Found this Impala with the hood open. Everything is cleaned and polished but the radiator cover has Japanese wordings on it. ;p One of my friend would call that a asian bastard cap in an American car.
Airbrushed miniature car
There were also customized miniatures on show. Really detailed, some of them comes in decals too.
Internals
A few of the artists were showing off bits of car parts that look beautiful in photo.
Pinstriped art
These were some of the pinstripe arts that I found today. Some of them weren’t quite up to my expectations but I really love the brushwork on the right one.
Airbrushed and pinstriped skateboards
There were about 3 or 4 skateboards exhibited in the gallery. Looks good but I prefer something with a more mature color scheme.
Pinstripe artist at work
I managed to find a pinstripe artist that has really good brush technique and gleaned some techniques from his demo. Most of them were using 1-shot enamels and showing demos to the crowd.
Airbrush artists at work
That’s my sifu on the left performing his airbrush demo and another fellow artist on the right doing his demo on a canvas.
Airbrushed and pinstriped helmets
The art on helmets there were a plenty, from flames to pinstripes to metal flakes.
One of my favorite piece
This was one of my favorite items on display. The helmet is a mixture of airbrush, painting and get this.. comictones etched on it. It costs RM 1500.. if it is around 800 I could have justify buying this half faced helmet.
Custom bicycles
There were cool customized bicycles on display. Most of them could not be ridden but there were someone riding around in one of them. It is quite a funny sight to watch as the handle was so high when the pedals are almost touching the floor.
I am quite pleased to see the automotive art of the local artists in this event… Kinda feel at peace somehow.. knowing you are not alone doing this.
Btw, I been hearing all about Samsung Galaxy S3 and how awesome it is. It is apparently smarter than you could ever be and knows what you want before you even do. You can get this Android 4.8″ HD display phone with 8 megapixel camera from as low as RM 1398 with Celcom Exec. More at http://celcom.com.my/smartphones.
Today is so tiring for me.. Just started Paintlust work again and this time we are working on location at Dulux. I managed to find some time between brush strokes to make a call to Amir from Vatos Airbrush Studio. I asked about the equipment and the courses fee and was flabbergasted to find out that the full course is RM 3500 for 10-14 days of studying. That is about RM 250 for 2 hours a day. T_T
I can understand why it is priced that way. I mean once he departs all the knowledge to his students, he is basically creating competitors for himself and it is a fair price to pay for knowledge like that. I found out that the airbrush alone is RM 1000 ++ without the compressor. Wow. This project seems so desolate and lost now.
However, I am lucky and grateful for he sms back with a few more affordable choices. Yay!
RM 500 for a 2 days course
RM 800 for a 3 days course
RM 1500 for an advance 5 days class
RM 3500 for full course
The numbers are abit off arithmetically but who cares! I can afford a 2 days course which covers the basic of automotive airbrushing. I don’t really need the techniques for airbrushing cuz for that… Google is my friend. The important stuff I need to know is the kind of paint I need to use, how to do the finishing, equipment handling and safety regulations. The paint is toxic and it scares the hell out of me. I am terrified of mortality ever since my dad passed away.
Anyway, on Saturday I head to Amir’s crib in Klang for the lesson.
Greeted with art on cars
There were 2 cars in WIP stage right in this corner lot house. I feel so excited already seeing the art. >_<
Airbrush techniques 101
Amir taught me how to disassemble and assemble the airbrush, explained to me all the tools and paint I would need for my car job and also where I could find the stuff I need to buy. I am growing to respect this guy more and more, it is very inspiring to meet an artist so humble and willing to share his pool of knowledge. He did told me he wanted to continue going to courses hosted by artists that inspired him, Dru Blair is one of them. And it struck me that, once you are immersed in your profession for a long time, sometimes ego gets to you and you feel like you know it all you know what I mean… this is a reminder that I ought to seek for creative knowledge more and really nurture the artist in me.
My first attempt at airbrush
Handling the airbrush is not easy, keeping your hand steady is no easy task. One of the most difficult thing in this process to me is the balance between the pressure on the finger button and the distance between the airbrush and the canvas. I still can’t get the airbrush to respond to how I want it to yet and it can be a little frustrating at times. I think I need at least a month’s practice just to be able to tame the airbrush.
Airbrush master at work
Ok I have an updated list of things to buy after this session. Boy I am glad I held out in buying those items. Phew.
Pinstriping Masters Techniques,Tricks,and Special F/X for Laying Down the Line USD 37
CarMix paint from Mercury Paints, local automotive brand
Intercoat to lock the artwork
Normal thinner, 2k thinner & turpentine
Sword striping brushes from Mack, Amir told me bout buying pin striping brushes from Sarawak but I still have 2 brushes stashed in my US address.. so I am gonna take this opportunity to get some striping swords from US while I am at it.
Matte clear coat
Automotive masking tape
Airbrush and compressor RM 735
A short demo by Amir
At the end of the day, Amir presented to me a painting done during his demonstration. It is very captivating to watch an artist at work, unless it is Vinn cuz I see her work every damn day. Lol. Ever since I returned to art, I feel so so so much happier and joyful
Now that this is taken care off, I can spend my time working on the car design. Finally!
Anyway, if you need airbrush art done on cars check out Amir’s works at Facebook. I would definitely recommend him as well if you are looking for airbrush classes in Malaysia.
OMG I just checked my spam folder and found a lot of emails from hazelong.com’s enquiry form!!! T_T So sorry everyone. If I didn’t reply you can email me at hazelong@gmx.com immediately and I will reply asap!
My adrenaline has yet to slow down.. still so very excited about this. In the beginning of every art project, I would always seek for more and more information and knowledge. The learning part of the journey is the most enjoyable one, I feel at ease only when I am constantly doing something interesting.
Doesn’t this look amazing?
So this post will be about information that I have gathered so far.
Pinstriping Masters Techniques, Tricks & Special FX for laying down the lines
Things to buy soon : Note that this may not be the cheapest, I am not a fan of searching high and low for the cheapest price. I like to get things fast and on the spot without much delay in making decisions.
Pinstriping Masters Techniques,Tricks,and Special F/X for Laying Down the Line USD 37
Kafka pin striping brushes in 3 sizes from 0 – 3 USD 37.41
Normal 1 shot reducer
1 shot 5 primary color set
Vinyl Primer
Hardener
Graphiguard
1 Shot paint, reducer & clears
I have emailed Tom’s Stickers and is very pleased with their prompt response regarding the car wrap enquiries. They have a branch in Shah Alam which would be quite convenient for me to go to.
1. Color limitations of the printing : no limit
2. Duration of the car wrap application : 2-5 days ( depends on the design)
3. Resolution & file format of the design : high res is preferable, ai, psd,eps
4. Template for the design if any : only send out design once payment receive (I was asked to go to their show room to discuss with the designer there first)
5. Price for glossy car wrap print and application : around RM3k
Creative decisions are the hardest to make. I can’t even decide on the background color.. which will basically be the main color of my car. Deciding on the illustration is even worse. All I know is I want a girl in there, a beast of some sorts and some abstract illustrations (hopefully lines so I can do it with pinstriping)
I do have some inspiration so far though..Here are they in bits and pieces.
Split in two colors with a bleed from the lower half right over the windows.
Something to enhance the curves of the car..
Chip Foose design
This is probably how I will split the tones in my car, but different flow and the white parts will be illustrated of course.
On further thinking, spending 3k on car wrap and another 1k plus on pin striping is bit ridiculous for me as that is half the price of a motorbike that I wanted to buy for so long. Buying an airbrush set with the pin striping is more affordable. I found an artist in Shah Alam that sells airbrush kits, does automotive airbrushing and gives classes. What more could I ask for? Time to contact the guy and see how it goes.
