Hello all, My name's Johnny Griswold and I've been lurking around here for a little while as I was looking up information on pinstriping. I'm an aspiring 'striper and love coming here to see all the fantastic work and great/informative discussions. I'm as noob as noob can get with pinstriping. I literally just started two days ago, but it's incredibly addicting ... even if I can't make an "S" shape without blowin' out a tire! I've been an artist all my life, but pinstriping is easily the hardest craft/skill I've ever tried my hands at ... and that includes my time as a tattooist! I'm looking forward to learning a lot and meeting cool, new folks. If you're interested, I created a Tumblr blog for aspiring pinstripers like me where I try to post informative videos and inspirational designs. Pinstripe Noob Thanks for taking the time to read my introduction, everyone! -Johnny
Johnny welcome from the west coast of Florida. Pinstripping is all about practicing until your fingers hurt on everything you can. When I started I used everything in the shop that I could including old chairs, compressors, tool boxes, my mail box and lawnmowers were always a favorite of mine. Getting the One Shot paint the right consistency is a very large part of stripping. When you watch the old timers pallet a brush and then lay down some lines down the whole side of a car without pelleting their brush again they have the whole paint thing figured out. Think about getting a pint can of PaintSav which is a product that you put a few drops in each can of One Shot paint and the paint will no longer skim over on you. PaintSav is made by Sapphire a company here in Bay Pines, Florida. Their address is PO Box 4115 Bay Pines, Florida 33504-4115 Best of luck Jimbo
Welcome, fellow Pinhead, from eastern NC. Now mosey on over to the Pinhead Lounge (pinheadlounge.com) and do an intro there, too! And stay tuned to the HAMB for the Friday Art Show.....if you haven't already! These two virtual places absolutely ROCK with talent. I'm just glad they let noobies play! Both sites are addicting.
Jimbo, I'll check out PaintSav. Thanks for that tip! Will it also help with the tiny bubbles?? haha. Brett4Christ, I'm a member over on pinheadlounge, but I haven't figured out if there's an actual forum like here. Looks like a lot of fantastic photo galleries, but I didn't see a conversation area other than photo replies and such. As for the Friday Art Show, I've been paging through them like a fiend. There really are so many talented artists out there. It's a great inspiration for sure. Thanks for the tips and welcomes, guys. Truly appreciated.
Hey, I started stripping about 4 months ago. I went to the dollar store and bought some picture frames, there are a few sites that have the 100 strokes print this out and practice with the glss from the frames. Go to youtube and look up the video by Doug Dorr, after you do the 100 line exercise, grab anything that will hold still and practice. The dollar store has lots of cheap stuff you can practice on. I use a mack OO blue thread brush. They are pretty reasonable to get at my local car paint store. Ther are tons of ways to do this , you have to develop your own style, what works for you. Oh, keep some of the first stuff you do...if you practice you will get better and it's fun to look back at the stuff you did and see how much better you are getting.
Thanks, Leckemby! I've actually been doing 100 strokes on this large pane of glass that fits on my bench. Straight lines and "S" curves. It's so much harder than anything I've done, but also so much fun! I'll look for the 100 stroke print out. I hadn't seen that in my web travels yet. I just made up my own line exercises. I'm using the Mack Series 10, Size 00. I've taken pics of the glass before I clean it off for the next round of exercises. I'm curious what the difference will be like after 6 months to a year!
http://www.rockyburris.com/Pinstriping_Lessons/lesson_2_materialsyouneedtopractice.aspx It's under the drill sheets here...keep practicing!
Oh, that's fantastic, Leckemby! I'm downloading and printing them out right now. What a great resource!
Johnny: I forgot to tell you of another great source of information and inspiration to get your blood pumping to strip. Check out Auto Art Magazine Jimbo
Jimbo, Ya know, I stumbled across that website last night, but the layout and design of it was so distracting, I had to turn the computer off. Haha. I'll poke around the site again when it's not 2 in the morning so I make sure I don't miss any important/useful info and, of course, the inspirational stuff! Thanks again! So much appreciated.
Thanks, ralphie. I'm hoping it's helpful to other "noobs" and at least interesting for the casual/professional visitors.
welcome from illinois. I agree; start on glass and just practice lines. Line quality is the most important key to pinstriping. And don't stop either if you get discouraged. Just keep at it. Plenty of Stripers on this site, just find one of us and ask a question if ya got it -kyle
Very cool, Kyle. There are a ton of questions that pop up as I look at photos on here and various sites, but they are more advanced questions. Probably best that I just stick with practicing my lines right now. I hit the glass every day and see improvement each time! When you say, "us," can I assume you're a striper I can find if I have a question?
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