How NOT to become a world famous pinstripe artist!

Here it is. My first attempt. I get impatient and I didn't want to practice much. I used a 00 and I think it was too small. Can I cut the end to make it a little bigger? I had trouble with the brush fanning out too. The brush didn't want to hold it's shape. The paint seemed too thin on the white. It was straight out of the can though. I had my design all planned out on paper, and then on the left side I zigged when I should have zagged. Now why the fuck did I do that?! Doh!

So have at it. Rip me apart!

 

Wow, that's cool. I love that funky '50s appliance green color!

 

Practice makes perfect. You think you were good your first time in bed??? You WILL get better

 

Shit man ! That dont look bad! Helluva lot better than I could do!!!

 

Okay.

First I would suggest getting an old window to practice on instead of parts right away. I have not striped anything in two years so I'd look like a Parkinson's patient, too.

Practice
Practice
Practice

Don't cut your brush, a 00 is fine to learn with.

Are you using your other hand to steady your painting hand? A stick? Anything? That would help. When making curves, roll your hand into the curve.

This is a job for C9, he has the best advice.

 

hehe...
kool man...well your still the best Calander designer in dah world...

\m/_

MAIKI

 

Hey, If it were easy everyone would do it. A couple tips that the folks here have given me lately is use a hard surface pencil (you can get them at art stores) to sketch your design lightly or at least mark a center line if you want the design to be symetrical. Like my art teacher once said. "There is no cheating in art." I found it lets me concentrate more on controling the brush and less on design while I learn. Every one you do will get better, I'm up to pathetic already!
George

 

I was trying to use my pinky to steady myself. How do you use your other hand to steady without dragging across the striping? My fingers kept wanting to hold the brush at the band instead of the handle. I kept catching myself and had to readjust my grip so I could roll the brush in my fingers. Are the bristles supposed to be fairly tight? I'm not sure how to describe this but when I've seen guys striping, the brush itself seemed almost like it was dry, or had almost dry paint in it, giving a more constant shape. Where in my case, the brush would fan out all over the place if I wasn't careful. I have the brush in tranny fluid right now. Should I have not used the brush right "out of the box"?

 

If thats your first time, then it looks pretty good. My first striping attempt looked like CRAP. Of course it was before I got some Mack's, and I was using a cheap testors brush. Eventually, you get better. I've still got years to go and tons of practice. One thing I suggest is maybe laying out some flames, painting them, then stripe the flames, outline them. That will help you (at least it helped me) learn how to hold the brush to follow curves. Don't give up though. I've still got a long way to go, but its COOL nad FUN

 

It will definitely help to use some SOMETHING (baby oil, motor oil, pomade, snot, whatever) to shape the brush when it first comes out of the box.

Another tip is to copy down every single striped line you see into a book or something. I have a notepad here at my desk at work, and every time Grimlok or Toyghoul any of those other guys that actually know what they're doing posts a picture of something they've striped, I copy what they did into my notebook. I've found that just doing this helps get your brain thinking "on the fly" a little bit better...so the next time you draw a centerline and start going to town you sort of have a "feel" for when you should zig or zag.

My last words of, uh, wisdom are go to Home Depot and blow $25 on a box of floor tiles to practice on. I had a bunch left over after I tiled my bathroom, and the things make great panels to practice on when you're sitting in front of the TV at the end of the day...smooth texture, small size to keep from getting lost in your lines while you're practicing, and when you're done they actually look pretty cool for coasters or whatever. Good luck with it.
Curt

 

That looks good for your first effort! Striping is hard work, or at least learning to stripe is hard work. New brushes suck. Get yourself a nice piece of painted metal (scrap or a car door or hood or something) and just stripe the hell out of it. The brush will feel and behave alot better once you put a few hours on it. I striped my flames on my truck (a few years back) with a new brush...sucked at first, but by the time I finished it, the brush was feeling much more comfortable. Keep on practicing!!

 

I'm guessing you're left handed....

 

Go here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB4&Number=59181&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

There's an even lengthier discussion on pin striping that I started maybe two years ago.
A lot of folks weighed in on that and it was in the old HAMBs tech section.

Perhaps someone has the site addy for that.

 

I was just gonna say...Grimlock, you're using the wrong hand! Some days it feels like I might be using the wrrong hand.

 

I was looking for that thread yesterday. Guess I didn't look hard enough.

 

Here's another method of bracing with the extra hand, it may not be "right" but it works for me
Nevermind, I can't get the pic to work, but here's the link to it hand bracing

 

Either hand or with a cell phone?...whatta hot dog!

 

Grimlock...I'll make some copies of some letter styles I have and send 'em to you. Just email me your mailing address and be a little patient...I'm kinda slow about mailing stuff for some reason. You haveta promise me, though, that you will use these letter styles strictly for good and NEVER for evil.

 

Boy, I've learned alot in this thread. So if I practice practice practice and want to redo this, can I? I know you guys have mentioned wiping stuff off before. But, this isn't a car finish. It's Benjamin Moore Metal Oil based and believe it or not it is brushed on. I've heard oven cleaner will remove the paint. In my case, won't it also remove the green? I'm going to have to wet sand this off, aren't I?

 

Barnett,
Check your PMs.
Thanks,
RayB

 

I'd say that's a good virgin run. Ilike that you had a good idea of what you wanted. You did a good job of keeping decent negative space. Your work isn't too crowded. I think you could work on keeping things connected. Von Dutch used to see if he could keep the whole layout connected into one line (kinda).

Find a piece of glass and just do some free-work over and over (take digi pics after each layout to see your progress - and to show us guys how you are doing). There is a local guy who will draw the whole whole thing out on the car/part with a Stabilo(namebrand) grease pencil befor he ever lays a line. It will not do anything to your paint and it keeps you focused on being steady rather than where you are going with your next line.

You are on your way.....