Written By Steven Craig

ARTIST PROFILE

STEVEN CRAIG

DATA

Steven Craig is the owner and head painter of SKC CUSTOMZ in Lake Havasu City, AZ. In the past Steven has won the House of Kolor Prestigious Painter Award and was a 1st Place winner of Dupont's Hot Hues Awards. He most  recently was awarded the Matrix System's FX Grand Prize Award. Steve paints a wide range
of jobs from guitars to large off shore boats. Visit  his web site at

Airbrush : Iwata HP-BH, Custom Micron B
Spray Guns: Iwata LPH400 ,Iwata LPH300, Iwata LPH-80
Paint Media: PPG, Xotic Colours, Dupont and Matrix Systems
Surface Media: Everything I can get paint to stick to.
Masking : R-Tape and 3M Masking Tapes
Projector: Artograph
Lighting : Natural and Florescent. Spray-Line and Spray King Paint Booths

Steven is a Certified Paint Technician for both PPG and Dupont Industries.

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"Oversized Transfers"

 This project began with a 4"x6" image of the artwork that needed to be enlarge to 58" in height. The enlargement would need to fit the entire deck of a flat-bottom jet boat. I took the original image to Staples, where they are capable of producing large copies. Most instant printing or copy centers have this equipment.

 Cover the entire work area with transfer tape (available at signmaking warehouses). The tape is going to be used to transfer the image onto and to protect the already base coated surface from any over spray as we are doing the illustration.

 When you have the enlargement made, have them make two copies for you. The second copy needs to be a mirrored image (reverse). This copy will be used in the transfer making process. Tape the copy to the surface to hold it position. You will need a large flat surface to make the transfers on.

 To make the transfer, you will need sketch paper. Sketch paper is semi-transparent and resembles tracing paper. It can be purchased in rolls up to 24" wide and is available at most art supply stores.
 I had to overlap two pieces of sketch paper to cover the width of this image. Tape the sketch paper to the copy so it will not shift when tracing the image. Use a #2 soft lead pencil and trace the image onto the sketch paper.

 Once you have completely traced the enlarged copy, removed the tape that holds it in position and pull out the copy. Flip the sketch paper over and position the design where the illustration work is going to be done. Tape the sketch paper in place so it not be able to move around when transferring the image. Re-trace the design following the sketch that is now face down.

 When re-tracing the image, press down on the pencil with a moderate amount of force. What this will do is transfer the soft pencil lead that is on the sketch paper onto the masking (transfer tape) that was applied in step #2. In this photo you can see the impression of the image that has been transferred as the sketch paper is being removed. Put the sketch paper aside, there will be further use for it later on.

 For the first part of the painting process cut out the entire silhouette of the illustration. Mask off the rest of the surface to protect it from any over-spray before applying any color.

 Follow the sketch and lightly cut the transfer tape using a new razor blade. It is important to not cut into the paint below the masking. A new razor blade needs very little pressure applied to it when cutting the transfer tape. You will feel the need to apply more pressure as the blade dulls. When that happens, continue with a new blade. I must have used 20 blades cutting out this image.

 After the paint has completely dried, mask the illustration work area a second time using transfer tape. Put the sketch paper that contains the traced image back in place on top of the transfer tape. It is important to tape the sketch paper in place to so it can not move around. Repeat steps 5 and 6. This time include all the detail of the illustration.

 The transfer tape will be easy to remove if cut properly. There is a fine line between cutting too deep (which will score the paint) and not enough. If the transfer tape is not completely cut, the adhesive backing will stretch and break loose as the tape is being removed. This will create balls of adhesive glue and produce an uneven edge.

 Spray your base color and let the paint completely dry before proceeding. We are going to leave all the masking in place while working on the illustration. If you pull it up, the area for the illustration will need to be masked again. This may cause deep cuts in the paint surface when gone over multiple times.

 In some cases, when you plan on doing the majority of the illustration freehand, the image can be transferred directly onto the base coat. The pencil lead is soft enough that it can be easily removed by wiping it off with wax/grease remover.

 If you use the masking method, cut out the areas that are going to be worked on. Save all the pieces that are removed. The pieces will get used later in the project and will speed up the paint time by eliminating a few masking steps.

 Transfer tape has a low tack adhesive backing and can be reapplied several times. You can lift the masked area from the surface and reposition it if needed.

Easy Layout For Large Images

 You may have a few steps that require additional masking. Remove the transfer tape and apply a new layer of it over the work that has been done to this point. I'm changing the masking at this point because the hair on this illustration goes over the body and is going to require a lot of freehand work.

 You can use the original enlargement to make freehand shields. For the hair of this illustration, I cut out sections of the copy one at a time. This process was also used in creating all the datail for the facial features.

 For the hair of this illustration, I began by spraying a light brown as a base color. This illustration leans more towards the old pinup style and doesn't require a great amount of time creating individual hair strands. Use the freehand shields made by cutting out the copy and lay them in place one at a time. Create the defined areas by airbrushing the edge of the shield with a transparent brown.

 This is a good photo to show how the illustration was masked and only the area for the hair has been exposed. After the definition in the hair was created, multipe layers of different transparent colors were applied to give depth and texture. Finish by adding highlights with white.

 There you have it. By having a large copy made to transfer the image onto the surface you are able to keep the image in perspective and were able to use the large copy to make freehand shields from. I hope you were able to learn a few new tricks from this article. Have fun and Paint On!

 There may come a time when one of your customers requests an oversized illustration to be done. The fastest way to achieve this is by projecting the image onto the surface. This is a simple process when projecting on a vertical surface but, virtually impossible to do on a large horizontal surface, similar to the deck of a boat as we will be using for an example here.

 The final steps of this project. All the graphics and pinstriping have been completed so it's time to clearcoat. Just a note: The deck is not black, it was shot with PPG's "Ruby Slippers", which looks like a candy red with a course metallic silver below it. The Ruby Slippers is a color shifting paint that changes from red to orange to gold and green. The flames are done in Xotic Colours new color shifting metal flakes (as seen in the ABtech Forum) that change from gold to red to purple.