Harley Airbrush

My brother bought a Harley before taking off for Afghanistan. While he was away, my job was to paint it for him. I tried to take pics each step of the way.

This is the front fender. The shape dictated what I could do. I tried to combine a couple of themes; his rank, death (his squadron flies reaper drones and their squadron patch had a grim reaper), and a little style flattery of one of my favorite artists, HR Giger.

First mask, starting to put the background texture in.

Second, light spray of gray-white through a window screen mask, just to give it some texture.

Third, removed the first masks. You can see the background textures,

Fourth, starting to freehand the skull. Lots of light layers give it some depth and transparency.

Fifth, second mask for detailing the rank insignia. Base of Orion Silver with some Root Beer accents to simulate rust and knock a little of the "clean" off the silver.

Sixth, removed the second mask to show the finished rank. A little more freehand on the skull.

Seventh, addition of "tubing" going up the sides. I wanted it to connect and look a little like horns of the skull. The tubes have their own textures.

The final product. Had to finish with some fine line details on the skull and add Jet Black to the rest of the fender. I put a temporary finish of interclear on it to protect it until it gets its final clear coat.

It came out pretty good. If you look close though you can see my cut marks in places where I cut the masks. Being my first time, it took a while to figure out how much pressure to use with the Xacto knife. Hopefully that smooths out when it gets the final clear.