My one year evaluation

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:11 pm

Been airbrushing for a whole year now, and decided to commemorate the event by retiring my first airbrushed body, and evaluating the progress I've made over the year.

So to refresh you memory here's my first airbrushed job.

...and then here we are now.

Going by my recent work, I think I've become really good at drawing my graphics, and have got my technique for transferring them to the body down pretty good. I'm a lot more consistent. My first body had lots of touch ups, and was almost ruined at several points. My latest didn't need any touch ups. I do need to work on brush control a lot more. I blame that on my flaky airbrush, my new one is a lot more consistent, which should allow me to focus on what I'm doing more. I've become pretty good at blending certain colors, but I think I need to experiment a lot more, so I have more color schemes I'm comfortable working with. So I'm giving myself a B-, and my goal for the next year is to just keep practicing.

If anybody wants to offer some constructive criticism on how they feel my work has progressed, I'd appreciate it. Self-evaluation is good, but I'd like to hear some objective opinions.

ibjamn · Post by **ibjamn** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:25 pm

Both look good to me. But I do see a huge difference bettween the two. The transition fading of the colors look great on the later.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:05 am

ibjamn wrote:Both look good to me. But I do see a huge difference bettween the two. The transition fading of the colors look great on the later.

Thanks IBJ, I'm glad you notice an improvement. I have got a lot better at fading color, but I'm just not feeling confident while doing it. On this one, the flame licks on the driver door I should have laid the orange heavier to help transition the red more.

sidewinder · Post by **sidewinder** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:26 pm

I like the first best.

just kidding. yeah there is a big difference, its hard to believe that you've only benn shooting for a year.

betty.k · Post by **betty.k** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:39 am

you've always had your own easily identifiable style in the bit community, but those jobs just emulated the cool stuff that already existed on larger scale rc's and even 1:1's. don't take that as a bad thing, your work is always top notch!

and that shows in the first body. most definately excellent work but (for want of a better word) common.

but now you have a signature style.

like, i mean, in a lineup of a whole buncha bodies i think i and others could point to yours and say "hey look, without a doubt that's a 'crazydave' paintjob!"

hope i'm making sense here, my incapacitate is a little brained after last weekend!

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:30 am

Yeah, SW, it it is hard to believe its only been a year. I painted so many bodies this past year, it feels like a lot longer.

You know betty you make an interesting point. To say I have an immediately identifiable signature style is like saying I'm like a Chip Foose or something, and that's a great compliment, I appreciate it, but I was seeing my preference for a certain style of graphics, and my attraction to certain colors as my limitations I needed to overcome, but I guess all artist have their preferences, and that's what makes our styles unique. So I'm kinda seeing things in a different light now, but I'm still always gonna strive to be a more well rounded artist.

sidewinder · Post by **sidewinder** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:27 pm

Maybe you should start offering the bodies prepainted like some of the people on ebay and other places are doing. That way you could paint as much as you want and it would pay for itself.

redrustbucket · Post by **redrustbucket** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:05 pm

That's a damn good idea. Now paint up an FJ40 Freeborn Red and I'll take it!

Tana · Post by **Tana** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:46 pm

Much better man! Latest looks great!

SHAUN · Post by **SHAUN** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:39 pm

Both look great. I can see the difference in the later one. the fading with the color is really good.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:05 am

sidewinder wrote:Maybe you should start offering the bodies prepainted like some of the people on ebay and other places are doing. That way you could paint as much as you want and it would pay for itself.

That's a long term plan. Not only do I have to be satisfied with my work before I feel comfortable selling it, but I need to work out my mass production technique, so I can knock out several of the same paint schemes at one time.

redrustbucket wrote:That's a damn good idea. Now paint up an FJ40 Freeborn Red and I'll take it!

So you want one of these...
http://www.restoredfj40.com/images/76FJ ... /index.htm

...I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks Shaun and Tana. Glad you guys like it.

redrustbucket · Post by **redrustbucket** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:17 pm

Yessir. Once my tax return gets here I'm buying the first cr-01 I can get my hands on and I'd really like to have a sweet paint job for it. Prob. do a basher body and a scaler body. I love building just don't really dig painting.

Murdoch · Post by **Murdoch** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:01 am

I can see a lot of fine-tuning in your style man. The first job was pretty bad-ass and now it looks more professional.

sidewinder · Post by **sidewinder** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:46 am

Man I wish you hadn't posted that link to the Toyota restoration guys... I really want that white FJ40 they're working on

I just can't see me paying that much for a truck though... it would be cool

Crap! I gotta delete that from the bookmarks before I go into debt on another toy.... Damn it Dave...now I'll be drooling over that stupid truck forever. it is tempting though...

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:31 am

Murdoch wrote:I can see a lot of fine-tuning in your style man. The first job was pretty bad-ass and now it looks more professional.

There's the key word I was hoping to hear. Thank you, Murdoch.

Sorry SW, just looking for an example, and that's the first one I stumbled across.