S
Scott594
Guest
Ok, not so sunny, at least this time of year, and for quite some time to come.
I have a long story how I got here, but I'll spare you the worst of it. I've done a lot of things through the years, and there's been a common thread among them. I don't have much artist in my being. At least not that I've found so far.
I've been an engineer most all of my life, passing the Amateur Radio license Test at 13, scratch building a computer as a Junior in high school (1978 - before you could buy a decent computer) I knew at that point that I'd better stick to technical drawings, I was NO artist!
I owned and operated a small Custom Engineering Firm doing contract work for a lot of big (and small) names. Until I became ill. I'm now a disabled/retired (against my wishes).
(I tried to put my story here, but thought better of it. Long story.)
I 'll try it this way. My interests: Engineering, Drag Racing, Engine building, Competitive Shooting,Climbing, Small Business owner - now disabled/retired. Currently I fly model airplanes when able (and I use the term fly loosely) and am trying to start another business, but my health keeps disagreeing with my efforts.
My interests have always been technical in nature, while not entirely non- creative, they tended to structured skills with free thinking problem solving being my talent, if you could say I have one. I always love a challenge. So, in my typical fashion, before really knowing what I was getting into, I became interested in custom painting, and striping, and airbrushing. It started as my current 'hobby' is model aircraft, which I really enjoy building, which is good, because I'm nowhere as good at flying them as building them, and they get repaired a fair amount.
Anyway, a few weeks back I started to think I could do some painting on my giant scale planes, (One needs a 'touch-up' where I flew into a wind sock pole), I used to paint cars, but never took it to art, (just got competent at getting the color on well) despite the interest in more creative work, there never seemed time.
You see, I can't really draw a decent stick figure.
I had little hope that I had any chance at custom painting, but that never stopped me before in my other interests. You see, I learn. It's what I'm best at. Taught the kids to Salmon Fish on the great lakes when I didn't know how. (they now understand learning, and the satisfaction in it - I taught them HOW to learn, never really thought about it like that before)
Anyway, enter YouTube, gods gift to learners - I watched Steve Kafka Flame a tank, Knew I had to learn to do that! then Terry Hill in what must be a 25 yr old film painting tee shirts, then I caught another of him, present day, still at it and still teaching. Respect. Whoa!, with guys like this with their talent and work they've put in learning their craft over 30-40 years, I've got to try to feel that creative spark I've always missed. Then I found an old (must have been 8mm?) film of Ed Roth interviewing VonDutch – wow, I knew these guys, but never KNEW these guys. VonDutch is being interviewed by Ed (Ed is 'Just a friend' back then, and I don't think very well known yet) and he tells the story of working at his fathers sign painting shop and that back during the depression, they started striping as a way of covering up grinder scratches from poor body work. THATS HOW IT ALL STARTED!!! INCREDIBLE!! I was blown away.
I watched the rest of the series, 8 or 9 parts, incredible. I was up all night, couldn't turn it off.
Passed out finally - then:
Ordered a striping brush, An airbrush and spent more than I should on nearly a full set of Wicked colors. (and a sampler of the new candies, I have a project in mind.....
Now I 'm committed to learning to use this gear.
Today was wild. Airbrush finally in Mailbox, Have 6 colors and reducer, and the will to learn. Got it running – wow this is harder than it looks, well, I knew that, learn it. Keep painting.. Remember VonDutch, Ed Kafka, Terry Hill.
Black only, no color until I have some control. Dots, Lines, like I read. Half a notebook full, everything withing reach that would hold paint. Some that wouldn't Striped foam plates. Drew faces, progress. Finally I decided to do a tree. Ok, keep working, a landscape, airbrush fighting me all the way, gotta beat the tip dry, or learn to work with it, eventually I ended up with a painting of which I am proud.
I cleaned the Airbrush, loaded Red, just for a change. Different setup.. I had some foamboard too wrinkled to make planes from, so I started painting it. Roomy. Learning to letter, I stumbled onto a word collage. Another work I'm not ashamed of. I'm signing and keeping both. Maybe someday I'll post them here, we'll see. A good day.
NOW I feel I have something to say, so here I am. I didn't feel right, here as a non-artist, now I feel I can do it, my style probably won't be conventional, and I don't have 30 years to learn it. But I DO feel I can work with it. Guess I better have at it. I'm having fun, got lots of paint, gotta use it now. Another new world.
Thinking about a plotter/cutter for stenciling, which led me back to the forum. Anybody own a Silhouette Cameo? Any thoughts? Been cutting stenciling for a few days while the airbrush was lost in the mail, so I have a good idea what's going on there. Watched a lot of videos, and with my lack of natural talent and my plans for projects, it would seem a good idea. I've been looking at widebed Plotters for a while, with the intention of laying out airplane patterns, but anything big enough puts me at 2 grand plus or Cheap Chinese. Now, with size requirements decreased, the Silhouette machine seems like it may be a good choice. Hard to tell, all but 1 review on it were by crafters, and they don't speak my language. Did run into 1 by model airplane guy, can't find it again.
Guess I got running on here, if you read this far, I salute you, and be glad I cut the BIO.
Oh, yeah, my faults, obsessive (I prefer to think of it as determined), and tend to run on, but then, you probably got those 2 by now without me spelling it out.
Thanks for reading.
Ready to learn....
I have a long story how I got here, but I'll spare you the worst of it. I've done a lot of things through the years, and there's been a common thread among them. I don't have much artist in my being. At least not that I've found so far.
I've been an engineer most all of my life, passing the Amateur Radio license Test at 13, scratch building a computer as a Junior in high school (1978 - before you could buy a decent computer) I knew at that point that I'd better stick to technical drawings, I was NO artist!
I owned and operated a small Custom Engineering Firm doing contract work for a lot of big (and small) names. Until I became ill. I'm now a disabled/retired (against my wishes).
(I tried to put my story here, but thought better of it. Long story.)
I 'll try it this way. My interests: Engineering, Drag Racing, Engine building, Competitive Shooting,Climbing, Small Business owner - now disabled/retired. Currently I fly model airplanes when able (and I use the term fly loosely) and am trying to start another business, but my health keeps disagreeing with my efforts.
My interests have always been technical in nature, while not entirely non- creative, they tended to structured skills with free thinking problem solving being my talent, if you could say I have one. I always love a challenge. So, in my typical fashion, before really knowing what I was getting into, I became interested in custom painting, and striping, and airbrushing. It started as my current 'hobby' is model aircraft, which I really enjoy building, which is good, because I'm nowhere as good at flying them as building them, and they get repaired a fair amount.
Anyway, a few weeks back I started to think I could do some painting on my giant scale planes, (One needs a 'touch-up' where I flew into a wind sock pole), I used to paint cars, but never took it to art, (just got competent at getting the color on well) despite the interest in more creative work, there never seemed time.
You see, I can't really draw a decent stick figure.
I had little hope that I had any chance at custom painting, but that never stopped me before in my other interests. You see, I learn. It's what I'm best at. Taught the kids to Salmon Fish on the great lakes when I didn't know how. (they now understand learning, and the satisfaction in it - I taught them HOW to learn, never really thought about it like that before)
Anyway, enter YouTube, gods gift to learners - I watched Steve Kafka Flame a tank, Knew I had to learn to do that! then Terry Hill in what must be a 25 yr old film painting tee shirts, then I caught another of him, present day, still at it and still teaching. Respect. Whoa!, with guys like this with their talent and work they've put in learning their craft over 30-40 years, I've got to try to feel that creative spark I've always missed. Then I found an old (must have been 8mm?) film of Ed Roth interviewing VonDutch – wow, I knew these guys, but never KNEW these guys. VonDutch is being interviewed by Ed (Ed is 'Just a friend' back then, and I don't think very well known yet) and he tells the story of working at his fathers sign painting shop and that back during the depression, they started striping as a way of covering up grinder scratches from poor body work. THATS HOW IT ALL STARTED!!! INCREDIBLE!! I was blown away.
I watched the rest of the series, 8 or 9 parts, incredible. I was up all night, couldn't turn it off.
Passed out finally - then:
Ordered a striping brush, An airbrush and spent more than I should on nearly a full set of Wicked colors. (and a sampler of the new candies, I have a project in mind.....
Now I 'm committed to learning to use this gear.
Today was wild. Airbrush finally in Mailbox, Have 6 colors and reducer, and the will to learn. Got it running – wow this is harder than it looks, well, I knew that, learn it. Keep painting.. Remember VonDutch, Ed Kafka, Terry Hill.
Black only, no color until I have some control. Dots, Lines, like I read. Half a notebook full, everything withing reach that would hold paint. Some that wouldn't Striped foam plates. Drew faces, progress. Finally I decided to do a tree. Ok, keep working, a landscape, airbrush fighting me all the way, gotta beat the tip dry, or learn to work with it, eventually I ended up with a painting of which I am proud.
I cleaned the Airbrush, loaded Red, just for a change. Different setup.. I had some foamboard too wrinkled to make planes from, so I started painting it. Roomy. Learning to letter, I stumbled onto a word collage. Another work I'm not ashamed of. I'm signing and keeping both. Maybe someday I'll post them here, we'll see. A good day.
NOW I feel I have something to say, so here I am. I didn't feel right, here as a non-artist, now I feel I can do it, my style probably won't be conventional, and I don't have 30 years to learn it. But I DO feel I can work with it. Guess I better have at it. I'm having fun, got lots of paint, gotta use it now. Another new world.
Thinking about a plotter/cutter for stenciling, which led me back to the forum. Anybody own a Silhouette Cameo? Any thoughts? Been cutting stenciling for a few days while the airbrush was lost in the mail, so I have a good idea what's going on there. Watched a lot of videos, and with my lack of natural talent and my plans for projects, it would seem a good idea. I've been looking at widebed Plotters for a while, with the intention of laying out airplane patterns, but anything big enough puts me at 2 grand plus or Cheap Chinese. Now, with size requirements decreased, the Silhouette machine seems like it may be a good choice. Hard to tell, all but 1 review on it were by crafters, and they don't speak my language. Did run into 1 by model airplane guy, can't find it again.
Guess I got running on here, if you read this far, I salute you, and be glad I cut the BIO.
Oh, yeah, my faults, obsessive (I prefer to think of it as determined), and tend to run on, but then, you probably got those 2 by now without me spelling it out.
Thanks for reading.
Ready to learn....
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