Back Into The Fire

 I had some time to kill on Saturday so took the opportunity to get back to practicing painting flames. These flames are supposed to be "true fire" but I'm a long way away from getting that effect. This session was on an old yamaha tank that I've been messing around with and will help me practice what I want to ultimately do. That is paint horizontal flames, not camp fires.

 So my thought was to have a broader open flame on the leading edge of the tank and then have the flames stretch out more to points. You know, the way it would look if I were on fire and hauling ass. This first coat is white with a drop of red and two or three drops of yellow along with reducer. Thats the greyish looking paint in the above pic. I took this pic after starting to apply the candy red.

 After the red was added it was clear coated. So far it looks ok. The next step is to add another layer of flames over the top and color those in with candy orange, followed by a layer of clear as seen in the pic below.

 The next step is to do the same thing in a lighter color such as yellow. This is where things went bad.

 I got bored with the process and started changing techniques which just doesn't work. In the future I need to choose one method and stick with it.

 So I learned a lot. First thing is I need to wear some bitch mittens cuz this paint is tough to get off my hands.

 Another thing I learned was to clean the air brush better afterwards. It took me almost as much time to get the brush ready as it did to do the actual painting. It was worth it though because I never got any splatter like I did in past sessions. Anything that looks like splatter is underneath. I just keep squirting black over this tank without any sanding or prep.
 A keen eye will also notice the same four stencils repeat themselves either in the same orientation or flipped. I need to buy or make more stencils. I have found that for me stencils look best and freehand is good just for highlights and blending stuff together.

 I know in past practice runs I was able to get more depth and the next time out I'm gonna aim for more of the base black to show through. I'm just so early into this and don't have a technique down yet. Here's another thing that has occurred to me. If I can't make it look like true fire then maybe I skip the "true" part and use different colors like blues and greens. It might look ok. On the other hand, I'm only using white, yellow and red base paints and three candy colors. Maybe more oranges are needed?

Sooo, I just went back and looked at the tank. Parts of it are better than I originally felt. If this were at a bike show I'm sure I'd spend ten minutes with my nose only a foot away whilst checking it out. I tried different lighting and angles and these pics still don't do it justice as far as depth goes.

 No matter. it will get covered up and I'll try again. More practice needed!

Later.