1st Airbrush Helmet Going Bad

This is in the middle of my very 1st airbrush job. It is the tattoo that's on my arm. The design on my arm looks OK, but on the helmet it just don't look right.

The base paint is Black Pearl and is kinda gray lookin. Metalic Blue image and Red Pearl swirl. Plan is to try a coat of red candy to try to tone it down a little. But I would like to get it to look a little better. Maybe some shading or something, but don't have a clue of what color shading to use and where to add it. And am hoping that I might get some ideas here.

I screwed around all day getting the design on it and I hate to throw it out because I paid $29 for it at a swap meet

[don johnson]

To me the design looks to small for the helmet done bigger I think it would have looked better and been easier to do.
Shadowing depends on where you decide your light source is coming from.
Tom has done a great job on the subject with this article Airbrush Technique - Learn To Airbrush - Understanding Hightlights and Shadows

[PhillipJ]

Hmmmm. Thanks Don. Guess you're right about bigger. I printed it out as big as I could. Plan is to add more stuff in the center now. But I think I'll make that design bigger than had planned.

Cutting that flat frisk and trying to apply it to round was a real pain. Had to cut it into pieces to make it fit right

[don johnson]

I'm sure it will come out killer

[KDSilverBrush]

Philip, I agree with Don. I think it will look killer when it's done. And yeah, that frisket is hard to deal with on a round surface. Looking forward to seeing a post of this one completed.

[PhillipJ]

I think I am going to try some of that transfer masking. Except I am no good at freehand drawing and fear cutting into my paint. But I had better learn because it's too much of a pain doing it the way I am.

And if I really hate my finished job, I may try Don's skull helmet from his video lesson. More painting, less masking.

[Diaz Dezine]

Sometimes I try the design on something else to see what it would like before putting it on something permanent.
This is so you can try different sizes, diff colors and also diff shading and hi-lite techniques. The test surfaces can be on metal panels, cardboard or maybe an old tool box.
I also would try to do it a bit bigger so it would be a bit easier to.
With understanding "not wanting to cut into your paint", you can try a diff technique. Try drawing the design on some tracing paper or rice paper. Then poke small holes about a 1/8th to a 1/4 inch apart with a toothpick, take some baby powder and put the paper on the surface and spread the powder over the holes, lightly, and you will have guide lines, or dots, to follow. This is called a pounce pattern. Just another idea.
With the kandy over it it should look killer! Cool design too!
Good luck, I'm sure you will do wel!
DIAZ

[PhillipJ]

Thank you all for the encouragement.

I plan on adding Lee Diaz's design to the helmet "if you don't mind" with a bevel on it and am trying to get it right, on flat, before I put it on the helmet.

Never doing art I am having a hard time getting it right, but here is what I have so far. I think the pointed edges of the loop look OK. The inside top highlighted edge of the loop should have been shaded in black, not white. The edge colors and loop colors need to be swapped with the darker color on the outside edges.

Also thinking that a dark purple for the ropes and shaded on the inside curves might be a better choice of colors. Any one have any other thoughts?

Might be a long time before this helmet gets done as I have some new wheels coming in this week and some serious work to get done on the scooter so's I can get it out the door by summer.