Ghosted Images help with Autoaircolors

[mtol]

Hi everyone,

I have just purchased a brand new Black 2008 Suzuki M109R. I am so excited and can't wait till it arrives in March. With any luck it will be warm enough and snow free enough in the Edmonton Alberta area to ride her home. sure doesn't look like ridable conditions right now.

I am a huge Star Wars fan and always have in particularly a Darth Vader fan. Next winter I plan on stripping of the paint able parts and have some fun on my own project.

What I need help with is ghosted graphics using AA. on a black bike I want a ghosted Darth Vader on the tank and possible two smaller images on either side of it as well. I am not quite sure how to go about it. would I use just straight pearl white and maybe a touch of silver. any suggestions would greatly help. I can not seem to find much info on ghosted images other than ghost flames and not using AA. I plan on experimenting maybe this weekend but I thought I'd put the question out there and hopefully learn from your experiences.

Any AA ghosters out there. LOL

thanks
Mike

[BigDaddyCustoms]

Mike,

I like the idea, but there may be a few problems doing it in a traditional "ghost" manner using pearls. It is very difficult to build dimension using highlights and shadows on any type of metallic or pearl. Let me explain....

To create the illusion of depth, you must have highlights and shadows to create the 3-D look. Not a problem on semi-opaque or transparent paints. By nature, pearls and metallics reflect more light than a normal paint. When you use your whites and blacks for the highlights and shadows, the base color plain and simple reflects more light, and appears brighter in nature.....thus causing your highlights to change in appearance (from bright and dominant, to almost "graying-out") depending on the angle that you are viewing it from. Not what you want to have happen.

You can try to solve this by dusting a small amount of white pearl (in a trans base) over the highlights and shadows, or by using white pearl in the first place. This will help the highlight reflect as much light as the base. (Use white metallic if painting on a metallic base)

I use alot of Auto Air, and have played with using dry pearl, and adding it to AA's Trans Base for this type of effect, so it is possible. You will definately want to work up a test panel or two to figure out how much you want to use before you start on the bike parts.

Hope this helped a bit.

Big D

[KDSilverBrush]

I got a question simular to this. I'm going to be doing some ghost flames on a med blue color tailgate, and am planing on doing them in pearl white, but for a little added effect, I want to highlite a few of the flames with red, so thought I would add a touch of red to the pearl white. Will this give me the effect I want ? It's a question I've been asking myself all week LOL

Good luck with your project, Mtol.

[BigDaddyCustoms]

Originally Posted by KDSilverBrush

I got a question simular to this. I'm going to be doing some ghost flames on a med blue color tailgate, and am planing on doing them in pearl white, but for a little added effect, I want to highlite a few of the flames with red, so thought I would add a touch of red to the pearl white. Will this give me the effect I want ? It's a question I've been asking myself all week LOL

Good luck with your project, Mtol.

Try adding a pinch or two of russett pearl (red) powder with it. You can pick it up at your local Auto Paint Supply Store. If you are using a white pearl paint, adding red paint or red pearl will just make it pink. You want to float your pearl in a transparent base, that way ONLY the pearl shows (thus the ghost effect. The heavier you apply, the more translucent (opaque) the color will appear. Hope it helps!

Big D

[KDSilverBrush]

Thanks Big D... I think I understand , to float the pearl in a transparent base, I would mix clear with the pearl?

[theairbrushguy]

Hey Mike. One thing that you have going for you is that you are working on black. You can fade base over what you paint, making deep shadows and if wanted laying a completed black "kandy" over the whole thing. Not necessarly a traditional ghost image but gives the same effect.
Good luck.
TABG

www.theairbrushguys.com

[BigDaddyCustoms]

Originally Posted by theairbrushguy

Hey Mike. One thing that you have going for you is that you are working on black. You can fade base over what you paint, making deep shadows and if wanted laying a completed black "kandy" over the whole thing. Not necessarly a traditional ghost image but gives the same effect.
Good luck.
TABG

www.theairbrushguys.com

That's a helluva good idea......did something similiar with white on white before.

Big D

[762nato]

I've started playing with pearls and candies in Auto-Air of late in anticipation of a project I started doing the prep and body work on this week, -97 Suzuki gsxR. Been using pearls and candy powders from this site, paintwithpearl.com in A-A trans base as well as in clear coat, on some helmets and test panels. It's going to be black tribal graphics on black gun metal pearl.
Have found that using solid colors, black in this case on the black gun metal pearl background, provides a good sensation of depth, as does using a transparent color faded inside the edges of the foreground graphics done in candy or pearl to tone down or kill the pearl/ candy effect and provide more contrast, as does using trans colors the same way to add drop shadows on foregound graphics were theres enough contrast between backgroud and foreground.
I'm hoping to make this project into a how-to, as I have the luxury of time, because the customer is currently deployed to Iraq.

[mtol]

I so much appreciate all your input. I will definitely be doing some test panels before actual painting on my bike. but as a picture is worth a thousand words. this is the beginning of the over all plan for the bike. I will do some additional effects such as flames and/or lightning. but haven't decided how I'd like that to look yet. please don't stop with any input on ghosting this guy. and I would love to see others work who have done similar.

Mike

[mtol]

I did some spraying last night on a black test panel. I used the white pearl straight on black and found that I should have lightened up on the amount of coats I laid down. the peal has quite the character when spraying it through my HP-C+. a little touch and go on the clogging side but I reduced it a lot and had a better time with it. the image turned out quite nice but I wanted it a bit more subdued or more difficult to see.

I am curious about the candy black Idea to push the image back a bit. Would I just candy the image or would have have to cover the whole tank then? wondering how the pearl black would blend in with the base black.

[Diaz Dezine]

You know I think that once you would clear over the image that it would be more prominent in light but not as prominent in shade or just in less lighted area.
It will depend on how much material you use to get the image to show up enough to notice but not to stand out in a normal lighted enviroment.
Using the black kandy method, over a black background, you will not have to cover the whole tank because it will pretty much disapear into the black, as pretty much any color kandy will. But most people cover the whole area just to give it even coverage. I've used kandies over black many of times on illustrations and never have seen any paint rings or edges from the kandies.
I'm very sure you will be safe provided that you are working on a black background.
Hope this helps mtol.
DIAZ