Painting steps?

[Cuttem Jack]

I have a question for all you painting artists out there. I've just started airbrushing and when it comes to painting lures, I'm pretty much grabbing and spraying as I go. Do ya'll have everything lined up so you can go down the line with the paint so to speak with a color in mind, or do you make it up as you go? It seems to me that I'll get half way done with a lure and forget something that I wanted or needed to do beforehand. Do you keep a color workbook, so to speak with all the colors needed for a certain lure pattern? I'm thinking that I need to spend more time beforehand with a specific pattern in mind, but I'm so new to this that I don't really have a clue. Any tips to help a newbie out?

Edited April 26, 2008 by Cuttem Jack

[oscarsteel]

If I know the pattern I want. I have all my colors mixed and ready before I pick up the brush. I also keep notes on the mix. I also just start painting. I love doing that. You never know what you are going to come up with. ........Oscar

[Boskabouter]

I don't build baits that long and I recently started to use an airbrush.

What helps me a lot is patience and I consider things well before I go on to the next step. If I have a rough idea in mind of what I want I start to paint. Btw I don't ground my baits but I seal them. After sealing I paint the bait in opaque white and next I do the back and sides, I leave the belly white. After this I clear the bait once and take a good sleep

Advantage of clearing in between is if you make a mistake in the next step you can easily wipe it of, that is if you use waterbased paint like I do.

After the next step, eg a scale pattern or whatever I clearcoat once again. Then I do gills and mouth and clear again, and so on.

Hope that helps!

Grtz Paul

[MR KNOW IT ALL KIND OF]

HECK NO!!! I just grab some paint and paint the bait.. Some of my best work is paintin.. now if Im doing Real Life Patterns like crappie bass or a FREAKING Bluegill... bream.. pimpkin seed.. shellcracker... HOW MANY MORE NAMES CAN I CALL A BLUEGILL.. POPCorn Shrimp... Lemon Pepper shrimp.. Shrimp Cocktail... RUN FORREST RUN!!! Anyway.. Lifelike patterns I look at alot of pictures on the net and try to match the colors... But the real fun stuff is grabing colors that shouldnt go together and making them work!!! That's whats fun..

Any way.. Just take the bait and paint it bro... YOUR WASTING TIME... Its gettin warmer and the fish are bitin..!!!

[Spike-A-Pike]

Give it another day or two before you checking to see what kind of responses your getting; I just left the TU meet in Clinton, MO and most of the guys that were there can help resolve your question. The level of talent there was just increasable. There will be more getting posted from the meet once we get a day or two to recover.

[mark poulson]

First, let me start with a disclaimer. I am totally a hobbyist, and the most lures I paint at one time is typically four jointed swimbaits, or four cranks I'm repainting. And I generally use the same scheme for each batch, though not always.

I figure out what overall scheme I want. Trout, bluegill, crappie, tilapia, bass, the usual suspects.

Then I go online and look at as many pictures of those fish as I can find, until I find one that looks good to me.

I get out the paints that I think I'll need, but my paints are in a rack right in front of me, so if the winds of inspiration break while I'm mid-paint, I can change or add easily.

I try to figure out not only the basic color scheme, but what kind of a base coat I want to show through after I've scaled. For me that's the hardest sometimes.

Assuming the lure has been sealed and sanded, I spray a base coat of white opaque Createx and heat set.

Then I usually start with a pearl white belly and whatever color I want to show through the scales. For bass and tilapia, I mix a really light transparent green, for trout and crappie, I use pearl silver, and for bluegill, just peal white.

Then I place my scale netting (drywall tape for me), hold it in place with clothes pins top and bottom, and begin painting the sides and top.

I usually finish with spray glitter, and then, after it's set for a day, Envirotex Lite epoxy.

I'm no artist, but a little patience and forethought, and a lot of mixing and test spraying, usually gets me the colors I like. And writing down how you make custom paint colors helps.

I have a very colorful piece of white cardboard that I use to see how my colors look before I spray them onto my lures.

One tip I would stress that helps a lot is putting a protective clear over each step, or each couple of steps, as you go, especially after you first scale.

Someone on here posted the tip to use pastel fixative as a protective clear between coats, so you don't have to redo all your work if/when you make a mistake. It's a solvent based clear that dries fast. This only works with water base paints. I don't know about solvent based paints.

For me, playing around, and not being afraid to redo something is the key, and the clear fixative helps make this easier.

Have everything you need ready before you start, including a hairdryer on a long enough cord so you don't have to fight it, a tub of clean water to clean your airbrush between colors, and practice a little so the steps become automatic, and you'll make your life a lot easier.

Hope this helps.

Edited April 28, 2008 by mark poulson

[6_feet_deep]

I usually just paint as I go, but with a certain pattern in mind. Once you paint a scheme you like and it works well you'll tend to paint it like second nature. Sometimes through out the day, I may think of a scheme I'd like to try so I'll write it down in a list type format in the order in which I would paint it on...ie.

Pearl White Base

Scale Black

Black Back

Dust back with Lilac

Dust sides with yellow

Shad Dot

I'll use it later on as a recipe...there is a great recipe sticky thread in hardbaits. I mix a few colors, but I like to layer different colors to make up different tones more so. That way you don't have to remember a ratio of paint mixtures and store left over paint. For example, if I like a color but want it a little soft, I'll throw a light layer of white over it or if my blue needs to be a little greener, I'll throw a light layer of yellow on it until I get where I want to be.

The more you paint at a time the more it'll stick with you...I usually paint 4 to 6 plugs in one color and it gets embedded in your brain and you learn so much because you can correct minor mistakes as you go along on the next plug.

There will be a million ways to paint, just find out which way works for you and do it to it. Good luck!