Please put your pickup/wiring discussions in the Electronics section; and put discussions about repair issues, including "disappearing" errors in new instruments, in the Repairs section.
It has been a while since I've been on here as I've havent been working on much stuff lately. I did however finally finish the '97 Ibanez Iceman project I've been working on. Whe I got it, the neck was in good shape it just needed a little cleaning. The body however was pretty roughed up; lots of dents and extra holes drilled in it for some reason. After getting the woodworking finished up I decided to do some custom artwork using paint pens. I also upgraded all the hardware, electronics and pickups. I'm pretty pleased with the end result.
Honestly it wasn't overly hard to do. Using the paint pens if you can color within the lines anyone can do this. Like anything if you go in with a good plan it makes things go alot smoother. I started out by drawing out the design on a sheet of paper and coloring it in with color pencils. Then I did a small scale test on a scrap piece of wood with the paint pens as a full color study (you can see a part of that in one of the pics). So before I even started any artwork on the body I already had the design laid out and knew exactly which colors I would be using. Then I drew out a full sized template on paper and used carbon paper to transfer the design on the guitar. From there all I had to do was color it in using my color study test as a guide, basically just like doing a paint by number.
It didn't take me that long to do either, just a few hours a day over a couple of days. The paint dries to the touch and can be handeled in about 15-20 min so you can lay down the progression of colors rather quickly. I did the entire backside on day one, let it dry overnight the did all of the front on the 2nd day.
There are only a few things to keep in mind when coloring it in. First is what to color first and where to start and finish coloring. The where to start and finish is so you don't accidentally stick your hand in wet paint. The what to color is because I found it best to do it all in layers. From the progression pics you can see I started with the background, then the main image colors, then the outlines and finally the details. The other thing to keep in mind is that you're always going to have stroke marks using the paint pens. Because of that you don't want to color in all different directions, then it will look ugly. You want to color everything in a way that the stroke marks will go with the flow of the image. That way you can use the stroke marks to add a layer of depth to the image. Other than that it really is no more than coloring within the lines.
michael o'malley wrote:really nicely done! Are you going to clear coat it now? Ho durable are the paint pens? And are they water-based or solvent based?
I did a spray on polyurethane finish. The pens I used were OneTree Hill brand that are water based, I picked up a set at the local craft store. The guitar has been fully completed for about a month now. The paint pens seem to be pretty durable and so far have not reacted with the finish.
