Need some tips on painting a reverse image

[boostdemon]

First thing im gonna do for someone else - a buddy of mine is looking to put this on an 80's style cafe' racer helmet of his;
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~alr237/minorthreat_outofstep.jpg

the helmets black though. At first i was thinking i'd just fog the area so the outlines would show up, but then i thought that might come out really dark since i dont want to wash out the contrast. Then i was thinking i'd paint the outline for the black sheep in white, and the white sheep in grey?

i dunno, what would you do?

-Dana

[hinddee29]

You might not have to use grey. Blocking out the black with white
will take a few coats of white. So for like the black sheep you could
outline it to get your image and then shade it more or less with white
as you want. With the white sheep you could do the same thing.

[nownzen]

Hi,

You'd have to try it first but it might work to do the white sheep in full white and the black sheep only for doing the "shadows" or highlights in this case. Sort of like how the white ones are done white on white with a black shadow but this will be black on black with a white shadow.

But you'll need to reverse even that so the higlights are on the top reflecting the sun. Even the white sheep would have the same higlights to make it look consistent and make the black one stand out.

Just an idea, good luck with it.

Andrew

[airbrush_ken]

Another thought would to not use straight white. Add a few drops of say raw umber or yellow orchre with a drop or two of black (go easy on the black) and try that mix Hinddie's idea.

For me I would take shots of the shots of the artwork and respray the helmet, then follow up with a new reproduction of the original..

Ken

[boostdemon]

yeah the white will show up, its that one black sheep im afraid will disappear on the black helmet.

of course i'll have to do it as my version, but he wants it pretty darn close (it looks like a kid drew it so mess-ups are ok lol).

i do like all your ideas... the shading idea andrew mentions is about where i was thinking with the reversed image - painting in negative. I'll mix up some umber/black and see how it looks, that might add some realism to them too. so maybe i can sketch it on a mask, outline it... then use about 1mm of white outline around all the sheep.

im trying not to repaint the whole helmet, just a blast of clear when im done.

[airbrush_ken]

Mate,
It's usually all the projects I have done for friends that cost me the most hassles...lol..

Ken

[boostdemon]

Mate,
It's usually all the projects I have done for friends that cost me the most hassles...lol..

Ken

lol and always the ones where they're the most picky ;)