by Cheri Pearson and John Avila
In the previous issues John gave you a simple scroll design and When a potential customer requests you to do some striping for
a one-color design start to finish providing you with a place to them, it will help sell yourself as being the right artist for the job
begin your adventure into the world of striping. Hopefully you if you have photos of your work and examples such as tanks,
have had a lot of time to practice your strokes and exercises. panels, fenders etc. to show them. Many times the customer will
There is no set time on getting proficient in this art form so relax have a sample or sketch for you to work from. If your samples
and have fun with it. Everyone has their own goal, whether it resemble some of the sketches you are ready to get going; if
be stripping as a hobby for yourself or becoming a professional not (and it happens a lot) you will need to be able to show the
stripper and being paid for your work. To become a professional customer your idea for their design. You have to remember that
you must be able to produce a single or multi-colored design that most people just see a design in a magazine or on a friend’s ve-
is clean, even, balanced and most of all not over done. You must hicle and have very little idea what they really want. One thing I
have the skill to apply your art to almost any surface in a smooth will not do is copy someone else’s work; even if it means losing
and efficient manner without the constant need to rework each the job. This skill is a lifetime of learning and I respect what
design especially when someone is watching you.
others do, regardless if it is better than my design or not. In this
article I will be walking you thru a job from start to finish.
This is a design I was presented with by the customer. From customer and I have agreed upon the type of design we move to
there I show my designs on display that have the same elements. the color and final layout. The customer in this case wants some
We discuss their design while comparing it to mine. The cus- basic gold-silver leaf to be the main design and the accompany-
tomer likes the idea of some old style scrolls and wants to keep ing pin striping very simple. In this case the design will be easy
it on the simple side. (Not lines all over the place). If you must to reproduce a multiple of times, which is also important for
present a lot of drawings to this person, even showing them how this customer, as they own a fleet of vehicles and is on a tight
you stripe, you need to charge for this. Many people just waste time frame. This agreed upon design will be almost like a paint
your time and you will never hear back from them. None of us by number painting, it will look nice and be within the reach of
are here to do design after design, with no end in sight. It only many skill levels.
tires me out and makes me less happy to do the job. Once the
Now that a first sketch has been done and the customer has given me the go ahead on the design
layout I will move forward. I will clean up the sketch, erase some of the original design and make
the final adjustments. I continue to clean up the draft and then make a enlarged design the first
being 135% and after final clean up another increase for an additional 25% I will then transfer the
design to the panel in this case for your view, sometimes I will do a test panel for the customer if
requested. Making the design larger than the actual size that will go on the vehicles makes it easier
to paint the first time, gives you a great reference and an additional display piece once the job is
finished. The next step is to transfer the design.
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