Creating Reflective Effects: Passing Time

Since chrome has no color, I make sure that it includes all the colors that I have used and a few other colors that haven’t yet come into play. That’s also why I save the chrome for last. I want to make sure all the reflected colors are established and that the correct mixtures are available. My motorcycle painting is an outdoor shot, so I will need to use a blue representing the sky. I also use a lot of Black and White to paint chrome to establish contrast. White, of course, represent clouds in this particular piece. I have two different chrome blues that I’ve mixed to use. While both are made from the same colors, I’ve varied the mixtures of each a little to give me a warm and cool version. The mixtures for my chrome blues consist of equal amounts of opaque Repro Cyan and opaque White, some transparent Royal Blue and transparent Ultramarine, a small amount of opaque Phthalo Blue, and a very small amount of transparent Black. My sky blues [chrome blue] are more like blue-grays than straight blue; the splash of Black helps to kick it back a little so that it doesn’t look fake. The chrome blues may vary, but these mixtures work well for me. A quick chrome blue could also be made with transparent Ultramarine, some transparent Ochre, and a little transparent Black. Color mixing takes a little time and experimentation. The chrome pieces on this bike reflect more than just sky, however, so I’ve made a brownish-gray for the smooth pieces of chrome that are reflecting the ground. This earthy gray is a mixture of all the browns I used for the background with some added transparent Black. There is also a red building that is reflected in the bike, so I mix my building colors before starting to paint. That red color will appear many times throughout the painting, which will help to add even more realism to the finished piece and help to place the motorcycle somewhere other than in a big empty parking lot in the middle of big nowhere. Before I start painting, I invest quite a bit of time studying my reference photo to understand what is being reflected in the chrome. I use a magnifying glass and examine the details of the photo. Decisions are made as to what stays and what simply is not important enough to invest time in a painting. I want the painting to be realistic but not confusing to the viewer. A hundred motorcycles reflected in the chrome might seem like a great idea at first, but experience has told me otherwise. Since there are a lot of pieces in a motorcycle, I paint many different pieces at the same time by looking for pieces that are similar in reflected colors. This also helps to minimize masking. I started with the headlight area because it’s the centerpiece of the painting–due to its shape and reflective intricacies. In a sense, I want to get the harder area done first. After masking off everything except the headlight and a couple of other areas, I use my chrome blues and White to paint the sky’s reflection and clouds. Using templates and acetate, I approach chrome in the same way I did the tank and fenders. Crisp edges are essential in painting chrome, so any hand-held templates need to be kept close to the surface when spraying. I start by freehand painting in general with my lighter chrome blue. I’m not too concerned about being exact at this point since I’ll be coming back to these areas with other colors and templates to define them. Darker chrome blue is sprayed to establish depth in the chrome. Next, I use a small fine line paintbrush and the same paints I use to airbrush to paint black solid areas and lines. These go pretty fast and, since I’m creating crisp edge lines, a brush for this application is the logical choice, rather than cutting a lot of acetate masks. A mahl stick is a convenient tool when hand-painting areas of this size. Mahl sticks are available at most sign supply shops and are used to support the hand above the surface of the painting. As I hand-painted with a brush, I only use Black where Black exists. My objective is not to outline everything in Black; I’m creating a “realistic” looking piece here. So, while the chrome is looking too bold at this point, my plan later is to airbrush over much of the black to add highlights, color, and detail and soften some of the crisp edges a little. Once the Black is brushed in, I airbrush chrome blues, whites and other colors using cut acetate stencils. First, I spray my Chrome no. 1, which is the brighter blue of the two. Then I spray my Chrome no. 2. Once my blues are done I define shapes with the browns, blacks [transparents and opaque], and White. After airbrushing my colors, I go over the black again and add whites with a fine line paintbrush to create contrast. Sometimes, I throw in a few brushed lines of the other colors [including chrome blue] as well. I finish the masked areas before moving to other crisp chrome pieces, but I paint them all the same way for consistency. Ultimately, painting chrome is a process of working with airbrushes and paintbrushes to create the final illusion– not to say that you couldn’t produce the desired effect with only an airbrush or paintbrushes– but this process works well for me. However, not all of the chrome areas are crisp. Some parts of the bike, because of their relationship to other pieces or out of focus, are softer in nature. Polished aluminum is also much like chrome, but has a softer finish than chrome. The motorcycle’s forks are a good example of this. While they are chrome, they are much less detailed than most other pieces. I mask the larger areas and completely freehand the shapes with an airbrush to paint these. Details are added with a few hand-held templates and acetate masks, that is kept slightly away from the surface to achieve softer edges. Paintbrushes are rarely used for the softer pieces.