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How To Paint On A Leather Jacket 101, Part 7: Painting "Lucky Dog" - the colours

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So having got the design mapped out in white acrylic paint as a base, now we move on to adding the colours ...

LuckyDogColour#1.JPG
So this is as far as we got from the last time and now we are ready to proceed with colours.

LuckyDogColour#2.JPG
So now I add some Cadmium Red Deep for the border ...

LuckyDogColour#3.JPG
With a steady hand, that's completed.

LuckyDogColour#4.JPG
Then overlay and check your stencil to reference that you kept everything neat and the border has an equal width and is proportioned just as you intended and designed.

LuckyDogColour#5.JPG
To get the blue colour I wanted, I mixed some Indianthrene Blue with some Brilliant Blue (with Flow Improver of course) and adjusted it until it was the shade I wanted (right) - then I applied it in the spaces of the USAAF emblem according to the stencil.

LuckyDogColour#6.JPG
Et voila, adding the blue forms the star.

LuckyDogColour#8.JPG
So then I applied a light coat of the colours I'd chosen for Lucky Dog - namely the Cadmium Yellow Deep plus Burnt Sienna - and I do this to put a base coat of colour down, but also, so I can review the colours to decide if I like them as much as I thought I would ...

LuckyDogColour#7.JPG
Hmmm....

LuckyDogColour#8.JPG
Hmmmm.... and I'm thinking "not quite" at this point.

LuckyDogColour#9.JPG
Then I add a second coat of Burnt Sienna to be sure and, over the first coat, suddenly the colour has opacity and starts to work, but I'm not liking it. I'm thinking that it's too dark for a drop-shadow and won't be as apparent as I'd hoped, being too subdued on the dark leather background - especially when it's "aged" and darkened too.

LuckyDogColour#10.JPG
So I complete the L in Burnt Sienna, but I do the U in Raw Sienna - to compare the two against each other ...

LuckyDogColour#11.JPG
I prefer the Raw Sienna! And that's the beauty of the acrylic paints - made a mistake? Paint over it!

LuckyDogColour#12.JPG
So then I paint Raw Sienna over the Burnt Sienna ...

LuckyDogColour#14.JPG
Working inwards with a little Mars Black/Dark Umber to make the edges really neat.

LuckyDogColour#13.JPG
A little bit of Turner's Yellow over the Cadium Yellow Deep to accent the upper half of DOG a la "Shack Rabbit".

LuckyDogColour#16.JPG
And then the colours are done! Here it is outside (and the art looks a lot brighter than it actually is!).

LuckyDogColour#15.JPG
But of course, I know what you're thinking - it looks very new and fresh - not vintage at all. Very true and it's really not what we're after ... yet.
So next we'll add some dark washes and "age" and "weather" the art and really tone it down and make it go from that ...

LuckyDogColour#17.JPG
To this … and how we do that will be covered in the next - and final - instalment of the process.

We're nearly there - and we're on the home straight …!


End of Part 7.
 
Last edited:

Stand By

One Too Many
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Thanks very much! :) I really appreciate you saying so.
I'm glad you're liking the show so far … just one stop left in the process; aging and weathering, including using varnish to seal the work.
And then a final part just showing the finished art on the jacket - I won't be able to squeeze that one in with the other due to the number of images.
But we're very nearly done …!
 

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