fun side project with an airbrush

[nagash13]

so the back story on this piece is as follows:

last summer i was helping my mom clean out her garage so she could park the car inside this winter. during the cleanup I found this metal butterfly that had all its color bleached white by the sun, and some rust spots. I brought it back to new york with me, and decided I would repaint it for mom. all she said was she liked purple. so i sanded the rust off, added a new primer, and had some fun with the airbrush.

the purple was done by starting with a lavender and white 50/50 mix. i gave the entire butterfly a coat over the grey primer. next i used straight lavender. i started on the wing edges, and carefully worked my way in. by angling the airbrush about 45 degrees, and not aiming all the way to the center, the lavender overspray creates a nice fade transition from the first color at the center to the lavender about mid wing. next was the richer royal purple. same technique but covering even less. it takes a bit of practice but with minimal effort you can get a really nice color fade effect. afterwards i applied masking tape with holes cut in it and sprayed the yellow spots for pop color. the body and antennae were painted black, and the eyes painted by hand last. for a sense of scale, wingtip to wingtip is 16 inches.

next up i'll be giving it multiple varnish coats to help protect it. then pack it up and mail it off to mom for a late xmas gift. just thought i would share this in the painting forum to maybe inspire some others to try their hand at stuff like this.

Edited December 21, 2013 by nagash13

[zKoTTe]

Wow, that is so beautiful! Keep up the good work