Handpainted enclosure inspiration

[jjjimi84]

What are y’all’s favorite pens, markers, paints to use? Curious about your process.

Posca pens are fun but adhesion is not great and they need a clear coat.

I use a combination of spray paints, an airbrush and testors model paint. I like the consistency of the model paint and the airbrush and spray paints handle the base color coats after primer.

18/0 little brush for almost everything and a lot of time.

My primary artwork technique is a knockoff of the @jjjimi84 style. He made a video that goes into his process.

Except I’m not much of an artist. I do the control labels, and then sometimes some geometric patterns because they’re easy and I can use a ruler.

For some moderate protection, I’ve been using glossy modge podge and baking it at 200F for 15-20 minutes. It keeps sparkling powder coats sparkling, and there a cool texture from the brush strokes.

Thank you! This is still my process, I experiment with anything and everything but ultimately resort back to spray paints/airbrush/hand painting.

There's clearcoat you can buy at the art store that's especially made for protecting acrylic paintings.

I'd be afraid of using automotive clearcoats and such, for the rather aggressive solvents would mess with such details?

This is correct, there is a long chapter in my pedal building that was watching different clear coats ruin the artwork.

This is my most recent build and here is the process for making it.


Drilled and taped then hit with spray primer. Then started a pink fade with spray paint, then hit with a glitter clear coat and while it was still a bit wet, hit with a clear coat.

Accidental crackle effect achieved, let dry and the clear coat again. Completely dry for 24 hours and then assembled and hand paint the letters.

Drop something on the pedal to chip the surface….f&@k!!!

Take picture with ipad and start coming up with ideas for final image. Decide on image and placement to cover up ding, wait two years for final painting.

 

[kungpow!]

I made this like 16-17 years ago. It's a powder coated enclosure, then Testors enamel. It's fun to play. It's on vero.

 

[Band of Dans]

I mostly do UV prints these days out of convenience, but still do the ol' posca paint every so often. I mostly follow @jjjimi84's process but add my own special twist of laziness. I almost always use duplicolor plastic adhesion promoter as a primer. IME, it works pretty well, even on powder coated enclosures, though I pretty much only use it with matte or textured ones because you can lightly scuff them without ruining the powder coat. YMMV and I don't recommend this at all. By viewing this sentence you release me from all accountability. For clear I use duplicolor acrylic lacquer. It's been fairly reliable for me as a quick and easy protective layer, though I'm not nearly as exacting as some folks here.

I recently tried spray paint and stencils for the first time on a DBA Fuzz War clone. Harder than expected, but I'm reasonably happy with it and will definitely try it again! I literally just traced the face of the pedal on some paper, sketched out some stuff, and cut along the lines with an x-acto knife
. IMO it works to lean into the DIY aesthetic for a DBA clone, though obviously the real ones look way better than mine.

A few things I find challenging:

1. Clear-coating can sometimes enhance the appearance of textures, for better or worse. Mostly worse for me, so I try to use as few layers as possible. The side light in the photo below really emphasizes the "wet" or bumpy look I'm talking about. It's way less noticeable in person, but hopefully you get the idea.
2. It's extremely difficult for me to get a smooth "fill" area with Posca pens. There's always some kind of blob or bubble, no matter what I do. Trying to fix it always makes it worse.
3. Big swaths of empty space can emphasize rough edges. For this reason, I tend to lean on big blocks of color and will sometimes mix and match with stamped letters. Blobby colors and simple patters are also just much easier for me to pull off with my limited skills, ha!
4. IMO, handpainted labels are where a lot of designs fall apart, especially if the pedal has a lot of controls. Erik S's work is the exception that proves the rule because the lettering is so damn neat. The second picture below is only example I'm happy with from my own projects. I wish I'd thought to outline the letters in their corresponding colors, but I didn't think about that until too late and I've never had success posca'ing over existing layers.

Here's a craptastic photo of the hand-painted enclosures I still like or that make me laugh.

Clockwise from top-left: Marigold Fuzz, Maleficent Mids, Plumes, Orange Squeezer, Rainbow Machine, General Tso's, Simulcast, Fuzz War II, 6-band EQ, Fuzz Factory, and Pendulum trem in the middle.



@jjjimi84's destiny behemoth practice-amp-in-a-box.