- PROLOGUE: I've never worked on a
Star Wars illustration before. Can you believe that? All this time and a huge Star Wars fan at
that. Well, that's not completely true. I've done a couple of Darth Vaders and some Luke and
Leia sketches in my past. Truthfully, some of them I'd like to forget. But I've never really
dug down and worked on a all-out project.
Until now. 2007 marked the 30th year since Star Wars burst on the scene.
And I wanted to do a little something that would commemorate the franchise. And seeing as I'd been pretty
big on doing paintings on a computer tower, I thought I'd take a hand at doing one that was Star Wars themed.
I would do it in a Sith side and Jedi side setting with wrap around artwork involving some of the more
memorable characters of the mythology.
And I'll show you how I put it all together. So strap yourself in and let me take you to a galaxy,
Far far away.
- STEP ONE: The tools. What will I need in order to be
able to airbrush on a computer? Well first, I'll have to remove all of the factory sealant around the areas that I'll be airbrushing
on.
This will include the entire areas surrounding the tower; Left & right sides. The top and the front. I went to Home Depot and got me a
Jumbo Sanding Sponge by Gator Grit. It's of the fine/medium 200 grit quality. Perfect for removing that factory sealant and leaving
behind a very nice smooth finish on the projected surfaces without leaving harsh scratch marks all around.
- STEP TWO: The first picture shows our tower untouched and straight out of
the box and brand spanking new. That baby is asking to have some airbrush artwork put on her isn't she? The second picture is me in
sanding down mode. I don't have to apply alot of pressure on the surfaces. Simply sanding from left to right applying the same level
of pressure on all sides as equally as I can. I didn't put my full weight on the sanding areas. That was unnecessary for my objective.
- STEP TWO (A): This is one of the panels removed and completely sanded down
with the factory sealant now non-existent. If you look closely down the middle, you can truly see just how smooth the sanding process
went. No unequal scuff marks and ragged scratches on the surface. Just a clean and smooth look.
- STEP THREE: Now it's time for some action. The foundation. This will be 2
parts Createx Opaque White and 1 part water. I begin to airbrush from left to right, gradually covering the sanded down surface with an equal coverage of this mixture. I
make sure NOT to airbrush heavy on one end more than the other. Its pass to the left and then past to the right slowly going down the
surface of this panel. Then when I get to the bottom, I do the same thing going back up maintaining a maximum of 6" from the panel. This is how it looks when I am finished. I
repeat this about 4 times until I have a nice and even white cover.
- STEP THREE (A): This is a closeup of one of the
4 footpads beneath each corner of the towers also sprayed down in white too.
- STEP FOUR: Now onto the layout. A detailed and fine line drawing
of the image that will later be airbrushed. On one side, the left panel we have what I dubbed the Sith side. That's my
assortment of the bad guys.
- STEP FOUR (A): The right side will be a fine line
and detailed drawing of the Jedi side. Our heroes from the movies. I utilize Prismacolor black for this drawing. All of this is rendered as tight
as possible. Absolutely no sketching here.
- STEP FOUR (B): I draw 2 more fine line drawings for the remaining
sides which will be the top and the very front of the tower. The front got a little tricky because it's beveled and a little
round, but I try to draw the Millennium Falcon and R2-D2 away from the beveled parts. Something I could not avoid on
the Battle of the Planets tower.
- STEP FIVE: With the illustration portion completed on the top of the
tower, here it is with low tac frisket mask. I lay the sheet that completely covers the illustration and then with my exacto knife,
I begin the painstaking task of cutting around key areas for airbrushing later "without" trying to cut into the tower's surface. Always
the risk I take when I'm cutting frisket around my artwork. That's not a good look when cutting marks appear on a surface that's been cut
away. I stay true to the lines beneath the mask and I take my time doing it. There's no rushing here.
- STEP FIVE (A): With my cutting around the fine edges completed, as I've
done on other projects where I've used frisket mask, I label the key parts that I will remove and place back from time to time
for the duration of the project. This cuts down on alot of time trying to find the shapes that go in a specific area. This has
worked wonders for me in the past to do it this way. I use a black sharpie pen for the writing.
starwars-jedi_frisket
- STEP SIX: What you were able to see in the previous
step if you looked past the top of the tower is that I'd already completed the total airbrushing on the tower's
left side (Jedi side). I skipped ahead and didn't bore you guys with the detail by detail airbrushing of this part
because you've seen it before in a couple of my other how-to's.
This how-to is really focusing on the usage of
my low tack frisket mask and the way I go about avoiding overspray. As you can see, with the panel removed from
the rest of the tower and frisket mask applied all about, this is what the left panel would look like after I've
airbrushed it. I also make sure to give the paint time to cure on the panel. One of the worst things one can do,
and I've done this before is apply the frisket mask onto a surface that is not completely dry. Or, I thought
that it had dried. If you really want to speed up the drying process, you can always use a hair dryer gun and
do it that way.
I'm usually patient and just let it dry naturally though. And that's what I did here. So, this is the panel with
the mask on. And.....
- STEP SEVEN: ...this is the same side with the
frisket mask now completely removed. This is a good closeup of what's been done with this surface.
- STEP EIGHT:
And the left side without the paper covering the entire tower. Look at the front and the top of the tower.
You can see what's remaining with the frisket mask still in place. It's the same on the right panel of the
tower too. And this is where I really begin to see how differently I could have taken this project. It's time
for us to take it to the next page and see the completion of the Star Wars computer tower.
Don't STOP Now. Go on to
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