This project was fun and hard as hell. It started with a message from a very good friend asking if I knew how to properly customize a motorcycle gas tank. I mean one thing is to go over something with paint and hope for the best and the other is make a serious paint customization for a very serious motorcycle collector, it's fucking hard.
Of course I said "YES", Note that I was fresh in Norway and starting to get commissions and painting as much as possible trying to get my Art out there. So I saw this as a great opportunity, but shit I didn't really knew what I was getting into...
A little background here: My good friend Henning is a serious bike customizer, not just bikes but everything that moves powered by petrol, diesel and I think now electric too: Cars, trucks, boats, whatever... specially motorcycles. Those are his true shit. He collects and makes amazing projects with them, not just like paint it in a special red and add a skull kinda shit. Nah this guy goes all the way from concept to reality checking every single aspect of them. Some bikes taking years to be ready just because it need a special piece that he has in his mind and cannot be replaced by anything, to be perfect. Those pieces sometimes are just super subtle details that the normal common people like you and me will not even notice. but there are so many in all of his bikes, and they are so fucking well thought.
Well this guy, wanted me, the fat Mexican artist to make him a custom paint gas tank for one simple reason. One of his bikes was invited to participate in the Tokio motor-show and he needed extra funding to take it there. So his plan was simple, I would customize the tank with my art and he will make a lottery and sell the tickets to fund part of the trip with it. Simple, yeah in concept it is very simple, a custom one piece artwork made by an upcoming Mexican artist in Norway and then just announce it in social media and among his piers, word will spread and that's it. Easy.
This is the bike that went to Tokio. "EDVARD" by Henning H. Dyrkboltn.
So yeah I of course said yes, it was super attractive, people will see my work, not just people but collectors, with the financial leisure to acquire art and I would get to try new stuff, I love trying new art techniques and materials, so it was amazingly attractive, but... Yes its not a walk in the park it is actually so fucking complicated mostly because the materials for proper automotive painting are expensive, dangerous and most of them need years of practice to be properly used and applied. I mostly work with acrylics and inks and other not so specialized art supplies that well will not last in the outside world for a very long time. I mean we talking sun, rain, temperature and constant use. but that's not a problem I mean there is materials and materials the problem was the proper mix of them. Every car or in this case motorcycle has a clear coat over it, it is a transparent protective coating that works as a shield for the paint and when well applied it makes them look like candy. that shinny delicious texture of a new car that is so attractive its the clear coat.
This clear coat is very special, expensive as fuck and it shows every fucking detail in the paint if you have a dripping it shows, if you build up paint it shows, it is hell. the other nice detail about the clear coat was the use of industrial solvents to properly spray it. Yeah this solvents will obliterate acrylic, ink and most of the materials out there. its designed to work with automotive mateirials, so this all of a sudden turned in to a quest of science and discovery. but Im getting ahead.
The tank was properly treated for me to paint on it. it was a new tank and Henning primer it for me and sand it to the extreme. when I received it it was so clean I was afraid to touch it. Yeah that's another problem fat of your fingers can make the paint over a good primer to flake or other fats and dirt. so its hard to handle. well I finally got it.
Sadly receiving a fresh primed gas tank was not good enough excuse to take a picture, so I have no picture of how good it looked In mat light grey.
Well I took it home and started thinking about it, I had certain amount of time to work on it but my problems now grew cus all the chat about techniques and paints and research was going the good direction, I bought some paints too try and I made some tests. But till this point I had no idea what to paint over it. I mean yeah skulls demons and eagles are the "tough motorcycle dude" shit. Nope not my thing I hate that stuff and my bro Henning think poorly of it. In my opinion it's the cheap American low standard for rebel wannabe, I mean there4 is skulls and skulls but the concept in general is overused and easy to go to. So that was an early decision. I started looking all kinds of pictures in google and custom bikes magazines and blogs and instagram and everything looked kinda the same when made professionally, I mean color combos and a lot of the same themes going on, either the skull things or flames or like patterns and the only bikes I found with different stuff were homemade bad executed landscapes and word stuff. So working with wrestlers I wanted to find a way to add them to this project, in the end was the showcase for my art and as much as I wanted to stick to the Bikers community I wanted so bad to stand out. So I made the Mexican thing to do and went the "fuck it" way and that was sorted.
The process started without me knowing what to do but I needed to break in the tank to be able to feel free to just work it. It is a weird feeling, something like the writers block, when you get to start an important project. so my recipe is just do something whatever to break that illusion. So I did the first step of it and went over all the tank with a spray can, this will help me to get less stressed and will give me a surface I am ver used to work with. So I started with a yellow...
it worked wonders it broke the illusion and gave me freedom to just do stuff, I waited it to dry for a while and I started masking it, I had this hippie motorcycle idea on my head, that went away very fast. my wife is a latin expert and she is deep into ancient history. I was listening to a pod cast about the mythological greek pantheon, it was a lovely podcast... its not there anymore I was searching for it a couple of weeks ago. but well I listen so many new stories about gods, and deities that haven't heard before or hadn't paid enough attention. so they mentioned HECATES and instantly I loved the name. so strong and simple. I dinged into it so support my concept.
Here is Hecates from my friends of greekmythology.com
Hecate was a goddess in Greek mythology, considered to be the goddess of magic and witchcraft. She was often depicted holding two torches or a key. She was the daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria, and she was honoured in the households as a protective goddess who brought prosperity.
Hecate was a cathonic goddess that preceded the Olympians, and it seems that she was highly worshipped in Thrace. She was also closely associated to the spiritual world, ghosts, and the dead. A shrine to Hecate was placed at the entrances of homes or even cities, hoping to protect them from the evil spirits that roamed the world.
And here is what got all tied together for my project.
She helped goddess Demeter in her search for her daughter Persephone, when the latter was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld; after it was decided that Persephone would spend a third of a year in the underworld and the rest on earth, Hecate became Persephone's guide and companion to and from the underworld each year. In art, she was initially depicted as being a single figure. However, in later periods, statues depicted her as three-fold, having three faces and three bodies united.
Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Hecate/hecate.html
So yeah she was the guide and protector, so what better to guide and protect a biker than the original goddess of magic and witchcraft. the one who hold the keys and show the way. and hell the name is awesome Hecates.
So that did it, now it was just proper to sit and sketch some stuff to paint it over but hell the sketching I did what we artists do best, I winged it knowing that In the process I will have time to think and take decision due to the proper drying times. this is important in automotive cus if you go over when its not completely dry it can flake or crack, you need to be patient.
When the yellow was ready I just went over with pink, my favorite combination in the world, pink and yellow. its a powerful one.
But it looked like Finding Nemo, I left it there for a while I was digging into greek mythology and trying to find out more hidden meanings. I was mesmerized of the way Henningworked his projects and I wanted to have some shit to talk about this so it was clear. I needed three heads, and I wanted them to be different and the same. which after making so many wrestlers was not a big deal but the colors needed to say something about this project and the concept. so I went on and after the spray paint, I tried several different mixes of acrylic, inks, markers and even pencil colors. all for the sake a good experimentation and science. I sadly didn't documented this with images and even all the process till the end is not documented. but it went well till I decided the design and artwork was finished due to building up paint would become an uneven surface when the clear coat coming and I liked the way the lines went everywhere instead of following the natural lines oof the tank. it was good.
Then it came the problem... I used a lot of materials carelessly and when I tried a bit of solvent in my test piece it obliterated it, in matter of nanoseconds. all of it not just an ink or a color. all of it except for the spray paint ( I got a nice spray paint for automotive purposes, it was expensive but it was all right) so the other rones all the work with the wrestlers lining and details would not survive the coating.
I went online and in two days I headed all I could found about this subject, what materials to use why it happens and so on. and I didn't found s solution. the thing was to go over the tank with acetone and get it as clean as possible and start over with a different strategy and materials. I checked prices and I was way over my head with this kind of design probably reducing the quantity of colors or making a two color scheme with crazy lines more than colors.. But I was bummed hard time. I left it for a few days. not wanting to confront it. and went over to do other shit. My kid was 3 months at the time so I was completely busy any way. and then it happened.
I normally use the liquitex acrylic Matt protector for my canvas paintings and I use it very light cus it affect some of the markers I use so, I need to go over it very lightly like misting it out in layers, slow process but worth it, after the third layer you can just go over it fast and heavy cus the previous ones are covering good. so I left the tank covered with an old t-shirt and was painting a wrestler or other stuff I don't remember exactly what. and by mistake when I was spraying the liquitex over this painting I left the door open. My kid was not home so I was safe to blunder a little. well the thing is that I got to close to the tank while spraying and one side got sprayed with liquitex. It started diluting some of the material but very little just like watercolor. and it dried fast as always. I was like I don't give as fuck I might have to destroy it anyway. so yeah I ignored it and continued with my day.
then it came the day when Henning called me to tell me he got the best guy in the city, the guy from Slengesol Automotive Paint to clear coat the piece and it was a tiny window of opportunity, and I shitted my pants, I told him it was going to be complicated cus the materials and that I was going to try to make it happened but we knew from the beginning this shit would probably fail but we tried anyway. he said "yeah I know, its all right lets see how goes" and well I told him I needed a couple of days for this and he agreed.
So panic you know real panic, I went over and got the little can of solvent I had and got a rag to start cleaning it and start over I was going to get a couple of spray cans and just spray in the cap and use it with a brush to paint over. This actually was a good way to go and I regretted not going for it since day one. but it is what it is. then I got the solvent and start cleaning it and it was awesome the overspray of the liquitex actually protected the painting. it went off if I worked hard on it but just for the touch it was actually holding it perfectly. So I stoped and fixed the parts. then proceed to liquitec the4 shit out of it. like 2 cans went in that tank. I must have had like 50 right layers of it. it didn't show it was just a matt. Now I needed to test it. so I sprayed over other stuff several times and then tried the solvent it folded not as much but I assumed it was drying times so I left it over night.
Then Henning came for the tank. he loved it at first sight, he didn't saw anything before so it was a good reaction, we talked about Hecates and the reason for it tore and he was very exited and then I told the story of the liquitex and he urged me to come with him to Slengesol to explain and come with ideas cus he loved the artwork. I ended up talking in Facebook with the SLengesol guy and he got super exited he never coated something made this way and he was super curious about the results so he did the same. super light mists for 3 or 4 layers and then normal work.
He even went the extra mile and layered way too fancy.
Sadly I don't have a lot of pictures, the phone was using got broken. but I asked Henning and he is looking for them, I will post therm here as soon as I ge them.
It was an extremely nice experience, in the end "EDVARD" went to Japan with Henning and the had a blast. the tank was gone in a raffle and I. made a good amount of money , I don't know how much but it was enough to take a big motorcycle to Japan and back. and. I will always appreciate projects like this, projects that challenge me.
Visit my instagram for more pictures of this. you need to scroll way down to find it there is a lot of projects in that instagram so, I will be writing about therm the same way I wrote this. hope you enjoy it.
here is
Have a wonderful day
Mr.Adolfito
