I've been striping for almost a year an I'm addicted but have lots to learn! Here some of my work, any tips? Thanks, stingray No brains, no headaches -Ed Roth
Lookin good my man for only at it a year. I have a good friend whos been doin it since 1974. His famous words are "Practice, Practice,Practice" Check out his web site and you might get some good ideas... The Paint Chop Somerset, Pa.
I did a little bit of striping and found I always did best first thing in the morning. Right after my second beer.
I have tried pinstriping and am always in awe of how effortless some of the old pros sling there swords.... I sold one shot sign paint and supply's for over 40 years,,so I had access to the right materials,I came to the conclusion that I didn't have the patience or the talent to ever pull nice lines. You are far ahead of anything I ever did. HRP
Thanks HRP means a lot! And blowby I don't think I can follow your method I'm only 15 haha but i can try striping early in the morning! Haha No brains, no headaches -Ed Roth
For All Aspiring And Struggling Stripers by Mitch Macial Back in the 'old days', yes, before my time, there was something called an apprenticeship. If you wanted to learn to make furniture, use machine tools, fix cars build brick walls or paint signs, you found someone to mentor you. That person would take you on as an apprentice and show you the ropes, passing down the trade, craft and tradition. The only people who knew how to do certain things, and properly, were those who wanted to learn the craft/trade bad enough to work for it, for nearly nothing, until they were ready to go out on their own. If you didn’t have what it took to turn the trade you were encouraged to find another line of work. Fast forward... Save for a few instances these days, that tradition is gone, largely in my opinion, due to our fast food, disposable culture, the explosion of the information superhighway and the Internet. Now you can 'teach yourself' how to do just about anything. And now everyone wants to be a Pinstriper. It’s just not that simple. I happen to come from a really weird rift in the generational split. Most people my age and younger are from the disposable generation. I happen to fall in with the value side. My father was a craftsman tradesman. my grandfathers were craftsmen and tradesmen. If they weren’t dedicated to their craft/trade, they didn’t eat. They had to be good. They taught me about craft, about not just learning how to do something the right way, but about the right way to learn doing something. That’s where most amateur/hobbyist stripers fall short. With nobody standing over their shoulder they are left to their own devices and bad habits, just like 'home tattooists' 'self taught hair stylists' and 'the local handyman'. They look at the Internet at all the jokers and rat stripers posting junk and say..."I can do that”, and they're right. They can, and the work still sucks. I say all that to say this. If you are new to this, please understand that you are not magically going to start laying down the most bitchin stuff in the world just by accident. If you are struggling with designs or line consistency, stop. Just stop what ever you're doing. If you don’t care about actually being good, stop reading now. If you do, continue. There is one thing that cannot be substituted for in any craft. Practice. If you can’t stripe 10 straight lines, you haven’t practiced enough and you have no business trying to make designs. Find, learn and live the 100 line drills. When that becomes second nature, then move onto simple designs. One thing at a time, ask questions, go to shows, panel jams and letterhead meets and watch someone who actually knows what they're doing. Learn a new stroke every week or a new trick once a month. Don’t jump in with both feet. It is both detrimental to your over all progress and can be quite frustrating and demoralizing also. There was always one kid in wood shop or ceramics that wanted to carve or sculpt the next Venus di Milo but couldn’t turn a simple bed knob on the lathe. He usually wound up smashing his work piece with a hammer out of frustration, not because he wasn’t capable, but he was impatient and over ambitious and didn’t want to go thru the process of learning. That’s exactly what I keep seeing in post after post. Maybe its just fun for you and you don’t care and you think I'm full of hot air. That’s fine. Maybe you're just a super gifted bad ass and you think I'm full of hot air. That’s fine too. But if you fall into the same category as the other 99% of us, and really want to be good and kill'em at the shows and sell a million panels, and sell all the purses and rockabilly paraphernalia you can come up with, and paint a hundred mail boxes and tool boxes, and old beer bottles...oh...wait...does anyone stripe cars anymore? If you want to get good, you're going to have to learn the way they did in the old days. Practice, practice, practice. Back when, part of the apprenticeship process, much like in today’s tattoo world, involved being forced to do a lot of menial crap that didn’t make any sense at first but later you realize it was forming good working habits. It involved being challenged by your mentor, being over seen, guided and corrected by someone with more skill, talent, knowledge and experience than you, and being told when you're ready to start doing customer work. You didn't go solo until you were ready because it’s more difficult to repair a damaged reputation then to build a solid one. Without those checks, and the addition of the wonderful internet, the level of work flooding the marketplace has diminished to the point that any kook with some 1-shot and a Mack is a pinstriper. I don’t know how many real train wrecks I've seen with two pages of "that looks great", "I'd let you stripe my car", "looks good to me" and all kinds of other reinforcement that only hurts the 'striper'. To the uninitiated, I'm sure it looks great, but they probably don’t know Von Dutch from Van deKamps. Simply put young striper.... Aspire to greatness. Do not settle for mediocrity. Do as much as is within your power to advance your mastery of the craft. Don’t rush. Be patient. Mitch Macial aka AlteredPilot - Tue Nov 14, 2006 http://www.rockyburris.com/t/Pinstriping-Lessons-Lesson1-Learning-How-To-Learn
Thanks mashed, I get exactly where you're coming from, I do it for the fun of it and every once in a while do a couple things for friends right now, of course I'd love to stripe cars but being 15 and inexperienced like you said I have to practice practice practice. I love doing it and plan on never stoping. Thanks for everything! No brains, no headaches -Ed Roth
I would strongly suggest getting this DVD and following it all the way through! it will really help with line consistency and design work: http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Pinst...1384309641&sr=8-1&keywords=Wizard+pinstriping
Shoot me a indox I tried to send you one it said you can't get messages Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Thank you! Man, that right there is good advice for whatever you endeavor to learn. I love the "Old School" approach and like you, I'm at about that age where I could have gone either direction. Whatever you do, learn your craft. I was just telling a friend the other day that one of the few things in people that I find worthy of admiration is not fame, fortune or good looks. It's someone that knows how to do something and do it really, really well. I enjoy seeing a true craftsman more than just about anything in the world. Thanks again!!
You might enjoy watching this video,,Marc Fenyo passed away several years ago and he was a amazing guy to watch and always wore a "TOP HAT",,many people only knew him by the name top hat. He knocked out the blue pinstriping around the flames on my old pickup sitting in the parking lot of my business in less than 20 minutes. HRP <iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/eTD_qM8GwfU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I'm not seeing a video link? Top Hat striped my Comet years ago at either Monster Bash or Drive Invasion in Atlanta. It's starting to wear off now but I haven't run across anyone whose work seems clean enough to clean it back up.
That was awesome. I'm surprised at how he barely pallets the brush and is able to pull that many lines in a single paint load. I usually pallet every 2-3 lines
I had to pull it up in a browser to even see the link. He's rather young in that video. He was totally white haired when he did my car.
Haha that was a great time!looking forward to it again! Me and my dad will have are car down there, and the schwinn will have better wheelie bars haha No brains, no headaches -Ed Roth
That's some good advice from Mashed , as it takes more than picking up a brush to be a competent pinstriper . I started by taking a sign painting class that was 4 hrs. a day everyday for 2 years . We learned the basics of brush control, brush strokes , letter shape and style along with the feel of properly thinned and palleted paint . When I started striping I had the basics of how to handle a brush to fall back on , I looked at other stripers work and studied their style and craftsmanship . Two of my favorites were Dennis Jones and Tom Kelly . They have both become good friends of mine and have enjoyed working with the both of them. I've now been striping and lettering for the past 42 years and have loved every day . Good luck with your new endeavor and remember that you have to learn to walk before you can run .
Do it for fun. If your serious about it, practice by taking a piece of safe glass. Draw a grid on the back of it and practice away. (Not everyone likes this, because it's not the same tooth as auto paint) but, you will run out of stuff to fuck up in your house. Hahaha. And that way every time you mess up, you don't have to wipe off the grid. And the most important thing is to not get mad at yourself when you mess up. Your gonna mess up! Nobody, is born with this talent. But if you keep at it you will see yourself improving slowly. Buy books, I second the wizard videos and get everything you can get a hold of. It's inspiring..... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
One thing I would definitely recommend. The older a striper is the wiser he is usually. i wouldn't recommend someone that's been doing it for like a year and a half to get advice from. Sometimes there is other issues than pulling clean lines. Like good adhesion. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Can't add too much to what Mitch said except that I've been practicing since I was 11 years old and did my first car at 13.That was 57 years ago and I'm still learning. My grandfather;who raised me and was a craftsman in his own right as an automobile mechanic in the early 1900's and a prototype machinist for General Electric for many years had a favorite saying:" If you don't learn something every day then you are probably dead!" I would only add this bit of info I saw on a church billboard one day: "Never let the best you can do today set the standard for the rest of your life." Good luck in your endeavor.
Practice and practice.....did I mention practice?........I've been striping over 40 years.....I still learn something almost every time I stripe a car..pick out people's work that is super neat and symmetrical....ALWAYS PATTERN your work from someone who is really good.....if you pattern your work after someone who just does stripes, then you'll always be a simple striper...I've watched pinstripers at shows who stayed busy all day but there work was so sloppy and repetitious......remember there are people who do pinstriping and there are Pinstripers........there is a huge difference.......don't try to be fast either...take your time and do good work...the speed will come in time...back when I first started going to shows I'd do 2 or 3 cars a day....after about 5 years of regular pinstriping I'd gotten up to 10-12 cars a day....I was 25 years younger then.....get your own nact and style by watching others stripe.....never let yourself be know for how much whiskey you can drink while striping cars or telling how many cars you've done for famous builders and people....PEOPLE KNOW HOW GOOD YOU ARE FROM YOUR WORK AND WORD OF MOUTH......You don't have to tell anyone......word will get out...I'm reminded of what an old sign man once told me..he said.."Donnie, people will beat a path to your door even though you live in the wilderness, if you do the best work".
I was given some pointers by Pete Finlan a few years ago, he told me to quit practicing flourishes and designs. More important is brush control, find an old hood or fender and practice straight lines over and over and over until you master the feel of your hand and brush to the striping surface to maintain a consistent line thickness. Once you have this down practice turns, over and over and over. If you have troubles with the old style Mack brush, try Kafka's brushes.
I made this video when I met Tom a coupla years ago, his skill blows me away... https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=233714590046024
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