studiOmnivorous

26th Jul2011

Prius Project, Day Four: Spray testing, Layouts, and Stencils, Stencils, Stencils

by Corey

Day Four: Spray paint testing, design layouts, and stencils, stencils, stencils.

Today’s post comes from fellow Prius-Project-atron, Corey Lamp. Corey’s a design professional as well as a Designer Friend, but I wasn’t just counting on his superb sense of composition. Corey’s also a painter by nature and one of the most thorough process researchers I’ve ever met. If I’m about to be up against the wall on deadline and materials, and need a good job done well, I wouldn’t have anyone else as my righthand man. Corey’ll talk a little bit about why we chose the materials we did, and how we went about getting ready.

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Good morning, fellow blog readers.

Corey, guest blogger extraordinaire

DAY FOUR, DEEP IN THE JUNGLE: Megan and I focused on finishing up trash can/bin prep, getting used to the spray paint medium, getting our compositions together, and cutting stencils.

Megan scraping away...

To clean the bins, we first attacked it with sandpaper and elbow-grease. This didn’t go too well. The short buckets (painted in black latex-based paint) pretty much laughed at our efforts.

Sticky spray-paint flecks...you might want to put down a tarp if you do this.

We ended up doing a double layer of Turpenoid Natural (the best there is for the environment, not to mention our skins), letting it sit overnight, and attacking it with a combination of 60 grit sandpaper, a wirebrush with a scrapper, and a long flat piece of metal.

Although we did this for hours on end, it's strangely satisfying

This little tool worked best against the black latex demon

After hours of scraping, scratching, and scrubbing:

You can see the difference between the left side, cleaned with a degreaser dishsoap and water, and the right side, still full of tupernoid and paint

One garden hose spray later: this is what happens when you don't use a primer coat =(

After scraping was finished, Megan and Stephen went full force into laying two coats of primer on each trash can and bin.

Megan shaking up that primer like a polaroid picture!

Action shot! Fine even coats is Stephen's specialty

Our motto is – If the viewer doesn’t see it through normal use, it isn’t worth our time:

...So we didn't coat the bottoms of the bins.

Like I said before, we tried to be as eco-conscious as we could. It would seem hypocritical to make an up-cycled sculpture, along with “energy conservation” branding – only to use horribly polluting chemicals in the process.

Clean your brushes with tupernoid natural, as water won't work to get out primer. Save your "dirty" turpenoid to pour off into another jar later when the primer settles, and reuse it.

Next up was testing out our Montana Gold spray paint and our various caps. We have the Regular, Thin, and Fat caps. This will give us the flexibility we need for a variety of painting effects. Montana Gold is an acrylic based spray, reducing our overall impact on the environment (and our backyard).

Megan testing out the spray

You and me together, stars forever!

Testing out a basic stencil

Basic tools of the stencil trade

Stenciling took much longer than I expected. I’ve always wanted to do stencil painting, but never got around to it. Maybe I was subconsciously saving myself from extreme tedium. The time for waiting is over!

Finally got use that lightbox !

Much like screenprinting, you have to think of stencil-based spraypaint in layers. Here's Megan's sketch determining the order of painting, from top down.