Custom Airbrush project

Ok, finished this airbrush project a while ago, but I since I have had some more time to post,I thought I would share. 

One of the guys I work with lost his Autistic nephew to a tragic accident.  After reeling at the prices for commercial burial urns, he came to me and asked if I could do something custom. He purchased a blank brass urn from the internet, had it powder coated white and handed it off to me.  The Nephew was a big batman/joker fan and they wanted Heath Ledger's Joker painted in some form on the Urn.

I Started by printing a photo to size and cutting out the basic shapes to use as transfer templates on my masking tape.  Just lightly blown in with air brush.

I then cut back his hair and jacket to start filling in space.

Using Created AutoAir candies in my airbrush I Started to just get basic values

I then removed the masked from the face and did the same...

Skipping a head a bit... I pulled all the masking and laid in details with brush by hand

Some free hand airbrush over the hand painting in more of the root beer candy and splash of green and red netted this

I had some vinyl stencils cut to layout the lettering

And after that and some more free hand the lettering had a nice effect

After a couple coats of clear

I am really pleased with how this turned out... this was a new painting technique and paints I have never used before. It is really nice the water based AutoAirs play nice with standard automotive clear. 

The family was also taken back by the final result, and could not be happier with the tribute to thier loved one.

In reply to Madhatr :

You did an amazing job!

(Though I was hoping there'd be a unicorn and/or wizard on the side of your Vette...)

Wow, you really have some skills, that looks amazing!

Holy crap that's amazing. Definitely leaving a cryptic note for when I die so my family knows to contact you but isn't sure exactly why. They explain the situation and you just say ah so the time has come. Then a bad ass urn shows up. It's a perfect plan. 

That's incredible, I wish I had that kind of talent.  What a great way to remember him.

In reply to MazdaFace :

Lol

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Madhatr :

You did an amazing job!

(Though I was hoping there'd be a unicorn and/or wizard on the side of your Vette...)

Also lol, no unicorns but when I graft in the l88 hood scoop I'm going to paint her...on the inside of the hood, sitting on a field of skulls with 'Going 2 Hell' lettered up the side

I expected to see tigers, vikings and scantily clad women in distress- then quickly realized this was a serious project.

Nice work Madhatr- that looks amazing!

I can't thumbs this up enough. 

I want my urn to be a cylinder head from a Pratt & Whitney R-2800. The people that know me would understand.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!  This technique really works well with the candies. Here is the practice painting I did before the Urn. (the bottle cap is for size reference.)

I sheared up some 2" x 3" sign blank to try some more portraits.  I am thinking with more practice and the hopes that the our new place will have room for a place to shoot clear... I might have a nice little side hustle doing motorcycle tins.