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ARTOOL INSTRUCTOR SERIES:

SKULLMASTER SERIES: SCREAMIN’

“Everything you wanted to know about your new stencils —
but were afraid to ask.”

By Craig Fraser

Used properly,
stencils can effectively
achieve continuity in a
design and save you a
lot of time. Used
improperly, they can
create some pretty
nasty remedial designs.
Next in the
Skullmaster line is
Screamin’ II, a side-
profile image that is
similar in some respects
to the Frontal II stencil.

Screamin’ II

Step 1: Wanting Step 2: After

color, mix up a peeling back the
batch of stencil, you can
blue/violet see the general
kandy. This gives outline of the
you more depth skull, minus the
than black does jawbone. For this
when dealing first one, leave
with a the jaw off, and
monochromatic. keep the
Start out by standard “evil
spraying the eye” in place.
basic skull Use your
design that is airbrush to
apparent in the outline, and
actual stencil. A connect all the
little tape keeps stencil marked
the overspray at lines.
bay.

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Step 3: With your Step 4: A little

airbrush, fill in background
the details, airbrushing for
shading and effect, and some
shadowing the hanging cob
entire design to webs give the
give it depth. skull more
This rendering character. Heck,
with the airbrush just because
also eliminates you’re using a
the “stencil” stencil doesn’t
look, giving the mean you have
final piece of to turn off your
artwork a imagination. I
freehand feel. then sprayed in
basecoat white
for highlights.
This brings out
the details, and
achieves more

Step 5: Using the Step 6: Mask off

same stencil, but the stencil area
with the eye around the jaw,
masked off, and spray the
airbrush in the jawbone in
same skull place. For this
outline. This skull, the jaw
allows you to use is closed. The
the other eye in cool thing
the stencil to give about having a
the skull a separate jaw in
different look. this stencil is that
The second eye you can place it
is a more wherever you
realistic, like, giving the
expressionless stencil a lot more
skull eye. possibilities.

Step 7: After Step 8: The

finishing with the freehand
stencil, connect part of the
all the linework airbrushing
with an airbrush. is the most
You can see that important aspect
the skull already of successful
has quite a stencil or shield
different look work. It’s your
with the freehand ability,
connected jaw and the unique
and the different ways you use
eye. the stencil that
defines your
artistry.

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Step 9: With the Step 10: For the

skull finished, final skull
create a radiant design, use the
background same skull
fade, and outline with the
freehand in third-eye
a couple of feature. The
crossed third eye is
wrenches. This actually a star
not only helps —sort of a
the skull design “Bootsy Collins”
stand out further Funkadelic
from the original thing. This star
stencil, but gives can also be
the entire design used to create a
a retro “Hot series of stars
Rod” look. over the skull,
much like the
stars on the
Frontal II stencil.

Step 11: Open the Step 12: Render in

jaw. Go through all the shadows
the same process and details to
of lining out the reduce the
skull with an stencil evidence.
airbrush to Remember,
eliminate all stencils are cool
stencil gaps. to use but not
cool enough for
you to advertise
their use.

Step 13: With Step 14: With the

freehand flaming teeth properly
going on in the punched out
background of with white,
the Bootsy skull, freehand in the
our last trick: a rest of the
very handy highlights,
positive cut-out completing the
for both the top third and last
and bottom rows skull—all
of teeth. This derived from
comes in handy one stencil!
if the teeth end
up too dark.
Definite time
saver here...
and something
that was not in
the original
Screamin design.

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Final Shot: As I’ve demonstrated, there are some pretty

interesting things you can perform with stencils. In the
past two articles, I introduced three drastically different
stencil tools. The Frontal II is a good example of a
versatile freehand stencil that is limited only by your
imagination. The Lucky 13 is much more detailed, but is
limited for freehand work; you’ll have to be creative in
how you use it, and not how much you are going to
modify it. The Screamin II is an improvement over the
Side Facing Skull stencil from the first series. Which
stencil is better? Neither, and paradoxically, all three. It
depends on what you’re using them for. It bears
repeating: use the right tool for the right job. In the next
issue, we’re gonna compare the new Multiple II with the
original Multiple from the Skullmaster I series. Stay
tuned…same skull time…same skull channel.

Paint to live, live to paint

Craig Fraser, author of Automotive Cheap Tricks and Special F/X,
has been airbrushing for nearly two decades. The owner and
operator of Air Syndicate, Fraser has also been the in-house
airbrush artist and designer for Kal Koncepts since 1992. Located
in Bakersfield, Calif., Kal Koncepts/Air Syndicate specializes in
custom graphics, automotive airbrush, and the fine art of the
custom culture. Craig divides his time between working in his shop,
writing magazine articles, and instructing. He has also appeared
in a number of instructional videos, and is credited with pioneering
the original automotive custom paint workshop for the Airbrush
Getaway more than 10 years ago. Craig works directly with
a number of manufacturers to develop new and innovative
custom paint products. You can check out his artwork at
www.gotpaint.com.

COMING NEXT - Multiple II

28 AIRBRUSH ACTION / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2004