11.24 / 99% preperation.

I was working on fabricating some sculptures for an artist. Here are some process fliks.

Weapon of choice: Air gun.

This part screws into the tip of the air-gun. There are different sizes for different jobs, here I’m using a fine tip. The gun is powered by an air compressor.

I fucked up the first round – not enough (gray) primer, so I ended up sanding everything down again and went from using gloss black to matte black.

Drying/baking stage. The base on the left has a hit of silver along with the cube in the background. White cube in the foreground. I ended up doing about 3-4 coats of color and about 6-7 coats of primer.

Black Gloss – Reflection of face mask… Always gotta protect your iron lung. The gloss was extremely sensitive, it would scratch with the slightest piece of dust + I managed to get a fingerprint on one of the edges even though it was dry to the touch. Again, all a big learning curve.

The matte black turned out real nice. The hardest part was not getting too close with the air gun and moving across the surface area at a steady pace, otherwise you get this texture called “orange peel” where the surface ends up with an orange skin, dimpled look – not a good look.

Take two… Primer had to be applied many times because the metal cubes were so smooth to begin with. I would like to thank JOE from BROOKLYN MACHINE WORKS for creating the cubes and bases for this project – He’s a cool cat and was a pleasure to work with. Matter of fact, everybody I know at BMW are good peoples and I have a lot of respect for them.

First I painted the exterior – after the outside was dry, I tried to paint the insides… Had a real hard time getting paint into the holes without over-spraying the outer surface. Shit was a mess, with drips and too much paint build up… Learning on the fly is really fucking hard, but usually if you have enough time to make mistakes and learn from them, it’s all good at the end of the day.

Here I tried to build a cover for the outer surface so paint would get to the inside area… I then went on to wipe off all the paint that got on the outer surface with reducer (like paint thinner). It almost worked, actually I failed… Started feeling kinda bumbed  about my whole approach and was wondering if I was A: ever going to get the job done on time and B: will I really be able to master the air gun?!

Air gun mastered! Shaolin sonnn! Had just enough time for drying, with 2 hours left before the show. Called a cab asked driver dood to take me to Broadway & 12 street in the CITY and how much it would cost, “FIFTEEN” he answered so I said okay. Before I knew it, he was trying to take me to long island CITY (a.k.a. QUEENS) and charge me FIFTEE dollars!! After me and cab driver dood figured out our lost in translation moment, I was back on the BQE (brooklyn queens expressway) heading over the Williamsburg bridge from Brooklyn. Got to the site, the artist was happy with the final product and the show was a huge success – what more could I ask for. The sculptures where in their custom case with a matter of seconds left before VIP’s started walking in for the pre-show. Maybe I’ll post the “show” photos in a few days so you can see the finished piece.