Painthouse Update - Fall 2010

Source: Painthouse Customs

It's been a busy season here at Painthouse Customs and I wanted to share a few projects with you from the 2010 season. Here are 4 helmets that I did for Pinkbike.com, Down Cycles and Cove Bikes.

Read on,For this past 2010 race season the guys at Pinkbike asked me to paint two helmets for a couple of their team riders. A classic Giro Remedy for Cam Hilts, and a brand new Fox V3R Carbon helmet for Miranda Miller.





I had recently been developing different kinds of 3d techniques and I decided to utilize one of them for the Pinkbike team helmets. I wanted to create an effect of blowing leafs. I used various sizes of maple leaf shapes to make the layered image. I then incorporated the individual riders sponsors and names into the designs.



What can't be seen in the pictures is that there are heavy gold flakes mixed in within the leafs. I really enjoyed working with the PinkBike crew on these projects and it was great to see these helmets in action at various races and events over the summer.

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Good friend and former employer of mine, AJ Picarello, finally contacted me about getting a custom painted helmet for himself. AJ owns and operates an awesome bike shop out of Croton NY, Down Cycles. Down Cycles is not only the place to get bikes for the whole family and top notch mechanic service, but also top of the line custom bikes of all disciplines.



Down Cycles is also the connection for many obscure, small, and custom bike brands. I discovered Down Cycles when I was just a pup searching for a Spooky Metalhead, the original hardcore hardtail. I never did get the Spooky, but I did eventually purchase another dream bike of mine at the time, a Brooklyn Machine Works "Race Link".



Back to the paint. Inspired by one of AJ's favorite cartoons, I created a character for the top of the helmet. I used a beveled edge technique when painting the face and I carried that theme into the rest of the graphics. I finished the project by adding his name on the back and ghosted Down Cycles lettering as well.

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After getting to know Cove Bikes' designer and engineer, Brian Kelly, we got to talking paint and turned out he had always wanted a Spider-Man themed helmet painted. I felt like I was the man for the job but I knew if I was going to recreate an iconic image like Spider-Man's suit I'd have to take it to the next level.



The suit has a distinctive brick-like pattern and at first I was thinking I could stretch a fabric over the helmet and then spray through that to get the pattern. But of course that would have been too simple and it quickly became clear that to get the desired effect I would have to hand lay each rectangle so that they would follow the contours of the helmet and the spider web lines, plus radiate from the center of the design. 1400+ individual rectangles later I had my pattern and the painting was taking shape.




For the black background I sprayed a blue metallic that disappears in low lighting and from different angles. To finish it I pinstriped the black webs and then painted the classic Cove logos on each side. I really like the two tone look of this helmet and the added detail really makes it something special up close.

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For more pictures, projects, pricing info, and more check out painthousecustoms.com. Any questions or inquiries please email Stacy at painthousecustoms@gmail.com.

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