Hey folks! Currently deep under a mountain of metal! Continuing my Rock and Roll Fantasy Series with Wentworth Galleries for 2026. Been having such a blast sketching out these paintings, I actually had to make my self stop conceptualizing and start actually finishing some them. So this is the perfect time for a Muddy Colors post.

Up for today, I will take you through painting one of the guitars for the exhibit.

The BC rich Eagle.

It is kinda funny. I have this drawing I did like a decade ago hanging in my studio stairwell. And every time I pass it I think, man I should revisit that concept. Isn’t there a saying about art never being finished, it is just abandoned?

Anyway here is the drawing I speak of. It was called “My Precious”. The idea was just to do a new painting of this figure… at first.

It is not a bad drawing, but the face always bugged me when I walked buy it. Here is a bigger version of the original image.

Now, my plan was to change some things and make a new painting. Namely I wanted to give her a guitar and a a sort of 1960’s graphic background. And since there was a freakin’ eagle in the drawing, a BC Rich eagle was a fine choice for the axe. And while I was in there getting new ref for the guitar arms, I redid her face too. Much better.

Being a guitar addict, I have a million guitars, but guess what I didn’t have? A BC Rich Eagle. I guess I was jealous of the girl in the drawing, so I bought one. “No honey I really need it for the photo ref! Plus it is a tax write off!” But the more I thought about it the more I wanted this concept to go next level. “Turn it up to 11 dude!” So now, in addition to the painting, I am painting a second version of the girl on the actual guitar. Is this life imitating art, or art imitating life? I am confused.

So I mocked up the new drawing  and gave her a kick ass skull instead of a dead fish. The mock-up looked like this. Bitchin’.

All right now it is time to freakin paint the thing! (I think it is funny I started by painting the actual guitar and not the painting of the girl with the guitar.)

Lets go! I start by filling a couple extra pesky holes in the body. Then I printed the design out to scale, and  made a stencil of the silhouette, and sanded just that area where the new paint was going down. This will make the paint adhere better. However I wanted to keep the original black body paint in the neg space, thus I wanted to protect it. I got out the Alpha Enamel and filled in the silhouette with a tan color. The whole silhouette, I am not worried about where she ends and the eagle begins yet.

Once that is dry, I rub Conte’ pastel on the back of the scale printout and transfer the drawing down and lock it in the easel.

Finally we are ready to paint. Hit play on the video below. But first a couple notes on the footage:

I want this pretty much monochromatic. So all of the darker paint is a brown Alpha Enamel, thinned with mineral spirits. I loved this actually. Stayed gritty and textural where I wanted it, but I could also hit a really delicate line with it. And lift out. I am doing most of this painting with one brush. A tatty old Princeton Velvetouch long round #4. Very expressive brush. Razor sharp point. but you lay that baby on its side and give it a drag, and you get these awesome choppy marks.

The great thing about the enamel it is dries FAST, and hard. Hell it is for painting signs and pinstriping classic cars, bikes and helmets. Tough stuff. Bonus though, you have a lot more time than acrylic but a fraction of the dry time of oil. (It is mean to brushes though!)

Later in the video I move to tube oil paint for the highlights. I wanted to do some thin washes and glazes (Especially over the fabic.) and tube paint is the way to go for that. And since I use oil base enamel, oil over it is fine. (Would be fine with acrylic enamel under too, you just don’t want to put acrylic over oil.)

Finally you will see me use some gold enamel to make the sun rays.

I seal all of this under multiple coats of a product called Tru-oil. An oil based sealer which I can wipe on. The last step will be to wet sand it and polish it and pray I have enough coats of Tru-oil that I don’t eat through my paint. Cross you fingers.

I will update this post when I have to final glamor shots of the guitar fully assembled! Check back in! Horns up!

Guitar riff by me!