I've always been a DIY kinda guy, and about 7 or 8 months ago I took the plunge into building my own effects. Since then I've been asked a few times about the artwork adorning these little babies, and so I thought I'd get a design thread going for anyone interested in the process.
I thought I'd go through a basic tutorial on the design and application process and then post some of my favorites. Ideally, however, I'd also like to see other people's designs, so hopefully this can become a collaborative thread. Feel free to post your own designs or tips!
So, here's the process:
Once I've decided what I'm building and what sort of enclosure I'm using, I come up with a design theme for the pedal. For instance, my modified tube screamer became this a la Allan Ginsberg:
I just recently improved my process and decided to redo an old pedal, so I'll use that as an example. This is a reverb kit based on the Hermida Audio design.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
when I saw those two wide set screw holes for the belton reverb brick I immediately thought of a face (a bear face to be precise and so I put this together in photoshop:
next comes painting (well, actually painting should come first so you let it dry while you're hacking about in photoshop.)
Make sure your enclosure is clean and prepped. I usually use a superfine sanding sponge to make it smooth, but with enough grit for the paint to adhere well.
The best paint to use is the stuff you get from an auto store, but I've had really good results from plain old wal-mart Krylon gloss.
Spray the enclosure, but do it slowly and let the layers do the work for you. There's nothing worse than putting on a thick coat in a rush and then watching it run.
several nice even coats should get you to this point:
Next you need to locate yourself some inkjet (or laser printer) decal paper and fixative. I use Testors brand.
print out your decal like so:
spray it with fixative.
Time to apply it. More to come in the next post...
I thought I'd go through a basic tutorial on the design and application process and then post some of my favorites. Ideally, however, I'd also like to see other people's designs, so hopefully this can become a collaborative thread. Feel free to post your own designs or tips!
So, here's the process:
Once I've decided what I'm building and what sort of enclosure I'm using, I come up with a design theme for the pedal. For instance, my modified tube screamer became this a la Allan Ginsberg:
I just recently improved my process and decided to redo an old pedal, so I'll use that as an example. This is a reverb kit based on the Hermida Audio design.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
when I saw those two wide set screw holes for the belton reverb brick I immediately thought of a face (a bear face to be precise and so I put this together in photoshop:
next comes painting (well, actually painting should come first so you let it dry while you're hacking about in photoshop.)
Make sure your enclosure is clean and prepped. I usually use a superfine sanding sponge to make it smooth, but with enough grit for the paint to adhere well.
The best paint to use is the stuff you get from an auto store, but I've had really good results from plain old wal-mart Krylon gloss.
Spray the enclosure, but do it slowly and let the layers do the work for you. There's nothing worse than putting on a thick coat in a rush and then watching it run.
several nice even coats should get you to this point:
Next you need to locate yourself some inkjet (or laser printer) decal paper and fixative. I use Testors brand.
print out your decal like so:
spray it with fixative.
Time to apply it. More to come in the next post...
