Sunburst confusion

[Cullen G]

Just curious, why about half the instructional videos I've seen are opposites with the technique of dyeing a Sunburst finish?
Is it darker colors first, or lighter color first? The videos are about split.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Either process can work, to some extent it can depend on the specific dyes you’re using (brand, water or alcohol based) and techniques involved. Try both on scrap and see which works better for you.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Just curious, why about half the instructional videos I've seen are opposites with the technique of dyeing a Sunburst finish?
Is it darker colors first, or lighter color first? The videos are about split.

Like Matt said, you can do it either way....But it's usually better to put the light colors on first, and the darker edging over it. Just to keep the dark as dark as it can be.

 

[Videojunkie]

I did my yellow/ red burst with 4 different dabbing pads (ball of cotton inside a square of cotton).

Pure yellow (went on first, covered the whole bass body), used for the pure yellow dye additions in the center.

Pure red, used for pure dye additions of red around the edges.

Yellow / blend, for blending the yellow out from the center towards the red edges.

Red / blend, for blending back the red edges towards the yellow.

This worked for a dye / stain burst applied to the wood. If you're doing a dyed finish (where the finish has the color like the $tewMac sets) you'll need to spend some quality time with their videos on how to do it well...

 

[Videojunkie]

This was the video I watched a bunch of times before jumping off the deep end, and going for it...

 

[ardgedee]

The rule of thumb in translucent media is to work from light to dark. This is because working from dark to light has a couple issues: The light pigments can tint the dark areas, and putting light over dark risks smearing and feathering the dark areas and bleeding into the light areas. This is a real risk with media like watercolor paint, which doesn't cure and is always water-soluble unless fixed, or nitro, where each wet coat dissolves the coat under it -- not a risk with poly finishes which lie flat on top of each other.

With a sunburst though, in a sense you're trying to optimize smearing and feathering. In a controlled manner, of course. And you might want the light colors in the middle tinting the dark color along the edge. So, yeah, echoing all of the above: Try both approaches on scrap wood and see which you prefer.