Hyrdo dipping that ISN'T a swirl pattern

[Hollowway]

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This is a video of a swirl, and after this point he takes a toothpick and swirls the paint all around, and then dips the guitar. But, what if he just dipped it at this point? It would have a streched out bullseye sort of thing, I'd imagine. And what if he did a bunch of little bullseye shapes, and then dipped it? Or some other pattern?

 

[narad]

Yeah, I don't mean perfectly formed stripes. I just mean unswirling the swirl. I don't mind if it's wavy, or bled into each other. But I'm just curious what it would look like to put the paint in the water in some patter, NOT swirl it around, and dip the guitar. It's possible it looks like crap, because I've never seen anyone do it, and I can't be the first person to wonder about it. But I was surprised I couldn't find any google images of it.

Ya, this comes to mind. It's still "a swirl" but they obviously weren't thrashing it about as it went through the paint.

 

[ThunderUnderground]

I have a few things i can sacrifice in the name of swirl research so il try your suggestion and see how it comes out @Hollowway

 

[Omzig]

I thought about trying something like this but instead of dipping i was thinking of placing the body (sealed) just under the waters surface then placing the paint onto the surface and slowly draining the water level from the bottom with a tap so that the paint/water level drops on to and coats the front/side of the body,(then reverse and do the back) a DTD /Down the Drain finish....i'll wait till the weather improves here in the UK (does it ever...) and give it a try

 

[Crungy]

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This is a video of a swirl, and after this point he takes a toothpick and swirls the paint all around, and then dips the guitar. But, what if he just dipped it at this point? It would have a streched out bullseye sort of thing, I'd imagine. And what if he did a bunch of little bullseye shapes, and then dipped it? Or some other pattern?

View attachment 119461

Not a guitar but kind of like this? She doesn't show the entire thing but you can kind of see it in the container near the end of the video.

 

[bostjan]

I thought about trying something like this but instead of dipping i was thinking of placing the body (sealed) just under the waters surface then placing the paint onto the surface and slowly draining the water level from the bottom with a tap so that the paint/water level drops on to and coats the front/side of the body,(then reverse and do the back) a DTD /Down the Drain finish....i'll wait till the weather improves here in the UK (does it ever...) and give it a try

That's an awesome idea, if I do say so myself. I had enquired about such a finish once with a local painter/crafter and was told that it wouldn't work, because you only have "a few seconds" to coat the workpiece with the paint before the paint starts to get gummy.

I've been looking into hydrodipping a little bit myself, and watching amateur videos of people attempting to dip their glasses, mugs, gunstocks, wheels, fenders, toys, chess pieces, etc., and 99% of those end up looking like shit when they are done. Then I watch the pros do it, and their stuff looks fantastic. I watched a video of a pro trying to explain the differences between fantastic and shit, and the examples he did all came out lookign like shit, because he was too distracted by explaining...

So, I think that's why @Hollowway 's idea hasn't been explored before. When you have seconds to make it look just right, there really isn't a lot of room for creativity. So you get either a transfer film that already has the paint on it or you do a simple technique like swirling. I happen to think the bullseye might look cool, and that should be even simpler, but that might be where there could be a problem with dipping too fast and the temptation to swirl the paint whilst you wait for 1-2 seconds before dipping...

But I don't know first hand. I never tried this myself, and probably never will after seeing how subtle the difference in techniques is that yield a beautiful swirl versus a lumpy blob of vomit.

 

[Hollowway]

Not a guitar but kind of like this? She doesn't show the entire thing but you can kind of see it in the container near the end of the video.

Yes! See that looked cool. Until it abruptly cut out. But that’s what I was thinking.

 

[Hollowway]

@ThunderUnderground if you do, let us see! Maybe it’ll come out cool.

 

[Hollowway]

View attachment 119460

Ya, this comes to mind. It's still "a swirl" but they obviously weren't thrashing it about as it went through the paint.

Yeah, that’s much more interesting to me than the standard swirls, merely because it’s different. It would be neat to see a bunch of experimentation in this area.

 

[zw470]

I suspect the pattern on the LTD Camo Snakebyte is hydro-dipped since it stops at the sides of the guitar instead of continuing onto the back like the ESP version.

 

[HighSteppinNotReppin]

The reason it looks like a swirl isn't necessarily because they swirl the guitar in there. Think about it, you're lowering the guitar body into the paint, the paint is going to move on the body and... what's a good word. Smear? Sure lol, but yeah having the guitar submerged, putting paint on the surface and draining the water from below would absolutely work. That gets rid of the motion of dipping the guitar, it'll flow onto the surface, it wont look like how it was poured on the water but it could be super rad

 

[Omzig]

The reason it looks like a swirl isn't necessarily because they swirl the guitar in there. Think about it, you're lowering the guitar body into the paint, the paint is going to move on the body and... what's a good word. Smear? Sure lol, but yeah having the guitar submerged, putting paint on the surface and draining the water from below would absolutely work. That gets rid of the motion of dipping the guitar, it'll flow onto the surface, it wont look like how it was poured on the water but it could be super rad

I'll get around to trying this out later on this summer as it's been rattling around in my head for years ,its about 3-4 degrees C here atm so way to cold for paint play

 

[HighSteppinNotReppin]

I'll get around to trying this out later on this summer as it's been rattling around in my head for years ,its about 3-4 degrees C here atm so way to cold for paint play

Oh yeah there ain't no way your getting anything nice with those conditions. I've been struggling here at Xotic trying to navigate spraying nitro in the cold. Guess we need a climate controlled booth eh lol

 

[budda]

Could also do a splatter smear which would look swirlish?

 

[Omzig]

Oh yeah there ain't no way your getting anything nice with those conditions. I've been struggling here at Xotic trying to navigate spraying nitro in the cold. Guess we need a climate controlled booth eh lol

Im just waitting for that "Global Warming" thing to kick in

 

[Hollowway]

The reason it looks like a swirl isn't necessarily because they swirl the guitar in there. Think about it, you're lowering the guitar body into the paint, the paint is going to move on the body and... what's a good word. Smear? Sure lol, but yeah having the guitar submerged, putting paint on the surface and draining the water from below would absolutely work. That gets rid of the motion of dipping the guitar, it'll flow onto the surface, it wont look like how it was poured on the water but it could be super rad

Well, they swirl the paint before they dip the guitar. That’s what I’m talking about. If they put the pain in the water, and DIDN’T take a tooth pick and swirl it around, what would it look like? In other words, drip the paint in the water, and then put the guitar on. It would still be the smear look, but with really large blocks of color, rather than the thin swirl pattern.

 

[Omzig]

Well, they swirl the paint before they dip the guitar. That’s what I’m talking about. If they put the pain in the water, and DIDN’T take a tooth pick and swirl it around, what would it look like? In other words, drip the paint in the water, and then put the guitar on. It would still be the smear look, but with really large blocks of color, rather than the thin swirl pattern.

If you could place the guitar face down flat onto the paint surface you'ed pick up the kind of effect your thinking of, even if you don't really mix the paints the act of just dipping the body is enough to cause the displacement and mixing of the paint.

My suggestion above about pre submerging the body placing the paint on the surface and lowering/emptying the water so the paint drops onto the face and side might give you what your looking for.

placing the paint side by side and not mixing might give you something like this....which would look pretty F'in cool IMO.

 

[RevDrucifer]

From my experience swirl paint is quite tough to deal with, you need to act quite quickly before the paint starts to set, otherwise it just ends up turning in to some messy gloop.

Even if you did have time to make some elaborate pattern or design as soon as the item touches the water it will most likely displace whatever design you made. I think Bonneville seem to have something going on with the paint technique they use but im unsure how they achieve that finish.

View attachment 119451

Whatever he’s doing, it’s done in two different applications. I’m guessing in order to keep those little spikes in the paint and to keep it more uniform, he just dips the guitar face down into the paint so the paint isn’t getting pulled/stretched as it’s pushed into the water like it would if it were going strap-button-first into the water. Then he repeats the process for the back.

I think you can see the seam on the sides?

 

[ThunderUnderground]

Whatever he’s doing, it’s done in two different applications. I’m guessing in order to keep those little spikes in the paint and to keep it more uniform, he just dips the guitar face down into the paint so the paint isn’t getting pulled/stretched as it’s pushed into the water like it would if it were going strap-button-first into the water. Then he repeats the process for the back.

I think you can see the seam on the sides?

Interesting, i never noticed there was a break line on the Bonneville guitar, il look at some other photos to see if i can see it.

Would make sense though, as you say, if you dip the guitar strap button first then the suspended paint naturally wants to swirl as it wraps its way round the guitar. I think the suggestion from others in here is a good one. Try submerge the item just below the water surface and paint on top of that to minimize disrupting the paint then drain the water from the bottom of whatever vessel your using.

Ive still not got round to trying this but i have a few spare rear cavity covers i can test the idea on. 👍

 

[RevDrucifer]

Interesting, i never noticed there was a break line on the Bonneville guitar, il look at some other photos to see if i can see it.

Would make sense though, as you say, if you dip the guitar strap button first then the suspended paint naturally wants to swirl as it wraps its way round the guitar. I think the suggestion from others in here is a good one. Try submerge the item just below the water surface and paint on top of that to minimize disrupting the paint then drain the water from the bottom of whatever vessel your using.

Ive still not got round to trying this but i have a few spare rear cavity covers i can test the idea on. 👍

Check the top horn (right side); you can see where the paint comes down over the face of the guitar but changes shape/color for the actual back of the guitar. The purple area.



I’m assuming this is why the backs of the guitars are rarely pictured on the site. That was one of the most appealing things about swirls back in the day when Herc Fede or ATD was doing them; what they looked like on the back and if the back was better than the front!

Seems he’s only got pics of a couple guitar’s backs in the gallery, mostly solid color ones or it looks like there’s one with a swirled back but I’m assuming not the pointy graphics. https://www.bonvillain-design.com/