Painting an Electric Guitar
On a random Tuesday, while aimlessly scrolling through Instagram, I came across a sponsored post from a non-profit organization called ArtReach. The post read “Call for Artists! Guitar Art Auction 2021” and I clicked right away. Upon further investigation, I found that ArtReach is a non profit organization that uses it’s resources to provide free visual arts programs for San Diego youths. I also found that they were looking for 32 artists to donate their time to paint electric guitars, which were to be included in an online auction later in the year. I wrote down the contact email and began looking up guitar inspiration on Pinterest. My main source of inspiration came from artist Mister Phil (who just so happens to be from Brighton, England, where I studied abroad 2015-2016).
I can’t say why, but I was immediately inspired to sketch a design with sea creatures. I took inspiration from my utility box mural and wanted to create something with clean linework, a cohesive color palette, and a complex subject matter. I took to my iPad and sketched a rough design on Procreate. After finishing my illustration, I sent it off a mockup of my design, along with my application, and waited (impatiently) for a response.
Inspiration: Custom Fender Stratocaster by Mister Phil
Initial sketch in Procreate
A few weeks later I got the email, Congratulations! We want to offer you the opportunity to participate in our 2021 Guitar Art Auction! I swiftly replied back and scheduled a time to pick up my guitar.
When I showed up at the office near Balboa park, I was greeted by Anna, the person who I’d been emailing with the past few weeks. We talked a bit about the ArtReach program, and then she showed me the three guitars she’d picked out for me, trying to guess which ones would work best with my design. I thought that was very considerate and chose a light teal one with a white pickguard. I knew I was going to be repainting the whole thing, so I wanted to start with a color that would be easy to paint over. It didn’t occur to me until I picked up the guitar that I’d only considered the front of the guitar in my initial sketch. Once I had it in my hands, I knew I wanted to paint a consistent design all over, flowing around corners and edges.
I considered how I would accomplish that while I began step one of the painting process, prepping the guitar for painting. Although ArtReach did take the time to scuff the surface a little, I wanted to go in with my circle sander and give it a thorough sanding. After sanding both faces, I took some strips of sandpaper and paid attention to all the edges and curves the circle sander was unable to reach. After that, I wiped the guitar down and primed the whole thing with 1-2 layers of white Gesso paint.
Once the guitar was primed, I decided that best way to accurately transfer my design would be to use the doodle grid method. This method consists of drawing random doodles on the surface, taking a photo of both sides and then drawing on top of that at a lighter opacity on my iPad. Once I had my digital sketch where I wanted it, I used the doodles as references for where to draw on the actual guitar. TIP: I used two different colored pencils on my guitar to avoid confusion, blue for the doodles, and red for the creatures.
Next, it was time for paint! I’d already created my color palette digitally in Procreate, so now it was time to mix my own paint colors. I already had a substantial supply of acrylic paint at home, so I used what I had to mix my own blue, light blue, yellow, coral, green, and grey colors. I then stored them in little mason jars to make sure the paint remained fresh throughout the whole painting process. As always, I tested these colors on a small piece of canvas to make sure they worked well together before putting them onto my guitar.
Before I jump into the process of painting the guitar, I want to talk a bit about supplies. Since I was not being paid to paint the guitar, I wanted to keep my supply purchases to a minimum. Thankfully most of what I used I already had available at home including brushes, sandpaper, circle sander, gesso, acrylic paint, pencils, and other variables. I did, however, end up buying black Posca paint pens and a high-gloss Montana varnish recommended by ArtReach. I bought paint pens because I knew I would be outlining each creature, and there’s no way I would be able to achieve that clean linework without a pen. In bigger pieces that need linework, I’ll typically use the full width of a brush to achieve a smooth line, but since this was so small, pens were favorable. I also bought the pens in two sizes, smaller for the coral and background elements, and a thicker stroke for the animals. This was my subtle way of helping the animals stand out from the rest of the design.
I tackled the painting in three stages. First, I covered most of the body in the dark blue background color, avoiding any main animal shapes I’d outlined. As with most projects, this took between 2-3 coats to get a solid color down. Then I went in with the rest of my colors and filled in the animal shapes.
I did this stage in bits and pieces, switching colors when I felt like it and bouncing around the guitar until I had my main colors and objects blocked in. I then went around and added extra background elements to fill in space and make the whole thing look more cohesive. I went slow during this part, really trying to keep the balance between negative and positive space, as well as the distribution of colors. I didn’t want there to be any one element that stood out upon first glance.
Once I had all of my paint down, it was time to outline! Using the smaller pen, I outlined all of the background coral elements. I then went in with my thicker pen to outline all of the sea creatures. This process went quickly and I would recommend acrylic paint pens to anyone who needs to do some serious linework, as it would have been a headache for me to do this with a small brush. There were a few spots where the paint pen “caught” on the textured guitar surface and created some extra paint marks, but those were easily covered by going back in with some extra paint.
Once everything was outlined, I added my signature to the bottom and took the guitar down to my garage to be sprayed with varnish. Again, working with what I had, I cleared a corner of my garage and taped up a plastic drop cloth. I then tied a piece of twine (from the overhead storage shelf we have) to my guitar. I needed to have it hang so that I could spray the entire piece at once and ensure that it would dry completely before coming into contact with anything else.
Just like before, I tested the reaction of the paint with the varnish on a small canvas. I wanted to make sure that the varnish wouldn’t cause the paint to bleed, or anything else disastrous. You really never know what paints going to do, so I always recommend doing a test first. Once I could tell that there would be no negative reaction, I sprayed my guitar. This also took around 2-3 coats, as I wanted to make sure it was sufficiently protected and very shiny. After letting my guitar hang for a few days, I took it down and put it on a shelf in my office so that I could look at it every day until I had to return it to the Artreach office.
Once that date arrived I drove down to San Diego, where it was then reassembled by a local guitar shop and had some professional photos taken for the online auction website. After that, we artists were sent images and promotional assets of our piece to post on social media… and in early September, the online art auction began!
Bids were slow to come through at first, but things really started ramping up over the last two days of the online auction. During the last two days, all 32 guitars were displayed at ArtWalk, an annual event where thousands of attendees come to view and purchase artwork, enjoy music and dance performances, and participate in interactive art experiences. I invited my family out for the night and we wandered the streets of Little Italy, taking in all of the artists’ booths, and of course, stopping at the ArtReach booth to snap some necessary pics.
It was very exciting to watch bids on my guitar come through, and I was even contacted by the highest bidder during the process. They ended up being the one winning my guitar, and the fun news is they’re in a band! So I’m hoping I’ll be able to see this thing on stage someday! Overall, I’m very pleased with my whole experience working with ArtReach. I’m proud of the guitar I painted, and I hope to participate in next year’s auction!