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Posts: 4578
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
Hand Painting on Guitar Top
Friend of mine would like to do an experiment. He has a friend who is a master painter in Iran and his Idea was to send only the spruce top to Iran to be painted (probably acrylic since oil painting is probably more problematic) , then give the top to a luthier to build a flamenco Guitar. Would appreciate some tips for things to consider and Look out for etc. to maximize the chance of a good final outcome. Of course this will probably influence the sound negatively, but he is aware and it is more like a fun experiment. Here is an example of an Idea (and yes I know the head needs to be moved away from the soundhole )
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Posts: 1737
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Hand Painting on Guitar Top (in reply to Arash)
One problem is that after the purfling and binding are installed they need to be leveled with the soundboard and this would cause some removal of the paint around the edge. Perhaps if there were only one color in this region and touch-up paint were supplied to the builder....
One problem is that after the purfling and binding are installed they need to be leveled with the soundboard and this would cause some removal of the paint around the edge. Perhaps if there were only one color in this region and touch-up paint were supplied to the builder....
RE: Hand Painting on Guitar Top (in reply to Arash)
No, it's an antique guitar, and the painting could have been there for long before I was born, so I treated it as part of the guitar's history, and protected it accordingly. She's a gorgeous thing.
RE: Hand Painting on Guitar Top (in reply to Arash)
Mordor and America would be better
Mordor because so many more people are LOTR fans than flamenco fans And the American flag with the moon landing because it would start interesting questions with space program deniers and flat tire earthers.
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RE: Hand Painting on Guitar Top (in reply to Arash)
This is a really bad idea that won’t end well for the artist or the guitar maker. Have the guitar maker build the guitar and put clear shellac on the top, then send it to the artist with a sealed top. Have them paint on it with with fast drying model airplane paint or something oil based that dries fast and will stick to shellac. Then have them send it back to the guitar maker to seal with clear damar varnish.
If water based paint is applied to unfinished spruce it will raise the grain and the whole thing will need to be sanded back which will burn through the image, and change the thickness graduation of the top. It’s a no win situation for both artist and guitar maker. Oil paint with the right medium would be a better choice on a shellac sealed guitar because it will not raise the grain.
For examples of painted instruments look at the inside lids of harpsichords and research how they were painted.
Other recent examples of painted classical guitars are the ones that Maria Humphreys did on her husband Thomas Humphreys guitars, and more recently Pepe Romero Jr. has made a guitar with a painted surface. It’s in his instagram page. Send him a message and ask how it was technically achieved.
Overall it’s a poor idea because it’s going to interfere with repairs later if the guitar is damaged. But different people have different aesthetics, personally I think it’s cheesy AF
RE: Hand Painting on Guitar Top (in reply to Arash)
You see they left the top alone and decorated the sides and back which is a better design decision, and it’s classy because the sides take to decorative elements much better than the top. The back is much easier to prepare for a paint film, and the image doesn’t compete with the other features of the top like bridge, rosette & fingerboard.
The other thing to consider that makes a flamenco guitar with a painted top a stupendously bad idea is that if the tap plate ever needs to be removed and replaced it will be a hellish nightmare for whomsoever has to to the work because they will risk tearing off the paint.
I don’t particularly like the landscape in the back, but the ribs are kind of interesting and not distracting, think it all works together in any case.
I can’t tell from the photo, but I suspect that part of the rib decoration was created by masking off the actual wood with frisket paper and spraying dark paint over the masking. Then the script was put over that, allowing the orginal wood rib to show through as a lighter color in the design. And the other reason it looks so good is that the decoration is contained in by white border lines. The landscape also appears to use the original wood in the final image because the paint is layered down in glazes over the ground color. So the painter put on a thin opaque layer of paint over the back and lightly sanded it, then painted the image with oil paint or possibly acrylic or even enamel mixed with a clear glaze medium to make the paint translucent, then as they painted they wiped the paint back and burnished/ sanded the surface to allow different layers of pigment to create the image. Some areas like the sky and foreground are very thinly painted and then sort of burnished and the central horizontal layers making the images of architecture are thicker layers more built up, but still wiped or lightly polished.
If the work is done this way with gradual thin glazes rather than thick strokes with wet paint the surface will be smoother and thinner.
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Posts: 15985
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Hand Painting on Guitar Top (in reply to estebanana)
the Pepe Romero is actually pretty cool as collector guitar. In guitarreros de Andalucía there are some outrageous projects by Andres Dominguez I believe.
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