BK finishing help please

[Scuffcakes]

Threw on a couple coats of sealer and started staining.

100_1890 by scuffcakes, on Flickr

I used Transtint Bright Red in alcohol.  I think I'd like it to be a bit brighter red so I may mix some a little stronger and try again tomorrow.  It went on very easy over the vinyl sealer just wiping it in with a cotton cloth. I'm a little torn.  I'd like it to be brighter but I really like how visible the grain is under the red right now.

 

[Cagey]

I wouldn't mix anything stronger to brighten it. You'll quite likely darken it and hide grain. Even applying more of the same will darken it. What you're seeing is the mixture of the underlying color and the stain. Red + brown is going to be a reddish brown.

 

[Cagey]

While it's not exactly analogous, think of it this way: if you took two identical sheets of translucent tinted film and laid one on a colored surface, you'd see the original color of the surface + the color of the film you laid over it.

You're looking at reflected light, not a light source. Anything you do is going to be subtractive. You're never going to make anything brighter by adding more filtration.

 

[Scuffcakes]

Good point Cagey.  I must have gotten more fumes than I thought and wasn't thinking it through very well.  Looking at it now, adding clear will brighten it up so that may be what happens from here.  I'm still contemplating  a blue burst for the edges.

 

[Cagey]

Clear coat will definitely change how the light is refracted. Also, don't discount lighting. Things will look different in fluorescent vs. incandescent vs. natural light. Sometimes dramatically so.

 

[Scuffcakes]

I've already decided that I don't want to ever finish a body with binding again.  Masking it is an incredibly tedious process.  Once the dye was done, I hit it with another coat of sealer and pulled the masking to clean up a bit.  Re-masked and started shooting some Mohawk Classic Instrument Lacquer tinted blue with Mixol.  I'm pretty happy with these results.


100_1893 by scuffcakes, on Flickr


100_1894 by scuffcakes, on Flickr

Now that it's time for clear I have another question.  Do I just shoot the clear right over the unmasked binding?  Seems that would be the best way to not have a slight bump at the edge.