Thoughts on 1980s Hair Metal Body Graphic Art?

[WchoyCustomGuitars]

Hey! I'm still in the planning process for a Warmoth strat build, I have most of the components. I still can't decide on a graphic for the body - I wanted something loosely based on the Warren DeMartini bomber black, white, and red graphic with the rising sun and the pilot holding a bomb. Planning to use Posca acrylic paint art markers for most of the details, regular Krylon or Rust-oleum rattle can spray paint for the pearl white and red background. Once painted, I plan to do a matte or satin clear coat with either regular 2X spray paint or that more durable Spraymax 2K two part clear. Any thoughts on the art design? Should it be bigger or smaller? Color or black and white? Should I add Japanese characters to it? Thank you for your ideas and input.

 

[aarontunes]

Is that your artwork? Cuz dang.

 

[supertruper1988]

If you have all that in some kind of form you can make it either vector or very high DPI, I know a guy who could print it on vinyl and then you just apply it.

As far as your questions about too large or small, I love it. Its big and bold and awesome!

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

Awesome

 

[Rick]

From the audience perspective it all depends what you want to emphasize. All depends what size venue you're playing. If you're like me playing at small venues the proportions are perfect. If you're playing for at an arena or for more than 200 people, maybe make the bomb guy a little smaller?

 

[BroccoliRob]

leaving aside whether or not this sort of thing is cringe from a bygone age, it only took me a couple minutes to find the stock images used for the flower and rising sun (which is fine for a mock-up). i'm guessing the Bone Person is AI generated given the way the bomb in hand has dithered shading but nothing else does, and how the chest clothing morphs into whatever that thing is on the other side (another, bigger bomb? what is that thing? is his jacket giving birth to a propeller engine?). maybe the skele-man was holding something else and the low-rez bomb was placed into its hand after, i dunno, I'm not the brightest knife in the crayon box, just some things catch my eye weird.

Edit: the more i stare at it the more seems off lol, like how its wrist holding the bomb morphs into the sleeve cuff, or the randomly positioned implied buckles that don't connect anything and morph into other areas . AI art still isn't "there" yet if u know what i mean.

anyway I guess it's fine as a jumping off point but this sort of thing strikes me as played out in 2024, but hey YMMV and u do u, fam

 

[aarontunes]

i'm guessing the Bone Person is AI...

Gah! I'm so gullible.

I guess it's a byproduct of having grown up in an analog world. Back in my day if you wanted free artwork you had to hold your comic book page (aka "source material") and a piece of typing paper up against a bright window and trace by hand.

Also, I don't think the picture is supposed to be mechanically or proportionally accurate. I think the oversized pilot is leaning outside a windowless plane to drop the undersized bomb by hand. All the stuff you see on the right side is the engine cowling of a fighter plane. It's in the same spirit as all those pictures of ladies delivering bombs that WWII pilots used to paint on the sides of their B-17's.

 

[Rick]

I just thought of what to write in Japanese ...
Raining Love with Joy
or maybe
Bringing Happiness to All

 

[BroccoliRob]

Gah! I'm so gullible.

I guess it's a byproduct of having grown up in an analog world. Back in my day if you wanted free artwork you had to hold your comic book page (aka "source material") and a piece of typing paper up against a bright window and trace by hand.

Also, I don't think the picture is supposed to be mechanically or proportionally accurate. I think the oversized pilot is leaning outside a windowless plane to drop the undersized bomb by hand. All the stuff you see on the right side is the engine cowling of a fighter plane. It's in the same spirit as all those pictures of ladies delivering bombs that WWII pilots used to paint on the sides of their B-17's.

yeah i can forgive most people not being able to tell if a piece of artwork is AI, cause it is getting better, which is interesting but also a bummer since real human artists are feeling the squeeze from it. why do robots get to make art while I gotta decide whether or not I can get away with "not seeing" the lady trying to steal a pregnancy test from the pharmacy section of my store

I just thought of what to write in Japanese ...
Raining Love with Joy
or maybe
Bringing Happiness to All

yeah nothing says raining love and happiness like a War Skeleton shoving a bomb in your face


Edit: oh yeah I meant to link to the stock images

cheryy blossom (unsurprisingly also AI Art): https://www.vecteezy.com/png/248566...olated-on-transparent-background-ai-generated

the Rising sun image is literally the one from the wikipedia article flipped on its horizontal axis

 

[aarontunes]

yeah i can forgive most people not being able to tell if a piece of artwork is AI, cause it is getting better, which is interesting but also a bummer since real human artists are feeling the squeeze from it. why do robots get to make art while I gotta decide whether or not I can get away with "not seeing" the lady trying to steal a pregnancy test from the pharmacy section of my store

Yep. A world where computers make the art and humans turn the wrenches is not the world I was promised.

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

humans turn the wrenches

I’ve always admired your optimism, Aaron

 

[Rick]

yeah nothing says raining love and happiness like a War Skeleton shoving a bomb in your face

The idea is to express the duality of man through art ...

If he were to write something like I'm having chicken for dinner, I love doom rock, it would miss the point, sort of flat, it needs to be kicked up a notch. Even worse is writing nothing which leaves the flowers unable to compensate for Doom expressed by the flag and skull man.

 

[stratamania]

@Rick perhaps you need something like Virgil's "Una salus victis".

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

Is the OP serious about the project using this image or was it all generated to get a reaction?

 

[Rick]

This was art work popular in 1990s and early 2000s.

 

[NedRyerson]

As a person of Japanese descent, I've never understood the Western world's fascination with the Imperial Japanese military and the atrocities associated with it. Not exactly something I'm proud of about my heritage.

 

[Eddie-Applegate]

As a person of Japanese descent, I've never understood the Western world's fascination with the Imperial Japanese military and the atrocities associated with it. Not exactly something I'm proud of about my heritage.

I think it’s something like a kind of collective cultural trauma processing mechanism. Sorta like how people will wear a T-shirt with Jason Voorhees or other horror characters, fictional or real, not because they necessarily endorse the activities of the figure, but because its image has the power to frighten or shock.

Not exclusive to imperial Japan of course ( tho the iconography of that empire is striking, relatively uncontroversial in the West, and lends itself to appropriation); all imperial states are warlike and associated with brutality. War themes are common in aggressive music i think, because of their ability to provoke a strong reaction in the viewer / listener

 

[joesatch]

you dont want anything too busy. from 15 feet away it should be clearly defined not a jumbled mess

 

[Spud]

 

[rockandroller]

Myself I wouldn't add the calligraphy, I actually think its perfect the way it is