1
This is an inexpensive hollow core door. I sanded off the dried paint and masked off a suitable sized upper section, then sprayed a coat of sanding sealer.
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2
Once the sealer dried, I used Auto Air basecoat sealer to give me a white base so the colors would be more vivid than if I painted over the dark veneer.
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3
I'm particularly impressed with the 1950s refrigerators that Mike Lavallee paints, but I'm not a fan of comic book superheroes. My fave back in the '60s, was "G.I Combat, The Haunted Tank". My mom threw away my originals, and I couldn't find a decent picture that I liked online, so I decided to paint the quintessential wiseacre, the ball breaker extraodinaire...Bugs Bunny.
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4
Here's the reference picture I found on the internet. It looks perfect for what I have in mind.
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5
At first I was just going to sketch him with a Sharpie, but then I decided to make sure I had all the proportions right, so I started on a piece of packing paper.
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6
I'm glad I didn't just start laying out the design, because I kept getting the proportions wrong. I drew, redrew, and drew some more before I finally got an acceptable rendition. Once that was done, I used a pounce wheel to transfer the image. I'm doing the background first, so I can fill in any gaps between the colors easily. The brown ground is my first step of the painting process.
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7
The carrot patch was done by adding a touch of green to flame yellow and painting the hills. Then I went over it with pine tree green for the rows of goodies.
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8
Next the trees are also done with a cut-out and painted pine tree green. The shadows on the right sides are just a heavier coat of the same. I don't normally paint background foliage this way. This is how it looks in the reference picture, so that's the way I did it as well.
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9
The mountains gave me fits. For some reason the brown I had to thin to the point where it was EXtremely watery. I'd start spraying and all of a sudden a huge blast would erupt and splatter all over the place. The shadows are less subtle than I'd like. So it goes. I then painted the sky keeping it darker at the top. Note the handly little fan that I use to help speed up the drying time of the paint.
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10
Now that the background is done, I can get down to the detail work. I'll switch from my Paasche VL, to one of my finer airbrushes and use Golden Airbrush paint. It's more user-friendly than the Auto Air.
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11
I was pretty busy today, so I didn't stop to take pix of each step. I can see now that I made his torso too long and legs too short. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it off tomorrow.
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12
Here's Bugs with all the surrounding masking tape removed. Now I can paint his whiskers and touch-up any other spots that require it.
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13
Here's the comparison with the reference pcture. I don't think anyone will accuse me of copying it directly, there are too many places where I screwed up!
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14
I got the tilt of his head wrong, his smile is too narrow and his torso makes him look like Cher.
( revile the thought!)
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15
Here's the final edge mask removed. I want to surround it with molding to give it the look of a door with a window.
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16
Here's a rough idea of what it'll look like once the molding is on. I still have to sand and stain it.
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17
Using a wide variety of clamps, I glue down the faux window trim. Because this is a hollow core door, I can't use any mechanical fasteners. For the same reason, the veneer at the bottom had warped and chipped away, so I put a strip of molding along the lower edge.
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18
As a "Duh" move, I realized that the door opens in, so it was necessary to cut the base molding. Ahhh how much easier it would have been if I'd thought of it BEFORE I glued it down.
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19
After two coats of gloss polyurethane, I rehung the door. It doesn't have the window look I was hoping for. If I'd put mutton bars in the framed off section, it would give it that four pane glass look, but it would also obscure elements of the painting. I'll have to be satisfied with it as is.
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20
I never met anyone who didn't like Bugs Bunny, but I'm sure if Elmer Fudd ever showed up here, he would rather go outside to take a whiz.
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