Self Employment, is it for you?

  Many of us out there have often thought, what if I had my own business? I could be my own boss and never have to worry ever again about being late for work or commuting to a job I don't like. The dreams take on a life of their own. I was once like that myself working dead end jobs that barely covered the bills. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy some of the jobs I've held over the years but putting in all of that effort and work ethic for someone else never really made sense to me when I could be doing that for myself. The freedom that comes with self employment does come with a price though. Especially in this kind of industry.
  There are many times that you will feel obligated to take on jobs because there is no other work coming your way at a lesser rate than you would normally charge. That is fine except you set a dangerous precedent. All pricing to some extent is negotiable but remember that your customers are coming to you because you are a professional. You have the skills and the talent that many others don't have. That is worth something.
  Don't ever sell yourself short on what you are capable of. If you're not sure of how to do something there are lots of resources out there that can help you. When I first started out, my vinyl supplier ND Graphics down in Toronto was my best resource. I spoke with Zul on quite a number of occasions and he was always willing to give me any information I required. I still use them to this day because of their outstanding customer service and knowledge.
  Believe me when I say that for a while unless you're an absolute marketing genius or have the money up front to hire one, times will be tough when you start out. Some people will tell you that you should give up. Some people will tell you that if you aren't pulling in all kinds of money that it is all a pipe dream. I've heard all of this and more but I take it on as a personal challenge to be that much more successful. Associate yourself with people who are successful and with people who are supportive of whatever business venture you take on.
  There is a phrase that I like to say to people, "Your life is a story that you are writing day to day. It is up to you if you want the story to be a happy one or not."
  I don't fall into the same old traps that I used to any more. If something isn't working then I try to do something different. If you're wallowing at home because you don't have customers calling you, go out and look for them. Find a business that has an old sign or a sign that you know you could make better. Design it up and approach them. If they say no, then at least you've tried. In the least, you've honed some more of your designing skills and most likely caught the attention of the business owner and made them aware of their sign . Leave your business card and then go out and find another one. Put your mark in your area. Be proud. Let people know you exist and what you can offer them. Your success or lack thereof are a direct result of your actions. Write a great story for yourselves my friends and as always, stay creative.

Airbrushing for a cause part4

Well, all of the work on the guitar has definitely paid off. I let the clear coat cure over the Christmas break. After smoothing with 1000 grit wet sand I switched to 2000 grit. I was really happy with the smooth finish and gave it a couple more light coats to bring the shine back up. After that cured over night, I polished it up with some Meguiars Gold Class paste wax to really bring out and protect the finish. I polished up the chrome hardware with Brasso. Here is a look at the finished product.

Please go to www.facebook.com/groups/207215582668209/
for more info about how to have a chance to win this labour of love. Stay creative my friends

Holiday Wishes

Just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a safe and happy holidays from Christoff Creations

Airbrushing for a cause part3

The guitar has had approximately 24 hours for the paint to cure now so I don't need to worry about embedding fingerprints into the finish. I cut a mask for the letters out of clear vinyl so I could line them up perfectly on the edge of the guitar. I dropped a base coat of red to start as this was going to be my primary colour. I ran a fadeout strip of silver pearl across the top third and a fadeout of yellow across the bottom third. One thin strip of the red back across the centre to intensify the red again and it brought the pop back into it. The 1in5 lettering I kept with just red and black lowlights. Here it is

Well, after removing all of the masking, this is what it looks like before the finish coating which will be applied later on today. Looking like about 5 to 6 coats of clear should give a bullet smooth finish. Patience is going to be the hardest part of everything on this because the clear is going to have to completely cure before I can begin reassembly. I'm dying to see it all together. 

Stay creative my friends.

Airbrushing for a cause part2

Well, here we are into day two of the guitar. I went over a lot of concepts of what I wanted to paint and had the designs drawn and ready to go. I found an awesome photograph on line from an inspirational quotes site that as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to use as a template. I laid it all out on the computer and it looked like this.

Okay. That stage completed, now on to the application of the paint. I masked off the upper section of the guitar in the shape of the earth so I could lay down a base coat of blue. The blue went on beautifully in one smooth coat. (Tip of the day-When spraying up against a mask, try to spray from the mask to the work. This will help prevent bleed under. It also helps prevent excessive build up of paint in a solid line when you peel the mask.) While the black was still masked off it was time to lay down the clouds. I did the clouds in about three different coats of varying levels of density and levels of white to give a 3 dimensional aspect. I start by going from dark to light. Over spray on the water blue wasn't an issue because I actually chose a more intense blue than the finished product required. When I was adding the clouds, I knew it would get dulled down considerably. With the blue and the clouds completed it was time to pull the mask off of the black. I like to see the slight glow of the atmosphere around the world so I wanted to add this next but I wanted it to be very subtle. I masked off the earth just slightly below the original mask line to prevent those build up lines I spoke of earlier.  With a very dark dark purple, I laid down my "Ahem.....purple haze" I'm working on a guitar, yes I had to go there. This is how it looked at this stage.

I decided at this stage that the lettering was too detracting from the image. It can go somewhere else. Now I'm left with a large void that needed to be filled. Time to add the moon. It wasn't in the original concept but hey, creative control definitely has it's perks.Well, time to mask off the whole guitar again. Deciding on the size of the moon was the hardest part and the exact location to fit the layout. I decided on close to 3 1/2 inch diameter. I'm a perfectionist so I ran the circle through the vinyl cutter to make the mask. Quick, easy, and a perfect circle. After I located it, I masked off a bottom portion of it to allow for shadowing. After about 5 coats of different whites and greys, I was happy with the look and removed the mask. I went in and shadowed the bottom portion without a mask to allow a smooth bleed over. Here it is.

The black is still just a little too stark and empty for me so I added some stars with a paint brush just to break it up a little bit.

Well that's it for today, I want to let it cure before I start handling it too much as I still have the lettering to do. I'll update tomorrow with the latest progress.

Have an absolutely awesome day and stay creative my friends.

Airbrushing for a cause.

A couple of months ago I came across a charity that was starting up called I'm 1 in 5. During this time frame I had a huge contest going on in facebook trying to get my fan page up to 500 likes by November 30th. I fell short of the mark. That left me in a bit of confusion as I already had the prize. A Les Paul guitar that was going to have a personalized vinyl wrap on it. In the end I decided to donate the guitar and the design to the charity. I eventually decided not to vinyl wrap the guitar and airbrushed it instead. It's great having the programs and the technology to create just about anything under the sun, but every now and then, gotta go old school. Over the next few days I'll highlight and document all of the steps that I used to create a one of a kind masterpiece for a noble cause. The first step was removing all of the hardware. This was easy enough to do. I used to play oh so long ago. Or tried to at least. The neck is a body through so I had to mask it off which made things a bit more unmanageable but hey, it is what it is and you deal with it and move on. I masked off the cream inlay border as well. I really didn't want to try to remove the paint from it. A very crucial step was steel wooling the finish so the first layer of paint had enough grab. I sprayed a layer of flat black first to give me some undercoat and clean up any imperfections. To give me some bite for the airbrush paint, I sprayed a coat of black satin. Now my base coats were done and they were bullet smooth. The prep work is so crucial because if you shortcut on the prep, no matter what you do. It will never look right.

In the next post, I will start divulging into the airbrushing stage. Stay tuned and stay creative my friends

A different application

The joys of working with vinyl are the limitless applications that it provides. I've been airbrushing for the last day and a half. I can remember the times when I did this without using vinyl and cutting the masks were a nightmare. Now if I want a specific shape I can do this out of a low tack vinyl and just send it to the cutter. Perfect every time. The uses of vinyl amaze me because just when you think you've seen it all, another use creeps up and bops you on the head. I still remember showing up at the emergency ward one time with a vinyl bandage. The doctor laughed at me but hey, it worked. I didn't have any bandages and it was something I had on hand. Sorry, bad pun. Never be afraid to try something new. If it works then you have one more thing under your belt. If it doesn't, then try it a different way. Don't be afraid to tell people what you know. The same can be said as well to approaching different crafting shows, Cut templates for stained glass windows. cut patterns to be applied to a substrate for quilting. The sky is the limit but that limit is determined by how far you want to go with it.

Stay creative my friends, 'till next time