Von Dutch Monday XII

Here's how Von Dutch was photographed as he painted flames, as part of an article on himself for True Magazine's 1958 Automotive Annual. The actual article was done sometime in '57. Follow along, and pick up some pointers..........

First, you get yourself "artistically up to the task", by drinking a little wine, smoking a little reefer, and mellowing yourself out by playing a little jazz flute.

Next, you take off your shirt, go over to your architect's board, and you freehand out your flame pattern on brown butcher paper. No self-adhering computer generated masks back then.

Here Von Dutch has masked off the area of the hood he's going to flame, and he's done it completely in tape - no spray mask back then. Now comes the pattern tracing, and the cutout for the flames.

I know what this is like, I prepped and masked off a bunch of flame jobs just like this on cars and bikes.

Dutch doing the color blending. Notice he's doing his color blending across the hood in bands, not in the usual front to back blend.

Also note he isn't wearing a paint respirator. I remember the old timers telling me when I first started painting in '66 "Nah, you don't need a respirator, that lacquer won't hurt ya...". Also, you long time painters will recognize Dutch is using a Binks touchup gun with the old glass jar, vs. the aluminum cup. I still have one of those!

Dutch pulling the masking off, and.........

Voila! One "Dutched" flame job. Man, I wish this picture was in color!