Workshop Schedules

Syllabus

Letterfly Custom Paint Workshops 2024

At Letterfly ArtPark, Plant City, Florida

Is the perfect place to learn all aspects of this popular motorcycle and hot rod art form that extends into other cultures. Lectures, demonstrations and hands-on class time with all specialties make up these daytime and  evening courses.

Sign Making, letterform, brush handling and composition.

Pinstriping, brush and preparation techniques for various styles of lines.

Airbrushing introduction to spray manipulation and devices to accomplish myriad effects.

Wet-Blended Pictorial Painting introduces various edges achievable to make realistic images.

Airbrush Pin-Up Painting techniques get surprisingly sensuous results.

Gold Leaf has been around for centuries. Learn the strategies and experience hands-on manipulation of this delicate leaf to achieve stunning effects

Letterfly Custom Paint Workshops

The Five day class

The main workshop has been divided into five logical specialties

 with a day designated to each discipline

“Sign Making” “Pinstriping” “Airbrushing” “Portraits & Pin-Ups” “Gold Leaf”

 January 29 - February 2  (9am-5pm)

Download Your Student Application Here (PDF) 

Reserve Your Spot with only $100 deposit!

The Wednesday Night Series

 is a six week workshop with flexible agenda for those that live within a reasonable commuting distance; class begins at 6 PM and continues until 9 PM – a comprehensive introduction that caters to the specific needs of the class allowing access to all aspects of the custom paint genre will take place during the series that will allow students with busy schedules and specific questions to participate.

Sign Painting, Pinstriping, Airbrushing, Wet-Blended Pictorials, Portraits & Pin-ups, and Gold Leaf Workshops

 Special Needs Accommodated

 (6-9pm)

Download Your Student Application Here (PDF)
Classes fill up fast! Reserve Your Spot with only $100 deposit! 

Plus, due to the popularity and demand, a special one day products, techniques and entrepreneurial strategies class: Custom Paint 101 & the Biz of Paint has been added.

Download Your Student Application Here (PDF)
Reserve Your Spot with only $100 deposit! 

Attend any class of the subject that interests you or to optimize your ability, understanding, level of skill and jump start your career, stay for all five consecutive days and learn all aspects of this interesting opportunity for the creative personality.

Classes take place annually in January and February. RVSP to Kelly 813 752 8063 or paypal at letterfly@aol.com any one day class is $225. with the best value being all five classes for $850. The Wednesday Night Series of six classes (with one snow date) is $225. Make plans now to participate, add to your repertoire and be launched into the fascinating world of custom paint.

 

About the Artist

Today, Letterfly is one of the top producers of traditional pinstriping on motorcycles, wet blended pictorial images and high quality, custom airbrushed murals seen on the outsides of luxury motor homes. Old School designs, delicate Gold Leaf flourishes, pastoral wildlife scenery, surreal landscapes, frightening demons and animated multi-layered graphic schemes, sexy temptresses and lifelike animal depictions provide the mainstay for these works that are created at both his home in Florida called ArtPark and at bike events and customer dedicated Harley stores nationwide.

            Starting as an apprentice in the Sign and Design trade, his appetite for unusual tasks lead him to many sensational projects. Also known as Dave Knoderer, since 1975 he has sought sensational challenges in his work. A skilled painter, he has designed and accomplished large wall graphics and theater sets, themed interior and exterior murals in amusement parks and restaurants, crafted delicate Gold Leaf window treatments and the gilding and decoration of Antique Fire Fighting Apparatus, complete elaborate pictorial and graphic paint jobs on a variety of rolling vehicles and untold amounts of custom images, flames and designs on a variety of substrates especially bikes. A true renaissance man, fondness exists for the Victorian embellishments of an era gone by which clearly shows up in his themed work. Truly unusual is that this artist is equally adept with paintbrushes or an airbrush.

            Students benefit not only from the result of decades of creating traditional hand painted works but also for the ongoing opportunity to ask questions as they learn to manipulate paint into delicate designs, become familiar with the recipe and philosophy of combining aspects of color theory, viscosity ideals, and devices that provide special and unusual effects when used in surprising unconventional ways.

(30 word Bio)

Forty years professional artist starting with sign painting, gold leaf gilding and wet blended pictorials, graduating to luxury motor home murals painted with the airbrush. Today, highly regarded for motorcycle graphic, pictorial image, old school pinstriping and all aspects of custom paint.

A: Sign Making, 
B: Pinstriping, 
C: Airbrushing,

D: Portraits & Pin-ups, 
E: Gold Leaf.

The syllabus is as follows:

A: (Day 1) Traditional Sign making:        Introduction

Visualizing Good Ideas

Forming the Objective (what you want to communicate)

Layout and Composition Formulas

Signs 101 (Let’s get started)

Letterform Function

Brush Handling and Care

Brush Variety and Mastery

Sign Painting Technique

Kinds of Brush Strokes

Mastering Scale

Pattern Making

Materials needed:

For the novice, the minimum should be; pencils, stabilos, scotch tape, masking tape, yardstick, gray lettering quill #10, #7, #5, #2, gray lettering flat 3/8”,  ½”, bright, liner, etc. Professionals and hobbyists bring your kit with you. We have paints, tape, compressed air, solvents, incidentals and materials for projects.

Plan to invest time at the bench perfecting the exercises taught during class time, complete a project of your choosing or complete one of the guided projects during the workshop with an opportunity to work late each day and plenty of additional time on Saturday.

B: (Day 2) Old School Pinstriping:        Historic Pinstripe Origins

Inspecting the Brush

How about a Trim

Paint Viscosity

Material Handling

Loading the Brush

Starting a Line

Exercises

Creating a Way-Kewl Design with a Grid

Wet Blended Pictorials

Kinds of Brush Strokes

Materials needed:

The minimum in your kit should be; pencils, stabilos, scotch tape, masking tape, yardstick, Mack pinstriping series 10 brush #0, or your favorite pinstriping sword. Professionals and hobbyists bring your kit with you. We have paints, tape, brushes, solvents, incidentals and materials for projects.

Plan to invest time at the bench perfecting the exercises taught during class time, complete a project of your choosing or complete one of the guided projects during the workshop with an opportunity to work late each day and plenty of additional time on Saturday.

C: (Day 3) Airbrushing:       Airbrush Origins

The Mechanics of the Airbrush

Freehand Airbrushing

The Foundation of Drawing

Conscientious Seeing

Study of other Art

The Money Stroke

Using Devices; frisket, eraser, stencil, mask, special effects

Transfer paper frisket cutting

Pictorials and Mural Making

Color Theory

Materials needed:

For the novice, the minimum in your kit should be; pencils, stabilos, exacto knife, scotch tape, masking tape, yardstick, any good double-action airbrush: Paasche, Iwata, Badger etc. Professionals and hobbyists bring your kit with you. We have paints, tape, compressed air, airbrushes, solvents, incidentals and materials for projects.

Plan to invest time at the bench perfecting the exercises taught during class time, complete a project of your choosing or complete one of the guided projects during the workshop with an opportunity to work late each day and plenty of additional time on Saturday.

 D: (Day 4) Portraits and Pin-ups: Pictorials and Mural Making

The Foundation of Drawing

Conscientious Seeing

Study of other Art

Color Theory

Perspective

CSL: Getting the Color Right, the Shape Right and in the Right Location

Values

Edges (both airbrushed and brush created)

Frisket Strategies

Transfer paper frisket cutting

Color & Light

Composition Accuracy

Delineating Emotion

Facial Detail Techniques

The Magic

Materials needed:

For the novice, the minimum in your kit should be; pencils, stabilos, reference pictures for the painting you would like to complete, scotch tape, masking tape, yardstick, filbert, bright, liner, airbrush etc. Professionals and hobbyists bring your kit with you. We have paints, tape, compressed air, solvents, incidentals and materials for projects.

Bring the pin-up or portrait you are working on, plan to invest time at the bench perfecting the exercises taught during class time, complete a project of your choosing or complete one of the guided projects during the workshop with an opportunity to work late each day and plenty of additional time on Saturday.

E: (Day 5) Gold Leaf: Gilded Antiquity: the origins of Gold Leaf:

Nothing looks like gold except for gold

Techniques overview: water gilding, angel gild, glass gold, surface gilding

Variety of gold and leaf products; 23.75k to gold alloy and other metals

Loose, Patent, Roll, Dutch

Surface gilding procedures, preparing the surface

Fast or slow? Which size to use

Painting the size & finding the tack

Laying the leaf

Burnish varieties

Finishing techniques, protecting the leaf

Materials needed:

The minimum in your kit should be; pencils, stabilos, scotch tape, masking tape, yardstick, gray lettering quill #7, #5, #2, liner, etc. We have leaf, size, tips, paints, tape, compressed air, solvents, incidentals and materials for projects.

Plan to invest time at the bench perfecting the exercises taught during class time, complete a project of your choosing or complete one of the guided projects during the workshop with an opportunity to work late each day and plenty of additional time on Saturday.

 Attend any class of the subject that interests you or to optimize your ability, understanding, level of skill and jump start your career, stay for all five consecutive days and learn all aspects of this interesting opportunity for the creative personality.

Classes take place annually in January and February. RVSP to Kelly 813 752 8063. Any one day class is $225 with the best value being all five classes for $850. The Wednesday Night Series of six classes (with one snow date) is $225. Make plans now to participate, add to your repertoire and be launched into the fascinating world of custom paint.

The special one day class; “Custom Paint 101 & the Biz of Paint” is an intense, educational and enlightening day with the artist and the regional products rep and is the perfect forum for questions and answers from those that already have their hands in paint. The special tag-team seminar/workshop covers the mechanics of and the spectrum of; the variety of paints and products, the strategy of design, and the scope of paint manipulation techniques available to the aficionado of custom paint and vehicular décor. With extensive studio time Custom Paint 101 & The Biz of Paint is valuable as the instructors provide answers, show you techniques and strategies for those professionals that are experiencing obstacles while utilizing combinations of effects and provides many of the missing pieces of the puzzle to the painting game for those that are already on their way as custom painters and seek to add to their repertoire.  

Custom Paint Basics: Chemistry 101, urethane vs lacquer thinking - evolution of coatings

Provide a foundation= prep work

The Zen of Spray – Choose Your Weapon

Variety of durable finishes

Got GPS? – Graphic Paint Strategies – Select goal and take the right directions to get there

Taping off the classic flame

Transfer paper frisket cutting

Spray gun tactics over the art: building an insulating layer

Candies, pearls and clear coat oh my

Proper finishing cut and buff

Making Custom Paint a Business

Goals of Art: A picture is worth…

Emotional Payoff = Pride in Ownership

Economy of Design

Wet Blended Pictorials

Using the Grid

Integrity as a Process = you are only as good as the work you do now

Finding a Niche

The Marketing /Career Curve

Building a Customer Base

 Materials needed:

The minimum in your kit should be; pencils, stabilos, scotch tape, masking tape, yardstick, airbrush, jam gun, etc. Professionals and hobbyists bring your kit with you. We have paints, tape, compressed air, solvents, incidentals and materials for projects.

Plan to invest time at the bench perfecting the exercises taught during class time, complete a project of your choosing or complete one of the guided projects during the workshop with an opportunity to work late each day and plenty of additional time on Saturday.

The Wednesday Night Series is a six week workshop with flexible agenda for those that live within a reasonable commuting distance; class begins at 6 PM and continues until 9 PM – a comprehensive introduction that caters to the specific needs of the class allowing access to all aspects of the custom paint genre will take place during the series that will allow students with busy schedules and specific questions to participate.

All Are Welcome, Special Needs Accommodated

Attend any class of the subject that interests you or to optimize your ability, understanding, level of skill and jump start your career, stay for all five consecutive days and learn all aspects of this interesting opportunity for the creative personality.

Classes take place annually in January and February. RVSP to Kelly 813 752 8063 or paypal at letterfly@aol.com any one day class is $225. with the best value being all five classes for $850. The Wednesday Night Series of six classes (with one snow date) is $225. Make plans now to participate, add to your repertoire and be launched into the fascinating world of custom paint.

Download Your Student Application Here (PDF)

Reserve Your Spot with only $100 deposit! 

BYOB “Bring Your Own Build”

Especially valuable for the custom bike builder is the special BYOB (Bring your own build) workshop that provides the missing aspect for a home builder that doesn’t have a proper paint facility. At Letterfly ArtPark, with supervision and a working paint shop, the proud craftsman has everything needed to personally complete every step of the paint job from prime and fill, color, graphic shape creation, special effects, final candies, pearls, pinstriping and décor, and finished clear, plus cut and buff, to make the project  completely his own. Understandably, to facilitate these projects, special consideration to reserve the entire shop during the winter months of December through March requires advance planning. Visit LetterflyPinstriping.com for more information or Call Kelly 813 752 8063.

We supply the complete paint facility to bring about your under construction bike to completion. We facilitate the planning of the painted graphics, disassembly for the compete paint job starting with supervision of prep, prime, fill to color coat, graphic execution, addition of art created in a variety of ways, candies, pearls, clear finishes, to cut and buff to a show shine.