unwrap.

The painting is finally finished!!  There was nothing more satisfying (except maybe when I take that first cruise) than peeling all of the tape off for the last time.  (: After taping off yellow... then white... then black... then the text... then all of it... Hah. It felt great to spray the last coat of gloss on wildly.

The solid color stripes and bands were actually pretty easy...  I covered the entire bike with newspaper to keep from making a mess, then just adjusted the taped off parts as I needed to.  The only part I ran into a bit of trouble with was the text.  I had printed stencils onto card stock, and I never even thought about the rigidity of the paper.  The little bits inside the letters wouldn't conform to the bike... duh. So, my solution was to trace the text onto layered painter's tape and then cut out the letters with an exacto.  Worked like a charm! See??

detail.

I love details. This, for me, is where the fun is at... and cleaning up old parts, I suppose. Since I'm quite a "n00b" at this, I'm trying to keep it simple to stencil. And, because I loved the feel of the bike from the beginning (slightly retro,) the new look is going to be reminiscent of the old decals.

The new graphics are clean, simple, and they pop. Yellow, black, and white. A symmetrical sun. Futuristic font in all caps. I wanted something that would speak of me and my design choices. Nothing over the top...

And every good bike needs a name, right? The word "Sunna" was the Old High German name of the sun goddess in germanic mythology.  The sister of the moon. I found it quite fitting.  (more here. )