Painting Onto a Bouncy Castle

Intro: Painting Onto a Bouncy Castle

ok, so a friend of mine owns a bouncy castle hire company and got a huge discount on a castle because the artwork was, how should i put it, not up to scratch. she had seen pieces that id put on facebook and asked if i could sort out the castle for her. i thought id record the process in this instructable.

STEP 1: Tools and Materials

Prep work:
-print out of desired image
-roll of backing paper
-pencil
-ruler
-scissors

Removing the old:
-cellulose thinner
-lots of cloths/rags
-lots of patience

Stenciling:
-hot soapy water
-sponge
-premade stencils
-soft chalk

Painting:
-pvc paints
-brushes of various sizes
-pots for holding/mixing paints
-more clothes and thinner

STEP 2: Prep Work

ok, so to make the stencils i edited the picture of anna on the computer and broke it down into smaller pieces ie head, hair, arm, pigtails ect and then printing them off.
i then drew a 1 cm square grid onto the paper. i also used my roll of backing paper (normally used fir wallpapering) and cut 3 pieces 2.5 times bigger tyan an A4sheet of paper and drew on grids of 2.5cm.
i then used these grids to help me enlarge the image and then cut out the peices.

STEP 3: Removing the Old

the old picture on the castle not only looked terrible but was starting to crack, i put small amounts of the thinner onto a cloth (neat) and started wiping away the old artwork. it took hours, and used a lot of cloths and a lot of the thinner but I got it all off eventually, i left the snow flakes as they were ok.
after all that work i washed the surface with hot soapy water several times, letting it dry fully each time to get rid of any residue from the thinner.

STEP 4: Stenciling

in this step i used the premade stencils and started chalking on my outlines, i had to redo this a couple of times to get it centred, at the correct height ect and i also had to adjust a few of the stencils to make the image look right, but i think it went ok.
after i was happy with the image, i went over my chalk lines with black pvc paint (my friend got it from a boumcy castle specialist shop, i dont know if there is a cheaper alternative)

STEP 5: Painting

this is the fun part (in my opinion),
first i blocked in the base colours, then i added highlights and shadows.
after that i redid my outlines and retouched the snowflakes.

STEP 6: Finishing Up

to finish up i added the floral details to annas dress. the images show what it should look like, what it did look like and what it looks like now.

STEP 7: Extras

because its for a friend (and also im getting paid) i used the black.amd.the white paints to retouch the other artwork on the castle, i didnt do amy of the colours as it would be difficult to mix a good colour match.

hope you enjoyed this instructable

Comments

[oragamiunicorn]

Hope you get a chance to read this, 3 years on from your posting. How did it hold up over time? It must take a lot of punishment being inflated, deflated and moved so much. Do you know the type and brand of the paint? I'm thinking I could use it to paint cables, which would crack with most paints.

[tofugami]

Awesome painting. The new Elsa looks 1000x better than the old one.

Anyways voted for you. GL.

[patsheldon]

I'd bounce all day in that house ^_^

[seamster]

Nice work! That looks tricky painting on a curved, squishy surface like that. You did well!