Hey guys,

Been posting quite a few little how-to's since I joined the HD Forums as some of you may know. This has been the one I've been looking forward to most, as I am a part-time artist/illustatrator (when ever I get free time basically). Since the day I got my helmet, I've been wanting to spice her up a little, and add a bit of flare to it. So here's how I went about doing my very own custom helmet design.

DIY Custom Helmet Design

1. As per the usual, we're gonna need some tools for this project. I used Posca Pens (Acrylic Paint Pens), a pencil for my sketches, a can of adhesive primer, a can of acrylic clear coat, and some masking tape. I also just used some Tea Tree Oil to help get rid of any sticker leftovers and what not (like the pricing lable, barcode etc). Take off everything, except the Silver/Red compliance label, as it is illegal to not have it on your helmet.

2. To get started, I did a very rough sketch up of a bunch of different illustrations I wanted to use on the piece. For those of you who don't have an illustrative mind or even if you have no drawing skills what so ever, don't be put off - just work with something basic and simple! But no matter who you are, I still advise doing a very rough couple sketches or some mockups, just so you have at least half of a clear idea of what you are gonna do.

3. You will need to firstly apply some adhesive primer to your helmet. I recommend at least 3 coats, just so the surface of the helmet is nice and rough, which will allow for your paint pens to grip the surface a bit easier. Mask your helmet up if need be. I just masked off the rubber bits on my helmet, but it probably didn't matter too much. If you have a visor helmet, make sure to take out the visor or mask it our if you can't.

4. Once your primer coats are all done, and well dried, grab a pencil and start sketching up what you want to paint on the helmet. It doesn't need to be perfect, plus you can always rub it our with an eraser if you aren't happy.

5. Once you're relatively happy with your sketch, and the layout of the artwork, it's time to get to work and start painting her up! For my helmet, I used red, silver, white and black Posca Pens. I also used a range of different sized pen nibs, so that I could work with any sort of line thickness. Thicker nibs are best for fills, where as the thin - med nibs are best for outlines and more intricate work. Start with the fills if you can. The more fills you can get done, the quicker the process will be. It may look ugly for a little while (As you can see in my first photo), but once your line work goes on, you'll be amazed how much it will all clean up. Depending on how well you prime your helmet, you may / may not need to do more than one coat using the paint pens. I had to do between 2 - 3 for mine, as the black helmet makes it very hard when you're working with white (you see a lot of the paint lines with the black showing through). It's time consuming, but you'll get there eventually.

6. Once you're happy with the artwork, all that is left to do is give her a few coats of clear coat. This is to give a little bit of shine to the helmet, and to of course protect the artwork you just did from scratching and getting damaged. I did 3 coats on mine, and possibly may do even more.

Here's the final helmet design " border="0" src="/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif" />

Thanks guys, look forward to seeing your custom helmets - have fun!

If you decide to give one of your own helmets a go, please post the pics up on here. I'm sure we'd all love to see what you were able to make!

Good job! My artistic talent only goes to drawing stick people!   

Bammo instead of losing a fantastic how to, maybe start a new thread on painted lids. If we end up with 10 pages of peoples helmets no one will find your info which is well worth saving. Good job.

Thanks ladsss, appreciate all the comments and feedback

Yep, good idea Burnzi, where do you reckon would be the best place to get one going on here? Sportsters' probably a bit too specific... Anyone got any suggestions? 

Mate, I personally reckon a matte finish helmet will definitely be your best and will save you having to sand down your helmet (which you would most likely need to do if it were glossy). From past experience, anything shiny and plastic looking is an instant "no-go" when dealing with paint, as it very rarely sticks. So my advise is play it safe, and go matte if you have the option! 

Awesome, done mate. Here's the link everyone if you want to post up pics of your own helmet designs. You do need to be logged in to see the 'artwork' thread section though, just incase you can't see it.

http://www.hdforums.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=71&forumid=23&postid=566975&view=topic

Thanks gents, appreciate the great comments. Unfortunately I'm not free enough these days to do much freelance work 

In saying that though, I will be selling this helmet off with my bike when I decide to put my baby up for sale (in the next 6 - 12 months), so someone will be able to snatch this guy relatively soon! 

Andrew, love your work mate, so I'll be sure to let you know if I ever free up - would usually throw myself at a job like this - but at this stage I'm a bit too chokkaz! 

Thanks bammoman! This is a great idea. Ives order me some posca pens and have nutted out a design. I'm not as gifted with my drawing capabilities so I ordered a stencil for part of it, though it should have a cool effect. Will post some pics when it's done. Will be a few weeks as the stencil is 2 weeks or so away

Wicked, stoked you guys are giving it a go. Definitely keen to see how they turn out. Squid & Harlet, make sure to do a few coats with the pens, and you'll find the coloured pens always fill up better than the whites and silvers do (just because of the way the colours are compounded), so try stick to the blues, reds, greens, blacks etc rather than the white and silvers.

Harlet, the pens are well known for outdoor use - i've painted a couple of my surfeys with them and the artworks stays on sweet. But there's still a big difference between the quality achieved with the Poscas as against getting the helmets properly painted - this is more the DIY method. But the end result is still awesome.

Ok so my goal was to keep the look simple. I was aiming to put skull fill everywhere bar inside the saw blade. The skull fill with be done in the same black on black as the saw blade to give a subtle but full look. There would be a buffer gap from the full so it doesn't get too muddled up. 

well i finised it off tonight. Have to use the room light to reflect the skulls to see them in photos. Will be a bit more visible in sunlight but this is exactly how i wanted it to be so im happy as a pig in shit