The Radio Company Guitar

My favorite comfort show is Supernatural. I’m currently on my FOURTH rewatch in just three years!

A few years ago, a friend came to me, and being the avid Supernatural superfan that she is, she wanted a unique piece to have autographed by Jensen Ackles as she headed to a Supernatural convention.

I helped create a replica of the shield his character carries in The Boys series.

Although I wasn’t able to attend the convention myself, she graciously took along a painting I had done of Sam and Dean, and, to my VERY happy surprise, she got it autographed by BOTH Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki!

That piece now hangs in a place of honor in my bedroom, and it was great fun adding it to my collection of autographed artwork.

Fast forward to now.

My friend is headed to another Supernatural convention, and this year, in addition to the SPN cast, Jensen Ackles will be there with his Radio Company bandmate, Steve Carlson. She wanted something band-related that she could have BOTH of them autograph.

Her idea? Could I paint one of their album covers on the face of a guitar?

Now, this isn’t my first guitar-painting rodeo. But since I had only TWO WEEKS to make this happen, I needed to work fast.

She ordered a guitar on Amazon and had it shipped directly to me. Just preparing the thing took nearly a week, removing the strings and hardware, taping, sanding, gessoing, and then giving that base enough time to cure before I could even begin painting.

FINALLY. It was time to paint.

This was the particular album cover I wanted to use for the guitar. The shape of the sun worked beautifully with the shape of the guitar, but with the sound hole and other parts to work around, I had to make sure everything would fit proportionally.

Once I landed on the placement, I made a creative, and pretty BIG, decision about how I wanted to approach the original image.

As y’all know, portraiture is my wheelhouse.

So instead of simply recreating the album cover, I decided to do my thing, keeping the shapes and color scheme that made the original recognizable, but giving it my own personal, realistic flair.

And with only DAYS to spare, I finished it, signed it, sealed it, and got it shipped out just in time for the convention this weekend!

AND TODAY IS THE DAY.

As I’m writing this, I am basically on the edge of my seat, living completely vicariously through my friend as she gets ready to have Jensen Ackles and Steve Carlson autograph this guitar.

I cannot WAIT to see it signed.

And the fangirl/artist in me is over here thinking…

OH MY GOSH, THEY ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO SEE MY PAINTING.

I just hope they love this piece as much as my friend and I do.

Now somebody please tell me how I’m supposed to concentrate on anything else today.