Yamaha XS 650 Tank Badges

My Dad, Jeff of Saint Motor Company, usually leans toward doing little things that add personalized details to each of the bikes that he builds. For the Yamaha XS650 cafe racer for a client in LA we wanted some custom tank badges. The original badges were plastic with the number 260 on them (from the Benelli/Wards Riverside tanks that he's been favoring lately).

He painted them silver and asked me to draw something classy on them to make them stand out rather than filling in the recess for them on the tank and painting it to match. So here's the newly refinished badges :)

The little piece of paper on the left is the picture that the client had sent us. It worked out pretty well. I made a transfer for it the same as how I've been making the transfers for the watercolor paintings, then inked the drawing using the india ink pens. The badge in the picture above and towards the top had been cleared over using a high gloss lacquer. It grayed out a bit making look like a pencil drawing, which looks kinda cool up close. Almost resembles something that had been carved in stone :)