So the pictures turned out kinda blurry on this one, my normal camera is having a "moment" right now, but was doing some painting today for some orders and figured I would do a walk through on a basic blue gill paint job.

I always start with a white super secret squirrel primer that is a trade secret and the reason the paint holds up so well on my baits. So I won't give you that one. After a good white base coat you want lay down a good coat of sparkly silver. I spray from the back down avoiding the belly. Make sure to hit inside the joints. Next spray a white translucent pearl on the belly. Be sure to spray up the sides of the bait slightly over lapping the silver. You also want to hit the gill area and mouth. This will blend everything together nicely.

Next is a bit of orange on the belly and anal fin area. This is followed by a light base of black on the rear of the gill area and lightly towards the eye. I use a cutout to prevent over-spray onto the body of the bait.

Next is a heavy coating of translucent blue pearl on the gill, eye area, belly and side of the bait. This will give the base for your blue gills (blue gill).

Next is the first layer of light green on the back and bars on the side of the bait. I use a single action airbrush for this step for more control. I also start to blend out the eyes and gill area at this point. This step is followed by a slightly darker green for a layered effect.

At this point details can be added. scale tipping for example,shading,gill flare color etc. My stock colors are fairly simple, my customs will usually have more texture added using different methods.
I like to add some light blue gill stripes on my light bluegill patterns, these really give off good flash in the water.

For the final steps I will add some color shift paint lightly over the back and gills. I will also mist the bait with some silver and gold fine flake to add flash. After all that I like to glue my eyes in before the clear coat. I use epoxy to glue the eyes in. epoxy is super strong and leaves a natural looking membrane around the eye.

The bait is now ready for numbering and a few coats of polyurethane clear coat. This is a very basic process without to many steps for a great realistic result. This is also one of my favorite crank bait colors on the Delta and Clear Lake.