Painted Harley Quinn Bat

     For the bat, I diverged a bit from the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy comic series a bit.  (I mentioned it in my first post, but the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy comic series cover art was my inspiration for this costume.)  The design still felt Harley to me, but with a little bit of my own flair.

Materials:

*Foam or wooden baseball bat
*Red acrylic paint
*Light blue acrylic paint
*Thin paintbrush
*Ultra fine paintbrush or nail art brush
*Painter's tape (optional)
*Acrylic sealer (optional)

Directions:

*I started by taping off where I wanted to paint.  I ended up spiraling a singular line all the way around the bat, alternating colors as I went along.  Taping off a spiral was a bit difficult, especially since the bat was not a uniform thickness, so I used small sections of tape and connected them, rather than one long, continuous piece of tape.

*Paint in between the sections of tape.  Note that I'm not painting all the way to the tape; I'm just using it as a guide to get a sense of where I should paint to keep my lines roughly even.  Start with red, then after about three turns, switch to blue, then after about three more turns, switch back to red.

*Let the bat dry completely and then peel off the tape.

*Once the bat is dry, it's time to get started on the detail work.  Using an ultra fine brush, paint Harley's signature on the handle of the bat in red paint.

*Add little red hearts at random along the bat.

*Seal the paint in with an acrylic sealer, if desired.  If you're using a foam bat, make sure that the sealer you're using doesn't erode away foam.