It’s kind of hard to believe that someone who has been in the game as long as Dean Loucks can continue to produce mind-blowing paintjobs on powerboats, among other things, but Loucks and the team at The Art of Design in Elkhart, Ind., knocked another one out of the park recently with the super realistic American flag-themed graphics design on a 2004 38-foot Formula Boats sportboat.

Thanks to is new patriotic paintjob from The Art of Design in Indiana, this 38-foot Formula V-bottom is sure to turn heads wherever it goes. Photos courtesy The Art Of Design

In terms of painting an American flag on a boat, we’re pretty sure nothing has been executed with more realism than the latest TAOD creation.

“Last fall the owner of the boat reached out to us about painting his Formula,” Loucks said. “While he was here to start working on the design he saw the American flag KitchenAid mixers we did for Macy’s and he said ‘I want that on my boat.’ The detail on the mixers was incredible so I knew we’d have our work cut out for us to do it on larger scale, but we are always up for the challenge.”

Loucks said he received the boat in the spring and went to work on the extremely comprehensive paintjob, finishing it last week.

“We’ve done more detailed paintjobs, but this one was particularly challenging to get it as natural looking as possible,” Loucks said. “I think the shadowing was the most difficult part. From magentas to purples to blues, we used a variety of colors and layering to get the shadows just right. Some shadows were softer, too, because of the translucency of the flag material that allows light to pass through.”

The slideshow above includes more images of the Formula along with a couple of the KitchenAid mixers that inspired the design.

Loucks said getting the flow and waves in the flag design just right took a lot of work—especially matching the details in the “fabric” from one side to the other—but from the way he explained things, the stitching seemed to be extremely time consuming.

“Obviously all of the stitching couldn’t look the same so we had to individually apply about 10,000 stitches on each side,” Loucks added. “ It was nine-step process as we designed the stitches, cut out the template, masked the template, applied it, painted each one gray and then we added dark areas, highlights and shadows to each one. Some of it is hard work—and it’s not always fun work—but I’d do it again. In fact, we might be doing another boat for the customer because he loves this one so much he might buy a boat to redo and keep at his home in Florida.”

Loucks said the owner lives in New York and plans to run the Formula, after it gets an interior overhaul from the Decatur, Ind., company that built the boat 15 years ago, near the Statue of Liberty on a regular basis. Sounds like a photo shoot is in order.

“We’re pretty proud of this one,” Loucks concluded. “I was looking for it to be dramatic and I think when you see the boat up close, you can really see the action in the flag. This was a great opportunity to have best flag design painted on a boat ever so we went for it.”

Editor’s note: Look for a follow-up story on the 38-footer after Formula finishes its updates.

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