Photo paint job on a truck?

Wasn't sure about your description on the layout of the paint job so I took my best "quick" guess.
BTW my first post on the forum as I just recently purchased an RV, Hi everyone!

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Thanks guys thinking paint on this one. And this paint job hit me like a ton of bricks a few days ago. Had been looking at it from the above pic. And could not get the colors to flow on the truck. But when seeing it from this view while pulling up to the truck. The way I want it to look jumped out at me and was unreal. Check it out

If you were to pull the paint off the camper and move it forward. Dark from the front cap to the front top of the sleeper. Then the other colors flowing to the back of the truck to match up with the colors on the camper. Thinking it would look great with or without the camper hooked up. Can anyone else see it from this view?
Sad part is thinking I may just finish some work on the old truck. And use it as a Toy and not for long trips with the camper. But Man I love the old Gal. Being I used to run over the road in a truck for years. Its like being back on the road but without the issues of driving commercial these days.

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum limit of 640px maximum width.

Two ways to go about what you are wanting to do (I am a degreed Graphic Designer, and have experience doing paint schemes, as well as vehicle wraps).

Paint work: You can use PS to show the paint shop what you want the finished product to look like. The shop will go by your renderings, mix the paint to match, tape off by hand, etc, and come up with the finished product. I HIGHLY recommend taking both truck and trailer to the shop, and LET THE SHOP do the measurements on where the graphics crossover to the trailer.

Vehicle wrap: Again, you can work up the graphics to your hearts content. But what you work up will be the final design the shop will go with. If they don't build the graphics from scratch themselves, with their own measurements, they probably won't guarantee crossovers and such. Also, keep in mind that the wrap graphics are printed process color, and may or may not match the actual mixed paint on your trailer. There is a TON of stuff you need to know to prep the file correctly. I highly recommend letting the vinyl place build the graphic files themselves.

As agesilaus mentioned above, PS is a VERY complicated program for someone to learn on their own.

Cliff notes: if using real paint, nothing wrong with whipping up the general idea of how you want the graphics to look in PS.

If using vinyl wrap, I highly suggest you let the experts build the design for you. You can give them a general feel of what you are looking for. They will need access to both the truck and trailer to get it done correctly.

Also, if using a photograph, then the best shot would be on an overcast day when the lighting would be even and non directional. The above photo is not a good example of this, IMHO.

A word about Photoshop itself: it is the most powerful editing program but it is very very difficult to learn to use. I own and moderate some photography lists where photoshop is a major topic. And I tell people to expect to spend 3 to 4 months working a couple of hours per night (with a good intro book to photoshop) to get to where you have a basic understanding of how to use the program. And that doesn't really cover the the graphic tools that photographers rarely use.

I'm sure there are a lot of custom paint shops that could convert your hand drawn images to a graphic file. The suggestion to get some desaturated images of the truck-both sides, front and back (top would be good if you can find somewhere you can shoot down at the truck) And print a number of the views to let you draw on them is good.

BK

I'd suggest you check around for some small auto race tracks in the area.

The current trend in small track racing is 'wraps' coverings that go over the body of a vehicle and can have literally any design on them.

There are some national companies, but you want to be able to see how someone has installed one.

Probably can get a custom scheme designed and on the vehicle for under $500-750.

I used to do a lot of that type of thing years ago. The trick is to outline the truck and "desaturate" the selected section. This removes the colors and leaves you with a grayscale image that you can adjust the tint on. I found it helpful to copy the section and paste it as a separate layer before manipulating so I could do several color options and flip through them.