Rat Rod Flag on Barn

After I painted their green stepside truck; I was asked by one of the guys at Lamon & McDaniel to paint an American flag on his barn. Here's some of the steps involved. I'm starting to use an observation I made about old painted objects with lettering. The background paint will be protected under the lettering , stripes or graphics. As the lettering and background paint around it deteriorates, the background paint under the letters emerges in near pristine condition. In one of the pictures below, you can see only white painted on the barn. Some might think that the solid white stripes will be what shows as white stripes when the flag is completed; but actually, the faded, blotchy stripes are the white ones. The solid ones are where the red goes. There is however, a "method to this madness", you can see it by looking closely at the photos. Notice that when I'm applying the red, I try to arrange it so that the white part of the red stripe (where it supposedly faded away) is showing right next to a faded part of the white stripe. This is important, because I'm trying to create or maintain a continuity of line. If the white part of the red line was next to a solid white part of a white line, then there would be no line along the edge of the formerly solid red stripe. I hope I'm explaining this right; the thing that's paradoxical about it is that I'm trying to make something that is quite visible, yet unnoticed.
Anyway, I'm very pleased with the results. When we started the job, I offered the customer the options of a flat flag, or one that was waving in the wind. He opted for the flat one; but what's pleasant to me is how the cross member support board on the door makes the flag look like it's waving anyway. Interesting unexpected result. There are a lot of unexpected results in this line of work; and more often than not, they're not beneficial.
Start with white
Closer view
The finished flag with gold border
At a distance