Chris, if you want to try brush painting, just go for it. Read
Randy's page on the subject. Even if you don't do everything the way he says to do it (I didn't), it'll give you a good idea what to expect. Obviously you know enough about painting to figure out which parts of his advice you want to take and where to diverge a little. Either way, I'm confident you will enjoy the process and achieve a result that is satisfactory at the very least, and probably pretty fabulous. I look forward to seeing the results.
Here's a link to the thread on my Fothergill... with some photos... but you won't find a lot more information about painting there.
My paint dried a different color than we'd mixed up; and different at the surface than below the surface; and so on. This necessitated wet sanding, while Randy's method lets the last paint coat air dry for the highest possible sheen.
Wow, thanks everyone for the awesome replies. While I'm sure the airbrushes, etc., probably work great, it requires somewhere to spray and gets pretty messy. I'm moving in a month into a place where brushing is my only option unless I want to paint outside, and I think we can all agree that doing so is a terrible idea. Like I said earlier too, I've always used aerosols and it came out great, but I want to make "functional art" in the future and this is my first attempt. Even if I had somewhere to spray,I wouldn't be able to paint the types of designs I want. Imagine using a bike frame as a canvas - that's what I'm trying to do. I love bikes and I love art, so I figured I'd just combine the two.
For now, I've settled with "3M Final Finishing Pads" and "3M Between Coats Finishing Pads." They're reusable and can be immersed so I have the option of wet or dry sanding. The final finishing pads feel like 2500+ grit while the between coats finishing pads feel along the lines of maybe 1200 grit. The flexibility is top notch, however. I'll post pictures as I go and let you know what works...and what doesn't. Thanks again for the help everyone!