Airbrushing
There are tons of information on Airbrushing on the Internet but I am self-thought and what I know I got from watching hours and hours of You Tube Tutorials, of the best were Airbrush Tricks and Edd Hubbs and thousands more. Look them up on you tube.The Airbrushing industry in South Africa is very limited and those who has mastered the art are making a good life for themselves although its a art that requires a whole lot of patience and most of all a lot of time. Weeks go by before you can even master the smallest line or dot.
In 2013 I was busy with a Honda Goldwing GL 1100 when the time eventually came and I purchased my equipment and just started doing it. good equipment is very important but I am not going to go into that. This Blog will concentrate on my ideas and progress with Tin Tin's design on either side.
If you haven't seen the blog on my DFM Cargo van 1.3 click on the link below to take you to the transformation Blog.
DFM Cargo van 1.3 Transformation
Your design will always start with a drawing or some kind of an idea, I printed a page on the printer and played around with my idea until it started to look to what I wanted. I ended up changing some parts of it eventually anyway but that is why it's so great to do your own design once you start masking up you can change what you want, as long as you keep both sides the same at the end of the day. it is of course another story if your client provides you with a specific design and you can not deviate from it.
In this blog I will take you past the steps I used and maybe share some tricks and tips.
The Wolf was the very first object I did, I did the picture did the shadows first then the finer detail. I challenged myself as the hair of any animal is always very difficult to simulate and that is why I chose the Wolf. the Wolf and Lion was painted on Laminated sheets so I could easily wipe out a section with some thinners and re-do it again.
The Lion was very difficult and at the time I did not have any white paint to do highlights and with only the black it came out a bit darker than it should. its amazing how much you learn from doing a picture, especially real life one, you need to have a good sense of depth and always know from which direction the light is coming and which parts of the picture are in the shadows.
I did this picture from one of the Fighter plane pictures in my son' room and I must admit it came out quite well. Although I airbrushed this painting on normal paper it was also a learning curve as paper is so much more porous and the painted faded away quite quick, it was difficult to get sharp contrast lines on paper. so a flat surface like plastic or metal is so much better.
The Bike helmet was a project that I thought will take two days. 6 weeks later, and respraying it 3 times and costing me the same in paint to do 4 helmets, I eventually got to
the design I wanted. This project really tested my patience because of my lack of experience. I am satisfied what the end product looked like. The helmet was completely sprayed with a normal spray gun but the shadows under the main line was done with my airbrush. The shadows did come out slightly bigger and darker than planned but that's how we learn I guess.
For some reason I am always drawn to shadow lines and 3-D effects when it comes to airbrush artwork. The below are 2 pictures that I got from Google Images and stuck with me ever since. I like the white borders and how creates the embossed look with shadows on the outside. I become obsessed with the "chrome" effect also and again when you paint chrome effects you need to always be very cognizant of your light source to simulate the shadows and the reflections.
Once I had my final design I began to mask. I Used a 5mm to do the outlined of the design, I then used a 3mm on the inside of the 5mm that would become the bevel edge. Also note that the Body of the Van was just resprayed but not yet polished, so already started to cut it with a 1200 paper. Once the design is complete we can complete the work with a final clear and polish.
