Airbrush for each Format

02/12 | Nr. 23 April/May/June
ISSN 2192-3892
Jürek‘s Tiger
Realistic Predator
Portrait
Drawing from
Photographs
Award-winning
i i
Bodypainting
Airbrush for each Format
Mini-Motif: Bike on Razor Blade
Mural: Vacation Flair in the Living Room
Photorealism: Chevy on Metal Plate
WHAT’S IN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Motifs in this Issue
Roxy Blade
Mini Bike by Steven Leahy
Hard to believe that a motorcycle can fit on a razor blade. Steven Leahy shows
how he uses a miniature stencil, airbrush, paint brush and gold foil to paint a
miniature Harley. And boy does it look like the original.
Page 06
The Eye of the Tiger
Animal Portrait by Jürek
US artist Jürek has the utmost respect for nature and all four-legged friends. In
the tradition of the Dutch masters, he creates an impressive tiger portrait with
realistic pelt structures and expressive eyes. One almost gets the impression of
staring right into the predator’s soul.
Page 14
Sexy but Dangerous
Professional Drawing with Pin-up-Artist Dave Nestler
Creating a successful drawing based on a photograph is not all that simple. The
techniques used to create forms and contours as well as realistic proportions for
the human face are explained by Dave Nestler in light of a detailed pencil sketch.
Page 28
Portfolio:
JJürek
Page 20
Page 23
US artist Jürek tells us even more about his artwork
and provides us with some inside looks at his career
a
path and his life philosophy.
Readers’ Gallery
R
O radiant results from the dark time of the year
Our
((uhh, winter)!
Page 34
ASBS Check
Events
Small but fine: The space-saving reciprocating compressor TC-501AST from Sparmax is perfectly suitable
for mobile use as well as the processing of small surfaces. It also offers some useful extras.
It was simply terrific: A review of the Custombike
and Airbrush Show in Rosmalen, Holland. Thankfully, things are going to heat up again in the spring in
Schweinfurt, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium.
Page 60
Preview 03/12, Imprint
Airbrush News
Page 23
Whether cutting plotters, paints, stencils, books,
DVDs or seminars – here you’ve got everything that
the brusher’s heart could desire!
4 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
Page 62
Coming in the next issue: A dragon on a surfboard, an
eagle on a feather, a Beagle on the canvas and a XXL
van in airbrush design.
Muscle Cars
Energy-loaded bodypainting by Flavio Bosco
Maintaining your coolness at a bodypainting competition is an artwork in and of
itself. At the World Bodypainting Festival, Flavio Bosco magically brought about
a color-happy motif on the body of his model and promptly took third place in
the competition.
Page 38
Vacation Flair in the Living Room
Wall paintings by Laila and Michael Witti
Designing one’s own four walls via airbrushing is surely the dream of many artists. Team Witti-Design designs a Mediterranean backdrop with a view of the sea
which places the observer right in a holiday mood.
Page 45
En el Floridita
Photorealistic Caribbean flair by David Naylor
This is how you turn a lovely vacation memory into a dreamy airbrushing motif:
David Naylor puts a lot of love into creating the details step by step for an old
Chevrolet that he caught on his camera while on vacation in Havana, Cuba.
Page 52
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 5
STEP BY STEP
STEP BY STEP – Roxy Blade
Mini Bike by Steven Leahy
Basic equipment ROXY BLADE
Airbrushes:
Paints:
Base:
Addional materials:
Richpen 213c
Createx Wicked Detail Colors, Wicked Reducer, Createx Auto Air Colors, Createx Retarder
Razor Blade
Rotary Tool, Winsor Newton Series 7 watercolor brush, X-Acto knife, paint stirrer, photocopies,
automotive wax and grease remover, two part automotive primer, 400 grit sand paper,
Simon Murrays Be Fast Stencils “Splatz”, tempered glass palette, gold sizing, gold leaf,
clear adhesive automotive mask, 2 part clear coat
6 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
Each of the tools that we use to express out artistic vision has its own strengths and our goal is to
seamlessly incorporate those strengths into a flawless piece of art. The ability to create great detail
has always been a very enjoyable goal for me to strive for in my work. In working towards that goal,
I have found several techniques that have really made things move along smoothly. This article will
show you some of those techniques. My aim for this article is that you will be able to take some of
these techniques and apply them in order to increase the accuracy of the detail in your work.
ARTIST PROFILE
Steven Leahy
Steven Leahy is a photorealistic artist who specializes in working with waterborne paints. He received his Bachelor of
Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts. Steven’s work has been published in “Art Scene International
Magazine”, “Naval Aviation News”, and “Airbrush Action Magazine”. Furthermore he is the author of “How Airbrushes Work” (Wolfgang Publications, 2008). In addition to having his work commissioned by the United States Navy
and Warner Brothers Publishing, Steven has garnered various awards and has also displayed pieces at the “Society
of Illustrators” Annual Exhibit in New York. In his current work, he is exploring in-depth, complex still life subjects on
many types of surfaces, from Bristol board, canvas and titanium, to custom bike painting.
www.stevenleahy.com
Picture 01
Single edge razor blades are what I have chosen for the substrate for a
number of these small scale paintings for several reasons. First, when sanded and prepped, the steel in the blade is an amazingly stable material. This
offers the guarantee that the artwork will be around for a very long time.
Second, since everyone is familiar with the size of the blade, it really helps
to give the viewer a clear sense of the actual scale of the work. Last, we as
artists are always looking for something in our work that makes it unique,
something that ties that art to us. These unique razor blade paintings have
done that for my career. For safety, the first step is to grind off the sharp
edge of the razor. A standard rotary tool does a great job at cleanly removing the entire edge.
Picture 02
Next step is to give the blade an even surface for the primer to create
a bond to. Lightly sanding the blade with 400 grit wet and dry sand
paper gives the surface the proper texture.
Picture 03
In order for the automotive primer to properly adhere to the blade, care must be taken to ensure that
all the sanding residue and finger prints are removed from the surface, otherwise the oils left behind will
resist the primer and cause it to peel off later. For this I use a standard automotive wax and grease remover. Next step is to transfer the blade to a modified paint stirrer. Mounting the blade in this way allows
the blade to be easily handled during the painting process. From there the blade gets sprayed with a two
part automotive primer. This primer aggressively adheres to the metal and forms an extremely strong
bond that is very receptive for the paint to follow.
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 7
STEP BY STEP – The Eye Of The Tiger
STEP BY STEP
Animal Portrait by Jürek
14 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
Jürek is one of the most famous illustrators in the field of painting animals. His animal portraits are
realistic, expressive and captivating because of their characteristic depth and the chosen section. The
tiger is a classical motif in the airbrush scene therefore it is very interesting to have a look over the
shoulder of a master like Jürek, when he develops his motif. He is using a mixing technique consisting
of airbrush and paint brush.
ARTIST PROFILE
Jürek
The renowned airbrush artist Jürek Zamoyski has been born in Poland. He lives and works in
the USA for more than 30 years. He has been working originally in the textile business, that’s
why he found his paths to the airbrush technique over the application on fabrics. Later on he
became a famous T-Shirt brusher, who painted portraits in the license of prominent people.
Today the artist is specialized on animal portraits and supports various wildlife foundations.
www.jurekart.com
Basic equipment THE EYE OF THE TIGER
Airbrushes:
Paints:
Base:
Addional materials:
Custom Micron SB, Iwata Eclipse HP-BCS
Com-Art by Medea (Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Sienna Brown, Ultramarine Blue, transparent
Black, Opaque Black, Rose Red, Smoke Grey, Brilliant Gold) Pelikan Plaka (Opaque White),
Schmincke Aero Color (Yellow), Acrylic Medium (Golden GAC-100)
Baltic Birch cradled board in the format 30 x 30 cm
Various brushes, Saral Transfer Paper, gesso, sanding paper, electric palm sander with coarse grid,
masking film, circle template (9 mm), Q-Tip
Picture 01
A Baltic Birch cradled board in the format 30 x 30 cm is coated with at least eight
layers of gesso. The final surface is sanded until an absolutely smooth finish is
reached. I first use an electric palm sander with coarse grid, after that I take wet
on wet sanding paper for sanding.
The colored reference image is converted into grayscale in Adobe Photoshop.
The contrast is adjusted to provide good balance between dark and light areas.
Using black Saral Transfer Paper I put the sketch on the board. A sketch of your
work can be done freehand or projected with the projector (this is especially
useful for the large paintings), so that the outlines can be traced onto the surface.
Picture 02
Now I am laying in the first color to get a sort of basic painting. This was done with
Burnt Umber and the use of my Custom Micron SB at 20 PSI- I am paying attention
to the main aspects and sculptural values of the image. Then I lightly spray the same
color to cover the entire board to create the basic shades. The one-colored base
painting is the foundation of my picture so it needs to be accurate with the reference
material. After the base painting has dried, I covered entire painting with a thick
layer of Acrylic Medium Golden GAC-100 using my Iwata Eclipse HP-BCS with an air
pressure of 60 PSI.
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 15
STEP BY STEP – Sexy but Dangerous
Professional Drawing with Pin-up-Artist Dave Nestler
Professional drawing and sketching are popular skills in the airbrush scene. On the
P
one hand, a good sketch is half of the way to a high class airbrush work. On the
other hand, detailed sketches can be colored with airbrush paint afterwards. This
mixed media technique has been used by well known artists like Royo or Drew
Struzan. In the following description we will have a look at the drawing techniques of the US pinup artist, Dave Nestler.
n
28 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
A RT I S T P R O F I L E
Dave Nestler
I began drawing at an early age. According to my mother, I was that kid in high school that
was always doodling and getting into trouble for less than flattering caricature representations. Trained in the early 80’s as a commercial illustrator, I moved to Hollywood with the
aspirations of working in the entertainment and major advertising agency markets. But the
later part of the decade saw the rise of computer graphics and within a few short years the
need for high priced illustrators was on the decline. But I didn’t want to give up a lifetime of
dreams and years of training to trade it for a mouse and a computer program.
It was around the mid 90’s I met a glamour photographer who saw my work and introduced
me to the world of pinup. In 1995 I attended a pinup art and collectibles convention in Los Angeles called “Glamourcon” only to find the likes of such artists as Olivia, Hajima Sorayama and Dave Stevens in attendance. It was at that
moment I decided to turn my attention to the world of pinup art and I decided to exhibit at next years show with
something that makes a splash. It was then I came up with my “Blonde & Gagged” series that appealed to the pinup
purists and the hard core fans as well.
So well was it received, that even the Playboy magazine published an article about my art. Jump 15 years to the present,
I’ve exhibited at countless conventions and gallery exhibitions and I have published a huge number of magazine features, articles, covers and five books of my work. One of my highlights is being the only pinup artist invited to submit
an original painting personal art book project: “Star Wars Art: Visions” of George Lucas, which currently hangs in his
private collection.
www.davenestler.com
Introduction
I’ve written many articles on drawing and even produced an
instructional DVD on acrylic painting. But my approach to
teaching is always the same. Not everyone has as many years
of experiences as an artist like I have. And I don’t expect anyone to be able to draw or paint like me after reading a magazine or watching a 2 hour tutorial. For the casual artist, a few
hours a week might be all the time they can afford themselves to draw or paint. What I like to employ in my instruction
is to make better use of your time. Tips, shortcuts, consistency,
and not making mistakes goes a long way towards the development of your skills.
Materials
There is a simple mantra, I
like to employ when it comes to the materials you
work with. “Familiarity
breeds Consistency”. What
I mean by that is when you
find a pencil or paper you
like, stick with it. I’ve been
working with the same
pencill lead,
and
l d lead
l d holder,
h ld
d paper for 20 years. Switching
from one brand of paper to another is going to produce a
different result. This way the variable of how different mediums react together is taken out of the equation and your
focus is now centered around the development of your technique, and not the time spent getting used to another brand
of paper or pencil - more drawing time, less problem solving.
To this point I haven’t talked about the materials I use. It’s a
matter of personal preference, but for the record, I only use
Bienfang Graphics 360 Marker paper to draw on. It’s a thin
vellum paper with a fairly tight weave and a smooth surface.
It allows me to use hard leads to get nice tight lines. But also
has just enough of a tooth to the surface to use softer leads
for soft tones. For my pencil, I prefer a Lead Holder, which is
a stationary barrel where varying degrees of lead sticks can
be inserted and released with push button advance. These
pencils incorporate the same 2 mm lead that is found in most
standard drawing pencils, as opposed to the small 0,3 mm –
0,9 mm leads found in mechanical pencils. I prefer Sanford H
and 2H leads. A Lead Pointer is also needed for sharpening
purposes. My reason for using this specific pencil is the same
as in all my materials familiarity. As you use and continually
sharpen a regular drawing pencil, the size decreases. As the
size decreases, so does the weight and the balance. These two
factors will always remain the same in a lead holder and the
result is consistency.
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 29
STEP BY STEP – Muscle Cars
STEP BY STEP
Energy-loaded bodypainting by Flavio Bosco
38 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
The work illustrated in the following article was realized by Flavio Bosco at the “World Bodypainting
Festival“ 2010 in Seeboden, Austria. By this point in time, the artist had taken part in the competition
five times. After repeated attempts, and with an ever increasing level of ambition, he finally achieved
a third place finish in the airbrush category in 2010 thanks to the energetic support of his team. The
main topic for this work, which was developed on the final day of the competition, was “Source of
Power“. This bodypainting is dedicated to the high-performance V-8 motors of the so-called “muscle
cars“, which were born in the USA in the 60s. This article shows how a brilliant complete work comes
to life in only 6 hours via various motifs, colors and graphic elements.
ARTIST PROFILE
Flavio Bosco
Flavio Bosco was born in Milan, Italy in 1977. He discovered his talent for drawing when
he was just a child. In 1999, he began to work with airbrushing and he hasn’t put down
the device since. Flavio began working with airbrushes on paper and then moved to the
decoration of various items and later to custom painting on crash helmets, motorcycles
or vehicles, until he discovered bodypainting in 2005. With body art, Flavio enhanced his
airbrush skills in that he continually attempted to retain a realistic and concrete style.
Flavio takes part in national and international competitions and conducts bodypaintings
for events or exhibitions. Since 2010, he’s headed the ”Italian Bodypainting Festival“.
www.fb-airbrush-art.it
Basic equipment MUSCLE CARS
Airbrushes:
Paints:
Model:
Additional materials:
Paasche VSR-90, Paasche V and Paasche VL
Eulenspiegel and Kryolan
Elisa
Werther SIL-AIR 30/12 compressor, khol (eye) pencil, loose paper stencils, Craig Fraser Skull
Master Airbrush Template from Artool, cogs, spray adhesive, wigs and accessories for the hairdo.
Picture 01
Before I begin with bodypainting, I make a detailed draft of my work. The
drawing allows me to get a clear concept of the color nuances that should
be used. In showing some respect and regard for the model, I advise against
using paints for bodypaintings that are indeed water-based, but haven’t been
inspected for use on skin. That’s why I make use of the brands Eulenspiegel and
Kryolan, which are especially produced and dermatologically tested for this
type of use. The work is carried out with the Paasche VSR-90, V and VL airbrush
devices. I use the first two devices for the finer areas. The third is primarily suitable for achieving extensive paint undercoats.
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 39
STEP BY STEP – Vacation Flair in the Living Room
Wall paintings by Laila and Michael Witti
Action-packed wall motifs designed with an airbrush are not uncommon, especially in discos, bowling
centers or amusement parks. But what about gallant landscape artwork? They aren’t only eye-catchers
at swimming pools, wellness facilities or hotels, but rather can also provide your own four walls with
excellent vacation flair. Based on the following Mediterranean wall mural painting, Laila and Michael
Witti will display how even motifs from classic artwork can be created marvelously by airbrush. The
following mural painting is being created almost entirely per airbrush and allows the beholder to take
a look across blue water, green hills and red tiled roofs. This is how you bring vacation to your home!
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 45
STEP BY STEP – Vacation Flair in the Living Room
ARTIST PROFILE
Laila and Michael Witti
Laila and Michael Witti head the “Airbrush-Schule Ulm“ school and the
“Studio Witti-Design“ studio. These offer not only various airbrush designs,
but also wall mural paintings. Michael was a stone mason and sculptor before he discovered airbrushing; his wife Laila is a trained painter, varnisher
and office clerk. In wall designing, one takes common knowledge about
constructive substances, surfaces, paints and bases to form a perfect unit.
Thus, it’s no problem for Team Witti to design harmonious total concepts.
Classic topics such as Mediterranean landscapes, arcades and balustrades,
which are usually created by mural painters with a brush, are made by Team Witti with the use of airbrushes. Wood,
stone, metal and plaster imitations belong to their repertoire just as much as marbling and trompe l’oeil.
www.witti-design.de
Basic equipment VACATION FLAIR IN THE LIVING ROOM
Airbrushes:
Paints:
Harder & Steenbeck Evolution (0.4 mm nozzle)
Hansa pro-color (ice blue, white, black, golden yellow, flesh color I, flesh color II, lime green,
mint green, olive, fuchsia, fiery red, crimson, whisky, Sienna, coffee brown, graphite),
wall color polar white, tinting paint ochre from Mixol
Base:
Wall, primed with “Polar white“ (dispersion paint)
Additional materials: Pencil, lose stencils made of cardboard, masking film Regusign P20, scalpel, sponge,
flathead brush 6 cm
Picture 01
I have not created a draft for this Mediterranean wall motif. Instead, I
have a tracing with a pencil directly on the wall. I would like to create
the impression that we are looking at a spacious vacation landscape
through a stone-built arch. Since it would be difficult to draw in the
arch geometrically correct per freehand, I have put together a corresponding ellipse in Photoshop, printed it out and projected it onto the
wall with an episcope. Tracing the complete draft with the episcope
or projector is not useful for a motif of this nature, since it can lead to
distortions if the device isn’t central and at the right angle to the wall.
I would rather draw everything by hand with the assistance of a yard
stick and a water level. In this picture, the viewer stands in the middle
and the vanishing point is placed at eye level on the horizon line.
Picture 02/03
The picture should end up with all
of the lovely subjects of a typical
Mediterranean wall mural painting.
I’ve inserted these step by step into
the drawing. I used a photo template for the table and the chair. I
created perspective lines and adjusted all of the objects to the picture
level and the vanishing point. In this
picture, you can see the final motif
in black and white for the visualization of the perspective lines.
46 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
STEP BY STEP – En el Floridita
Photorealistic Caribbean flair by David Naylor
The Cuban motif from David Naylor practically lets you smell the rum and cigars and hear the sound
of salsa and mambo. “En el Floridita“ is based on the template of a vacation photo from Havana. With
numerous details such as reflections and color harmonies, David Naylor achieves a breathtaking level
of photorealism that can hardly be described in detail. Thus, his step by step can only be a rough reflection of his procedure, which is generated without any use of masking, for David only works per
freehand!
52 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 02/12
ARTIST PROFILE
David Naylor
David Anthony Naylor was born in 1965 in Andover (Great Britain). As a child, he lived
with his family in the British colony of Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe) and in Spanish Barcelona. In 1978, he moved to London where he lived, studied and worked for
4 years. In 1982, returned to Barcelona, founded some break dancing groups with his
friends and started up a job that afforded him time and space for painting: he was a
motorcycle mechanic. As long as he can remember, he’s been experimenting with painting and drawing. Nowadays, he combines his art with his part-time job as metro driver
in Barcelona.
www.davidnaylor.net
Basic equipment EN EL FLORIDITA
Airbrushes:
Iwata Eclipse SBS, HP-SBP+, HP-TH, CM-SB
Spraygun:
Iwata LPH80
Paints:
White base, Crystal Clear, Wicked Colors and Wicked Detail paints, Wicked Reducer
Base:
Metal plate, 58 x 79.4 cm
When I talk about the materials being used, we have to start off by knowing that good materials simply make your
life easier. Even if they might cost a little more, this will pay off in both the mid-term and long-term: You achieve better works with less effort. And you will also save money, because the materials last a lifetime if they are treated well. I
am still using my 12 year old Iwata Eclipse SBS and it works perfectly.
Picture 01
I first grind the metal plate with 600er sandpaper. Then I prime it with white,
which I first thinned out with Wicked Reducer and add in thin layers with
the Iwata LPH80 spray gun. I then put tracing on top of that. The reference
photo that I am using for this picture was taken in Havana while on vacation
with my family in Cuba. The picture is called ”En el Floridita“ because of the
red buildings in the background: It’s a bar in which Ernest Hemingway enjoyed a number of daiquiris. I have maintained the long drawn-out look of the
camera lens, because I thought it gives the green Chevy a sort of aggressive
personality.
Picture 02
In this step, you can see that I have painted up the license plate
with a self-mixed light yellow as a base color. I fill up the entire
plate with the lightest color grade and leave out the numbers. Afterwards, I border the numbers carefully using a thinned out dark
brown and fill them in later. For the mid-range yellow tone, which
represents the bend in the plate, I have taken a light, strongly thinned out brown mixed with the same yellow. With the dark brown
and a medium gray, I’ve also designed the nuts, bolts, and the two
holes. All of the paints were thinned out with Wicked Reducer. My
tip for this: If you have thinned out a paint too strongly with Wicked Reducer, then you can add a couple of drops of Wicked Transparent to the base surface to re-establish the bond. The paint then
becomes very transparent and yet you still have a great level of
control over it.
02/12 AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 53
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