Airbrushing E-Book

Fred Crellin

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 170

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Airbrushing is a versatile and exciting art. The technique has been used for some 150 years, and is now finding ever more applications. This beautiful book, now in paperback for 2022, explains how to use an airbrush. It looks at the fundamentals of how to get started, advises on maintenance of the tool and then gives step-by-step examples of a range of projects. Topics covered include: technical illustration; watercolour landscapes; portraits; painting scale models; cake decorating; T-shirts and leather and finally, custom painting vehicles. With troubleshooting tips throughout, it enables you to get the most from your airbrush and create beautiful pieces with a professional finish. 'To those who airbrush the joys are well known, as well of course, the trials and tribulations of managing the instrument itself. The airbrush student has to learn significant new skills - to master not only colour and shade, but also air pressure, paint consistency and the diverse ways of masking and shading that can help to achieve such wonderful results.' Prof Andy Penaluna

Leseprobe

Airbrushing

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE

Fred Crellin

First published in 2013

by The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2013

© Fred Crellin 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 632 1

Frontispiece:Finlay’s Frisbee by Fred Crellin: liquid acrylic onto artboard. 20cm x 45cm approx.

Acknowledgements

I had been promising to write a book about airbrushing for years, so this has only come about with the help, support and contributions from the following people: Andy Penaluna for his knowledge, enthusiasm and encouragement; Pam Cartwright, my old art teacher when I was at school, for helping me realize my love for art; Roger Hassler and Andy Hay for their pictorial contributions; Rosemary and Ken Medwell for their help with the historical chapter; former students of the Artimagination Airbrush School, who have each helped in their own little way; and finally my wife Ginny and my children for their patience and not seeing me for days on end when I disappeared to my studio to write this book. All photos and pictures (graphics) are by Fred Crellin, except where specified.

Contents

Foreword by Professor Andy Penaluna

Introduction

1 The history and development of the airbrush

2 Choosing and maintaining your airbrush

3 Materials and equipment

4 Getting started

5 Projects for beginners: Landscape and still life

6 Using everyday objects as masks

7 Freehand airbrushing a lion onto cotton

8 Airbrushing a wolf onto leather

9 A portrait using frisket film and a technical illustration

10 Using computer-cut vinyl stencils

11 Airbrushing a scale model, using fine line tape

12 Airbrushing cakes using multi-layered stencils

13 Dealing with Death: Using manufactured stencils

14 Custom painting on metal and wood objects

Glossary

Further information

Index

Misty Morning by Fred Crellin: liquid acrylic onto canvas. 20cm x 80cm approx.

Foreword

I was reminded in a corridor conversation the other day that many people now think of airbrushing as relatively new phenomenon – and that it is achieved on a computer. Sadly, they have missed the joys of the airbrush as an art form in the physical sense. It is true to say that as it never actually touches the paper or work surface, airbrush has always been on the grey edge of artistic acceptability. How can you make marks on the paper or surface if you never touch it? How can you get the feel of your work?

To those who airbrush the joys are well known – as well, of course, as the trials and tribulations of managing the instrument itself. The airbrush student has to learn significant new skills: to master not only colour and shade, but also air pressure, paint consistency and the diverse ways of masking and shading that can help to achieve such wonderful results. Correcting errors can be particularly difficult and frustrating, so I always think that it takes a special type of person, someone who has the patience and determination the medium demands.

Again, it also needs a special kind of teacher and that is why I have loved working with Fred Crellin. Back in the 1970s when I first started out there were many specialists around. Now they are few and far between, so their knowledge and skills have special value. This book is sorely needed; it takes what Fred does in the studio and places it in one accessible and easy to understand volume. I hope you have fun with it, and that you too get to feel that special thrill of seeing a work to be proud of at the end of your airbrush.

Professor Andy Penaluna – PhD ‘Doc’ of airbrush history

Normandy Pontoon 3D by Fred Crellin: liquid acrylic onto 3D canvas. 50cm x 100cm.

Introduction

Airbrushing books are generally quite hard to find. Airbrushing itself has always been such a specialized area of art and design, that there have been very few people with the knowledge and skills to convey how to use, let alone maintain, an airbrush correctly. I have only come across perhaps two books from the last thirty years that have gone to any great length to explain how the tool actually works and have shown how to maintain the tool. There have been dozens of books published that show the reader how to create wonderful pieces of artwork with some eye-opening techniques. However, none explain what to do if things go wrong, or cover fundamentals such as what sort of paint to use.

My intention in this book is to remove any fear of the airbrush and explode the myths surrounding it. In society, the very word ‘airbrush’ is generally used in negative terms. This usage of the word does the tool itself an injustice. Although a high precision tool, it is a simple device used to deliver pigment or paint onto a surface as an atomized mist, enabling the user to quickly create remarkable colour blending with the greatest of ease.

Added to this, the airbrush can be used in so many different applications. It is a wonder why so few art colleges use the tool as it is applicable in fine art, illustration, textiles, photography, fashion design, 3D model making, cake decorating, make-up.... the list is endless. From personal experience, most schools and colleges do not use airbrushes regularly because the teachers believe the device to be expensive, complicated and unreliable. This is only true if it is put in the hands of the uneducated user. This book, I hope, will educate everyone into the wonderful flexibility the airbrush offers and, more importantly, that the tool is none of the negatives mentioned. It is a highly rewarding and, dare I say, addictive method of creativity. The airbrush is not a temperamental magic wand; it's just a tool. Granted, it's a high precision instrument, but with a little knowledge, understanding and help, it is a device that will deliver detail and finesse anyone can achieve with just a little practice and know-how.

At the time of writing this book, I have been airbrushing for some twenty-five years. Although largely self-taught, in that time I have made just about every mistake there is to make, but most importantly, I have learned from them. As a qualified teacher, I understand that learning from your mistakes is a great way of learning. However, making mistakes, as I also found out, can be costly. In this book I have set out to inform the reader and help them avoid making too many costly mistakes and save time, money and sanity.

Airbrushing is very much a learned technique, just like riding a bike. The latter chapters of this book are written as a ‘how to’ guide, where I demonstrate a multitude of techniques and show these on different surfaces.

The nuts and bolts aspect takes you through which airbrush to buy from the range that is available to how to maintain and look after the tool. When things go wrong, there is a chapter that helps you identify and solve the problem. There is also a chapter on tools and equipment, highlighting and separating the essential tools from the desirable.

Once the basic fundamentals of how to look after your airbrush and getting started have been covered, the remaining chapters cover a wide range of applications. The versatility of the airbrush enables the user to tackle any number of projects, from fine art and custom painting to painting 3D models and cake decorating, all of which are covered in this book.

Throughout, I will offer the reader ‘pearls of wisdom’ in the form of a ‘tip’ where basic knowledge in its simplest form will go a long way in enlightening and educating the reader into the finer points of airbrushing.

Although this book does not cover airbrushing in all its many applications, especially as new ones are being discovered every year, the vast majority of applications are discussed, especially the mainstream ones. Primarily, the techniques that are used in conjunction with the airbrush can be transferred to multiple uses, even if the technique used in the book is used on a specific application.

As an educator, I hope you find this book useful and enlightening, and that it builds and drives for you a passion that I have for a specific form of creativity... airbrushing.

Together by Fred Crellin: liquid acrylic onto box canvas. 40cm x 80cm.

1

Chapter 1 The history and development of the airbrush

For many years the history of the airbrush consisted of a series of muddled and incorrect bits of factual information, put together to make some kind of coherent sense. It was not until the 1990s that the true history of the airbrush was properly researched and verified. This extensive research was conducted by my friend Professor Andy Penaluna, to whom I owe much of the credit and thanks in being able to write this chapter. This is the first time, I believe, that the correct information and unabridged history has been published.

Andy Penaluna created this image of an early forerunner of the airbrush using the actual tool depicted, as living proof that this odd-looking ‘airbrush’ actually works. It was created using a combination of needle, rubber and brass tubes, screwdriver and a bent spoon. (© Andy Penaluna)

The origins of paint spraying

Paint spraying, in all its many forms, has been around for thousands of years. Examples of the very earliest forms of this can be found in the caves of Lascaux in France. It is believed that ‘cavemen’ from the Palaeolithic era used hollowed out bones filled with animal blood to create some of the images seen on the cave walls, created over 17,000 years ago. Physically blowing the blood out from the centre of the bone onto the wall, using their own hand as a template, was a rudimentary but effective method of signing their work.

A hand print created over 17,000 years ago. (Photo: John Berry)

However, further caves were discovered in Spain and Portugal that showed an advance in the techniques used. At caves discovered in Altamira in Spain and Côa in Portugal, paintings were uncovered that showed greater definition and detail in the pigmentation being used. Added to this, remains of the actual tools used to create them were also discovered, and have been dated to around 13,000 BC. The technique is still in existence today and used in schools with the aid of what is referred to as a diffuser.

Palaeolithic man used hollowed out bones filled with blood to create wall art in caves.

A more sophisticated method of atomizing pigment, from around 13,000 BC. (www.visioninconsciousness.org)

Two smaller hollowed out bones are used like a diffuser. (http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/art,rupestre/Interesting)

The results shows greater detail through creating a finer mist of pigment.

This method of applying dye or paint may have existed in numerous forms for various applications until the nineteenth century. It was the advent of photography that got things going in the right direction. At around this time, portraits became very popular, as quick photos could be taken, prints enlarged and then reproduced by artists using the photo as a guide to the likeness of the client. Many worked directly on top of this print, often using chalks and pastels. However, with the development of paint spraying tools, this was to change significantly.

Even after extensive research, there is still some debate as to who can be credited with designing the first ‘airbrush’ tool. This is primarily to do with the exact definition of an airbrush: is it a tool that has to be physically blown into, have a squeezable ball where a puff of air is emitted, or a constant flow of compressed air?

In 1876 Frank E. Stanley patented a ‘paint atomization’ device. His device did not use a regular, compressed form of air, but instead relied on a squeezable ‘puff’ blower. Frank E. Stanley was an award-winning American artist from Kingfield, Maine. His invention was for a device that was able to ‘spray water colours, India-ink and also for all kinds of shading in which colour can be used in a liquid state.’ Today, its basic design is not dissimilar to the mechanism found in perfume bottles, but at the time his design had a perfect application in photo retouching. His additional design features allowed the user greater control over volume and quality. Because it was ‘powered’ by a puff blower, it can be argued that in the true sense of the definition of what an airbrush is, this should not be regarded as an airbrush, but as its immediate forerunner. However, within three years (and 1,500 miles away), Abner Peeler was inventing a completely different way of atomizing paint, in conjunction with an air compressor device that powered the tool with a constant source of compressed air.

A design for a paint atomizer from around 1876, which used a squeezable ‘puff’ ball as its air source. (Courtesy Stanley Museum, Kingfield, Maine, USA ©)

Frank E. Stanley. (www.mainememory.net)

The dawn of airbrushing

It was around 1879 that Abner Peeler, an eccentric jeweller from Iowa in the USA, conducted various experiments. Using compressed air that was pumped by hand (or more specifically foot), jam spoons and needles, he came up with the design for a ‘paint distributor’, and began on a journey that was to develop into the tool we use today.

Abner Peeler. (Courtesy Stanley Museum, Kingfield, Maine, USA ©)

Peeler is regarded by many as the creative genius behind the initial development of the airbrush. His initial paint distributing device was just one of his many patented inventions. However, being an eccentric jeweller and part-time inventor, his motive lay in the designing of new devices; making money and spending time developing an idea were never really motivating factors to him. He was no businessman and sold his first design prototype of the paint distributor for a mere $10, but later sold the patent for $700 to the Walkup brothers – quite a lot of money back in 1882. Peeler can also be credited with the invention of a form of typewriter, twenty years prior to the recognized patented design, as well as dozens of other designs, including a form of foot-operated compressor.

In the three years from 1882, Charles and Liberty Walkup invested in the development of the tool, which culminated in the manufacture and sale of a small number of these new paint distributors at a Philadelphia Photographic convention. Eventually the Walkup Brothers set up the aptly named Airbrush Manufacturing Company, which began worldwide distribution of the tool.

The first patented airbrush paint atomizing device from 1884. (© Andy Penaluna)

The birth of the airbrush

The Airbrush Manufacturing Company developed into a business that would distribute worldwide. At precisely 7pm on 6 October 1883 a meeting was called in the offices of local attorney William Lathrop. Following a vote the Rockford Manufacturing Company changed its name to the Airbrush Manufacturing Company and the name ‘airbrush’ was officially born. When the company was formed, $35,000 of stock was raised in the first half hour and a further $15,000 by the second day! With this level of financial business support Liberty Walkup was able to start developing and seriously marketing the airbrush.

Unlike Abner Peeler, Liberty Walkup saw the potential of the paint distributor. With his brother Charles’ money, his wife Phoebe’s artistic skills, and his own ability to promote, he was able to develop the tool into a highly profitable and marketable product. Peeler signed over the invention to them in April 1882 after further development and it was then marketed by himself and his wife at various shows including a photography convention in Indianapolis in August 1882. There they sold sixty-three paint distributors.

By 1885 production of the airbrush was at its peak and Liberty Walkup was able to start marketing and selling his new and much refined single trigger design.

Small classes were set up to teach people how to use this new art tool but demand became so great that within three years the Illinois Art School was formed to accommodate all the interested students.

However, it was at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 that there were suddenly two different types of airbrushes being exhibited. Charles Burdick had seized upon the Walkup ‘Airbrush’, and through successive developments that initially simply encased Walkup’s design within a pen-shaped case, he re-designed it to be more like a pen, lighter and sleeker in design. Unlike the Walkup model, which had an oscillating needle driven by air, Burdick’s design consisted of a needle and nozzle housed within a metal tube.

Charles Burdick came from a family of designers and inventors, and over his life filed many patents. However, he is widely regarded as the man who invented the airbrush, especially the form that we are familiar with today. His design, born over 120 years ago, in collaboration with his friend Dr Allen DeVilbiss who patented medical throat sprays, included a centralized needle control system. It is believed that he studied the use of atomizers, such as that by Frank E. Stanley, while developing his airbrush. Shortly after designing the tool, Burdick moved to England and set up The Fountain Brush Company in London, which shortly changed its name to the Aerograph Company. Not long after that, Burdick joined forces with Allen DeVilbiss to become DeVilbiss Aerograph, which existed for nearly the whole of the twentieth century.

At this point in history, the airbrush was now being taken up and developed by a number of individuals and companies.

The Illinois Art School was founded as a result of the popularity of the airbrush. (© Andy Penaluna)

Charles Burdick. (Courtesy of Sergej Voronko, http://airbrushdoc.com/history/airbrush-charles-burdick)

Olaus Wold was one such individual who assisted Burdick in the fabrication of prototype models. As a craftsman, Wold had an intimate knowledge of how Burdick’s airbrush worked. By 1896, he had begun improving the design and patented these under his own name. He approached Thayer and Chandler, a Chicago-based Arts and Crafts mail order company, for whom Wold worked as a foreman, to produce and market his airbrush. Fellow Norwegian Henry Thayer was happy to support Wold in his development of the airbrush, which went on to become one of the most respected brands of airbrush for decades to come. Although Wold was the mastermind behind the improved designs, such as the inclusion of an aircap that protected the needle and other improvements to the nozzle to prevent clogging, Thayer and Chandler remained the owners of the patents. The company flourished and eventually dropped all its other art materials with the exception of airbrushes. It eventually closed its doors in 1999, being sold to Badger Airbrushes, another well recognized airbrush manufacturer.

Olaus Wold, one of the first twentieth-century airbrush pioneers.

Olaus Wold did eventually leave Thayer and Chandler three years later in 1899 to set up the Wold Airbrush Company. Without the advertising and financial backing that other airbrush manufacturers had, his brand was not as well recognized as other new manufacturers in the development of the tool, such as Jens Paasche. The young Jens Paasche was another foreman with Thayer and Chandler and had worked closely with Wold. He also gained important knowledge as to how the tool worked, but perhaps did not show the same loyalty to Thayer and Chandler that Wold showed. By 1904, the ambitious young Norwegian was fascinated with the Walkup design, tinkering and improving the oscillating needle design that had been around for twenty-five years. With financial backing from his brother Olaf, the Paasche brothers set up the Paasche Airbrush Company in late 1904. Jens concentrated on designing various types of airbrush, such as the single action, external mix type of brush. His initial design, based on the Walkup model, became eventually known as the Paasche AB turbo, a model that is still in production today, and still regarded as one of the finest models in production, giving the user the ability to paint some of the finest details possible.

Wold spent several years developing and improving the performance of his airbrushes with additions, such as an aircap that protected the needle. (Courtesy Stanley Museum, Kingfield, Maine, USA ©)