Airbrush Artist offer Airbrush Lessons to Beginners

Usually when someone gets hooked on airbrush it is because they have seen, something they have never seen before - a piece of art that show no signs of brush strokes or texture. All you see is slick, seamless, smooth and a very distinctive look that is inherently airbrush art. I remember what got me interested in airbrushing. It was back in the seventies when I bought my first Harley Davidson, a 1954 K Model at a bike shop R&R Cycles in Phoenix, Arizona. There was a - longhaired, hippie type guy creating beautiful beach, and desert scenes with a lot of small detail, like tiny palm trees, cacti and mountains and clouds on the gas tanks and frames of the bikes, I was intrigued by the slick looking art the airbrush could create. From then I was hooked. I immediately inquired with him, and looked into buying an airbrush to start airbrushing as soon as possible. Luckily I had started taking art classes at the time, so I could at least draw.
Looking back, now I remember that painting with airbrush was not as easy as the hippie guy made it look! I also remember all the questions going through my head. What kind of airbrush do I get; single or double action? How do I start the design? What materials and supplies do I need? What kind of paints are better for what I wanted to do? Because there are a lot of directions one can go into, i.e., painting on metal, on T-shirts, walls, on canvas, and on fiberglass and glass, etc., one needs to know about the various options available.Mistakes were made: Thinking back, I remember buying a single action Binks airbrush because it was the least expensive, that was my first mistake. Next I bought small can of air, for air source, that were expensive and didn't last that long, another mistake. Shortly after, I gave up on the cans and bought a small 1/10 horsepower compressor, which was good initially, for small jobs, but didn't work for larger jobs, another mistake. I eventually sold it or gave it away, which ever, I'm sure I lost money on the deal.

And, I eventually also got tired of the single action Binks gun and its limitations and got rid of it (sold it or gave it away, either way I lost money on that deal too) and bought a double action Paasche airbrush. With a double action gun you can control the width of the spray, which makes it more versatile and offers a wider control of the spray as opposed to the single action.

But I kept on and learned by practicing on my bike, my friend’s and brother's bike and cars, for free. The results were a little rough at first, but got smoother as I went along. After a while I developed the confidence and started charging people for painting art and graphics on their car, trucks and bikes.

Actually the painting is easy if everything is working well. The problem starts when you start having trouble with the airbrush and don’t know how to trouble shoot it. For example when paint particles clog the tips and the gun malfunctions and it spits paint back at you, splatters and messes up the piece you have been working on for a couple of hours. That is when the frustration starts!

I went through a lot of frustrating, trial and error over the next few years and a few costly errors as the mistakes above, but I eventually taught myself to airbrush. Now all that is in the past and I have been airbrushing, creating custom art for people in a variety of ways. Since then I brought a variety of guns, larger and smaller.
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Over the years, I have painted and airbrushed professionally, on a wide variety of surfaces, everything form fingernails, airplanes, car, motorcycles - to painting murals and graphics on walls and windows.

Conclusively, Gatica recommends anyone thinking of taking up airbrushing to consider taking an airbrush class so they can avoid the costly mistakes like the ones above and the pitfalls, and frustration of trying to teach yourself. By doing so you can get your initial questions answered and start having fun sooner, with out the waste of time and money and uncertainty, beginners usually go through. And most importantly, you can get to where you want to be sooner and start having fun creating and even making money, sooner!


Airbrush Lessons (follow link to find out more): Artist. Ray Gatica operates Airbrush Magic Art studio in Houston, TX. Our website is www.airbrushmagic.net. I offer airbrush lessons on a one-on-one basis out my home-based studio. Because of my experience, over the years, I can guide the students through various avenues like Textile painting, painting portraits, airbrush art, T-shirts and leather, painting motorcycles, cars, vans, and airplanes.

The classes start by learning the mechanics of the airbrush, air sources, tricks, supplies, basic techniques - to advanced special effect techniques, like flames jobs and painting portraits. I also recommend particular airbrushes, paints and materials to get you going in the right direction.

Along with teaching airbrush, because of my art experience, I inevitably wind up giving basic art lesson during the course along with how to mix colors, and glazing techniques for highlighting and shadowing. I also show how to make your own shields, masks, friskets and other ways to help you save money in the long run.

I can be emailed at ray@airbrushmagic.net or phoned at 281-441-9714. For more information visit our above site. There you will see a few years woth of samples of my airbrush art works, and get information on the airbrush lessons.