Though I think of myself first and foremost as a writer, the fact remains that much of the last decade has found me more often doing the art thing. Like most people who do art, I started with pencils, graduated to watercolor and tempra paint, then came pens and better paint. While I'm comfortable enough with any of those tools, the one that I chose to be my primary tool has been the airbrush.

I got interested in airbrush in the late 70s in my senior year in high school. I was working in a hobby shop. This wasn't a craft store, but a business that focused on models, trains, rockets, and RC stuff. I'd built models all my life, but up until that time I had only used a regular brush to paint them, and the results where often less than I was shooting for. Enter the airbrush.

My first airbrush was a Badger 200 -- an inexpensive single-action airbrush. With it I began to paint my models with a finished I had only been able to dream of before. Soon it wasn't just the models, but the dioramas the models were placed in. Then I started painting any number of things...using paints that aren't exactly the best for maintaining healthy lungs. By the time the 90s had rolled around, I packed it in. I had moved to a new city, and I was more into the writing thing, anyway.

Enter 2006. A friend and former boss of mine asked me to work at her new business. Since it featured photography and airbrushing (both things I'd done as professions in years long past), she wanted me to come and help her out.

The airbrushing wasn't difficult. The shop had an airbrush tattoo station which required little more than shooting paint through a stencil onto some skin. But it was enough for me...I caught the bug again.

I did what any former airbrush artist would do in my position...I bought a new airbrush, a small compressor, and some paints and other needed supplies. Then the practicing began. Don't let anyone tell you that you can just pick up an airbrush after nearly seventeen years and get good results. It's pretty much like starting from scratch, but with the added frustration of knowing that you used to be able to do this.

My first real attempt at a recognizable picture was of a horse. Living out west, and with having a young horsewoman in my life, I knew that horses would likely be a subject I needed to learn how to do. Needless to say, the end result showed how long it had been since I'd tried doing something like this.

Though my dad's illness took up pretty much all of 2007, I've still been able to push out a few images. Now that I have time back on my side, the painting has gotten to be much more fun, and I'm starting to be a bit more prolific. I'm looking forward to doing the final bit of honing and getting more of the work onto gallery walls.

Tools of the Trade

For some reason, people are incredibly interested in the tools airbrush people use and why.

My current primary airbrush is an Iwata HP-SB+. This is a side-feed double action airbrush. I like the side-feed because it gives me an unobstructed view of my support when I'm painting (especially good for details), and is easier to clean than my other airbrushes.

My secondary airbrush is an Iwata HP-B+. Except for how paint enters the gun, it's essentially the same airbrush as the HP-SB+. I like it when I want to quick color change without having to clean the SB. Also, sometimes it's easier to shoot paint through this because you need a tad less air pressure since the paint gets a gravity assist.

I always have available my Iwata HP-CS. This is from the Eclipse series and has a larger color cup as well as a larger nozzle. This gives me the ability to cover larger areas quickly, and the larger nozzle gives me the option of painting on textiles.

You'll notice that I really like Iwata for my airbrushes. Yeah, they are a little pricier than some other models, but they give me the least grief of any gun I've used. I like the High-performance line as it gives the right balance of spray fineness/quality vs price. Why not something from their Micron series? I did have one, and it sprayed like a dream, but frankly the parts (some airbrush parts do wear out and have to be replaced from time-to-time) were most costly than some airbrushes. Not that I wouldn't want Microns, it's just not something I can build my stable around at this point.

I use a Paasche H, my external mix single action airbrush, for only two things: to coat a surface with gesso (which has to be thinned), and to apply the varnish most of my works get when they are completed. It's an air hog, so I'm glad that I have a big enough compressor to handle it without complaint.

Ah yes. The air compressor. My workhorse is a Silent-Aire Super Silent DR-500. It's about as loud as you'd expect from an exposed refrigerator motor, and just about as durable. While not robust enough to handle spray guns for any significant project, it handles any airbrush I plug into it with ease. Most importantly, I can work with it at my feet and I don't need to wear ear protection...which can't be said for the less expensive compressors you can find at various home stores.

As for paints. I fell in love with E'TAC. The two lines handle everything that I could ask of them. They spray almost as well as uros, but having already damaged my lungs enough, I'm happy not to be dealing with those nasty chemicals. E'tac's water-bourne paints are a dream to shoot...nothing else I've tried comes close.

And that's about it. I'll be posting new works as they come up...often as demos instead of only finished pieces. As I leave, a couple of more pics just to whet your appetites.