K
kronek67
Guest
I'm Brian. I found Airbrush Tutor on youtube and in tern found the forum. I love checking out the "works in Progress". I use to draw all the time when I was younger, but for some reason I stopped after highschool. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to learn to airbrush. Shortly afterwards I found out how much people were paying for body painting. I figured, same process, just different paint and canvas. That and I would not have to be at the same level as painting motorcycles or cars. So I started doing airbrush face paintings, tattoos and some body painting. I gave it a shot working small events then eventually Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fl. I never really had time to practice the basics so I was limited to what I could do and what I was comfortable with. Turns out, that was also one of the worst years for bike week. I was one of the few vendors that made enough to cover daily expenses. I worked a few more big events that year, but it was a bad economy. Eventually I was out of money and had to take a job, so the airbrushing was on hold. I would still do charity events painting kids for free, but nothing big. I finally decided that I really want to learn this and had an idea for a future business, but it required me to be better than I could see myself being. I decided to start drawing again and relearn to draw to improve my airbrushing. Then I could focus on the basics of the airbrush and later put the two together. So I started to sketch the same way as airbrushing. I took the eye template, used carbon paper to transfer it to a sketch book and started building layers. I just kept working in layers getting darker and darker. It was coming out great. Then in the middle of it, with one of my friends watching, I took the pencil and struck a line across the page. Her jaw dropped and asked why I did that. I told her I needed to learn how to fix it without erasing, and I did. When I was done, I was amazed at the outcome. I had never drawn like that in my life. So onto the shark from Finding Nemo. It was even better. I used to hate drawing people, but I thought, it is just shading. So my 3rd sketch after 15 years of not drawing was a portrait of my nephew. I wanted to be able to do photo realism, so a portrait was a logical choice. Again, I was amazed. 3 sketches done over 4 weeks and the amount of improvement from the first to the 3rd was un real. I started getting people requesting portraits and willing to pay big money, but I did not have time for it. I started another of my friends child and kept thinking, this would be so much easier with an airbrush. Then I got stuck on the eyes and nose. In the process of trying to correct it, I messed up the paper and decided I would have to start over. I did all of my drawing at a restaurant my friend worked at. It went out of business around this time and I stopped drawing again. It was hard to find time at the house and I had too many distractions, like my dog trying to get in my lap. Recently I found myself sketching ideas on napkins with my pen. I hate sketching in ink. Its 100% black so I can't shade. I got to thinking, there had to be another way, so I went on youtube again. Found out about Sketchbook Pro. It is the most realistic drawing program I have ever seen. It has all the different drawing pencils and if you pressed lightly, you got a light line. If you pressed hard, you got a hard line. Come to find out, it was available as an app on my phone. I downloaded it and was really surprised. It had all the pencils but not the smudging sticks, so I had to use the airbrush tool for shading. I took what I learned from Airbrush Tutor and this forum and I started a portrait. Using this app has allowed me to learn more about building layers and I'm improving rapidly. I just did the most realistic eyes I have ever done. They look better than the reference photo. I started them thinking "this is impossible". Afterwards, I'm just so amazed that I was able to do that. I can't wait to apply what I have learned to the airbrush. I have not started my airbrush practices yet. My airbrushes are not that great so I don't know how much is me and how much is the airbrush. I have to take care of a few bills, then I'm going to start with an Iwata HP-CH. Then it will be weeks of dots and lines. I learned that no matter what you do, you have to master the basics first. I also know that practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. That is why I'm waiting until I get the Iwata. Once I have mastered dots, lines and blends, I'll put it together with what I have learned drawing. I can only imagine how good my sketches will be at that point. Airbrush Tutor and this forum has taught me so much already, my drawings are better than I could have ever wished for and they keep getting better. This current portrait is making the last one look like a stick figure. I will post my works in progress when I get started with the airbrush. My current drawing use the same airbrush techniques, but are either done in pencil or digitally. Funny, I never thought I would do digital drawings because everything I had seen before was not the same as drawing by hand. But this program is no different than pencil and paper. One of my friends was concerned that people would think that the program did the drawing and not me, but its all me and I have the progress photos to prove it. Its a long introduction, but if you read it all, you know my background. Watch for my painting in about a month.
