Airbrush moving on to flames

This is what we started with. It was from a pattern online which we printed, then cut out of that plastic you can buy, by the metere in craft shops that some people use for plastic table cloths.

You could make something similar for yourself on your own design, basically you just need the curves.

This is what you could go out and buy if you don't want to mess around with the stencil.
They are not cheap though, we just waited till they came on special.

Hubby has not used them yet.
They are at stationery stores.

And here are the flames. All done with the first stencil. 

If you look, you can still see paint splatters and bits that weren't meant to be there.

These are from mixing problems and water in the line. We did get a filter that you can attach to the compressor, but it still has a problem on certain days.

Airbrushing, the next step - shading

My hubby made a simple stencil from a  simple drawing, for the base of the skull. All the detail etc was my hubby practicing his shading and line work.
It is so important that you practice these things because they will make everything MUCH less frustrating when you move onto proper work.

The line work is to get used to air flow, and distance from paper.


hehe these are also from last year :)

Airbrushing, beginning to paint

The first one, you will probably remember the stencil. This is just actually using your brush. You know, when you first get something, the instant gratification of seeing something as a result.
That is what you can see here.

This is the next step, getting control of your brush, to know the feel, how the air flows, how much and when.
These are just my hubby practicing line drawings, all free hand, trying to get the feel for the brush.

It's really no use going to paint stuff without knowing your brush, how to get a thin or thick line, angle closeness etc.

As you can see these are from practically when I started my first blog all the way back in 2008.
There are next to no posts over there now and very soon I will be able to shut that one down.
LOl I think I have more ideas than common sense....

First stencil I made - things I found

This is back from July 2008

Just a quick post as I was just on the subject of stencils; Here is one I did last night, my first proper one.
I printed it out then glued it to a thin piece of cardboard and let it dry for a few min's.
I only am doing them to cardboard at the moment because a/ that was my first stencil and I was just seeing if I could do it.
b/ They are just for my hubby to play around and get to know his new airbrush
c/ Although the overhead projector paper is only like $1 a sheet, it adds up if you stuff up (ie: learning)
Things I have learnt so far:

• When cutting it is a lot of the time easier to move the thing you are cutting around corners than the knife
• To use a stanley knife rather than a scalpel
  
• To not be afraid of little skinny bits left on the stencil as it is sturdier than it looks
• When searching for stencils on the internet you can also include pumpkin carving (that is what this one above is supposed to be for)
• Keep the bits you cut out, they can also be used for effects (they are called the masks)
  

Also, next time my husband and I go in shopping, I have to check something out: when researching on which is cheapest plastic to cut stencils on, someone said that you can buy it by the meter from your local craft store. And, also to stop by your local hospital too see if you can take the throw away X-Rays.
Back to the plastic by the meter though, I have in my head that plastic you can buy by the meter to use as a protective table cloth, I mean it is cheap, it is flexible and it is strong.
Will let you know more when I try it out :)

Update: I have since tried two different plastic by the roll clear table cloths. Much cheaper than buying the acetate, but very different to cut. The first one I bought was too thick and you could barley get the knife through it. The 2nd 1/2 meter is much easier to cut, yet lacks the sturdiness so you have to be careful about it moving around, I am going to get a size on between them both next time I go and I shall write down which size to update whether it works or not :)

Very first play with new airbrush

Here is a pic for our very first play with it.
My hubby drew a quick skull on a piece of cardboard and I cut it out for him and here he had a little play on the backing board (so we don't get paint on the wall behind the table)

Here is another pic of our first play.
Mine are the daggy pics on the right in the circle.
My hubbies are the cute ass little kitty face and heart :)

PS, the backing board is only an old cardboard box I opened out and folded out along the wall. It works great as the flaps of the box stabilise it, and also have it curved around.

The drama of the air compressor

This post, or I should say these posts are back from July 2008 when we bought our first air compressor and the drama that ensued.. rather long winded, however the moral of the story, for those that can't be bothered in the whole story is...if buying one from overseas ALWAYS check that the voltage is compatible with the country which you live.. it won't say it usually, you have to check yourself or ask!! :)

Our poor little burnt our compressor :(

My husband can draw so beautifully, but between playing WOW and work he never seems to get time anymore I wanted to get his enthusiasm with art going again.
As he used to talk about an airbrush kit he used to have when he was little and seemed really excited when he would talk about it so I suggested that we get one again and he should get into it.

Well, I found at a discount site Crazy Prices or something an airbrush and a compressor, cheap no name but I figured that there wasn't really much to go wrong with them and for the price who cares, great to start with.
HOWEVER, in the meantime as I told my husband to do some research on what we would need he came across some videos etc of this airbrush guy, he has a ton of them and also a forum.
Well the guy seemed so knowledgeable that my husband said that we should buy HIS airbrush kit from HIS company.
I didn't want to dull his enthusiasm so I just went along with it.
We paid around $200 (I think it was more than that because I know I had some credit already on my paypal).. anyway... I thought "ok it has to come from far away and he will be confident in it and if things go wrong he won't say "stupid cheap airbrush" etc.

Well I have to say that the postage was super fast from being so far away.
But here is where it goes sour.
The plug on the socket was funny pronged thing, so we went to our local Dick Smiths and bought an adapter. Yay we can use it!
My husband was all excited, I got his little "work area" ready and left him to it, I am sitting at the computer and everything just goes off, I thought "oh shit" and ran into the garage to see if everything was ok , only to find my husband yelling at me "open the garage door" as flames are roaring out of this little box of naughtiness.
I got the door open he dragged it outside buy the cord and I ran to the kitchen for the extinguisher; We got it out and nothing or no-one was harmed (luckily!)
So I email the place we bought it from, and send them photos, also explain that we paid for and ordered the next model up airbrush, the more expensive one, the easier to clean one.
The guy asked me to call them and they would fix it up, HA I replied that I could tell them everything over emails but if they really needed to talk to me here is my number (call America!! PFFT he can call me if emails are not good enough).

Anyway he sent another email asking me what voltage we have here (in Aus) and after a little research I find out the 240V's come out of our sockets where only 110 come out of the ones in the states (no wonder they don't have all the neat gadgets we have here!)
Anyways so I email him back and was honest with him about it all, I said not to worry about the compressor as I was just over dealing with it and it was both our fault, mine for not knowing and theirs for not giving some kind of warning to overseas customers. But I said I would still like the difference between what we paid for the better airbrush and the cheaper one that we received back.
Well I have heard nothing back. yay! I'll update if I do, but I doubt it, however I am going to give the benefit of the doubt and contact them again n a month if I get no satisfaction I will be letting you all know where NOT to buy from ;)

So after the hassles with the first airbrush set from overseas and seeing the disappointment on my husbands face, determined I decided to order the cheap set I had seen in the first place!
No big long story here, it all worked out fine, received fast and works great.
The moral of the story is.... haha well true though, you should always go with your gut ;)

Playing with the air brush on an old T-shirt

This picture is back from July 2008. Unfortunately I have not played with it again since.... yet

There were a whole lot of those Mexican type skulls around at the time and I really liked all the colours.
Apparently you should use a textile medium first like an undercoat to get the airbrush to stay?
It's an old shirt and I was just playing around. I will have to look more into it next time though.

See how it looks dull in the picture.. it looks even dull-ER in real life.
I did iron it on though and it didn't wash out... probably because it was already washed out to begin with hehe

LOL FAIL - Vampin' up a cossie

This is an old cross post. I started to play with stencils. It could have worked if I had not been so excited and prepped more.
This is from July 2008


Just sharing more of my Re-vamping, this is actually kind of fun, having something that no-one wanted and re-doing it into something else.
Anyway a few stencils, an airbrush and some fabric paint and wallah a cossi with a new lease of life.
I was going to add some rhinestones to it but I wasn't sure how well they would hold on stretchy material.


Before front
Before back
After Front
After front closeup- There are a few colors on the stencil, mainly because I was trying to do it in the gold paint, I thought it would be more opaque as it said it was, but it didn't turn out so I had to re-do it with a darker color. Also, I decided to add the water effect because I am a ninny and got caught up in the excitement of doing it that I forgot to mask off the rest of it for pain over spray, so I had to incorporate it into the "scene"

After back


*hint* you can giggle now ;)