Supernatural beings such as ghosts, sea dragons and fantastic plants and animals “obsess” the artists of this issue as much as the very real beauty of nature as we known it: Inspired by the probably most successful ghosts and ghost hunters in film history, the "Ghostbusters", Australian Daniel Power painted a fan poster for the 2021 spin-off "Ghostbusters Afterlife" and sold it successfully via a Kickstarter campaign. In his interview and making-of he’s giving us an insight into this project. Furthermore, US artist Marque Terrynamahr Strickland is sending the little girl Mushy on a journey of discovery into imaginative flora and fauna in his artwork and related step-by-step. 

Cars, motorbikes, walls, helmets, clothing, cases and bags, laptops and mobile phones, furniture, musical and sports instruments, mugs and jugs and much more – you really can paint anything with an airbrush. This is one of the most important and popular features of the technique. Individuality is "in" and is the driving force behind "custom design", with which airbrushers can earn good money full-time or part-time – such as the Italian Davide Salvadori and the Argentinian Cesar Deferrari: Davide specialises in painting sneakers, Cesar in T-shirts. In this issue, Davide shows us step by step how to create a LeBron James design in the LA Lakers colours yellow and purple. Cesar takes us through a caricature design of a VW Beetle. Both artists also give further insights into their art in an interview 

In the ice hockey nation of Canada, on the other hand, the business of painting goalie masks is big: David Fried is actually a tattoo artist, but when the season calls, he prefers to airbrush the protective masks of ice hockey goalkeepers. Czech artist Martin Cerny is mainly at home painting motorbike helmets and shows us a design he created for a military veteran.

Jürgen Grabowsky from Hagen is also an old hand in the custom painting business. However, the project he presents to us in this issue has brought him to the brink of despair. After numerous failures, the Harley Davidson Chicano bike was only completed after three years because the collaboration between the motorbike builder, the customer and the painter had hit a few snags.

So, time to take the customised vehicles and items of clothing out into the fresh air and show them off. Don't have one yet? Then get to the gun quickly and at least enchant a T-shirt or a pair of sneakers! Have fun with it!

Your ASBS Team

According to an international study in 22 countries, more than half of all respondents have at least one pet – from cats to zebrafish. Those who like it bigger and wilder, go to the zoo or animal park – more than 700 million people worldwide every year. Whether fur, feathers or scales – animals are also among the favorite designs of airbrush artists, as their textures and colors offer plenty of artistic challenges. 

However, they are not always your favorite pet or „cuddly friend". For example, this issue focuses on two snakes, a spider, a wolf and a kingfisher. Spanish artist José Luis Parada Caballero designed the cover artwork. He was fascinated by the complementary play of colors between the yellow and pink snake, the red and green cherries and the textures of the snake skin and the shiny surface of the fruit. Hugo Maciel was also enthusiastic about a snake winding around an airbrush. However, the Mexican did not use his design as a fine art work, but turned it into an advertising key visual for his business. 

Marcus Brazel's cross spider will also probably have few friends in real life. Viewed with an artist's eye, however, it is full of textures and subtleties that invite for an enlarged photorealistic interpretation. The wolf by Hungarian artist Géza Nagy comes a little closer to the cuddly animal cliché – at least it is the artist's task to make the fur with all its different tufts of hair look realistic and "cuddly". The same goes for Idoia Urrutxurtu's kingfisher: its colorful plumage turns it into a decorative art object, which the Spanish artist created with all kinds of etching tools.

We hope you enjoy discovering and studying this "beastly" issue!

Your ASBS Team

Since ancient times, art history has known portraits of male gods and heroes, of kings, rulers, generals and scholars. It was not about beauty, but about power, reporting and historiography. Anyone who paints a portrait today usually chooses a prominent or particularly striking character. This can often be found in actors, movie characters or pop stars, whose roles are often based on centuries-old heroic images. 

This choice of motif is also reflected in this issue: Benjamin Zikoll looked for dramatic skin texture and found it in the Marvel film character Cable. Marty McFly also became an involuntary hero three times in order to save the lives and future of his family and friends. The Brazilian artist Neimar Duarte painted the world-famous movie poster on a bass guitar. The Croatian artist Dalibor Pejicic has portrayed Spider-Man, who finds himself in a rather quiet, anti-heroic scene. Finally, there is no hero without a villain to defeat: In „Lord of the Rings“, this is the dark emperor Sauron, painted on a saw blade by Serbian artist Igor Amidžić.

Unfortunately, things don't turn out as positively for heroes in real life as they do in the movies: Rafael Padilla Ruiz portrayed the famous Spanish musician and „guitar hero“ Juan Ramón Artero, who has past away much too early. 

Our news pages are dominated this time by the new airbrushes from Harder & Steenbeck and there is also a lot to report from the Airbrush Step by Step publishing house.

So, let yourself be inspired by this issue and find your own „heroes in art“. But don't forget to share it with us – in the readers' gallery or as a Step by Step. Contact and further information can be found on page 63 or online at www.airbrush-magazine.net/get-published.

Your ASBS Team

In English language, you got these two words: COLOR and PAINT. „Color“ describes the optical color tone, i.e. blue, green, red, etc., whereas „paint“ refers to the liquid that is applied with an airbrush or paint brush. In many other languages such as French and Spanish it’s similar – except German. Can you imagine that in German, we have only one word, having both meanings? „Farbe“ – quite imprecise, isn’t it? But however, „paint“ and „color“ are of course closely linked in art and especially in airbrushing, it may be significant to choose the right PAINT for the requested COLOR. 

This issue is focussing on both aspects: It is bringing up artworks with a special color effect, such as the cosmic pyramid illustration by the Venezuelan artist Irán Caro, which literally shines out at us. As well as Lorena Straffi's butterfly, coming to life from a cloud of color. Of course, there are reasons for this enormous brilliance: While Irán Caro works with fluorescent paints, his Italian colleague Lorena Straffi relies on a pearlescent base coat.

The cover art work by American artist Joshua A. Zarambo even makes color and paint the central pictorial element - and here, too, the special use of glitter and flakes enhances the effect of the already bright colors. Another special feature of this work: Zarambo uses the AI image generator Midjourney to find designs and is explaining this approach to you. 

Of course, all artists have been using paint and color(s) for painting for hundreds and thousands of years. Around the year 1503, Leonardo da Vinci used oil paints on poplar wood for his famous Mona Lisa painting. What if you use synthetic paper, Createx Illustration paint and an airbrush for this artwork? Australian Paul MacDonald was brave enough to try this – and didn’t just focus on the famous smile, but also on the cracks in the 500 year old wood to make it look authentic….


The works in our issue definitely are, yet the degree of realism and the proportion of fantasy are very different – that's what makes this mix so interesting: In the fairytale-like illustration by New York artist Jeffrey Martinez, the fantasy element clearly predominates. However, its reduced, monochrome overall composition makes the work particularly impressive. Marissa Oosterlee's mermaid portrait is a perfect example of how fantasy and realism can artistically merge. Unlike what we are used to from the Dutch artist, the work is very realistic, but not photorealistic. Even the mermaid does not correspond to the prototype of this fantasy genre – in the overall impression of painting style and motif, however, the fantasy impression becomes perfect.

The New York patissier Alexey Ivanov has taken an example from the post-impressionist art of Vincent van Gogh in designing a breathtaking cake. As a tribute to the famous artist, he transfers van Gogh‘s world of art and painting styles into a "fantastic" edible piece using airbrush technique and sugar modelling. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum from fantasy and realism is the work of US artist David Nunez. He shows a realistic animal illustration that he painted in grisaille technique and then coloured. Brian Jones furthermore takes us into the almost extinct discipline of technical illustration with the airbrush technique. For 40 years, the British artist has been illustrating mainly steam locomotives and jet planes for museums and industry.

For celebrities, smiling is part of the job - on the red carpet, in front of the camera and at award ceremonies. In this issue which we dedicate a couple of celebrities and VIP portraits, British actress Emilia Clarke is showing us probably the most beautiful smile of all. Her portrait is painted and demonstrated by Colombian artist Edith Davila. Considering the Joker a VIP, his devious and fake, but however alluring grin on the cover might probably not show the most professional smile, but however a great piece of art by Spanish artist María Sousa González.

The pin-up painted by Spanish artist José Luis Parada Caballero doesn’t even need a smile or celebrity face. She already shines due to intense airbrush coloring as well as the creative combination with sparkling rhinestones. 

The "Avengers" have been being „celebrities“ already for decades. Czech artist Martin Cerny chose them for a helmet design that highlights Captain America as the main character. Also popular since the 70s is the US band Blondie with its leading singer Debbie Harry who was chosen by Italian artist Enrico Violante for a portrait on a vinyl record.

If it comes to naming celebrity airbrush artists, Dutch artist Marissa Oosterlee would definitely be on the list. Two years ago, she moved from the Netherlands to the Spanish Costa Blanca and is telling us about her decision as well as her "new" life and work on the Mediterranean. Another icon in our industry was the great HR Giger. Polish artist Robert Ganczarski is a great fan and designed a 2008 Dodge Challenger with a HR Giger style. But instead of just sticking to Giger's monochrome retro designs, he pimped his work with bold candy colors.

And who’s your favourite celebrity? Paint him/her and send the artwork for our readers‘ gallery (see page 65)! 

Greetings from the ASBS team!

It’s springtime – time to get the winter dust out of your house and to bring in some new design spirit. Home decor assortments at Ikea, HomeGoods, Wayfair, Pier 1 Imports & Co. have grown like weeds in the last 10 years, and DIY (do it yourself) is also totally in vogue in this field. Fortunately, the airbrush technique is at the forefront of this trend, because as we all know, there is hardly any object in the home or garden that cannot be embellished with an airbrush.

In this issue we have put together a few ideas for this: René Becht from Berlin, Germany, uses a classic of household items that can be airbrushed – the toilet lid. Thanks to his design, a red-eyed frog now guards the toilet around the clock. Tanya Bentham is woken up in the morning by a meerkat "smiling" cheerfully at her from the breakfast board. Gerald Mendez's "Arising" project isn't about a usable object, but the combination of grinding techniques and airbrush painting makes his work much more than just a painting. Your design taste goes more in the direction of vintage? No problem, Dutch artist Erik Velthuis will show you how to transform a brand new Fender bass guitar into a worn 1965 piece. Crazy? Yes, you could say that....

As the fall season approaches, days are getting short and creepy little creatures will soon knock at your door for “trick or treat”. Monsters, mummies, and dark creatures, but also superheroes and sci-fi characters have even made themselves at home in this Airbrush Step by Step magazine issue: Cover artist John Seaton from Australia took a cue from the fantasy novel and Netflix series "The Witcher" and created a morbid scene with the main character Geralt of Rivia. Spanish artist José Guerrero Hueso will show you a simple but effective freehand design of a mummy portrait in his how-to. With the two US artists Jessie Madera and Kevin Wood, we even feature extraordinary experts in the field of fantasy and horror. Automotive painter Jessie Madera is telling you about her artistic preference for macabre and horror subject matter along with the feminine figure and sexually suggestive undertones. Professional illustrator Kevin Wood will give you an insight into his work for Warner Bros. and DC Comics, creating collector's items and licensed artworks featuring the world's most popular fantasy characters.

Chilean artist Sebastian Arenas will lead you in the world of science fiction, showing you how to create a female portrait in an interesting “Tron”-like, neon light ambience. Fantasy woman portraiture is also the topic of Spanish artist Luz de la Calle, but with a different approach: Capturing human feelings and fears in an image is the basis of her fantasy artwork featured in this issue.

And finally, you should not miss to take a glance at the amazing winner artworks from the Sparmax International Airbrush Contest 2022. From fantasy to realism, automotive painting to modelling – all artists did such an amazing job in their chosen category, so winning was so well-deserved for all of them.

We hope this issue will give you lots of inspiration for the upcoming fall and Halloween season. Have a creepy and creative time!

Greetings from the Airbrush Step by Step team

While planning this issue at the beginning of the year, its title “Hair & Skin“ was purely thought of with regards to the airbrushing techniques involved in creating these entities in pictures. After all, skin and hair textures are among the greatest challenges whatsoever in the world of airbrushing. And they are among the most popular motifs too, regardless of whether it’s about humans or animals. Five artists dedicate themselves in their work to the topics of skin and hair textures in various forms and with various techniques.

Australian artist Joseph Gonzalez designs an expressive, close portrait of his huge idol, Pablo Picasso. Via the monochrome technique, he can place his entire attention in the development of the skin textures. Very similar is the mode of working for Finnish artist Jussi Säteri, who initially creates his portrait of Robbie Williams on a helmet in black and white, only to later give it a realistic skin and hair color hue. This is a procedure that is also made use of by Mario Romani. His portrait of an old man from Iraq impresses with its considerable portions of texture, not only that of skin and hair, but also within the portrayed clothing and surrounding environment....

2022 will be THE year for movies! After many movie productions were on hold in the last two Covid years, the blockbusters are now lining up. But the lack of new productions did not prevent movie lovers from enjoying classic films from the past decades on DVD or via streaming during the pandemic. And so cinema heroes, movie posters and legendary scenes are always among the popular designs for airbrush artists. This is certainly where some readers' alarm bells are ringing - and rightly so! After all, commercial copying of movie designs and characters is one of the most dicey situations in terms of copyright. Here the responsibility lies with each individual. However, in the spirit of "fan art", in which a good portion of one's own creativity is involved in the work and which should above all serve the private pleasure of the creative film fan, cinema motifs are also quite acceptable. 

The artists in this issue have taken on the really big blockbusters: Byron Lawrence manages to fit nine characters and symbols from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy on one helmet. Midas Bayle Villanueva takes on the ultimate villain, Batman's Joker, and Angus Alcantara takes us back to the late 80s with his Terminator portrait. Movie heroes and other beauties can also be found in the art of Ivan Loperena who excels in the field of black and white photorealism. Spanish artist Alicia Rios Cuerva, however, is not into movie characters, but into one of the most popular movie sets: Hogwarts. She painted a 3D-printed model amazingly realistic.

Are you an enthusiastic biker and motorcycle freak? Or are you more the beach and surfing guy? Maybe your heart beats for fashion and fancy clothes, are you a music or cinema fan or rather a nature and animal lover? One thing is for sure: you are an artist and airbrushing enthusiast, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this magazine. But with your airbrush you are also at the forefront of many other lifestyle and hobby areas: painting motorcycles, of course, or, as in the case of our cover motif by American artist Steve Gibson, creating illustrations on the subject of bikes and vehicles.

Fairy tale characters such as dragons, fairies, monsters, gnomes and strange magical creatures have been inspiring people for centuries. But while in the past, people only ever had their own idea of the shape of these creatures once hearing stories about them, today we get to see a huge variety of fantastic creatures in pictures - in movies, books and illustrations, by artists who put their idea of the character on paper, then bring it to life and spread it via printing processes, digital or film technology. These works and characters inspire us and make us create and our own new creations and creatures. 

American airbrush artist Cozmo Colon, for instance, was using a references from the motion picture "Venom" for his airbrush T-shirt design. Fellow artist Jessie Madera also includes photo references, but she combines them to create her very own horror scenario. Rodrick Fuchs from Canada, on the other hand, is one of the few who can create his own creatures with a drawing pencil. He draws dragons by heart, among other things. As an airbrush artist and custom painter, he uses his drawings as the basis for fantastic illustrations and works of art. 

What could be better than starting the summer with an animal issue?
Nature is blooming and the sun invites each and every creature
to romp around outside. The great egret painted by Italian artist Silvia
Belviso is literally waiting for the sunrise. The lovely motif was
designed on the basis of Dru Blair's Color Buffer theory. The red fox,
which the Belgian Ma th  Delaunoy has airbrushed onto a VW
Caddy, also curiously pricks up its ears in front of plant seeds flying
around in the background. Elzbieta Osinska's horse portrait
"Dream" shows horse and rider
united on a summer-colored
pouring background.
The power, wilderness and unpredictability
of animals is what
is featured in the art of Daniel
Sullivan and Lubos Pirek:
Daniel's piece "Fire-Breather" is
showing a bear gone wild
within a flaming inferno of his
forest. The American artist
used the fire design techniques
of "True Fire" legend
Mike Lavallee. Czech custom
painter Lubos Pirek chose the
movie hero King Kong as
main character for his motorcycle
project, along with an
unusual lava design and special
paint effects.
Getting back to the summer topic, famous US T-Shirt artistMark Rush
is giving an insight into his amazing career from the business-minded
little school boy to becoming the owner of “Big Airbrush” chain
stores. Does that whet your appetite for a vacation? Then you also
have to read the interview with Swiss Philipp Klopfenstein. He is
painting one of a kind suitcases that you're sure to recognize at the
baggage claim.
So, a colorful and lively issue, right? Have fun and enjoy your summer
time!
Your ASBS Team

Do you know? Airbrush Step by Step magazine is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2021 – incredible! No wonder that Iran Caro's alien is looking that surprised from the cover. The artist from Venezuela has airbrushed it onto a T-shirt in a simple but effective way. Fantastic creatures and alien worlds are also the subject of Marque Terry Strickland's colorful tutorial, and are also represented by the airbrushed 3D prints that have been awarded in the correspondent contest of the 3D modelling company Gambody. We are introducing the 11 winners and their artworks. British artist Andrew Stuart was even been allowed to create space illustrations for the book titles of famous scientists Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking. In the interview, he tells us about these and other projects.  The second cover topic „Graphics“ has been taken on by Marcus Eisenhuth from Berlin: He shows airbrushing and masking techniques with lining tapes on a motorcycle tank and explains some basics in this context. The American airbrush artist Dennis Mathewson has also been associated with this subject for decades. However, he hung up his successful job as a custom painter a few years ago and started out as a fine art and gallery artist in Hawaii. Dennis has now published his numerous works and the story of his career in his book "Hawaii Made". In the interview, he talks about the adventurous genesis of this book project.  In the second part of Bas Maatjes' series "Drawing for Airbrush Artists 101", this time you will learn how to draw skulls all by yourself. These are suitable for both popular automotive painting projects and exciting fantasy illustrations.   So, an issue ripe for an anniversary, right? On that note, we wish you a great spring time and a Happy Easter!  Your ASBS Team

People often say about artists that they are particularly emotional, a bit chaotic or out of control. They process their thoughts, feelings and opinions in their artworks; the pressure of creativity makes them restless and busy. But does this mean that an artist can throw himself at an artwork within seconds without thinking about it? No, certainly not. In this issue, we show you that especially emotional and expressive works should be well considered. German artist Ralph-Torsten Kolmer and Manu Rodriguez from Colombia give us an insight into the creation of their almost contradictory portraits – one a heartily laughing Danny deVito, the other a desperately screaming, hair-pulling woman.

Do you actually know how valuable your artistic talent is? Not only that you can amaze other people with your painted works, because they do not have this gift. Rather you have the "power" to create your own worlds, creatures and sceneries, which do not exist in reality and which no high-end camera, no matter how advanced, can capture. In the past, this ability was especially in demand in airbrush art, because painting techniques were used for technical illustrations that could not be photographed, or for matte paintings in movies, to create landscapes that you can’t find on earth. Today, when these tasks are done by other techniques, these motifs have almost disppeared from airbrush artist’s agenda. For hobby artists, photorealism is often a challenge enough; the professionals earn their money with custom painting and fulfill the motif wishes of the customers. 

For some artists, however, the creation of fantasy motifs has not lost any of its appeal – on the contrary: Thanks to a flood of templates, it has become even easier to play out one's own creativity. With the motif of the fantasy airbrush spaceship, Mexican-American artist Gerald Mendez has fulfilled a long-cherished dream - considering himself some kind of „crazy“. Hugo Maciel is a big fantasy fan, too. While he usually puts the well-known fantasy motifs of other artists on T-shirts, this time he shows us in his mermaid artwork that he can also create his own motifs.

From one day to the next everything was different – worldwide. Travel ban, contact ban, shops and restaurants closed, schools closed. And the airbrush industry? 

Airbrush dealers, who run their business mainly online, were lucky – with them everything remained largely the same. For professional artists, exhibitions and certain jobs were cancelled – especially body painting jobs were dropped. All those who live mainly from airbrush workshops were also heavily effected. For hobby artists there were positive and also negative side effects: Some of them certainly had more time to enjoy their hobby. But some of them might have had to give up buying new materials due to loss of income. Many manufacturers and suppliers of airbrush accessories were also only able to carry out their work to a limited extent: In China and Italy factories were temporarily closed, in Germany work was done in two shifts. We in the Airbrush Step by Step editorial department only work in a mini-team anyway. In home office, working on this magazine alternated with our daughter's math lessons. International shipping is currently the worst for us: Bookstores in the US have been denying to receive overseas magazines, postal shipping is still restricted in many countries which makes it difficult to get our magazine to our partner retailers and subscribers worldwide. Another personal restriction: Actually, we wanted to travel from Germany to Florida in April to meet some artists and retailers… Well, we have to postpone that until next year...

2020 – kind of a futuristic date, isn't it? Who would have thought a few years ago that airbrushing techniques would survive the beginning of the 21st century. When digital media replaced the airbrush as the number one illustration medium in the 1990s, industry representatives saw the end approaching. But on the contrary: today, the two media complement each other perfectly. Today, it is hard to imagine the preparation of visualizations, motif templates and stencils (especially in automotive painting) without digital image processing. 

Some people always have to nag! The proportions aren’t correct here, the shading is off there. There’s too little contrast. The edges aren’t sharp enough. There’s too little or too much texture in this, this or that area…. Does this all sound familiar to you? Artists can be pretty doggone critical when viewing artwork and heck, every artist is usually his or her own worst critic, right? Who can then be blamed for wondering that the "art muggles", be they exhibition visitors or those contracting the artists, burst into the highest form of rapture once they see the "oh so messed up" piece of art?

Did you grab your airbrush during the summer? Here in Germany, the weather was not as hot as last year, so there were also some rainy days which invited to spend some time with being creative. However, some sketching and scribbling could also be done at the beach or at the balcony. And now it’s time to realize the results with new energy!

In this issue, one’s own ideas, sketches and drafts are playing an important role as fantasy motives can not simply be copied from a photo. Cover artist Gerald Mendez is using various references for his artwork which he designed and composed with the computer. French artist Patrice Salé has made use of a 3D reference for his mad hatter, while Rodrick Fuchs from Canada has an amazing talent of traditional sketching. For him, it’s not a big deal to sketch his own fantasy dragon and complete his design with various graphic elements. 

All three also let their creativity flow with choosing colors and effect techniques: From grounded textures on aluminum, through combining deco papers to the use of gold leaves, all means seemed to be right to them. And there’s also no hesitation with Paul Abert from Germany, when it comes to experimenting with tools and techniques: He combines pastel techniques with airbrushing and achieves extremely brilliant colors and subtle shading in his portraits and illustrations.

As you can see: Being open minded towards other tools and techniques as well as grabbing a pen – be it a traditional or digital one, in the studio or on the sofa – can lead to some wonderful results. We wish you a creative fall season!

The ASBS team

This is the title of Steve Gibson’s article, who is introducing you to his Grisaille painting technique as well as to the "Grisaille Grey Master Set" which he has developed together with Createx (p. 50). The US artist takes advantage of this very old painting technique which has already been used by the old masters such as Giotto and Rembrandt. By combining it with the CMYK color system known from printing processes, he is transferring the classic method to this day and age and makes it usable for airbrushing techniques.

As a regular reader, you might have noticed the new price label on the cover and also that „NEW“ teaser. What’s new about it? Well, Airbrush Step by Step magazine in English language has been on the market for more than 10 years now. But it was actually hard to find as it was only available from our web store and at a handful of airbrush supply stores, mainly in Europe. Finally, from the beginning of 2019, we have the chance to sell through book stores in some countries all around the world. So hopefully, there might also be some new readers, dicovering this issue for the first time, finding it at a Barnes & Noble store in the US or at any book store or press agent in Canada, Britain, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Australia or Taiwan. Welcome to Airbrush Step by Step magazine! We hope you’ll enjoy!

Now, what about this issue? Cover artist Marcus Eisenhuth from Germany is introducing you to his „macro photorealism“. You’ll see even more photorealism with Elad Yehezkel’s „Amit“. The artist from Israel renders his artwork layer by layer. Young artist Clarisse Pico shares with you her dream of freedom which she expresses with the motive of a mustang and a jet plane. US artist Cozmo Colon painted a portrait of XXXTentacion on a shirt, to commemorate the musician who was shot in 2018.

Find out about the custom guitars of Croatian artist Dalibor Pejicic who specializes in texture and patina effects. And what would you do if there weren’t any suitable airbrush supplies available in your country? That’s the daily challenge of Larry Espino from Peru. But, however, you’ll be amazed by the automotive painting that he’s creating.

We are also taking one look back at SEMA 2018 and one ahead to the Wonderworld of Airbrush event in the Netherlands. And last, but not least, we got lots of interesting news from the big ones in the industry: Iwata, Harder & Steenbeck, Sparmax and Createx.

Have fun and best wishes from Germany!
The ASBS Team

Sharing a common passion with other people is a great experience in all fields – no matter if it’s soccer, cooking or going to the gym. It’s the same about airbrushing, but there is one peculiarity: Airbrushing unites beyond borders. While it is most suitable to indulge in other hobbies with your neighbours in your home town, you are probably quite lonesome with airbrushing. But if you take a look beyond, whole new worlds are opening up: Artists from all over Europe meet at airbrush shows, artists from overseas are coming by on a regular basis to share their knowledge and, last but not least, the social media make it possible to share experience with and get inspiration from artists from all over the world. This year again, the Airbrush Artist Day marked the highlight of this international creativity. Beside many posts on Facebook and local celebrations around the globe, one art project joint 8 artists from 8 countries. In the middle of this issue, you can find the result of this unique project.

Since the invention of the airbrush technique, its followers have been being very talented to reinvent themselves even in hard times: From photo retouching through commercial illustration and automotive painting to fine art, cake decoration and make up – the airbrush technique has yet survived a number of ups and downs.

Also in the passed few months, there have been some historical incidences: With Harder & Steenbeck and Sparmax, the Iwata company has acquired two of the world’s most important airbrush brands. After decades, the German paper mill Hahnemühle has stopped producing its popular airbrush paper. Also the continuation of the American airbrush magazine „Airbrush Action“ seems currently to be uncertain. Not forgetting, that the airbrush community has recently and very surprisingly lost two great airbrush artists who had also contributed to Airbrush Step by Step magazine: The Dutch artist Jeroen van Nijhoff and US artist Steve Driscoll. Rest in peace, guys.

The artists featured in this issue have no reason at all to be shy and – look at that! – we also got three German artists in here: Andreas Werner takes the challenge of photorealism and paints a glas bottle of Whiskey with all its reflections, transparencies and many details. Wolfgang Gerstemeier tried to capture an image of Koi fishes in his garden pond, which turned out to be a very ambitious project – right at the beginning from getting a good reference photo. Pia Achtenhagen is not the classic airbrush artist, but her art of building models of phantasy animals is not less intricate. It’s the airbrush finish that makes her models coming to life.

Looking at airbrush artists from all over the world, you find that love for detail, diligents and self-challenging attitude with all of them. Let’s take Colombian Rafa Fonseca: He painted such a lovely and gentle portrait of his grandfather. Spanish artist Hugo Maciel put a lot of effort in creating an effectful swarm of bats, just to enhance the Joker portrait on a shirt. Last but not least, the European „queen of photorealism“, Marissa Oosterlee, shows us in the interview how airbrush art can still be highly in demand even for TV promotion purposes, if you just put that much portion of talent and care into your artwork like she does. 

So the message is: Keep it going. Believe in yourself. Accept critics, take it as an advice and learn from the pros to improve your own abilities. But you may also accept admiration. Be proud of what you are capable of. Because in any case, it’s so much more than just ordinary people can do!

Have fun with this new issue and with learning, admiring and trying!

The ASBS Team

Airbrush is just a painting technique beyond others, a tool just like paint brush, pencils or markers. If you have passed the initial stage of airbrushing, mastering gradients, freehanding and masking, you will face all creative options of designing, experimenting and mixing techniques. No matter if it’s digital art, airbrushing or graffiti – US artist Gear Duran is a master of realizing artworks in different techniques. In this issue he’ll show you how he started creating a motorbike design with a digital mock-up and then painted an amazing Venetian style portrait on the rear fender. Dutch artist Ramon Kamerbeek has been inspired by old Flemish artists and is demonstrating how the old Flemish oil painting technique can be adapted for airbrushing.

Which is the airbrush of your choice? Two brand names are catching the eye on the cover of this issue: Iwata and Harder & Steenbeck. Those two have been ruling the airbrush industry in Europe at least for the last 20 years. If you flip the pages of our magazine and browse the material lists of the how to’s and the readers’ gallery, you will mainly find either Iwata or Harder & Steenbeck airbrushes being used to create the artworks. To put it bluntly: We as editors don’t have or take any influence on which materials the featured artists are using. So our magazine is in some way just a mirror of the artists’ studios all over the world. Sometimes, artists even make their device the main topic of their artwork, such as Spanish artist Rafa Garcia Cano. He created the cover artwork showing his working space and materials and he also painted on an Anest Iwata spraygun. Also, three more artists from this issue trusted an Iwata airbrush for creating their artworks: Erik Smeets rendered a ram skull with the characteristics of a candle holder. Rob Foster from the US painted a photorealistic woman portrait featuring lots of hair and fabric textures. German artist Vera Sistig experimented to create a monkey portrait on a heater. Looking at the article about Tatjana Bösl’s custom painted car featuring wolves and snowy landscapes, you’ll find that she used the Colani airbrush by Harder & Steenbeck. This extraordinary device combining the features of a spraygun with those of an airbrush was designed by Harder & Steenbeck owner Jens Matthiessen. The stunning message: A few months ago, he has sold his company to the Anest Iwata group! What the hell --- you might think. This is exactly why the ASBS team approached Jens as well as the new general manager Will Naemura for an interview about the reasons and the aims of this historical acquisition. 

It’s time to celebrate

Fall is the main season for being creative: A lot of art and craft shows invite us to discover, try and shop new painting and creating tools. Miserable weather and long evenings offer enough time for your favorite hobby. And now, there will even be another highlight: The Airbrush Artist Day. For the very first time, the „anniversary“ of the „Air Brush“ will be celebrated. The team of Airbrush Step by Step magazine appreciates this idea coming from South America and already started in August to motivate artists from all over the world to join this activity. In this issue, you can read about the background of this new celebration day in the interview with its co-founder Gerald Mendez.

If it comes to the artworks of this issue, we also tried to stay with the season: Canadian Derek Turcotte shows us how he painted the impressive Tiger huntress and also Italian Silvia Belviso portaits a dangerous hunter: The Great White Shark was created extremely photorealistic by using the techniques of Dru Blair.

The owl painted by Christian Erdmann seems to be also on the prowl, but was originally painted to be an presentation artwork for Schmincke’s new paint line „Aero Color Total Cover“. And for those of you who are finally just sick of cardboard and canvas illustration, this issue got Hugo Maciel’s sweat shirt painting and Andrea Panaro’s custom painted skull and pin-up tank.

This is wishing you a happy Airbrush Artist Day and a creative fall season.

The Airbrush Step by Step team

Are you still buying your home decoration, clothing or birthday
invitation cards in the shop? Then you missed the trend:
Do it yourself. Whether made of fabric, paper, wood or
metal, sewing or timbering, painting or pasting – everyone
is crafting around his home, the way he or she wants it. A
dream for airbrush artists. Which other crafting technique is
as flexible as airbrushing? With the airbrush, you could actually
„decorate“ the walls of your dining room, the cake on
the table as well as the face of the hostess at the same time
(just don’t confound the paints!).
You can find some inspiration on this topic in this issue:
Following the trend of „upcycling“, Christoph Kottemölle
grabbed an old skateboard and turned it into a real „itpiece“
using airbrushing and comic mounting techniques.
You can also call all the modellers and RC cars enthusiats the
pioneers of the DIY trend. Ready-made cars are absolutely
not in demand. That’s also how Mark Wierzbicki started airbrushing.
In his article, he shows the „terrifying“ painting
process of a Lexan car body. From modelling to cakes: This is
the extraordinary way of Dutch man Edwin Weimer, about
which he tells us in an interview. Ending up at tea time, ASBS
editor Roger Hassler shows you how to paint a complete tea
set.
Of course, we don’t want to forget about the classic illustration
art, which is shown by the Columbian artist Adriano
Ayerbe with his bald eagle as well as the SK-Brush
brothers featuring their Maya Skull. But as already stated
above: With airbrushing, everything seems to be a
kind of „Do it yourself“ – but this trends already lasts
for more than 120 years.
So we wish you a creative summer. Maybe you’ll
send us a few images of your Airbrush-DIY projects!
The Airbrush Step by Step team

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Airbrush Step by Step is the magazine for all airbrush artists - from the beginner to advanced level. It appeals to classical airbrusher and plastic scale modellers, to the body or custom painter as well as professional illustrators. Airbrush Step by Step aims at providing practical airbrush advice and helping readers to improve their skills through creative user tipps and basic information. 

With Airbrush Step by Step magazine readers bene t from detailed how to descriptions of all kinds of airbrush illustrations, custom painting, bodypainting and further airbrush use, for any skill level. Read about events and news from the airbrush scene, tips from experts as well as reports on airbrush jobs and projects. The magazine also provides basic information, making-ofs, artist interviews and portfolios and product reviews.

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Airbrush Step by Step Magazine - January - February - March 2023

Airbrush Step by Step Magazine - January - February - March 2023

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