By Ray Gatica

AIRBRUSH LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS PROVIDE CONFIDENCE TO CREATE

Houston, Texas: I have had a few students seeking to learn airbrushing; They come to me with a lot of questions that they cannot put into words because they do not know what they want to ask.’ says airbrush instructor.

Airbrush artist Ray Gatica in the Houston Texas area, offers lessons for beginners. His students come from all walks of life: I have had engineers, teachers, artists, young students and retired folks that want to learn airbrushing.

For the lessons, Gatica provides all the materials, and supplies. The lessons are a six-hour course. Usually we break it up into three -2-hour sessions. ‘This seems to work best because after two hours of tedious work the student gets restless and so do I, says Gatica and it gets hard to concentrate. However, we are also flexible and the lesson structure is usually left up to the convenience of the student. Six hours will give the students a good idea of what it will take to start airbrushing.

After this, there is an opportunity for students take a more advanced class, where they can learn how to work with the urethane paints and poly-urethane clears.

One of the first things Gatica addresses is the student’s frustration of trying to be perfect in the first few hours of the lessons. These basic beginner lessons are not intended to make an airbrush master out the student in a few hours. They are basic lessons intended to show how to hold the airbrush, learn the mechanics of the airbrush, and the materials and supplies you will need in starting your own airbrushing studio or business.

The student’s interest and ages vary in as much as their walks of life vary. Gatica usually takes the course in the direction of the student’s interest. There are so many directions airbrush artist can go, for instance, some want to spray, airbrush to create T-shirts, some want to paint portraits, some want to only enhance or embellish their works of art with the airbrush, some want to paint wall graphics, some want to learn to paint on motorcycles, cars and vans; more recently there is a new trend in airbrushing makeup – this also includes covering tattoos and skin blemishes for salons and private customers. This new and the industry has their own specific paints for this. Gatica can also instruct on this, as well; I have had students come to me for this too.

‘I started out airbrushing signs on cars and trucks. When I lived in Connecticut, in the mid-eighties, we were still photo retouching with the airbrush. Unfortunately that has gone extinct as it is done by computer and photo editing software like PhotoShop, and other similar programs these days.’ says Gatica.

During my twenty years of airbrushing, I have airbrushed on just about everything from fabrics, glass, mirrors, glass, leaded stain glass, metal and everything In between. By using the right paints you can airbrush on just about anything.

These, airbrush lessons for beginners will not make you an airbrush expert overnight – it takes a while to practice and learn the finger control. That is what we do in the beginning, besides learning the mechanics of the airbrush, students will take apart the airbrush and put it back together again. Along with this, students will also learn finger control exercises. These are basic exercises where the student learns how to control the finger trigger on the airbrush. This will help in controlling the amount of air and the amount of paint that leaves the airbrush. By varying the finger trigger you will either get a thin line or a broader spray pattern. This is how you control the over-spray and contain the paint to the intended area.

Along with the above mentioned exercises, students will also learn the basic materials which will include, Exacto knives, frisket films, tapes, and about different paints, depending which direction a student want to head after the basic, 6-hour course.

Gatica always invites the students to call with any questions they may have after the initial course. It is like tech support – ‘I don’t mind answering questions they may have after the lessons. I usually follow-up with a call to find out how they are doing’, says Gatica.

At the end I assure the students that they do not have to master the finger control exercises immediately to start creating and painting with the airbrush. I show them that just after the six hour course they can go and start creating some nice cool stuff.

I believe this will give the confidence to go out and start having fun with the airbrush – just like I have had for over twenty years.

For more information or answers to any questions please call Ray at 281-441-9714 or email him at Ray@AirbrushMagic.net.

About the Author: Airbrush artist Ray Gatica has been airbrushing for over twenty years. I teach airbrushing. For more information please call 281-441-9714,

AirbrushMagic.net

. We work out of the Houston Texas area.

Source:

isnare.com

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