I was just recently sent a Hobbipen G530-C Pro Airbrush to evaluate. I will be comparing this brush heavily to Iwata brand brushes, especially the HP-C. The reason for this is that I have pretty much used Iwata airbrushes exclusively since I started airbrushing, and those that know me know that I have used my Iwata HP-CH so much that I am emotionally attached to the brush, and why wouldn’t I be it has painted 15 helmets for the Olympic Athletes, numerous masks for Hockey Goalies, and too many projects to count. That being said that the Hobbipen had some pretty high standards to live up to.

The Hobbipen comes in a faux carbon fiberbox with magnetic flap closure. It’s a different look, maybe not as nice as the hard plastic cases that other airbrushes these days come it, but lets face it, it is just a box, and ultimately it will come down to brush performance. When you do finally open the box the first thing that you notice that the brush is nicely polished chrome, and the brushes impressive good looks. It’s almost like when you pop the hood to find a nicely polished supercharger under the hood…

Out of the box is the first thing that I noticed is that the brush looks very similar in design to my Iwata HP-C (my workhorse), and second was the weight. The brush does carry some substantial weight, and a good chunk of that weight is in the preset handle (something that my HP-C does not have). Now to be fair I do strip down my brushes when working. I never use the handles on any brush, and the crown cap is always off, so that I can always pick at any buildup on my needles, so any brush full assembled would feel heavy to me. Stripped down in felt great. It was time to run it through some painting.

After some quick dagger strokes, and setting the PSI to 25. It was off to paint. I actually used this brush on a Calgary Hitmen goalie mask (Click Here to se the mask) we had in the shop, as there is no better test that true application. I have to say that I was actually quite surprised as the brush exceeded my expectations. The trigger was smooth, and response was great, I was able to pull nice tight lines with the brush, and get the lines I would expect from a 0.3 tipped brush. I can honestly say that the brushed preformed as well as my HP-C straight out of the box. This in itself impressed me, as I usually “tune” my brushes and needles, and this one I went straight from box to paint, without changing a thing.

Overall I have to say that this brush is quite impressive, and anyone looking for a new or first brush can definitely look at these brushes as a viable contender. The kicker is really the price for $56.99 (plus shipping) you can buy one of these brushes from PJH Tools , which is substantially cheaper than a lot of comparable brushes out there. Based on price alone you cannot lose, in a busy shop a second brush can save you a lot of time and money on colour changes, and this brush would pay for itself in no time.

As I have been using the brush only for a couple weeks, I will revisit it’s long term performance in a few months.

I had noticed a couple weeks back that Blake, who most people know by the name of his studio Cross Eyed Airbrushing, had updated his website. Sifting through the pages of his new site I noticed that Mike Learn had written the forward and indicated that he had previewed the book last year during a course in Edmonton. I was excited. Blake’s shop is a few minutes drive for me, so I figured I would give him a call. “I just got the books in and they are sitting in boxes at my place,” Blake told me.

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes,” I told him. I was even more excited. I have followed Blake’s work over the years through bike shows, and events in the Calgary area, and he has been a huge influence artistically (whether he knows it or not). While excited, at the same time I was apprehensive. When I usually get excited about things, I find that my expectations exceed reality, causing me to feel let down, even though things are in reality really well done. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would be an instructional step-by-step book with a few different projects that were pulled directly from the pages of Airbrush Action, or would this be a totally different direction from the norm.

When I arrived I was greeted by Blake’s dog, and then Blake. We went into the shop and he pulled that book out, showing a beautifully embossed and centre cut cover page, pristine and sealed. Blake had worked three years putting the book together and spent hundreds of hours on top of his already busy schedule working on this book. It is a self-published deal, and not only had Blake spent hours creating the book, but had taken on the publishing role himself. He said that he wanted to write the book, the way he wanted, and not be restricted. Blake had been offered book deals, but he wanted his own voice.

The book contains so much work, that you will have to go through it several times to digest what you are seeing. Blake does an excellent job in laying oput this book, and representing his work. While in the book is a great gallery of work, it is also a great book for inspiration. Blake reveals in a sense his ‘Manifesto’ in his writings client interaction, stories about projects, how to maximize each job, and drive. The Drive section in my honest opinion is something that anyone who does custom work should read. Within the book it does contain some smaller “how to sections”, that contain some pretty valuable information.

There is so much meat in this book, both artistically and intellectually, that I really cant find the word to do this book justice. With a cover price $44 it is worth every penny. Each of the 237 pages contains so much information, and inspiration that it is a must for any artist. In fact it is probably best to buy two, so that you have another when you wear the first copy out. You can buy it online at http://cross-eyedair.com/store

How to Airbrush Pin-Ups is a 144 page book, that focuses in the creation of pin up art. The book features 7 different pin up projects from artists like Tom Nguyen, Steve Leahy, Steve Driscoll, and others. The book ranges from the old school retro style pin up to a more contemporary style.

You follow the artist step by step through their process, and follow the evolution of their projects. The book is full of little tricks throughout, and for the beginner or even the seasoned vet the book is a good read. A nice touch is that after each artists painting there is “Q & A” where the author interviews each artist in the book. I always like reading sections such as this as it gives you a little more insight into the art created that you have watched being created throughout the pages of the book.

The book retails for $27.95 and can be found cheaper online at the usual book sources. So if you want to learn more about painting Pin Ups or just want a good reference book, make sure to pick up this book Frank Season.

Word of Wheels rolled into town, and for me it meant that I was on the way to the Stampede grounds to check out what it had to offer. I wasn’t there to get an autograph form the Fonz, or meet Rich Franklin, but rather check out what was going on in the paint side of things. World of Wheels I have always found to have better motorcycles showing than I ever see at the Motorcycle show. Kinda ironic that really what is a car show has a better motorcycle show than the motorcycle show. Anyway I digress. Some great airbrush work at the show from guys live Dave @ Monkeyshine, Blake from Cross-eyed, among others…

Show here are some pics from the show….enjoy!

Craig Fraser’s Automotive Cheap Tricks & Special F/X II is the follow up to his first airbrush book Automotive Cheap Tricks and Special F/X. It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since the original book. The book boasts to be, “is the most complete how-to book on automotive custom painting and airbrushing ever published. Including the most current and advanced airbrush effects, this volume is a perfect launching pad for beginning artists, and a superior elite playbook and reference guide for airbrush and refinish professionals.” Now this is a pretty big claim, but love or hate Fraser’s style, the statement isn’t that outlandish.

The book contains 212 pages (I wont count the four pages of advertising Airbrush Action gateways, videos, and magazine at the back) of projects ranging from surfboards, to drums, to cars, to guitars, to helmets, to motorcycles, to panels, back to motorcycles…well you get the picture. In fact the book gives you a pretty good overview of thirty different projects. As they claimed this makes a pretty good base for the new arbrush artist, and a great reference book for established and seasoned artists to help stimulate their creativity.

However, it should be noted that not every article in this book is brand new, and if you have been a subscriber to Airbrush Action there is a good possibility that you have seen some of these before. Ironically I recieved my copy of the book the same day that I recieved my January/February 2010 of Airbrush Action, and suffered a little Dejavu. Not only does the book cover and the magazine cover have Fraser in the same ‘pimp pose’, and include the ‘Rice Fink’ project on both covers, but they use the exact same layout for the magazine as they do for the book. My only concern about this is that this book could quite possibly make reading a portion of Airbrush Action in the future redundant, as some of these book “chapters”, could very well be magazine “articles” for future issues.

On top of the 31 ‘chapters’ of project, Craig does provide us with some insight into thing such as equipment, dealing with the media, photographing your work, as well as the art of self promotion. All of these are great sections for things that are all too often overlooked by artists. In fact it is too bad that the book didn’t cover some of these areas in greater detail, but then again some of these subjects are books in themselves.

Bottom line is that the book is well worth the money no matter if you are new to airbrushing or a seasoned vet. With a cover price of $34.95, it is a bargain considering the information that contained inside. For all you Canadians click here to order the book from Amazon for $ 27.58 (Canadian list price is $43.99 and this way there is no duty or cross border fees), while the book is still on pre-order it will be shipping this month.

Every year the Calgary Motorcycle show rolls into town, and as much as I love bikes, I always debate if I should go or not. I always think it will be the same thing, local dealers blowing out previous year stock, the manufacturers showing off the latest models, and the wild card as always the customs.

This year there was actually very little that I saw that had some custom paint. I am not sure if it was the economy, or just that big choppers and their $30,000 plus price tag just makes it a really expensive cruiser, especially with makes like honda coming in with a chopper style bike at $15000.

Anyways the Revelation bike was probably the nicest bike at the show, the owner indicated that it took him three years to paint it, and I can say it was pretty impressive work.

Other choppers seemed to have the typical skull and fire themes to them. Don’t get me wrong, I love skulls and fire, I just miss stuff that is neat that I would never get painted myself, like lasts years peacock bike.

Of course being a big MotoGP fan I had to post a couple pictures of Rossi’s bike from the Yamaha booth.

Like any other trade, there are trade magazines. Airbrushing is no exception to this. So we decided to take a look at three publications that as an artist you may have taken a sneak peak at while at the newsstand, and naturally we are going to give you the goods on them all.

First off Airbrush Action is a bi-monthly magazine based out of New Jersey. The magazine launched in 1985, and has featured hundreds of top pros within it’s pages. Overall it is a good magazine, with good content, and you can pretty much always find something useful inside. However there is an abundance of self-promotion for their own products (videos, book, and gateways), and it seems like there is always a buyers guide that eats up five or six pages. This really doesn’t appeal to me because I have used the same airbrush and compressor for a good number of years, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of their readership will feel the same way. Either way sometimes with Airbrush Action it feels like you are looking for the articles amongst an abundance of advertising, and at times it feels like you have read the magazine before as articles promote the latest stencils in the guise of a how-to article, but I must admit the magazine has picked up it’s content as of late.
Recommendation: The magazine is worth the subscription even though when you are looking for a meal, at times it feels like a snack http://www.airbushaction.com. We all know though that a snack is better than going hungry.

Next on the block is Airbrush Magazine who premier issue came out in the Summer of 2006. The magazine started out strong and exhibited some good potential. It featured some great tutorials from great artists, and wasn’t as heavy on the advertising. A quarterly publication it felt like too long between issues. The problem it was too long. Between it’s premier in Summer 2006 and today January 2010, there has only been seven issues. That falls a little short of the definition of a quarterly publication.

Despite good content, sporadic publications has probably dealt this publication the deathblow. Not to mention that Orchard Trading Co. has indicated that it has sold it’s interest in the magazine, and claims that people will hear from the magazine in the first of the year. Under new ownership who knows what the future will be, and who knows if it will retain any of it’s past staff or contributors. Either way the magazine is going to have a huge hurdle convincing people to subscribe, after it’s past track record. Recommendation: Issue to issue, and wait and see (maybe). If you can get a hold of past issues, they are worth checking out.

Art Scene International is not a purist airbrush magazine, as it is a “Illustration – Visual Art – Digital Imaging” magazine, but it does feature airbrushing and some great ones at that. Again the magazine is a bi-monthly publication, this time out of Germany (don’t worry it’s in English). While an issue may only have one or two airbrush articles, they are generally great quality process articles, that leave you inspired. The rest of the magazine, tends to be in the digital realm, so if this isn’t what you like, then you may just want to skim though the issue before buying; however, the digital work is spectacular as well.

Our recommendation here is that it is worth the subscription…but wait if you can (currently you can’t..because of technical difficulties…which means who knows what) the subscription will cost you more than the $6.25 per issue you will pay at the newsstand, why? I have no clue, but that is the way it is. So if you find the magazine anywhere take not, and don’t tell your friends, because the issues can be hard to find, and with some tutorials spanning a couple issues, there is likely to be some artist fist-a-cuffs at the local Chapters store.

Art Scene International can be found here http://www.art-scene-international.com, you can also order some back issues for only 1 Euro which is a steal of a deal.

If you have any magazines that you would like to give your opinion on, or point out a magazine we didn’t cover, feel free to discuss below.

Even though this is in the vector area, this is just a jpeg (just so you are all aware). But it is good to have these for clients, to either quickly sketch your ideas down during a consultation, or even to let a client have so that they can sketch out their own ideas as well.

This is a free vector file. You may use this vector artwork in your personal work. You may not resell or redistribute this file. Thanks for your cooperation.

Click Here to download.

Stencils, are a great tool in the arsenal of airbrush artists. But with so many stencils out there, where is your money best spent, so that you don’t buy something that will send the rest of eternity in a drawer? Pain Inc. gives you our top five stencils.

#5. True Fire by Mike Lavallee – Manufactured by Artool

This is obviously a big set of stencils to be used by artists in the creation of true flames, and seeing the success, style and skill behind the innovator of True Fire Mike Lavallee, it only makes sence that he would put together a good set to created the effect. Artool was nice to pack in a “semi” instructional video with the stencils, which is a nice touch. These stencils are also great curves for any project that requires some freehand shielding, and is by no reason limited strictly to flames.

While a good set it takes the bottom spot for a couple reasons. for one, you have to seperate the shields with an exacto knife, and sand the tabs down, which is a huge pain in the ass, and makes me wonder why when they were laser cutting these guys out, why they just didn’t cut them out completely. I am sure we could figure out which was the positive and which was the negative by the labels on the stencil. The other major disadvantace is cost, as they are sold as a set of 18 stencils in various sizes (3 sets – 3 different sizes) for approximately $150.

#4 Six Pack O’ Skulls by Scott MacKay – Manufactured by Devilbliss

I couldn’t help but put a set of skull templates in there. With so many skull stencils this selection was made on the basis of which stencils could be the most versatile. Scotts got the nod as it provides you with a great variety of head positions, they are not super crazy stylized, giving you a lot of artistic freedom to build upon a solid base human skull, and that he had the forethought to add other cool little things that could be used, even when your project has no call for some boneheads. The addition of things like broken glass, curves (for flames and more), bullet holes, and circles for things like rivets and eyeballs is a nice touch.

The disadvantage is that when packaged they broke them into two sets of six (essentiall 6 skulls of two different sizes), I wish they had just packaged like size heads in one set, rather than breaking them in half. I am still holding my breath for a mini-set that Scott had made up, but has yet to be sold as a commercial package. Again at $65 a set makes it a bit pricy, but considering you get 6 stencils in a set, overall a good deal.

This set will help speed up any project involving skulls in your shop.

#3 Super Shield by Andrea Mistretta – Manufactured by Artool
It’s simple. It’s inexpensive (approximately $15), and is probably the shield that I have used the most while painting. My only wish is that they had utilized the abundance of space in the middle of the shield a little more effectively, and maybe given me some more circles or even a couple of rectangles or lines.

#2 Match Makers by Michael Cacy – Manufactured by Artool

This set wins in the same way that Supershield does, with the additional plus is that because the stencils are four separate interlocking positive and negative shapes ideal for airbrushing hair, smoke, foliage and other unique effects.

#1 Pocket Grafx Link – by Scott MacKay

This set is the big winner in my top five, as set includes six template for all those little details you need to add into your work in a nice little carrying case about the size of a business card. The set has stencils for rivets, bolts, flames (curves), tears, ammo,bullet holes, and a good straight edge with circles. What makes the set a winner is the cost. You can pick this bad boy up for under $15, meaning the set will pay for itself the first time you ever have to use it in a project!

Stencils. If you use an airbrush you have seen stencils. You have probably used stencils. You have also probably heard people complain about the use of stencils, to the point that they say that it isn’t airbrushing.

Is it? Or not.

If I was an elitest I would say it most definately not, and that no artistic talent is required. That it is a cookie cutter process, that encourages nothing but duplication of art, and limits creativity and restricts ones growth as an artist as you are trapped within the confines of another artists template.

On the other hand artists like Craig Fraser will tell you that they are tools, that can increase your productivity, and esentially if you are in the custom paint business, make you more money by cutting down your production time.

So which is it?

I find that I personally fall somewhere in the middle. Do I have stencils that I use in my work…sure; however, the trick is to be selective of stencils and there use. Freehand shields are essentially templates, and personally I would’nt try to work without. I have an Artool Freehand Mini-Shield (FH-5) that is full of curves that I use all the time. Stencils like this I find the most valuable in my work, on the other end of the spectrum are things that are too specific, like an eagles head with stars throughout like Eagle One by Artool (sorry Craig). I find the more basic the stencil the more usefull it is to me.

The truth of the matter is that most airbrush artists use stencils, but typically they are made by the artist by cutting frisket film, tape, or paint mask. The difference being is that most artist create their own rather than buy commercial stencils from a company. The big trick is to make sure that the work looks organic and not blasted on like a cardboard stencil and a can of spraypaint.