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.