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.
