My name is Fred Wagner and I go by the Internet screen name of Airbrush Dreams. I was born in Rochester NY back in 1961 and became interested in art at the age of 8. I used to reproduce Don Martin cartoons out of Mad Magazine with markers for friends and family, for those of you that are old enough to remember that cartoon and magazine. I picked up my first airbrush at the age of 17 to do some airbrushing on a taxidermy fish that I had mounted myself through a home study course and soon started too experiment with inks on paper. The airbrush was a Paasche H single action fixed tip airbrush, but I managed. After several months I visited a local art store and picked up a Airbrush Digest Magazine and spotted an article about Mark (the shark) Rush who was airbrushing T-Shirts in Florida and that was that, I was hooked from then on my life was gone, I now was controlled by that piece of chrome plated steal with air and paint flowing through it, like blood though your veins. I'm sick!
After several years of practicing and doing t-shirts for friends I decided it was time to give my big shot. In the summer of 1983 I met my wife to be and began to correspond with Mark Rush. I sent some photos of my art work to him and in May of 1984 my wife and I were married and moved to Ft. Walton Beach Fl. for a first hand try at professional airbrushing. I am back in Fairport NY at this point in time and looking at starting my own airbrushing business here in NY soon if my health will allow that. Now I would like to get stated on this adventure where I will give an in-depth how-to on this portrait of Dr. Bill Cosby.
For materials I will be using:
Airbrushes: Iwata HP C
Iwata Eclipse
Iwata HP BC 1&2
Paint: Createx Textile Paint
Material: 100% Cotton Bed Sheet Material
The most important thing in this step is to chose a good reference photo. A good reference is one that shows as much detail as possible. It doesn’t have to be real large, but large enough so you can see it. I even have a magnifying glass on hand for some occasions, the more detail you can see the better. You should also have a plan laid out in your head or a rough layout drawn out to go by so that you know your composition will balance well when it is finished. Keep in mind your overall color scheme and the mood you want to convey.
First I begin by taping my piece of Cotton down to my t-shirt board, or in your case it may be stretching the t-shirt over the t-shirt board. Remember not to over stretch the t-shirt because it will distort the image after you take it off the board. Once that is done we are ready to start our drawing. In this portrait and in all my portraits I like to use a soft orange art pencil, because the orange blends in with the paint and dose not show up in the final portrait like a black graphite pencil line dose. There is nothing worse than having a customer point out pencil lines in a finished piece; I know I have had it happen to me. Draw in as much detail a possible the more the better don't leave anything out as it will help you in the long run. I draw shadows, eyes, eyelids, lips, skin folds, hair direction even liver spots and some high lights. It all helps. Note!!! If you are using an opaque projector make sure it is level and square to your art easel otherwise your finished work will be out of proportion.
Next I prep the cotton for painting; this is done by spray a light mist of Createx clear and water mix, about 50/50 at around 40 lbs psi using the Iwata Eclipse. I place a clean sandwich baggie over my free hand and start from top to bottom spraying small areas and then wiping in a downward stroke only, pressing down the loose fibers of the cotton. Don't skip this step it makes a big difference in the finished piece. Also do not over saturate the material just a misting will do. Once that is done I heat set the cotton while still on the t-shirt board with a clothes iron and a piece of parchment paper over it. Now we are ready to paint.
I like to start out by painting the mid tones first and in this case I used a mix of transparent Createx Light Brown and Yellow. I use this mix as if it is the only color that I will be using. Meaning I have painted every detail except for the hair and the hoodie and the background. I pay very close attention to my reference photo at all times making sure I keep the correct balance in tone and detail over the entire portrait. I will step back from time to time and even take a break so that I can come back and maybe catch something I may have missed before. I find it is best to pay more attention to my reference photo than my art work because the mind has a nasty way of convincing us at time that we are seeing something’s and it may not really be that way. I hope you understand what I am getting at. My collage professors would tell us to spend 2/3 of the time looking at the model posing and 1/3 looking at our drawing; believe me it works. It doesn't make the models feel very comfortable though; well back to painting. I continue until I feel I have a completed portrait with an excellent likeness to my reference photo. Remember every little nuance and detail helps if you are looking for photo-realism. I also try to pay close attention to where the light sources are and where they react with the face such as the upper cheek bone, eye lids and creases on the forehead. All these play off each other to create depth in your portrait. When painting all the details I never use hard lines, rather I use the shadows and light areas and blending of areas to create what appears to be a line. This should bring us to the next step, building the flesh tone.
In this step we will begin to build the natural flesh tones.
This part is fairly simple and doesn’t require a lot of detail. I am now ready to start building the natural flesh tones which is a nice feature when working with transparent paints. In this portrait I chose to start out with a mist of Createx Transparent Yellow. I went somewhat light with the yellow so as not to overpower the pinks in the light areas of the skin. The main areas were the sides of the face, ears and then a light mist over the entire face. Note!!! I did not go to heavy on this step.
You may not have noticed to much change between the first two steps but it will become more apparent as we go on. This step is a combined step. At this point I am ready to bring out the more pink tone of the flesh and as before it is done very lightly so as not to create a orange affect. I mist over the entire portrait with transparent red being carefully not to go to heavy. Once I am done with that I begin to mist with Light Brown and also to darken the shadow areas with the same. At the same time I also darken the liver spots, the eyes and some of the hair. Up till now I have been using my Iwata HP-C at 35 lbs PSI, also I am using my Createx straight from the bottle and not mixing it down with anything. I also like to cut a small piece of panty hose and lightly stretch over the neck of the bottle and place the cap back on to act as a strainer when squeezing paint into the cup.
In this step I begin to bring out some of the highlights by using a mix opaque white and two drops of red. It is a very light pink rose color. I go lightly over the highlighted areas of the flesh of the main light source and try to keep it natural looking. I also use this to start some of the high lights in the eyes, but not the light reflections. This color works well in the corners of the eyes and on the lips. At this point I add some of the highlights on the forehead. It is very easy to over work this color and make it look unnatural that is why it is better to build your colors gradually virus’s lay on heavy layers of colors.
In this step I begin to take the highlights even further with pure opaque white dialing up the air pressure to 50 PSI. I pay very close attention to detail in this step and make sure I don't go overboard. I highlight the bottoms of the eyelids, cheeks, nose, and the secondary highlights including those in the eyes. I place in skin texture on the nose and top of liver spots. Now the portrait is really taking shape and the depth is becoming more noticeable. I also begin to darken the shadow areas with a mix of Light Brown and a couple drops of Black; being careful with the black because of the amount of blue that tends to come out when mixed with brown. I only use this in the darkest of areas like the folds of the chin, the mouth, the ears and areas like that. After that is done I start to blend my dark areas with a mist of Violet, but not too much. Violet warms the browns very nicely and brings out the richness to the color.
In this step I have simply misted over the painting with light brown and then a very light mist of violet and I mean very light. This is to bring back a more natural tone to the skin and to tone down some of the high lights.
In this step I really push the detail to the limits working back and forth using multiple airbrushes I jump from white to light brown to a mist of red depending what I am concentrating on. At this point I concentrate on the dark blacks and browns in the eyes and the patterns of veins and the brown tints in the whites of the eyes. Next I move to the nose and the forehead putting in the white high lights that pop right out at you. Finally I move to the secondary highlights which are a combination of misting with white then blues, reds and violets and then back in with white. After I feel I have achieved a 3D look to the face I sharpen any areas that may have been weakened by over spray with a little Blue Black and Brown mix, but not too much.
I could have made tons of photos and steps, but you poor people would have given up by now, so here we are coming to the end and don't worry its not that bad. Now that I am satisfied with Bills face I turn my attention to the hair. The technique I use is a dagger stroke, but instead of using a straight line I use an erratic stroke kind of all over the place and constantly moving. I start with Createx Warm Grey and then some Light Brown; paying close attention to patterns of light and dark in the hair. Then I work the hair over with some white strokes and then some more Grey followed with a mist of Light Brown. I mist some Blue on the right side of the hair and after that I work in some more Opaque White strokes, but not too many.
Next I move on to the hoodie which is actually very simple. You start by painting your shadow areas with Brown; for this I used my Iwata HP-BC2 for a little more paint flow. Remember this is to look like cotton so it has to look soft, so no sharp edges. I try to keep the curves nice and soft almost a pillow effect. After that I go over the entire hoodie With Createx Red keeping in mind to spray away from the face so I do not mess up my portraits skin tone. After the Red is completed I work some Violet in the dark shadow areas to add some good depth to the folds.
Lastly I spray in the Black background with my Iwata Eclipse. I take extreme precaution to point the brush away from the face and hoodie area of the painting so that no over spray will get on the final work. However if you are not confident in doing it that way you can make a stencil to cover the art work and spray the background.
One more thing sign your; I hope this article has been of help and I may be back again with more some day.
Airbrush Dreams
Fred Wagner
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