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Craig Fraser and Giger use masking and stenciling techniques along with many other top caliber airbrush artists. I think to an extent that they are a necessity for certain results. In my OPINION, only the baddest of the Johny Badass T-shirt free handers out there can get by without them. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – From Chris N. who asked me to forward this to the ng. The attached pictures didn’t show up. I’ve been airbrushing since 1976, almost always use stencils. Weather its a cut one or a hand held one. I use them cause I like the clean look they give, after stencil I still do some freehand. I also do this on the side and not full-time. I always ask my customers which they want freehand or stencil and they almost always pick the stencil look. There is no shame in using stencils, it’s not cheating, it’s all in how you want it to look. Here is some samples let me know if they come through. Chris at Appalachian Airbrush.
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thanks to the people who have sent links, tips, and offered help via email. I have been around the newsgroups for a long time and have noticed that requests like this one usually get rude responses about where to get off and rarely get any sort of helpful replies. I am glad I took the chance anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to see the replies I got as a result. I am thoroughly impressed with the caliber of people on this particular newsgroup. Thanks y’all. jh
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – anybody in the east texas area, anywhere between Dallas, Tx. and Shreveport, La. wanna give a newbie some lessons in exchange for some free labor?? I have two VL’s and have played with them for the last couple of years, and can do some of the simpler strokes, but have been unable to paint anything at all unless I use a stencil. I have tried to find a local shop or studio to take lessons with no luck. Only oil, acrylic, or drawing classes here. I have also bought several books and videos, but they are a little over my head, for the most part, or too simple. My goal is to eventually do some custom paint on tailgates, almost exclusively, no helmets, no tanks, just tailgates, and maybe hoods or other large flat car parts. I have a job and don’t even want to do this for a living, just a hobby, but I can’t find anybody to help me with the hard parts. I just want to learn. jh
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anybody in the east texas area, anywhere between Dallas, Tx. and Shreveport, La. wanna give a newbie some lessons in exchange for some free labor?? I have two VL’s and have played with them for the last couple of years, and can do some of the simpler strokes, but have been unable to paint anything at all unless I use a stencil. I have tried to find a local shop or studio to take lessons with no luck. Only oil, acrylic, or drawing classes here. I have also bought several books and videos, but they are a little over my head, for the most part, or too simple. My goal is to eventually do some custom paint on tailgates, almost exclusively, no helmets, no tanks, just tailgates, and maybe hoods or other large flat car parts. I have a job and don’t even want to do this for a living, just a hobby, but I can’t find anybody to help me with the hard parts. I just want to learn. jh
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From Chris N. who asked me to forward this to the ng. The attached pictures didn’t show up. I’ve been airbrushing since 1976, almost always use stencils. Weather its a cut one or a hand held one. I use them cause I like the clean look they give, after stencil I still do some freehand. I also do this on the side and not full-time. I always ask my customers which they want freehand or stencil and they almost always pick the stencil look. There is no shame in using stencils, it’s not cheating, it’s all in how you want it to look. Here is some samples let me know if they come through. Chris at Appalachian Airbrush.
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I agree – when high volume art is your way of making a living, and you find a popular design or concept is constantly requested, you have to find ways to economize your time invested and still give quality results – stencils and templates are ideal in this circumstance. There is no shame in using them when the intent is to give the client the very best product possible within the constraints of time necessary to do enough work to survive at what you do. Also to be noted, the stencils & templates used by people such as those mentioned are designed by those very same people, originally for their own use, and later marketed for the rest of us as an aide. So, in their particular case, these stencils are but an extension of their own artistic ability. In the end, "whatever works" for the individual artist is all that matters – that and then fact that your client is happy with the work you do for them, by whatever means. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Craig Fraser and Giger use masking and stenciling techniques along with many other top caliber airbrush artists. I think to an extent that they are a necessity for certain results. In my OPINION, only the baddest of the Johny Badass T-shirt free handers out there can get by without them.
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I know what you mean they always assume you know the basics. Some when they tell you after you draw the picture, but wait what if I can’t draw what’s in my head. I usually use ref pics people bring or find my own. Sometimes I’ll draw my own. I’ve often told the wife about maken a video on the Art Of Stenciling, my way. But I checked into it, for an 1 hr video plus advertising it when done you are looking at 7 grand. That’s allot for the amount of airbrushing I do in a year. I started stenciling also cause allot of my work is so small I could never get a line that small. That wasn’t a very good example of stencil, That helmet came about because of some mistakes. I’ll send you that story separate. The frayed flag end and the bullet hole in the blue where done with a paint brush then some airbrushing. But that’s a tecnic all in itself I don’t think I ever saw anyone use. I’ll send another email of a job I just did that had some more stenciling. If you have more Q’s I’ll be glad to help. Please do me a favor and forward this stuff to the newsgroup, for some reason my replies are not showing up that’s why I answered you direct. Thanks! I might check into those numbers again if I were you, I know a guy locally here that will give minimal help if you shoot and produce your own video then he will copy it for you for a fairly small charge, considering what the big boys are charging for stuff like that. If you already own a digital camcorder then everything else won’t be too bad, a lot easier to work with digital video. I would think you could do a trial run and get a small 1/4 or 1/8 page ad in Airbrush Action for relatively cheap, maybe a couple hundred, run it for a couple months here and there, see if it takes. I for one would buy one. jh
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