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How an airbrush is damaged by disassembly and reassembly.  . You often hear the claim that an airbrush must be disassembled for cleaning after each use.  . You've also heard the other side claiming that disassembly damages the airbrush and you should not disassemble the airbrush, except to repair it.  . How exactly does disassembly wear out an airbrush?  . The...

What you need to improve the most.  There are many things to consider when trying to improve your art skills. There's airbrush control, choosing a subject, composition, surface preparation, understanding the medium, proportions, edges, value and color, to name a few. All are important, but one area overrides them all when it comes to importance: observational skills. Without the ability...

Have you ever tried to correct a portrait mistake with white, or a buffered color, only to discover an ugly gray spot appearing at the repair site?You've been a victim of the blue shift: A phenomenon associated in airbrushing with light paint over dark. The mechanism is not clearly understood, but it manifests in frustrating ways.Up until now, I haven't...

Recently there has been a campaign for re-packaged cheap airbrushes manufactured in China, the most notable being the Gaahleri airbrush line. Lots of people have bought into the advertising, which promised a professional level, inexpensive airbrush full of "groundbreaking" innovations. Aside from the cheap price, none of these claims turned out to be valid. Let's start with these two claims:  The...

The perpetual debate over what constitutes "good" art usually comes down to skill (execution) vs idea (concept).  A skill is proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experiences, usually manifested and applied in the physical word by an action. A concept is that which occurs in the mind, in speech, or in thought. It is understood to be the fundamental building...

A lot of newbies flock to YouTube, hungry to learn, and eager to become the next airbrush superstar.The problem is that YouTube has been around for almost 20 years and has yet to produce a single top gun. One would think that with all the free information at everyone's fingertips, the airbrush scene would be exploding with hundreds of amazing...

When I posted my paintings to social media groups in the past, I was met with a hail of hostile remarks disparaging photorealism, claiming it wasn't real art, or that there was no point to creating it. They also accused me of posting photos and claiming that my posts are paintings, using words like "con man," or "fraudster." It seems that the...

When I created the Createx Illustration line, it wasn't always intended to be available to the public. It all began while I was evaluating Createx Colors' new Wicked Line while touring in Europe in 2011. Dennis Delorenzo, a chemical genius, had developed a new version which was more finely ground or sheared, than the previous Wicked line, and after some...

The CM-SB, the HP-SB, and the HP-SBS all share a common side feed feature. While the side feed has many advantages over the top feed airbrushes, there is one vulnerability that many are not aware of. This has to do with the small bend in the paint passage at the weld point of the side cup.  . This is the point where...

You've probably heard the saying "there are no mistakes in art" popularized by many authors and painters, including Pablo Picasso.  Hearing this phrase during a challenging art workshop might come as a soothing comment from your art instructor, but is it a valid commentary? Let's suppose it is true. If there are no mistakes in art, how do we judge...