The airbrush was the thing that got me interested in technical illustration. It had it all, a shiny little gun in the shape of a pen which when connected to an air compressor would fire out a fine spray of colour.
If you had a dual action airbrush – and I did – you could control the rate of paint flow by a little trigger on top of the airbrush. There was also a whole world of different nozzles and paint reservoirs to choose from. It didn’t end there for you also had air compressors to consider. Wow a little machine sat in my bedroom squashing air, and delivering it through a flexible hose to my finger tip. It even had a moisture trap.
Through this collaboration of engineering and hand-eye coordination photorealistic illustrations were made possible. If you are thinking reflective chrome metal, clear glass, smooth plastic surfaces and smooth skin gradients – yeah that’s the stuff.
My tutor was Tom Liddell, one of the best in the field. Man he could spray. I always enjoyed my time with Tom, he was gently spoken, down to earth and understanding when things went wrong. And they did, often.
But despite the glossy exterior the reality was a right pain. The airbrush would frequently get clogged up with paint and had to be cleaned when you wanted to change colour.
The compressor would start up alarmingly just as you were adding a delicate highlight or shadow. Chug chug chug.
But the thing that drove me to desperation was the masking – more on that in a later post.
The compressor has long gone but I still have the Iwata, still shiny and safe in its little box.