Einstein analog / digital portrait

 

This is a proverbial combined freehand airbrush / Affinity Photo portrait of One Stone a.k.a. as Einstein, the relativity bloke. The man that urged Roosevelt to develop nuclear arms, that the US used to bomb Japan (twice) when the outcome of WW-II was already decided. In a long lost past I used to take up the airbrush gun and spray paint on different kinds of surfaces. With one or two exceptions always worked freehand, i.e. without any masking. 

Today, I work in the digital realm mostly, because it is convenient, less of a hassle and - most importantly - corrections are relatively easy to make in less time than is the case with an analog airbrush. I do sometimes however pick up the trusted Iwata or Harder & Steenbeck airbrushes to get my mind off things I need the time to process in a proper way; the old way of airbrushing works better to do such a thing than the digital stuff.

I used the Iwata HP-BH airbrush to spray the Inspire H2O paint on an old piece of paper that I had laying around. Very low air pressure, thinly diluted paint and Chillhop music to drift away, but not too far to be unable to do anything useful. To be honest, I like the HP-BH more than the Custom Micron, probably because I like different things better than what commonly is considered to be the best of the best. I was forced to buy the HP-BH on an airbrush show, after one of the visitors had stolen my Paasche V1 - which was the best tool ever - when I took a break and left the V1 unattended on the easel.

I dropped the HP-BH on the floor and because I never use the back cover of airbrushes, the needle was driven into the nozzle quite hard. I had to get it out using a pliers, because it was firmly stuck. However, the HP-BH kept on spraying like it never happened and I used the same needle and nozzle for years after the incident without any problem. I would not recommend hammering the needle into the nozzle before use, but I became convinced of the high quality of Iwata airbrushes.

Being a senior geezer, when finding an old airbrush painting, I see mistakes I made and correct them in Affinity Photo - a digital photo editing program, that resembles Photoshop, but is much much cheaper and equally as good or better. Check out my pixel paintings and vector portraits in my VectorWhiz website that you find here. Most recent stage at the top, older ones in chronological order, below it.

Digitally edited in Affinity Photo

On my DIY vertical light table

Analog airbrushed with Iwata HP-BH

Analog airbrushed with Iwata HP-BH

Early stage

Airbrushing again - 2pac

After not having touched the airbrush gun for a long time, I picked it up again and started to spray a freehand airbrush portrait of 2pac. Used the Iwata HP-BH and Custom Micron SB, Inspire H2O paint on canvas. Below are the various stages - at this point (June 19 2020) it still is a work in progress. Oldest stage at the bottom, newest on top. Note: the difference in the hue and subtle shadows in the canvas' grooves structure is the result of the fact that some pictures were shot during the day while others were taken at night in artificial lighting.

Colour overlay 3D experiment on computer
to see the effect that I'll perhaps airbrush

Freehand airbrush portrait of Johan Cruijff

After a long time of not having touched an airbrush, I took up the tool again to make yet an other portrait of Johan Cruijff. He was one of soccer's all time great players along with Pele, Maradona and Messi. Off the pitch he was a warm blooded man, who was moved when seeing a disabled child playing near a swimming pool. In that moment he decided to help common young people and the disabled in particular. In my mind that sets him apart from many of his glamour seeking peers. Cruijff looked past the boundaries of the world of top level soccer and saw human beings who were in need of a little help that they were unable to obtain anywhere else.

Remarkable things happened during the airbrushing of this portrait. When I planned to set up the portrait, which is drawing the image of his face onto a blank canvas frame, I picked up my cellphone to see what time it was. It read: 00:14 hours. 14 is the number that Cruijff wore on his shirt... Two day later my daughter sms-ed me, I picked up my phone and it was 14:14 hours... This blew me away. I often have such synchronicities when creating portraits, but I felt in this case they were extraordinarily strong and clear. I suspect some artists to have had similar experiences.

Below you see a sequence of various stages of the portrait; the oldest at the bottom, the newest on top. I used the Iwata HP-BH and Custom Micron SB airbrushes and Inspire H2O paint. The original photo was a black and white picture and I decided to spray the portrait in monochrome, since the visual impact of the image was powerful, beautifully expressing Cruijff's mindset. At this point - May 9 2017 - it is a work in progress, advancing quite slow since I am having lower back discomfort. I will post significant updates when ready. Stay tuned and please be patient.

Update nov 26 2019
Becoming increasinly displeased with the result of the airbrush portrait, I edited this work (that no longer is in my possession) in Affinity Photo. You can view the result in this blog entry.

An other Andre Hazes portrait

Andre Hazes probably was one of the greatest Dutch ballad singers ever. Unfortunately he moved to more endearing venues, leaving his fans with an unforgettable legacy. I usually listen to Buckethead, Metallica or Earthtone 9, that sort of stuff, but I am moved by Hazes' voice. He was one of those rare talents that enter this dimension once every century or so; spirits that become artists who transcend partitions humankind stubbornly clings to. This is a freehand airbrush portrait that started out as a drawing and gradually evolved into a realistic portrait that preserved its pencil like fibre.

Controlled spattering
Toward the end controlled spattering (with the Iwata Custom SB) was done; turn pressure very low, just enough to push the paint out. Use undiluted paint (Inspire H2O acrylics), pull the trigger back all the way and release it. Repeat this rapidly, like tick, tick, tick - as fast as you read this. Start with Black Smoke, then very carefully and sparsely Base Black and finally Base White. If spattering turns out not like you want it, immediately hit the spot on the paper with the side of your hand or a tissue to remove the paint from the paper. That also works to soften the spattering, decrease its intensity. The low pressure and viscous undiluted paint will clog the airbrush (Iwata Custom SB) quite fast! So it's probably wise to clean your brush often and thoroughly in between colour changes or refills.  I may make a Youtube clip of this technique some time.

Oldest stage at the bottom, newest on top as always.

Virtually framed in Rhonoceros 3D v5

Roger Waters portrait - frustration limiter

Recently my bloody computer crashed. Guess which system? I'm having an ordeal repairing the unruly beast (it's not a run of the shelf machine, but one tuned to DTP and 3D). While waiting for processes to finish I started doodling Roger Waters to limit the measure of frustration.

What I found out during this frustration limiting process, is that the surface of the dirt cheap office copying paper works quite well for both airbrushing and working with (opaque) colour pencils and that it allows to combine both techniques perfectly. However, the paper is very thin and in no way suited to any erasing that goes beyond using smooth and soft erasers (let alone scalpel or fiberglass erasing techniques). So this unplanned project has me searching for the proper type of paper - with a smooth, but not too smooth surface - and oil based colour pencils that would make the portraits water resistant and light-fast.

The tool I used for this rush portrait are: Iwata CM SB, Inspire H2O, Caran d'Ache Luminance colour pencils. I watched a number of Youtube videos and I concluded from that that Faber Castell Polychromos pencils may be what I am looking for. They are similar to Caran d'Ache Pablo oil based pencils, but significantly less expensive. I will try them in the near future and post my experiences with them in this blog.

Oldest stage at the bottom, newer one above that.