Diy Compressor

Diycompressor06 · Post by **Diycompressor06** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:45 am

As I have read a lot of skull stencil. tutorials and watched many videos I got the feeling that if you want to do airbrushing you don't have to be an artist nor talented at all. All you have to know is how to use airbrush and that's it. I Don't Agree! Why?

Even if you get to know how to use airbrush gun and you start to use stencils to create special effects but when it comes to art itself, the art-piece you have created has no artistic value. Imagine that you are trying to do real fire effect and follow all the recommendations from pro's (dvds, etc.) and no matter as hard you try it doesn't get any better. Even after long time (days or weeks) you are not getting any results. It doesn't get the look of real fire.

My own experience was that I could not do portraits. I always wanted to be good especially in this as I wanted to paint some of my friends or maybe famous person but even during the process I knew that something is wrong and the result didn't satisfied me. When I showed it to any of my friends the first impression was always "WOW!". When I said who did I paint on that that portrait I heard reactions like "Are You Sure?", "No, you’re joking", "Nope, doesn't look like him/her" ...

I could do nature, still life or even animals but when it comes to people (especially faces) I had no chance. Even trying to find out what the hell is wrong with my painting I couldn't. Eyes, nose everything was proportional and right size (I think) but I've missed something that made that portrait to be named "Unknown".

Nowadays artists are given some tools that make their job much easier. I know that a lot of them use stencils and some even projectors (mostly for flat surface). They are using it not just to speed up the process but to get it exactly as original. Does Artist Need a Stencil?

First of all I do not think that Artist need to use stencils. I will agree with masking, for airbrushing it's really necessary, but stencils are not. There are some special stencils that are used just for masking like real fire effect but they are still called stencils.

I mean stencils that are made with full shape of painted object. After all you only need some skills with airbrush and spray over the stencil but there is no talent involved. Talent comes only when you want that stencil object to look realistic and all that left after stencil is just it's shape. So if you want to show your real talent then you have to make final look of the painting be your only one original (give it your soul even if you use a stencil).

Another thing if you use your own stencils. Before I meant stencils that you can buy online or in your local shop. Now imagine that there could be literally thousands of people who had bought the very same stencil you did. I don't think that stencils make a good name for airbrushing. Yes it makes it easier, but have same stuff on hundreds of vehicles makes it look like the car or bike wasn't painted at all, it is just a sticker.

Here I want to mention one name Mike Lavallee. He uses diy compressor, and very often his own stencils but the final painting looks totally awesome and original, you can't even see the trace of stencil. If you've seen any of Mike's videos you know that always after stencil comes free hand (that belong to a real artist), that's what makes it look awesome.

Can diy compressor be described as Art? According to Wikipedia "Generally, art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions". So if you bring to your painting your thoughts and emotions then you creating an art. Otherwise blind copying of the stencil can not be taken as art, in my opinion.

This isn't an article where I'm trying to convince everyone that I'm right. This is only my subjective look and I'm curious what the rest of you are thinking. So please don't hesitate and visit my blog to leave a comment with your ideas and opinions.

diy compressor

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:13 am

While I can't see where you are trying to sell anything, this could be considered spam.

Since this may be of some interest, to members I'll let the link stand for now. Depending if you reply to posts, will determine if this gets locked/deleted.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:22 pm

dutch animal · Post by **dutch animal** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:31 pm

" deleted post ... realized it was spam ... feeling dumb dutch guy now"

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:17 pm

Gotta admit, a fridge compressor is pretty damn quiet. IDK if the volume is good enough, but if so, it would be much less obnoxious than those small air brush compressors.

I just figured if someone can use the info, so be it.

Like I said, nothing is really being pushed for sale.

dutch animal · Post by **dutch animal** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 12:01 am

in that case.

the diy comp works perfect.
made one myself a year ago , use it all the time.