Airbrushing

An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media including ink and dye, but most often paint by a process of atomization. Spray guns developed from the airbrush and are still considered a type of airbrush. more...

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The first airbrush was invented in 1879 by Abner Peeler, in Iowa, USA.

History

This first airbrush invented by Peeler used a hand-operated compressor, and the inventor patented it "for the painting of watercolors and other artistic purposes". It was rather crude, being based on a number of spare parts in a jeweller's workshop such as old screwdrivers and welding torches. It took 4 years of further development before a practical device was developed. This was marketed by Liberty Walkup, who taught airbrush technique to American Impressionist master Wilson Irvine. The first modern type airbrush came along in 1893, presented by Thayer and Chandler art materials company at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, invented by Charles Burdick. This device looked like a pen and worked in a different manner to Peeler's device, being essentially the same as a modern airbrush. Aerograph, Burdick's original company, still makes and sells airbrushes in England.

For more a detailed academic study, the University of Wales Library holds a detailed PhD on Airbrush History. Likewise the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia retains a copy - authored by Dr. Andy Penaluna.

Design

An airbrush works by passing a stream of fast moving (compressed) air through a venturi, which creates a local reduction in air pressure (suction) that allows paint to be pulled up from an interconnected reservoir at normal atmospheric pressure. The high velocity of the air atomizes the paint into very tiny droplets as it blows past a very fine paint-metering component. The paint is carried onto paper or other surface. The operator controls the amount of paint using a variable trigger which opens more or less a very fine tapered needle that is the control element of the paint-metering component. An extremely fine degree of atomization is what allows an artist to create such smooth blending effects using the airbrush.

The technique allows for the blending of two or more colors in a seamless way, with one color slowly becoming another color. Freehand airbrushed images, without the aid of stencils or friskets, have a floating quality, with softly defined edges between colors, and between foreground and background colors. A well skilled airbrush artist can produce paintings of photographic realism or can simulate almost any painting medium. Painting at this skill level involves supplementary tools, such as masks and friskets, and very careful planning.

Some airbrushes use pressures as low as 20 psi (1.38 bar) while others use pressures in the region of 30-35 psi (2-2.4 bar). Larger "spray guns" as used for automobile spray-painting need 100 psi (6.8 bar) or more to adequately atomise a thicker paint using less solvent. They are capable of delivering a heavier coating more rapidly over a wide area. However certain spray guns called, High-Volume Low-Pressure (HVLP) spray guns, are designed to deliver the same high volumes of paint without requiring such high pressures.

Read more at Wikipedia.org