AFTER announcements about our proposed landscape workshop and outdoor sketching day at Umberslade, our chairman introduced our demonstrator. David Boxshall’s topic was airbrush techniques, a new artwork medium to most of the audience.

David described his equipment, the compressor, the airbrushing tools and the selection of masking materials and media. He demonstrated how the airbrush could deliver the atomised paint in a jet that could be varied in intensity and size under the control of the airbrush trigger and the distance of the airbrush from the working surface. A simple landscape was painted using some stencils and the point was made that more detailed artwork required multiple stencils and a great deal of planning.

Cartridge paper was used for the demonstration but David uses heavy water colour paper for his studio work.

He showed us examples of his commissioned artwork, much of which had been produced for magazine covers. One showing a creased Coke bottle cap was reproduced by David to show the airbrush-stencil process. He airbrushed each stage through the appropriate stencil showing us how each stencil was positioned using a registration mark. Final details of the highly realistic artwork were applied through a through a sheet of clear, self-adhesive plastic from which David had carefully cut his spray-through sections. He finished by explaining that most of the processes can now be done with computer image-processing software but that there is still scope for the creative possibilities of manual airbrushing techniques.

The next meeting will be at St. Luke’s Memorial Hall, Evesham Road, Headless Cross on Wednesday, August 7 at 7.30pm when Robert Guy will demonstrate portraits in oils.

Supported by Redditch School of Art through Redditch Arts Council.