Airbrush Step by Step Magazine 03/22 NO. 64

Airbrush Step by Step Magazine 03/22

Hair & Skin – Cherishing Life

While planning this issue at the beginning of the year, its title “Hair & Skin“ was purely thought of with regards to the airbrushing techniques involved in creating these entities in pictures. After all, skin and hair textures are among the greatest challenges whatsoever in the world of airbrushing. And they are among the most popular motifs too, regardless of whether it’s about humans or animals. Five artists dedicate themselves in their work to the topics of skin and hair textures in various forms and with various techniques.

Australian artist Joseph Gonzalez designs an expressive, close portrait of his huge idol, Pablo Picasso. Via the monochrome technique, he can place his entire attention in the development of the skin textures. Very similar is the mode of working for Finnish artist Jussi Säteri, who initially creates his portrait of Robbie Williams on a helmet in black and white, only to later give it a realistic skin and hair color hue. This is a procedure that is also made use of by Mario Romani. His portrait of an old man from Iraq impresses with its considerable portions of texture, not only that of skin and hair, but also within the portrayed clothing and surrounding environment.

The work of Adriano Ayerbe from Columbia displays the affectionate connection between humans and animals, thus bridging the topic progression in this issue from human to animal. In addition to the portrait of Adriano‘s daughter Pam, he also portrays her dog Lana, a piece of work in which the creation of the animal’s fur receives a chief role. And also in the bee portrait created by British artist Tony Dee, the designing of the hair is given a significant role. Who’d have thought that bees have so much hair? In the piece titled “Black Jumbo“ by Xavier Gentilleau from France, the wrinkles of skin – the typical elephant skin textures – are most impressive. Practically running monochrome and soft in the dark background, he designs the calming portrait of the beautiful animal.

Since a terrible war has been taking place in Ukraine, we feel that the title “Hair & Skin“ got a whole new dimension, which alters the way in which the artworks are perceived. The artists in this issue take a look at humans from various cultures, making note of every detail, every expression, every wrinkle and every curvature of hair – same with the animals. When else do we donate such time to these things in our everyday lives? Especially when a war is underway, we tend to lose sight of this esteem for life, which artists around the globe demonstrate to such a great degree in their portraits and artistic presentations of people and animals. As such, now is a time to take special care in enjoying these pictures and recognizing what our airbrush artists determine through their work: Every face, every strand of hair, every pore, and every life is valuable!

With this issue, we want to make a statement against the war in Ukraine – just like US-based Iryna Bershadska does with her beautiful charity art “Ukrainian Butterflies” featured in this issue. Airbrush Step by Step magazine had also launched the „Airbrush Art for Peace“ campaign on the Internet shortly after the war began, to give airbrush artists a platform to express their solidarity, protest and feelings with their works. In a special section of the readers‘ gallery, we are compiling the artworks submitted so far in this issue.

Your Airbrush Step by Step Team

#StaywithUkraine

Step by Steps

The Bee – Animal illustration

However large the little bee appears in this artwork – the British artist Tony Dee has painted it rather small. Nevertheless, he has devoted himself to the many hairs and textures of the small living creature with great attention to detail.

Black Jumbo – Animal illustration

A proud pachyderm animal, almost monochrome on a black background: Frenchman Xavier Gentilleau has created a soothingly beautiful work of art with this animal portrait.

Iraqi – Portrait

An old, grainy photograph taken by his brother Riccardo in Iraq inspired Italian artist Mario Romani to create this natural and melancholy portrait of an old Iraqi man.

Your Glance is My Glance – Portrait

This work of Colombian artist Adriano Ayerbe is very special for him: the portrait shows his daughter Pam with her „dog daughter“ Lana. Especially the expression of the eyes of human and dog was of great importance to Adriano in this work.

Robbie Williams – Portrait on helmet

Finnish airbrush artist Jussi Säteri has painted the British pop star Robbie Williams on a helmet. On a black background, he first created a negative black and white image and then colored the underpainting.

Pablo Picasso – B/W portrait

Pablo Picasso is one of the favorite artists of Australian-based artist Joseph Gonzalez. Using a simple mono airbrush technique, he is painting his idol for his personal home gallery.

Ukrainian Butterflies – Acrylic decoration

The proceeds from the sale of the yellow-blue acrylic butterflies are donated by US-based Iryna Bershadska to help her compatriots in Ukraine.