Airbrush (Grandad's Photoshop)

[BrigitDoon]

In days of yore, yer grampfer used to use these to touch up his photos:



Paasche type F single-action airbrush



Paasche type VJR double-action airbrush



Type VJR stripped for cleaning

I don't use them for photo-retouching. The airbrush is a valuable tool for creating realistic images:



Jaguar E-Type series I rendered using both the above airbrushes and Rotring acrylic ink on Bristol Board.

I'll have another go when I can afford to buy a good compressor. The old one doesn't have a storage tank on it so it delivers a pulsed air supply which is not good for fine detail work as you end up with a line of dots. There's one in Millers for £200. I'd hope for something a little cheaper.

[floweredpig]

Great stuff Brigit,funnily enough i have 1963 Jaguar E-Type sales brochure and they seem to have used a similar technique on some of the photopraphs.

[BrigitDoon]

The airbrush was very popular during the post-war period for retouching photographs in car brochures. They used to eliminate distracting reflections from the bodywork in this way.

I've never tried using photographic paper as a support. We're all familiar with the delicate surface; add to this the masking film that needs to go over the top of it and a sharp Swan-Morten blade...

It takes the utmost delicacy to cut through the masking film without marking the paper beneath. Using an airbrush itself takes considerable practice to master. This is not a pursuit for the impatient or clumsy.

[hungryjoe]

I used to marvel at the art dept. in the Evening Citizen airbrushing out the occasional "spider's leg" from the "Daily Dolly" pictures.

[BrigitDoon]

"Spidering" is a technical airbrushing term. When you hold the airbrush too close to the surface that you are applying paint to and the paint is thin, then a pool of fluid collects which is immediately distributed by the airflow whereupon it assumes the appearance of a spider.