Airbrush Art & Organic Image

UK Airbrush Experience - LONDON & DONCASTER May 2010

2009-04-01T23:00:00.007+01:00

MAY 2010 Be a part of the new 'Airbrush Tour' with Dan & Beej - LONDON 1 WEEK at the Oi All new Studio in the heart of London (Farringdon, tube is Chancery, Farringdon, Kings X or Holborn) & DONCASTER S. Yorkshire (HOK Seminar Paintshop)4 DAYS: World Class Airbrush & Art Experience with Daniel Power & myself. Get to the website to Book Your Place NOW!

Sign Painting Experience with Beej @ the Organic Image Studio

2008-11-23T14:58:00.003Z

ave you always been interested in signwriting and the art of traditional lettering, scroll work and lining? We have decided that it is time to promote the art of signwriting here at Organic Image so we are holding these very special workshops where you can immerse yourself in brushes, mahl sticks, lettering enamels and some good old fashioned scrolling. More info coming soon for 2009 dates please register your interest via email.

New dates for Sign Painting & Airbrushing 2009 coming very soon. If you have any queries at all about our classes and workshops on how to airbrush Photo-Realistic and Stylised Portraits, True Fire flames, Skulls, Pinstriping and many other artistic airbrushing classes then please drop me a line via email or telephone me on 02081 337738.

Painting Signs on Vinyl - New Experience with Beej for 2009

2008-11-23T14:22:00.007Z

Recently we were asked to demonstrate some of our airbrushing onto vinyl signs at the Sign UK Show at the NEC in Birmingham. Response to these demmos was excellent and lots of sign folks and Letterheads (term for a Brother or Sister of the Brush) expressed a great deal of interest in attending a class specifically to learn how to use Auto Air paint, an airbrush and some Frog Juice to create colourful lettering and logo's instead of using an expensive, digital vinyl printer.

We'll show you how to utilise Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to design your files and make changes quickly and easily. You will then use these images for reference to paint the vinyl using water-based, Auto Air and new Auto-Borne paint systems. This is a quick and cost-effective way of utilising the latest water-based paint systems to add simple fades or elaborate designs to plain ol' plotter-cut vinyl!

Turn your skills and your plotter into a fantastic, money-making opportunity for signs and vehicle livery.

* Use the computer & software in a way to help you efficiently.

* Learn how to use Illustrator to make secondary masks for hi-lights

* Using Photoshop's powerful tools to quickly create visuals & ideas.

* Prepping the vinyl for Auto Air paint

* Creative Masking and Layering of different vinyls

* Using the Iwata Eclipse Airbrush to lay down the paint

* Clearing & Protecting the finished artwork

* Painting a sign panel and laying on the finished, vinyl artwork

Click HERE for more info.

Only £29.99 for an Amazing Airbrush!

2008-11-14T12:00:00.004Z

This is really an outstanding piece of kit for the price. With everyone looking to save the pennies right now I can assure you, you won't be disapointed if you part with £29.99 for this, it really DOES perform! ~ Beej. Click HERE to go to website store.

Airbrush Classes 1 on 1 - 2 Days Save £100

2008-11-11T16:39:00.000Z

We are all feeling the pinch right now and for some, custom paint for your wheels can be too expensive. What better time then to learn how to do it yourself! We have reduced our Airbrush Tuition cost to help those creatives who are desperate to learn more about this fantastic art form. Plus - Airbrush Classes make fantastic Xmas Pressies for a spouse, partner, family member or creative friend. You CAN afford to come to a class! Click this link to visit our website and see our amazing Airbrush Saver Packages for Beej's 1-2-1 classes in December 08 and February 09 and save yourself £100 in the process - cool!

The cool thing about the paintshop inside Customise Perfection is that we can aslo teach you how to use PPG paints & House of Kolor. If you'd like to buy HOK True Fire Red, Green or Blue Kits or single bottles in 4 and 2 oz sizes then vist This Link to check out our HOK paint section. We have Reducers, Kandy Koncentrates, Shimrin Base Coats, Pearls and Graphic Colours in these cool airbrush size bottles and ship across Europe too.

Airbrush & Photoshop Tutorials & Step by Steps

2008-11-11T15:08:00.011Z

We have 9 very detailed Step by Step Articles with 100's of pics and tips so come on over and check it out. Plus, our messageboard is now completely free at Airbrush Art Forum

There are also Photoshop tips which we use all the time in our work for making visuals which we then airbrush and also, the supporting Photoshop files to d-load so come on over and check it out. Click here NOW! to visit Organic Image.com Airbrush Art Website

If you like what you see perhaps you may be interested in a class and some 1 on 1 Airbrush Experience with Beej too. Check out our website Click here NOW!

Airbrushed Portraits for Xmas Presents

2008-11-10T14:28:00.011Z

I have been painting and drawing portraits since I was at school and have a real love for portraiture. I have been professionally commissioned for my portraiture for wedding pictures, children's portraits and pet portraits since I was 13 when my dad would go around hauling my portfolio to his pupils while he was teaching folks how to drive! I got my very first commissions that way and I am going to spend most of 2009 concentrating on airbrushing, drawing, painting and teaching portraiture.

Black and white pencil drawings, coloured pencils renderings, Sepia Tone, Airbrushed Portraits (my personal favourite) or full colour Airbrushed Portraits we can do them for you - ANY size! I have painted mural portraits on 30ft x 16ft canvas so don't be afraid to ask for something you may think is on the LARGE size ;)

We are taking orders now for Xmas but please do not leave it too long if you want to stay within the Christmas 08 deadline. Click HERE to visit the website and place an order securely on line for an airbrushed portrait. We ship WorldWide so if you are on the other side of the world, you can own one of our pieces of art.

You will need a good reference photo that doesn't infringe any copyright at all & you can email that to us. It MUST be good quality for us to be able to work from. We can also Photoshop a montage/family shot from several seperate images producing a group portrait layout that never existed in reality. See images like this HERE

Organic Workshop with Dave & Beej

2008-11-10T12:09:00.007Z

What a cool pic of our workshop! Taken by a good friend of Organic Image, Clive flies helicopters and trains pilots so now and again we hear the roar of a massive blades outside and there he is, swooping over the treetops! Hehe. Gonna flame up that chopper but me thinks someone didn't hear me correctly when I said what Dave and I paint for a living! I meant the ones with wheels but hey - if it don't move, paint it eh! The Workshop is tucked away behind the disused B&W Nurseries on the A36 Road between Romsey & Salisbury so please, come on by for a cup of coffee and a chat if you want some custom paint work doing. Dave is there all day most days including Saturdays and I am there from Wed - Sat. starting Wed 12th Nov 08.

Also find some cool pics today while going through some of my old Paint Job folders so thought I'd share a couple with you, particularly this one, so enjoy fellas :)

Paintshop Creative Space - Organic Image + Customise Perfection

2008-11-08T11:35:00.001Z

Organic Image & Customise Perfection have been combining their skills for the past 3 years and throughout 2008 have produced many works of customised art which will start to see added to this new Blog every week. Dave Matthews and Beej Curtis have 30years of creative experience, Dave in the automotive re-spray and fabrication world and Beej in the colourful world of airbrush and art. Together, they are an incredible team.

Well, loads of folks have asked me over the past year or so, where is Dave's paintshop where you do that airbrush lark? So here's a couple of pics of the space I have in the paintshop with Dave. Plenty of room for me and several students and a great space for 1 on 1 classes. The advantage of being at Dave's for some classes is the use of the spray booth and the fact that I do a lot of House of kolor and other solvent-based spraying here.

Check the website for new Airbrush class Dates in December 08 and Feb 09 in Hampshire. Click HERE.

We have a feed in from the main compressor giving us dried air supply so get no problems with moisture in the lines and have more than enough air for airbrushes or spray guns. The small, desk-top booth has been a real advantage and I've installed it in every place I have worked. You will even see it in the video (right in the Video Bar) in the latest ABATV trailer where you can see it in the beautiful White Horse Stable Rooms in Downton where I sometimes host classes. The surroundings are very green and lush and there is plenty of parking. If you'd like to come down and say hi then drop me a line first to make sure I am around as I have to be all over the place but soon, I am planning on spending a fair bit time at the paintshop working on new projects. And here are some pics of dave himself (Mr Elusive!) at work - as usual . .

Dave working on the VW Bug Snake Mural we did together earlier this year. We took this bonnet (hood) along to the Masterclass in Worthing. We have a scale model version of the Bug to paint soon so more on the that later . .

AUTO-BORNE are the very latest, water-borne, super-fine paints to come out of Createx. Amazing for details with little tip-dry and incredible airbrush detail - What you've been waiting for from these guys! White, Black & 8 Colours. Click HERE to go to the Auto-Borne Section and purchase.

Here's some info on the paintshop from Dave's website at www.customise-perfection.com:

Rear of B&W Nurseries, Salisbury Road, Plaitford, Romsey. Hants. SO51 6EE

Dave Matthews IS Customise Perfection! With over 30 years experience covering all aspects of body repair and repainting, he has a deep wealth of knowledge. This has allowed him to be able to produce some stunning, award-winning work over the years. You can now take advantage of that experience and when you place some work with Dave, - you will sure to be impressed with the end result.

Customise Perfection is now based just off the busy A36 Salisbury road in the village of Plaitford, Hants. We can easily be found just behind the disused B&W Nurseries buildings you can see from the road.

Having previously been based on the outskirts of Southampton, this new facility has enabled Dave to concentrate on the motorcycle side of the business which has always been busy. We have a custom built spray booth especially made to our specifications. With the latest lighting and extraction systems, its the perfect place to work in.

We also have a computer aided design facility for cutting vinyl graphics together with dedicated preparation areas. There is a locked compound and a majority of the vehicles and bikes we are working on are kept under cover at night. There is also a large parking area on site and an office / reception where we can offer you a coffee or tea when you visit.

Airbrushing, Gold leafing & Pinstriping Dave's new logo I designed on some cool demo tanks built by Simon Harris for the Biker Build Off held this summer (what summer?) at Beaulieu Motor Museum. On the other side, well . . our own logo then!

Svee working hard on the VW bug filling n a-grinding!

Oh, and Svee again . . does he ever leave this place? He loves it too much!

Dave doing what he's brilliant at doing - laying on Kandy in the spray booth. We have lots more video of work going on at the paintshop and we'll be adding some to DVD's, to AirbrushArtTV.com and here to the blog, so check back regularly . .

Mathewson - Power : Hawaiian Airbrush Adventure

2008-11-05T20:08:00.031Z

I received pics via email a couple of weeks back from Dennis Mathewson of Cosmic Airbrush in Hawaii while he and Dan Power - Power Studios Australia were working on the Airbrush project boat there in Molokai. Dennis gave his permission for us to share the pics with you on our Blog so, here you go - enjoy . .

Dan Power is here on his last day before leaving Honolulu. From here he is off to see Mike and the gang at Killer paint. (Pics of that real soon). I was supposed to be flying over to Mike's and SEMA with Dan but personal stuff got in the way - next year then!

Dan checking out the Hawaiian sunset - lucky bast...!

Upright paddle boarding has become very popular in Hawaii. Looks like great fun.

Next day the guys were at Cosmic's to do some shop work....biz as usual!

Here is Dennis working on a gallery piece. I love his Tikki stuff, it's simply outstanding.

Dan was quick to jump in (hehehe) with this Kangaroo warm up panel. Nice eyes! Is that Skippy on drugs?

Dan setting up some other panels with the new Wicked Colors by Createx.

Next the boys are off to Molokai.... The island has so much history. Check it out by clicking the banner below:

Getting loaded up and now ready to go.....pretty cool having your own personal chopper taking you to work eh!

Molokai's Napali coast line is amazing, the incline is insane.

Waterfall after waterfall we must have taken 100's of pix. All will be great to have a reference for later.

Molokai is famous for deer goat and wild pig hunting. right in your own backyard. Skulls - Yaayyy! Hehe . .

Okay gang, here comes the good stuff. here we begin by the transfer of the drawings of the "ANELA" (hawaiian for angel)

Dan gets busy with one of his beautiful portraits on the front.

LOTS and lots of climbing and standing on railings on this job. Our feet were killing us after two days. Here I start painting the wrap around graphics on the side.

Doing so many jellyfish I decide to try something different, these are sea horses called sea dragons and as you see they look simular to my jelly fish painting in style and colors.

The reality of painting is when your airbrushes get rust from an old compressor in the air lines. Time to break down the valves and clean them after two days. This sucks when up on a second story scaffol. Don't drop that spring now...lol.

Dan makes his Anela look as if shes underwater. WOW! this is so cool I love the bubble halo on her head ...Lots and lots of bubbles.

After three days of intense airbrushing the final clear coat is applied. Fun with a small compressor but I manage to pull it off with three wet coats. this ends the night of day three and we are beat. after and night of rest and few beers with Gary's son Jess we are back to work 7:00A.M. the next morning.

boat pix next morning.

Dan did a bad ass job on the front of the boat. It was amazing to me to watch him work. I got SO much out seeing him do this face, I will never forget the tricks he showed me. (says Dennis)

Close up of the ANELA ..... I am without words

Dan Power is hard act to follow and I tried to pull together a Hawaiian tapa pattern into the graphics. This is a real old island style of Hawaii. I added the lots of special effect colors and flash to the paint as well as thousands of bubbles

Here is a close up of the sea dragon

Final top shot of the front with Dan and I. being pretty beat after this job we still had to finish the back, so now down on the ground (kinda)

Well at least we finally get to sit down,hehehe. With the I-pods jammin' in our ears we push through the back in about 6 hours side by side. Funny how we kept giving each other a hard time over where the reducer was.

With only one hour left we head to the beach where I found tons of coconuts everywhere. I busted one open for Dan to try fresh. This is paradise (for an hour)

Gary Galiher The proud owner of the ANELA. What a fantastic host he was and Thanks to him and his son Jess for all their help.

Veiw of Maui from Molokai

Time to head back to Honolulu....

YES' we did have fun!!!!!

On the trip and painting with Dan, Dennis says,'This Island has the true magic that is Hawaii. No traffic lights or nightlife here. The local community shares what we call the true Hawaii “Aloha spirit” just lots of friendly folks and tons of beautiful beaches, banana, coconut, and all types of fruit trees everywhere you look. Molokai was the second Island to form in the Hawaiian chain and has lots of raw landscapes. Molokai folks like to live the old Hawaii ways, going there can seem like going back in time. I LOVE Molokai and I think that rubbed off on Dan as well.
We traveled by private helicopter to get there with not many other options other than small plane or boat. I painted the helicopter almost 10 years ago for the owner Gary Galiher; a successful Honolulu attorney and my friend. Gary is a real hands-on hard worker of his ranch and SUPER host to us.
We went to Molokai to paint a boat for Gary. This thing was a bit of a surprise when we arrived. The size of this thing was huge! Well we got right to work and 4 days later it was finished (for now). I will return in December to add stripes to the lower of the boat.

Working with Dan was a charm and working together with another artist is a REALLY great thing to do and I hope more of you share your time with friends of the trade as we did. Dan and I are closer friends and we now share and a little of each other’s style. Connecting this way is important to any artist’s growth.
I hope you enjoy these pix of us working together…. Aloha Dennis Mathewson '

On the trip and painting with Dennis, Dan says, 'This trip to Molokai was an absolute pleasure and a privilege and I think I can speak for Dennis as well as myself when I say how grateful we were for this opportunity. We got to see one of the most beutiful Hawaiian Islands and Scenery from an angle and vantage point that very few people get. It was 4 very long days at some very awkward angles, but I would not change it for the world. The job was great and we are very proud of the result.

Working with Dennis was an absolute treat and I will remember this first trip to Hawaii for the rest of my life. The friendship and experiences of this trip have been amazing. We hope you have enjoyed looking at the photos from our adventure.'

And just to inform those who may not know - Daniel is coming over to the UK in 2009 and he and I are going to be hosting a Masterclass in Doncaster so get yourself subscribed to this Blog and we will keep you up to date on more news as it comes in about that. It promises to be something the airbrush community in the UK will NOT forget that Dan & I can promise you all! - Beej clcik the image above or This Link to go to the website and reserve a place today.

Why Become a Member at the Organic Image Website?

2008-11-02T23:34:00.003Z

Becoming a Member at the Organic Image Website
Membership gives you access to many creative, advantages. Discounts on 1000's of airbrush-related products including; Airbrushes by all the big names you trust like Iwata, Badger, Richpen Mojo and Paasche where we have some of the best prices in the UK with FULL 10 Year Warranty on Iwata equipment. Tutorial DVD's from all the big names including the very latest DVD from Power Studios.

How much is it to join?
Membership to the Airbrush Art Website of Organic Image.com is only £29.99 and for this you get: discounts on art materials, airbrushes, paint etc from the store - Access to Downloadable Artwork Files & Illustrations from Beej's personal collection of Art - Access to Photoshop Tutorials and their supporting psd files to download and access to in-depth airbrush articles by Beej with 100's of supporting airbrush on-the-job photographs, tips, tricks, links and advice on airbrushing & art. Join Here Now!

Sneak Preview of What's Available to Members
Click this link --> Tutorials for Premium Members to preview the 11 magazine-style, in-depth Tutorials & Downloads and read the first page of each airbrush art job section and check out the 39 Downloadable images and files currently available. We are adding Brand New digital art files over the next few weeks too!

Airbrush Art TV - Coming Soon!
Also if you join now you will get access to AirbrushArtTV.com Playlists (launching soon). A fantastic new project Organic Image are currently putting together for YOU. To back-up our static, magazine-style tutorials on the website, we have produced many step-by-step tutorials this year on film and we are currently editing these to add to ABATV. To get an idea just how many airbrush-related films are on the way in glorious colour, check out this AirbrushArtTV.com link and wet your creative appetite!

Organic Image + Customise Perfection - Beej & Dave

2008-11-02T23:30:00.006Z

Take a look at some of the work produced over this year with Dave at Customise Perfection - and there's much more to come! If you are interested in getting some Airbrush Artwork and Custom Paint please contact me via the website Contacts Page Over 30yrs experience - a superb Custom Painting team.

Andy's Flaming Dragon Fatboy - House of Kolor & PPG

You can purchase House of Kolor paints from Organic Image CLICK HERE for 2 and 4oz bottles and True Fire Kits in Red, Blue & Organic Green!

Blue Flames - House of Kolor & PPG Fine Pearls

Hose of Kolor Blue True Fire Kit - Available to buy HERE from Organicimage website

Making Movies

2008-10-28T00:06:00.011Z

Been working like crazy on the new trailer for AirbrushArtTV.com for over a week now, hard going in the Adobe Creative Production Suite CS3 but man, it's great fun once you get your head around it all! Edited the soundtrack too which has come out real nice so please pop over and have a look if you haven't seen it already at www.AirbrushArtTV.com You can also play the lo-res version trailer to the right in the nav bar here on the Blog entitled Airbrush Art TV Video bar and if you subscribe to our Artists Way Podcast in Apple's iTunes software (or would like to) you can watch it in iTunes or on your iPod by clicking this link iTunes Direct Feed - isn't technology great! BTW, this feed will go toan Apple browser window and then will open iTunes and take you to the iPod page where you can then download the Podcasts.

Editing too is taking place at the moment for our first AirbrushArtTV movies - Knights on the Road Yamaha Warrior murals and the Valkyrie Dragon murals will be the first two projects to be featured on the website so keep your eye on the site for finished release dates for the movie tutorials which remember are FREE! Just pay your £29.99 membership for AirbrushArtTV.com and you're good to go for ALL our playlists for 6 months. That's a lot of stuff! There will be a Full DVD title too of Knights on the Road which is also in the editing suite at the mo.

Organic Art - Beej's Speciality

2008-10-27T23:15:00.001Z

If I had the choice I would use ALL my own designs when working on customers' rides. I love just letting it all go and getting into real 'Organic' stuff, seems I can't do enough of it these days as everyone wants flames n skulls! No probs though, but I have some plans to paint some large canvases next year and concentrate on my own style.

My first award-winning bike (my Brother's R1 'Sibling') is still one of my favourites and also, the Red Dragon paint job for Chris in Bath, that ranks up there with the faves on my list.

For those of you who've never seen the R1 then here are some pics below, if I had the money I'd buy it back as Paul sold it a couple of years ago to fund his Volksrod project and now, he's sold that and bought . . and R1!! Hehe . .guess it must be Sibling 2 time then!

Working like this is so much more relaxing when a lot of the time, you're simply painting as you go and creating the images as you airbrush. I always have a rough sketch or starting point, like this pic here from the London Custom Bike Show, where I did a demo earlier this year. The imagination kicks in and the simple, thumbnail idea turns into a piece of art organically, almost all by itself - well, not quite, but you know what I mean!

Just give me an airbrush, some paint and point me at the surface, metal, card, board whatever, and I'll just let the weird-ness begin. I find it incredibly exhilarating painting this way and it's also very relaxing at the same time, kind of hightens all your creative nerve ends if you don't know where you're gonna end up.

If you watch 'Heroes' I think my eyes even turn white until I have finished the piece! Hehe . .

Monty Python Fun @ UK Masterclass

2008-10-22T09:42:00.023+01:00

August 2008; Fraser, Vandemon & Curtis goofing around at the photo shoot in Worthing, England in between teaching airbrush & pinstriping classes.

I had such a fantastic time (says Beej) in Worthing with the Craig n Steve, they were a real blast and we had a lot in common with our crazy sense of humour! We spent a side-splitting evening in the Chinese Restaurant sending text messages quoting Viz magazine expletives across the Atlantic! Hehe . . brilliant fun and best of all - learning the sign language for 'Bulls**t' as demonstrated clearly by Fraser. Hehe! Thanks for that Sanjay :)

Apart from the Python referenced, squeaky-voiced, Terry Jones impersonations and Eddie Izzard references . . we DID actually do some airbrushing, pinstriping and teaching in between! The class spanned 6 days Monday - Saturday and everyone agreed when clearing up our rooms at the college on Saturday evening, that it had been an incredible, creative experience and the students (as was I actually!) were a bit low that it was at an end. Stu, from the Airbrush Centre who hosted the event this year said, 'It's like when you have to pack up at the end of a really cool, fun-packed holiday and leave all your mates. Nobody wants to home!'

Well, the good new is that 2009 will bring 2 Masterclasses to the UK with Beej and hopefully, one of those classes will again feature the fun-packed and talented crew of Craig Fraser, Steve Vandemon & Beej Curtis together again but this time, we will be possibly be taking the tour to House of Kolor so 'watch this space buddy . . !

The standard of the attending students was simply outstanding. I get asked a this question a lot by those considering to book a class: 'Do you have to be good at art to learn how to airbrush?' and the simple answer is - no. Airbrushing is a style of illustration that can be learned, like signwriting is a trade you can be taught with no prior artistic knowledge. Of course, you'll benefit greatly if you are artistic in some way already, obviously, but we can teach you the basics and the fundamentals it is up to you what you do with those skills and some achieve incredible results after only 2 or 3 days learning at our classes.

We are currently holding an Airbrush and Art Workshop in November 2008 in St Mawes, Cornwall and only have a couple of places left. If you would like to learn more about airbrush art then this class is for you! check the links on the right for Workshops or click HERE

Check out More of the pics below from the Masterclass in Worthing with Iwata Airbrushes and the Airbrush Centre.

Keep an eye on the website and the blog because it looks like we will be holding a second Masterclass with Fraser in 2009! Can't chuffin wait! www.organicimage.com

Power DVD Tutorials

2008-10-21T20:13:00.012+01:00

The Power Series 3 DVD's & 1 CD 7 Hours of Tutorials!

The first DVD from Daniel Power is now available for pre-order from Beej & Organic Image. It is the first level in Daniel Powers ‘POWER series’ and is an amazing 4 disc set (3 x DVDs, 1 x CD rom) with over 7 hours of instruction! Pre-order now and get the cool Airbrush Bug Tee.

Pre-Order NOW! Get FREE Airbrush Bug Tee: £40.00 (for 71/2 hrs of tuition!)

More Photos from Masterclass - Brilliant Fun!

2008-10-21T13:59:00.017+01:00

More pics for your enjoyment of the Masterclass 2009 with Beej, Fraser and Vandemon

Craig & Steve produced many panels like these over the 6 day period of the workshops

Steve doing his thing with a Mack brush, he really is a fantastic striper and outstanding artist.

The flying eyeball piece was also done with the help of Fraser, the guys worked a fair bit together on demo pieces like these.

Dan from Donny getting to grips with metal plate in Craig's class (put yer tongue back in Dan!)

Lining tape demo's laying out Flames n Tribals in Fraser's class

Part of the Iwata Shop where student's can purchase items they used during the week

Big Kev showing he has a natural ability for striping

Some of the students getting to grips with the dragon mural in Beej's class and also, pinstriping in Steve's class

And we all need somewhere to palette our paint - right!

One of my Organic pieces for the Skull n Flames class:

Vandemon striping Stu's (MrPid) jacket

And this is the tank piece that the 3 of us did together, mine was the top skull, Fraser's skull pile and cool whispy smoke and Vandemon added the sharpest lines - very cool and will hang on my wall with pride. (Beej)

Ya know, there's something about working with other, mad creatives, that sends you into crazy face mode! Hehe . . and the gurning winner this year is . . .

Hopefully, Steve & Craig will be coming back to the UK in 2009 and this time, we will be looking to travel further North with sketchy plans currently(more soon) to visit House of Kolor Paintshop in Doncaster and maybe, just maybe . . the Paintshop in Plaitford on the A36 so keep checking back folks . . . www.OrganicImage.com it's all you need!

3D Skulls and Stencils

2008-10-20T18:57:00.000+01:00

Click HERE to go directly tour 3D Ceramic Skull Section of the website. These skulls ware made by the same workshops who made all the prop skulls for the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull movie from earlier this year. Great for skull reference, just take pics and use for your own airbrush artwork, murals or drawing practice.

2008 - It's going to be a crazy, creative year!

2008-03-27T10:41:00.009Z

Well, with our new 3D items for painting on the site (currently skulls but lots more coming soon) the new Class Dates available to book in Downton & Cornwall, teaching a Masterclass at Worthing College with Craig Fraser & Steve Vandemon from the USA and the launch of www.AirbrushArtTV.com coming in the summer . . . it's sure going to be a crazy and creative year at OrganicImage.com!

I am so excited about teaching alongside Fraser & Vandemon in August and you can find out more about this class by visiting this link which will take you to the Airbrush Art Classes section of the website. We're going to be showing how to paint flames and dragons, so please come along and have some creative fun with the three oif us! I know I will :)

New DVD's to hit the website from the USA start with this one for March Hip Hop Art DVD Alan Pastrana demonstrates advanced airbrush, paintbrush, and stencil techniques, and the substantial benefits (including saving huge chunks of time) and use of employing cutting-edge vinyl applications. Click HERE to jump to this DVD

The most exciting thing for me at the mo is the launch of our AirbrushArtTV.com channel. This we have been working on now for several years, in fact, the initial idea of making licenses available for downloading products was something we helped pioneer as a test site for Actinic back in 2000. Well, the time has almost arrived now as in the background, we've been incredibly busy filming, editing, creating animations, holding conference calls to the US-bases streaming media hosts who will help us deliver this rich, high quality airbrush art classes directly to YOU PC or Mac and it's coming - sooner than you think!

Please check the site regularly for updates and I'll report back soon later in the week with more info, some teaser trailers and some freebie downloads of movies plus info on how to get the best out of YOUR computer for watching, burning to DVD and synching to your iPod and creating your very own Movies Download Manager with the new RealPlayer utility. The future is creative and animated folks - and you can watch it all!

Beej

Time Flies!

2007-09-07T12:22:00.001+01:00

Wow! Almost a year has gone by since I last added some text to this blog and what a year it's been folks. Some fantastic opportunities have come my way and also, on reflection, some mistakes too that I have learned from . . but onward and upward. One of the best moments so far this year have been the release of our own stencils for Skull Painting & Flame Rendering. You can get these in our on-line store and I was so pleased that they sold out before we even got them in stock! More now in stock and also designing lots of new stencils currently and you can check them out very soon on the website at www.organicimage.com The other great opportunity that showed itself this year was the chance to work over in the USA. I have made some very cool new friends with the guys over at American Colors in Naples, Florida and will be traveling out there next year to teach classes from their very cool paintshop and they will be coming over to the UK to help me host some of the first transatlantic airbrush classes - cool eh! Watch this space.

You can see the flame stencil being used here on one of our latest paint jobs 'Angels & Demons'

We've also just invested heavily in camera equipment and DVD authoring software +_ editing packages for Flash and DVD movies so watch out - the airbrush world of Organic Image is going to be available on DVD and via YouTube-styled Flash videos and on-line movies. We will have DVD classes, interactive webcasts, webcam look-ins of the studio and live chats with Beej available globally via the PC screen - cool eh!

Right, better get some work done then, those movies won't make themselves!

L8trs . . Beej

Big in Japan!

2006-10-16T20:10:00.000+01:00

This is what you get in Photoshop when you hit the Save for Web command! :) My son, Daniel, has just returned from Japan and took this photo in one of the national parks near Tokyo. This spider is hooge! And I was thinking how we were talking about that massive spider, fossil larvae on the message board recently and promised to post a pic of this one so, here it is.

Dan says it was as big as his hand nearly and that the webs were just everywhere! Imagine strolling thru that in a morning on your way to work and having to dust one of them suckers off yer jacket!

So, been getting the workshop ready today for this weeks classes and really looking forward to meeting a couple of guys who chat often on the messageboard, it will be good to put a face to an ip address! We are holding a Beginners Class Tuesday for 4 students and then, 2 will stay on at the farm workshop for the rest of the week for a more intensive course. One of our students is coming over from Ireland and is a very talented sculptor, so I'll be interested in chatting more about his work as I have a great love for 3D and sculpture. I try to make my Airbrush Courses 'tailor-made' to individual students and not simply set out a rota which everyone has then to stick to. All students are different and some are more experienced than others so it makes sense to develop the course as it goes. We do of course have a skeleton structure . . in fact, we have a few skulls too!

And talking of skulls . . just printing off a few at the mo for the class tomorrow so better go check to see the printer hasn't run out of paper! Check back later in the week to see how the guys and gals are all getting along at the workshop and I'll post some pics at the end of the week.

For more info on classes then please visit the website here and if you have always fancied coming along to a class but want to check out the workshop first you can either see pics on the website here or, please visit the YouTube site and check out this movie where you will see pics of the workshop and this movie where you will students at work.

More soon!

Justin Hawkins Leaves The Darkness

2006-10-13T10:22:00.000+01:00

Sad to hear today that Justin is to leave the Darkness due to his addiction problems. We were aware that Justin had spent some time in the Priory, a rehabilitation centre, after signing himself in which is very commendable. We know people who are closer to Justin and this is a very sad news as he really is a wonderful person and very much a family man. It just goes to show how drugs are real killer when it comes to anything, relationships, careers and in the worst cases, even lives.

Justin has admitted to having an addiction and says, "I feel bad for the others (in the band)," he told The Sun newspaper. "It will be an upheaval. But it's time for me to move on. It would be damaging to my recovery to stay on. I'm not blaming the band for my problem - I am an addict. There are people who can be in bands and stay clean, but I'm not one of them."

In August, Hawkins entered rehab; at the time, the band insisted it would hit the studio as soon as he felt up to it and that rumors it had been dropped by Atlantic Records were false.

"We're sorry that you had to find this out through the newspapers, but we were hoping until the last minute that this — Justin's exit — wasn't going to happen," the remaining band members wrote. "We — Dan, Ed and Richie — are still in total shock and can't say at this stage what the future holds. You will hear from us, once we know what we want to do."

Well, let's hope that he pulls through it. I have already sent supportive messages to him through the management and we will be publishing the photos of Justin's finished guitar once we get it back from clear/polish so we'll keep you posted.

As for Justin, he told the Sun he plans to stay busy with a solo album and writing film music.

Beej's Airbrush Videos on YouTube

2006-10-12T13:32:00.000+01:00

At last, we have made our 2 Movies 'An Artists Way - How it All Began' & 'An Artists Way- Green True Fire Kawasaki' movies into 6 shorter episodes now viewable for FREE by anyone on the amazing YouTube Channel. Simply follow the links on the right-hand side of the blog in the 'Links' menu and they will take you directly to the PlayLists for each of the 2 episodes. The quality is a little compromised as the YouTube converts the uploaded files to Flash embedded movies and limits the size to 100MB and viewing time to 10mins.

It's great to be able to share videos this way with the creative world! Next year, we will be offering streaming videos of our workshops and various classes teaching you all types of creative lessons. This means you can be anywhere in the world and you'll be able to access tricks, tips and generally come along 'digitally' to a workshop right on your desktop! We will be covering all types of art and illustration from Traditional Signwriting and Lettering to Pinstriping, What Paint? Airbrushing for Beginners, Advanced Airbrushing, Skull Painting, Texture Techniques, Landscape Drawing & Painting, Portraiture and lots more!

If you're reading this, you've probably come here from the link on the website. If you would like to 'Subscribe' to these daily news pages about Organic Image and you have the Firefox Browser you will see this orange logo in your browser. It is usually 'greyed' out when a page cannot be subscribed as it has to be the correct type of format. RSS (Really Simple Syndicate) is fed 'live' to various NewsReader programmes or, like Firefox (and soon Internet Explorer) available directly in your browser window. Simply click the Subscribe button (Firefox) and then choose a reader. I use Google as it is readily available. Any new feeds will then be available to read via the news read pages so you can see immediately (without coming here first) what the latest headline is.

For a fantastic explanation of RSS and links to all the latest NewsReader programmes for downloading visit BBC RSS info Page and get familiar wth this RSS technology. It is very useful and allows me to keep you notified up-to-the-minute with new videos (via the YouTube RSS Feed in links on the right) and latest art and airbrush products in the store via this blog.

Technology eh, kewl or what!

Beej

Dr Artist Says I'm Cronic with Signs!!

2006-10-11T15:20:00.000+01:00

Well, met Dr Rosa for the first time today and not only was he a really cool chap but, a fantastic artist too! Now there is a 'sign' if ever I saw one ;) So, talking of signs, he has looked at my arm/hand and turns out I have Chronic Signavitis (I think he said!) which would make sense, as I have been plagued by this awful affliction in the past. I thought he meant at first that my lettering wasn't up to much! Typical to be affected by a diagnosis that has a name with your industry in the middle! Now that IS a Sign.

Spoke to the management of Mr Hawkins today who were very understanding about the pain I have at present so aiming to complete the Kandy Blues on the guitar foir Justin for next week now and try to get some of these sooper drugs in me to ee if the pain/feeling goes away? You ever cracked your elbow on the back of a chair and hit your funny bone? That is the nerve affected by this problem, the Radius Nerve. It splits from the centre of your ring finger and down to your pinky and man, it's like when the novocain wears off at the dentist and you get that awful tingly, numbness.

Anyways, been referred to the hospital now to see a Rhumotologist (I think?) again, thought he meant I had to see someone to find out what gossip was been flirted around bout me? Lol! Like there's not enough Rumours already in the paint industry, didn't want one with an 'ologist' on the end of it!

So, that's my account of the day so far, a bit of a pisser really and must admit, it has brought me down a bit but never fear, I'll be painting again tomorrow from early doors so I guess that will ease the way the I feel inside, if not the way my funny bones feel outside!

Beej

What we do for our art!

2006-10-10T22:34:00.000+01:00

OK, gotta visit the ol' doc tomorrow as the dreaded RSI is back with force! Been putting this off for months now but my hand is almost numb! A warning to all those new budding airbrush artists, excersise your hands! Stretch them nerves out girls n boys coz I'm telling you, this is no fun at all!

And especially when I have to finish Justin's guitar this week!!

I'll let you know how I get on at the docs tomorrow but for now, I am looking to new ways of holding the airbrush and trying to relieve the stress of rsi (repetitive stress injury) so I'll keep you all posted with my findings. It is very easy to get intio bad habits after 26 years of doing this but honestly, be warned, stretching, moving and good breaks between stiff posture painting sets are highly recommended!

Beej