The world of the airbrush can be confusing and full of odd jargon making it even more difficult for newcomers to understand the airbrush. Here is a quick run-down of some of the more common terms you may run across in your research of the airbrush.

Atomization – The airbrush is a tool for atomizing paint. Atomizing is a process of mixing a liquid with air, resulting in small particles that can travel through the air.

Double Action vs. Single Action – Double action means that the user has control over both the airflow and the paint flow with the trigger action. Single action refers to airbrushes that only allow the user to control the airflow. These airbrushes require manual adjustment of the paint flow, making it difficult to complete dagger strokes, or more elaborate airbrush work.

Masking – Masking is used to protect an area of the artwork from overspray. There are many different types of masking available to the airbrush artist.

PSI – Pressure per square inch – Different airbrush applications require different PSI. Generally speaking, the more pigmented the paint being used, the higher the PSI is needed to pull the paint through the airbrush.

Uros – Urethane Paints – Primarily used for automotive applications. These paints are solvent based and require proper ventilation and breathing apparatus to be used safely.

Reducer – The solvent that is used to suspend the pigment in solution. Reducer is used to thin the paint down and also clean the airbrush.

Overspray – Paint that ends up in areas where it is not wanted. Because the airbrush atomizes paint, some overspray is usually inevitable. Masking is used to control overspray.

Internal mix vs. External mix – Internal mix airbrushes mix the paint and airflow internally, resulting in finer atomization. External mixing airbrushes mix the airflow and paint outside the tip of the airbrush, usually creating a more stippled effect.

Rattle Can – A common spray paint can. Many artists use “rattle can clear” to protect their work, to avoid the high cost and highly hazardous nature of heavy duty automotive clearcoat applications.

AA – Auto Air – A water-based paint made for metal surfaces. An alternative to using solvent based applications.

Knowing these terms should help you negotiate some of the forums and allow you to find the information you are looking for faster.

Want to learn more about How-To Airbrush? You can get an instant digital download of 11 lessons taught by a master airbrush artist. Check out our unbeatable offer at http://www.Airbrush-Ebooks.com

The current photographic exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art Off/Site gallery, entitled Embracing Eatonville (January 20 – March18) features the photographs of Dawoud Bey, Lonnie Graham, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Willis, each of whom attempts to represent (in varying ways) the historic town of Eatonville, Florida. Eatonville is the oldest black incorporated town in the United States, and hometown of renowned writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960).

I was immediately drawn to the pigmented ink-jet prints of Dawoud Bey, which present themselves in the form of portraits of high school students in their classrooms, accompanied by a few lines of the student’s own verbal self-description. The photographs, though richly colored and saturated, remain stark in their documentary style shooting and presentation. The verbal statements help to further the subjects’ expressive demeanors, although sometimes confusing the viewer by offering two conflicting positions. The self-description that the high school students attribute to themselves is not always reinforced through their actual expressions, which gives the work another layer of meaning that is less about a specific residential spirit and more about traits that are universally human. Even still, the subjects of these portraits serve to represent the future of Eatonville as its most potential-filled residents.

Although the subjects of these portraits are specific to the town of Eatonville, I felt that their youthful naivety could transcend geographic location and therefore, I could relate to the subjects without having knowledge of the importance of the town itself. This work alone could represent various towns or cities, but combined with the other three artists contributed to a unique spirit of the Eatonville that I was constructing for myself.

Lonnie Graham’s photographs, also pigmented ink-jet prints, contrast Bey’s photographs by embodying spontaneity, which for me is then transformed into a certain type of sentimentality. The photographs depict the people of Eatonville during a several day town festival. The photographer includes a range of age groups, depicting Eatonville’s present a useful addition to the future that Bey represents. My “imaginary” Eatonville is coming together.

Carrie Mae Weems’ silver gelatin prints are the only works to directly reference Hurston, offering historical re-enactments of some of the writer’s days: jotting down some observations in her notebook, walking beneath willow trees, washing her feet in a basin, among other daily rituals. I was not immediately interested in Weems’ photographs, perhaps because my unfamiliarity with Eatonville’s historical roots causes me to reject the town as a historical real place in favor of something that I am able to construct on my own, something more imaginary, immediate, and contemporary.

Returning to the medium of pigmented inkjet prints, the photographs of Deborah Willis embody the timelessness of Eatonville, as well as representing social sites and gendered places that maintain historical importance by transforming it. Willis photographs socially charged locales: a high school football field, the view from a preacher’s pulpit, and perhaps most notably in this series, the beauty salon. This specific location speaks of a site of female power, which has replaced other gendered spaces of Hurston’s era, like the storefront porch which is a social site of male power.

The approach of this exhibit is not an uncommon one: an embodiment of the spirit of a place. The wonderful thing about this type of exhibit is that the viewer can extract the elements of his or her choice to construct his or her own imaginary place with its own personal significance. What’s important is the photographic embodiment or encapsulation of the importance of place and home, both real and imagined.

Do you love painting with pastels? If so, you’re in good company. Many, many artists have fallen in love with their vibrant colors and the ease with which they can be used. There’s really no other way to achieve such a colorful, painterly result without resorting to a wet medium.

Here are four pieces of advice that will help turn your pastel dreams into reality:

1) Don’t wear your favorite clothes

Soft pastels shed dust, and while it doesn’t seem like a lot of dust while you’re painting, look down at the end of a session and you’re likely to find that you’re covered in it. Yes, you could carefully launder your nice clothes after every session, but it’s much easier to pick an old shirt and just wear it whenever you paint. Your friends and family will soon be impressed by how colorful and ‘painterly’ it looks!

Don’t think that if you use oil pastels it’s ok to wear your Sunday best. While oil pastels aren’t as messy as soft pastels – they don’t shed pastel dust – their oil, waxy binder means that they’re even harder to remove from clothing.

2) Keep your fingers clean

Inevitably your hands will get dirty while you’re working with pastels. That’s not so much of a problem while you’re holding the same stick, but it can cause problems when you switch to a yellow and your hands are covered in red.

One way to clean your hands between putting down one stick and picking up another is to keep a damp cloth hanging from your easel that you can wipe your hands on; another is to hold a large ball of Blu-Tack in your other hand – pressing your fingers into it will clean them nicely.

3) Learn to blend

Blending is pretty much the core technique in pastels. Laying down pastel pigment on your surface is really only the first stage; mixing colors together, softening, muting, blurring, smoothing, shading, and burnishing are all done with a blending-type technique. As such it’s essential that you experiment early and often with blending so that you learn how to do it and what you can achieve with it.

While pastel artists use all kinds of things to blend with, including fingers (naked or wrapped in a plaster), palms, sponges, kneaded erasers and cotton swabs, the best tool for the job is a commercially produced paper stump. They’re inexpensive and can be sharpened with a pencil sharpener when the ends get dull and discolored.

4) Build your skill by doing a lot of small paintings of simple things

When you’re a beginner, it can sometimes be daunting to start a new pastel painting. You might not know where to start, if it doesn’t work out you might waste paper, and so on. The way around all of this is to paint often, but keep it simple and small. This allows you to build your skills and practice in small steps rather than too-big ones.

Emma Ralph is an experienced pastel artist. To learn more about pastels visit http://www.paintingwithpastels.com

Seattle, WA July 30, 2004 — Art Unica Digital media Seattle Wide Format Printing Specialist adds new New Kodak Media for Wide-Format Inkjets

Art Unica Digital Media is excited to anounce that Encad has introduced two new Kodak wide-format inkjet media??” a water-resistant removable vinyl, and a water-resistant scrim banner. The two media are capable of being used for a wide variety of indoor/outdoor applications, including retail signage, point-of-purchase displays, and exhibit graphics.

The Water-Resistant Removable Vinyl is a calendared vinyl with a pressure-sensitive, removable, repositionable adhesive. It can be removed without damaging the surface or leaving residue for up to 6 months, and has excellent water resistance and light stability, reports Encad.

The company’s new Water-Resistant Scrim Banner is made of a tear-resistant polyester fabric embedded between two layers of calendared white vinyl. The polyester scrim center creates a ???blockout layer??

Most people imagine that laser tattoo removal involves ‘burning’ the tattoo out of the skin. The reality is much simpler in method and far less painful than most people think. Laser tattoo removal is carried out using a simple process of employing short bursts from a laser, which create intense pulses of light. Each pulse passes through the top layers of the skin and is absorbed into the tattoo pigments that sit below.

The energy created by the laser breaks up the pigments, which are later removed naturally by the body’s immune system, with the white blood cells ‘flushing out’ the fragments. Thanks to intensive research carried out over the last few years into the optimum frequency to carry out this operation, the original and natural pigment of the skin remains untouched, minimizing scarring.

Laser tattoo removal will not remove the entire tattoo in one go. Because the pigments break up at different intensities, several sessions may be required to remove a tattoo completely. Usually the black pigments clear first because black absorbs all types of laser wavelengths. Other colours only absorb certain wavelengths for example red tattoo ink absorbs green laser light and consequently those specific wavelengths have to be used to remove other colours. There is usually a minimum four week gap between each treatment to allow the immune system to absorb and remove the pigment, so laser surgery isn’t instantaneous – it may take many months for the treatment to be completed.

Laser tattoo removal sessions are relatively short, usually only lasting a matter of a few minutes. Once the procedure has finished the doctor may dress the area worked on with an antibacterial ointment and sterile dressing to protect the skin against the risk of infection. The area should then be kept clean but not bathed until at least 24 hours after the procedure.

As with all laser surgery, laser tattoo removal can result in hyper-pigmentation, which causes the skin to darken, or hypo-pigmentation where the skin whitens. With tattoos that have been in place for a considerable time, incomplete pigmentation removal may leave some traces of the original tattoo. There is also the possibility of scarring as a result of the procedure, particularly if the treated area becomes infected.

Laser tattoo removal doesn’t usually hurt as such, but may be considered to be an uncomfortable procedure. It has been likened to being repeatedly snapped by a thin rubber band or having hot drops of wax or fat dropped onto the surface of the skin. In comparison to the original pain felt during the tattoo’s placement on the skin it is about parable.

The tattoo is an expression of one’s personality, and the best course of action is to think very carefully about having a tattoo in the first place. If you feel that you will still be happy with it in 20 years’ time, then it can be a worthwhile and meaningful addition to your body. If, however, you fall out of love with your body art, laser tattoo removal offers you the opportunity to reverse what was previously considered to be a permanent alteration of the skin surface.

Dr Sean Lanigan -Consultant Dermatologist – sk:n was established in 1990 and is the UK’s leading provider of skincare conditions treatment and products including: laser hair removal, laser tattoo removal & acne treatments.

For interviews, images or comments contact:
Dr Sean Lanigan – Consultant Dermatologist
Direct Marketing Manager
Email: g.grozier@lasercare-clinics.co.uk
http://www.sknclinics.co.uk

In short, you can never know the right composition of the tattoo inks because manufacturers are not allowed to reveal its contents. Only the professional who mixes the ink from the dry pigments are said to know of its composition. So, it is obvious that you will not be getting any right answers to this question.

Tattoo inks are actually not inks but are made up of different pigments that are floating on the solution of the carrier. Most people believe that pigments are from vegetable dyes but they are not. Nowadays the new pigments contain metal salts and some are also plastic and few vegetable dyes too. The color of the tattoo is mainly provided by the pigment. The main use of the carrier solution is to disinfect the suspension of the pigment by keeping it evenly mixed and thus making the application of the tattoo very simple and easy.

What is the toxicity in tattoo inks?

The toxicity in the inks has some health risks associated along with it. These health risks are due to the unhygienic practices and toxicity inherited from some of the substances. There are lot of sites on the web that explains the risk involved and also information of taking care of the tattoo. For your reminder always check the Material Safety Data Sheet for any carrier or pigment. But you got to know one thing the MSDS, will not be able to finalize on the risks that is associated with the chemical reaction that happens on the skin when applied or within the ink itself. For your information tattoo inks and pigments are not regulated or checked by the administration of food and drugs department of the United States.

UV Backlight Ink: This is one way of getting a tattoo done. This is an ink that reacts only to black light. This is popular way of tricking your friends. One of the Ultra violet backlight inks is the Chameleon black light tattoo ink. This UV Backlight Ink is come out after the intensive checking done by the FDA department. This has no adverse effect associated with it; over the last 10 years. This ink is the safest ink in the market that can be used by all without any fears in mind.

Discover the unknown tips of choosing the correct name tattoos at this best tattoo gallery. Find Thousands of Award Winning Top Tattoo Designs and check out the largest selection of Award Winning Tattoo Designs!a
Largest Tattoo Gallery: 3,523 Tattoo Designs (Special BONUS LINK!)

Each photograph has a story, which is different, but the ending is usually the same. People are sometimes desperate to save a bit of their history, and often it is crumbling before their eyes. These photographic treasures often need magic to take a faded, torn, wrinkled, or water-stained snapshot and restore it to its original beauty.
Why would you want to read an article about the care of old photographs? Because one day they may be important to you, and if you think there is reason to protect them now rather than wait a year or so, consider that one day you might have to go through the expensive and generally aggravating experience of re-creating something that would be so easy to protect now.
Sometimes it is just good to spend a little time with old photos just to reflect – it’s good for the soul and the rewards always exceed the cost. Proper care for what has been handed down to you at no cost to you, and with only an imaginary value, should not be taken lightly. Idealistically, care of family artifacts should, from one generation to another, be properly carried out. There are countless mishaps to family photographs that might have been prevented if only someone had taken some simple precautions.
So what are these simple precautions? For the most part they will be easy to explain, but first you must locate the family photographs and carefully assess their current condition. Hopefully, they will still be in the shoebox in the attic and the roof hasn’t leaked. Handling of individual photographs can make all the difference in the world, chances are if you have photographs that were produced before 1950, they were made from silver salts, which also include the ones that look brown or are colored with oils. Over the years the paper hardens and so does the emulsion, which contains the image you wish to preserve. They become brittle and very easily and permanently damaged should they get bent. Plastic in newer prints also gets brittle over time and first shows signs or deterioration when very small splits begin to appear on the surface.
Bending the photograph accelerates splitting of the emulsion until a “crack” becomes clearly visible. Generally, this is irreversible damage. Nobody could be that negligent you might think, but most damage is accidental. One very common mistake is to try to remove a photograph that has been glued into an album. Most often, it will rip apart. Damage usually occurs accidentally and often while the entrusted material is in your custody. It also happens while on loan to others, in the mail system, or by a concerned someone who didn’t understand proper handling techniques. Since most photographs are one of a kind, it is best to understand the risks involved before you begin to gather your materials.
The archival part of real black & white, sepia, or oil-tinted photographs is the silver process itself. Silver is a metal and cannot degrade any further. When it combines with other compounds such as sulfur sulfite in a toning process, the resulting processes yield different chemical formulas and with different chemical formulas you get different visual effects, but most have silver as their base principal component. Other metals such as gold or platinum may also be incorporated in photographic imaging. When silver, gold or platinum salts aggravate a paper surface after being exposed to light, the result is the image you see. When the paper dries after processing, the image hardens as a very thin emulsion and should never be bent. Photographs printed on tin or glass have rigid substrates, but can be easily damaged by scratching or high humidity.
The daguerreotype is generally considered the oldest of the old and even though some may be more than 160 years in age, one in good condition is a sight to behold. Unlike the process of contemporary color as most of us know it, the silver process used in black and white photography is far more stable and “thicker” than the multitude of dyes used in the manufacture of color photo paper today. Early photographs generally contain high contents of silver, which account for their exceptional ability to with stand time and capture the past. Often you will see a photograph shine when the silver has been exposed to high humidity, but rarely will the image disappear entirely.
“Natural color” photos, as we know them, need to be protected from ultraviolet rays of the sun. Because they are made from chemical dyes, their ability to maintain the color intensity level we see when we first get them depends in large part on the protection they get from exposure to the high energy of UV light. Over time, a “red” or “green” image is left which is not easily restored to its original condition. Products on today’s market, such as those generated from computers, often boast permanent inks, but they remain untested. So far, the only color pigments I have found in the thousands of photos I have worked on that are archival are the oil based pigments and pastels. Generally, a skilled artist applies them to a photograph. To resist scratching and moisture, the photograph was sometimes finished with a sealing lacquer.
It is also important to have an understanding of what “archival quality” is as it pertains to photographic materials and a general knowledge of the way they are constructed. Simply put, a black and white photograph is an arrangement of silver molecules imbedded in a clear gelatin resting on a paper surface. On the other hand, a color photograph is an arrangement of chemical compounds sandwiched on the surface of the paper and deteriorates and looses the image. Restoration of a faded color photograph often cannot be recovered without in-depth digital technology combined with an artist’s skill to add color back to the photo. Once you have identified the photos you wish to put into your album, you should assess their condition and determine what is necessary to preserve what you have, then keep them dry, flat, and out of direct sunlight.
A simple way to save large quantities of images or transfer them to others is to scan them into a computer and onto a CD. It is cheap and easy. Though the visuals lack the personality reflected in the character of the originals, they are still fun for you to enjoy.
Simple precautions often prevent permanent damage. When asking to borrow photographs from others, bear in mind they probably are one of a kind and you are entrusted with an important responsibility. Someone who has not had their photos returned to them in the past is unlikely to loan them out in the future. In summary, never bend them and keep them away from liquid moisture, high humidity, and direct sunlight.
When photos are well preserved, they will be easier to see and appreciate. Always, they lead to stories, some good, some sad, and others just plain remarkable.
William Heroy – Owner of Old Photo Specialists – Founded in 1973
If you would like more information:
Visit Our Website
http://www.oldphotospecialists.com OR email us at oldphotospecialists@triad.rr.com
Old Photo Specialists is a highly specialized restoration studio. We provide a variety of services including original restoration, digital restoration, archival black and white and sepia tone printing, hand oil tinting, oils on canvas and a large variety of photography services. We educate our clients on how to take care of, preserve, and archive their precious family photos.
Write to Our Studio
Old Photo Specialist
909 N. Elm St.
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 271-6960

Impasto is a painting technique in which the artists preferred pigment, which is most often oil painting, is applied so thickly to the canvas that the brush strokes or palette tool marks are clearly visible to the viewer. Only a very small number of artists ever attempt to take this type of technique to the extreme of using only the palette knife, and not the paint brush, to apply their paints to the canvas. It is an even rarer few who master this type of expert technique. It can take an artist of even advanced expertise many years to become proficient using this technique in this way.

Palette knife painting can be accomplished using acrylic paint pigments but oil painting with this type of tool really takes the technique to the highest level. Because of the longer drying time associated with this style of painting the artist is able to go back into the piece and rework sections and add deepening layers of pigment and detail to the fine art piece. Oil painting using the palette knife offers a unique way to add in both varying textures and colorful layers of paint rich in pigment and color while still expressing a rare energy. Fine art painting, because of the freedom it offers the artist, creates dramatic works of art that recreate movement and light in a way that few other painting techniques can hope to match.

Utilizing the palette knife in this unique way when oil painting offers the artist a freedom few can achieve when using the more conventional painting techniques. It frees the hand, as well as the mind, opening the painter’s ability to express themselves and allowing them to tap directly into their subconscious. Using the technique in painting for the past forty years, since being a student at the world renowned Vitebsk Art School, and credits palette knife painting with making it possible for the artist to capture his personal optimism and positive life perspective in his fine art landscape paintings, flower paintings, cityscapes, and music paintings which are all available in worldwide art gallery settings, at art auction, and as limited edition art prints. He has become such a well known master of the palette knife oil painting technique that his work is instantly recognizable and never imitable. It is impossible to mistake an palette knife oil painting for anything else.

Today Leonid Afremov has over 4,000 paintings, in 60 galleries all over the world in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Israel and the U.S. Afremov moved to the U.S. because of his art and his extraordinary ability as a person to help enrich the American Art Culture. The Afremovs launched a new art auction website in October 2008 where visitors can purchase his paintings directly from the artist starting at $1. For more information, visit: http://Afremov.com

When you are unhappy with the poor quality or totally inappropriate tattoo, tattoos often be removed. Never would certainly want to get in a position facing with the desire or the need to consider removing your tattoo. It is best to consider your permanent tattoo. Mine is not very nice and affordable choice, but if you made a mistake and has a tattoo that you would like removed, ask your doctor for a referral to a dermatologist. Visit a dermatologist to evaluate your options. Laser tattoo removal is often successful in completely eliminating a tattoo without much scarring. The laser removes tattoos from the skin by rapidly pressing a specific wavelength of light in the area. These wavelengths pass through the upper layers of the skin and are absorbed by cells containing the tattoo pigments. Because the light is blinking so fast that it breaks these pigment-filled cells, which are flushed naturally by the body. The laser tattoo removal is a long and costly. Another option is that the tattoo covered. Covering techniques are very advanced, a good tattooist can cover your tattoo with a first-class work of art. The only limitation is covering a tattoo that can only be covered with a darker color. Http: / / www.tattoo-symbol-design.com/ – simply the best place to explore and learn all about tattoos, tattoo ideas, tattoo design concept, tattoo supplies and equipment, etc.