Layered Airbrush Artist

In under 2 years this self taught artist has been creating richly detailed works of art on everything from toilet seats, bicycles, musical instruments, to motorcycles, sand rails, cars and trucks.

Bret picked up some Craig Fraiser videos and House of Kolor paints and got busy on friends and family projects. He looks to Autographics and Airbrush Action magazines for inspiration and new techniques.

Without a shop, he had to learn fast when the opportunity came about to use a friends spray booth. He uses complimentary color shading techniques he learned in his Graphic Design training. Complimentary color shading creates much richer darks than simply mixing black with colors to create shades.

He went to Coast Airbrush to enroll in classes and upon review of his portfolio they said he had the skills that they taught.

Brets first car project was a black Dodge Ram pickup. It got Brets treatment with 6 layers of blue and a bit over 16 hours of painting on top of the stock black paint. The blue flames and Rams skull create a bitchen dynamic and cool ghostly appearance.

Note the blue sand rail in the accompanying photos of graphics that Bret painted on top of blue powder coated sheet metal. The owner wanted a Vegas theme. Bret first presented pencil sketches of thematic elements including a Joker with a hand of aces. Then he painted the graphics on a sign plank for approval before he lays paint on the sheetmetal.

Look next month for a How-To article on layering 6 layers House of Kolor Candy blue to create some sick flames and skulls on a Harley Road King.

You can reach Bret via his website www.BDCustomGraphics.com or calling him at: 714-376-6496.

T-Bone