Get into hobbies that can't be replaced by a computer, only augmented by one. Model rail is choc-a-bloc with airbrushing, as are miniatures. I got my Iwata airbrushes specifically for painting HO scale buildings, backdrops, and for weathering rolling stock
> It’s unfortunate that the airbrush has been cast aside by many artists in favor of Photoshop or Illustrator.
I don't think so. I used to do a lot of airbrushing, in the 1980s. I even had one of these[0].
I don't miss them at all. They were a huge pain in the ass.
[0] https://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Airbrushing/paasche-...
Ooh you had the Paasche Turbo. I nearly went for that one but decided to be sensible and got a Badger. Floating dual-action though, of course, and a stupidly overpowered reservoir compressor. Lots of stripdowns and cleaning fluid and cutting out frisk film with a scalpel. It was terrible. I should take it up again, it's probably a more artistic thing to do now it's not popular.
If you enjoy these kinds of shiny 80s style text logos, you will probably enjoy the video for the song "DVNO" by Justice:
"Today, you still find airbrush-inspired art in advertising that’s done digitally rather than with ink on paper. The digital art is a little too perfect though — the gradient blends are flawless, while an airbrush would give you the slightest inconsistencies that made it look more genuine."
I feel that way about so much digital painting and illustration now. Artists can work faster than they can with physical media, but the end result is always missing something when there are no happy accidents.
Ironic, because we didn't know the art was improved by the subtle texture of imperfections. We were totally going for maximum hyperrealism and clean precision. I had the same experience of craving an airbrush, obtaining an airbrush, then within a year seeing a demo of 32-bit color graphics editing (a museum had a computer set up for the public to try it out) and feeling silly.
Similar to CGI in movies. Yeah it's better in some ways ... but feels like they are often missing character.
The old films with model special effects they have a ton of life to them, more natural camera angles.
The picture of the gynoid is by Hajime Sorayama. He has a very distinct (and slightly NSFW) art style. I'm a computer graphics nerd and I've always been amazed by the curved chrome in his paintings. A lot of my hacky attempts at art tried to replicate that chrome style in Photoshop.
The Rio cover model, Marcie Hunt, originally appeared in Vogue Paris, February 1981: https://consequence.net/2024/06/duran-duran-rio-cover-model-...
I have explored many looks in my time as a digital artist specializing as Illustrator but the most delightful moments were when I looked at what I was doing and felt like I'd worked out how to quickly and effortlessly get a look that had everything I loved about the airbrush art of my youth, while sitting quietly under a tree in the park with my laptop and drawing tablet.
I like how it foreshadowed the overuse of chrome finish at the advent of CGI which probably culminated with the Terminator movie.
Which nerdy teenager in the 80s with a computer (or a lust for one) could forget the "Ultimate - Play the Game" logo? [0]
Anyone in the US really, they were mostly a Spectrum shop and that machine absolutely bombed in the US. C64 ports of their games exist, and some c64 exclusives, but I never saw ads for them in the three or four US c64 magazines I subscribed to.
Outside of the occasional software pirate, nobody in the US heard of them until they'd become Rare and been eaten by Nintendo.
A third option, used by HBO's famous Feature Presentation intro, was to construct a physical chrome object and film it, as happens with the flying HBO logo.