Airbrush Step By Step Magazine Issue 72

"According to an international study in 22 countries, more than half of all respondents have at least one pet – from cats to zebrafish. Those who like it bigger and wilder, go to the zoo or animal park – more than 700 million people worldwide every year. Whether fur, feathers or scales – animals are also among the favorite designs of airbrush artists, as their textures and colors offer plenty of artistic challenges.

However, they are not always your favorite pet or „cuddly friend". For example, this issue focuses on two snakes, a spider, a wolf and a kingfisher. Spanish artist José Luis Parada Caballero designed the cover artwork. He was fascinated by the complementary play of colors between the yellow and pink snake, the red and green cherries and the textures of the snake skin and the shiny surface of the fruit. Hugo Maciel was also enthusiastic about a snake winding around an airbrush. However, the Mexican did not use his design as a fine art work, but turned it into an advertising key visual for his business.

Marcus Brazel's cross spider will also probably have few friends in real life. Viewed with an artist's eye, however, it is full of textures and subtleties that invite for an enlarged photorealistic interpretation. The wolf by Hungarian artist Géza Nagy comes a little closer to the cuddly animal cliché – at least it is the artist's task to make the fur with all its different tufts of hair look realistic and "cuddly". The same goes for Idoia Urrutxurtu's kingfisher: its colorful plumage turns it into a decorative art object, which the Spanish artist created with all kinds of etching tools.

We hope you enjoy discovering and studying this "beastly" issue!"

Your ASBS Team