Youth Incorporated Magazine

Yohan S Contractor shows you how to give your car or bike a makeover with a new kind of mobile art – airbrushing

A new craze in India that’s hit motorists young and old is airbrushing; a kind of graffiti that shows your creativity and expression on your car or bike. An airbrush is basically a unique spray gun; a device that takes in pressurised air from a cylinder and gently sucks in paint of preferred choice from a small reservoir-like container attached to the apparatus. This mixture is then fed into a tiny jet nozzle that can be changed or adjusted to increase or decrease the thickness of the paint fall that finally hits the surface. It’s a special tool that is more versatile than bigger spray guns or cans that one may use for graffiti on walls.

Airbrushing depends on the painter’s skill, creativity and labour to bring about the 3D realism that really makes this art form popular. Airbrushing is primarily done on cars and bikes using automotive paints, but it’s such a versatile form of art that it’s capable of bringing any object to life, such as a flower pot, a bench or a wall in a restaurant. An avid airbrushing artist, Saurab Shirke, thinks that this fad has just started in India and has many a year to go before it becomes passé. Shirke says, “The designs possible are infinite. Moreover, this is personalised art, catered exactly according to what the customer wants.”
Shirke feels that in our mechanised, industrial age, this art form allows one to express their unique individual personality and style. He says, “Today, unfortunately, machines are taking over every aspect of our lives. We too are living in a ‘machine,’ as the Pink Floyd song goes, of routine work and social expectations. Airbrushing is a combination, a union, of man and machine that allows one to transcend our mechanised limits.”
Airbrushing as a new media finds unique application in marketing. Extremely eye catching, its unique selling point is 3D realism, unlike print media which can be monotonous. Since it’s a customised service, a client or aficionado of art can get whatever design he or she desires on his or her car or bike, helmet or car. This personalised art is customised to each customer’s desires. One can make a picture out of anything that reflects the individual’s personality.
An airbrushing client, Naveen Ghosh, who has gotten a painting of death sprayed on his bike says, “This form of artwork is popular with the Indian public because we have full access to the art. It is not confined to the walls of some snooty gallery. People can physically touch and appreciate the art.”
The price of a good airbrush painting varies at the same rate as a good tattoo, depending on the material that is to be airbrushed, the detail of the drawing and the level of skill of the artist. Typically, prices start at Rs. 5,000 and go up to a lakh or more. For real aficionados of cars and bikes, airbrushing is a way to imprint their personality on to the vehicle they ride and show it to the world.
So go on, give your old car or bike a makeover today with airbrushing!

AIRBRUSHING IS SUCH A VERSATILE FORM OF ART THAT IT IS CAPABLE OF BRINGING ANY OBJECT TO LIFE, SUCH AS A FLOWER POT, A BENCH OR A WALL IN A RESTAURANT

-Yohan S Contractor

Volume 1 Issue 5