1
The Airbrush Getaway is held at the Rio Hotel & Casino. The first day of classes was Tuesday September 28th. I arrived from New York on Monday, so I scoped out the area first. Talk about "sensory overload", I was geeking BIG TIME! The first thing I noticed was it hit triple digit temperature and I hadn't packed enough t-shirts. I spent a ton of bucks just eating and picking up some much needed necessities, so the machine I'd be "playing" the most would be an ATM.
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2
After roaming about the town, I wanted to see where the workshops would be conducted, so I ventured to the convention center and saw no markings of which room or rooms we'd be occupying.
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3
There's a raised medallion in the floor and I tripped over it, despite it only being about an eighth of an inch higher than the tiled portion. This caused me to look down and I spotted the arrows leading to where the classes would be held.
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4
Back out in the heat, Vegas is nothing like New York. The majority of buildings are hotels and casinos. I didn't see a Post Office until I hit the airport for the return trip. In New York, if you walk for half an hour, you'll come across anything you might be looking for. In Vegas if you walk for half an hour, you might see forty or fifty hotel/casinos, depending on how easily distracted you are. Caesar's Palace is the standard measure for a block, and it's said that it's a square mile. I'm not sure I believe it, but it is BIG!
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5
Okay, so the geatway is geared towards airbrushing but has expanded to other art forms. I was asked to make a couple of signs at my job, so I took the introductory Pinstriping & Sign Lettering course, followed by the advanced one. It's not every day I get to Vegas, so I'm in the "Bang 4 Buck" mode of thinking. The room was laid out with examples of what is being taught which =eye candy! Did I forget to mention that there's also a lingerie show being held down the hall?
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6
More examples of what can be done with a good teacher's guidance.
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7
My instructor is Jeff Styles, an accomplished pinstriper and Kustom painter. He got us started by teaching us about the various tools of the trade.
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8
We used sign blanks to practice this art on, and believe me, it is NOT easy by any stretch of the imagination.
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9
This is the kind of stuff it takes to become proficient at the striping game. My attention span is not enormous, so to do this until one gets good is against my "instant gratification" nature.
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10
Along with the lettering and striping, we got demonstrations from instructors of other classes about spray gun technique, using computer plotters, gold leafing, scrolling...again the sensory overload factor is ever present.
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11
I got to work on my initial design. This blank would eventually become covered with various doodles for lack of a better word.
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12
It's plainly obvious that I can easily go overboard. Here I masked off another idea for some further singage.
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13
You can see one project at the top of the panel, the music clefs at the bottom and the fireball in the middle, none of which are centered.
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14
I then slapped on some lettering.
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15
Jeff and Jen ( Who's last name I didn't catch) helped us with our weak points and pointed out various ways to overcome our difficulties. I leaned towards the signage, mostly because I was embarrassed at how badly I sucked at the pinstriping!
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16
I did get to do a "Blitz" the logo off my beloved Opel GT in silver leaf.
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17
This is the type of thing one can aspire to, I don't think I'll ever be this good.
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18
Some 1 Shot enamel helps make the edges look less ragged and helps the logo stand out.
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19
Some nice work by one of the other students.
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20
The member who did this has been striping for a while and took the class to help him overcome "bad habits". Everybody benefits at these retreats.
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21
If I can ever get to this ballpark, I'd be extremely surprised.
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22
Other student projects.
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23
While the instructors were working on demonstration pieces, some of which are raffled off at the end of the getaway, I spilled a cup of thinner over one of the panels rendering it back to a blank, black canvas. I got the idea for this lettering, something I'm a bit more comfortable doing.
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24
If it can hold paint, it can be pinstriped. This shot glass is a prime example. Other students had their cell phones, laptops, guitar picks, and anything else imaginable done up by the instructors.
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