Airbrushing

Airbrushing is a technique traditionally used in painting and illustration to create photorealistic effects and manipulate image characteristics. Manual airbrushing techniques employ a small hand-held tool called a stylus, which is attached to an air compression canister with a connected paint supply. The artist uses a trigger on the tool to release atomized paint in small quantities and apply it to broad or targeted areas. Image editing computer programs capable of replicating airbrushing techniques in digital formats debuted during the 1980s and have since come into widespread use.

One of the defining features of manual airbrushing is its ability to blend and mix paints with precision to create seamless color effects. The technique was originally used by graphic illustrators before the Pop Art movement of the 1950s and 1960s imported airbrushing into the art world. Airbrushing also has a long and controversial history of use in advertising, where it has generated disapproval for facilitating manipulations of the human form that critics associate with unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards.

Brief History

The first airbrush patent was filed in 1876 by the entrepreneur and inventor Francis Edgar Stanley, namesake of the Stanley Steamer steam-powered automobile line that was popular during the early twentieth century. Stanley stylized his invention as an atomizer, characterizing it as a tool for making fine finishing adjustments to photographs. His atomizer was compatible with multiple pigment sources including watercolor paints, crayon, and India ink.

In 1881, Maine-based artist Leslie Curtis patented a different type of atomizer that was specifically designed for applying color to pictures. Curtis’s atomizer used electric bulbs and bellows to expose paint to pressurized air, atomizing it for precision distribution. The following year, Iowa-based inventor Abner Peeler created what he called a paint distributor for applying color pigments to various media. Peeler later sold his patent to the Walkup family, after which Liberty Walkup made various refinements before marketing Peeler’s invention to considerable success. In 1888, Walkup and his wife founded the Illinois Art School, which specifically taught art students how to create and refine images using Walkup’s airbrushing techniques. Walkup’s success invited increasing competition, with Chicago emerging as a leading center of the early US airbrush manufacturing industry.

In the 1930s and 1940s, graphic illustrators including George Petty and Alberto Vargas pioneered the use of airbrushing in pin-up art. Their work marked the beginning of airbrushing’s association with glamour modeling and signaled the technique’s expansion beyond aesthetic, practical, and industrial applications into the realm of marketing. The American artist James Rosenquist imported airbrushing into the Pop Art movement, where he used it to create images that replicated the visual quality of the graphic advertising common in the 1950s. British artist Barrie Cook later became well-known for using airbrush techniques in his abstract artwork.

Early forms of image manipulation computer software emerged in the early 1980s, facilitating the digital editing of images to create effects that replicated manual airbrushing. As computer technology advanced in the 1990s and early 2000s, such computer programs became widely available and commonly used by both professionals and laypeople. Though some artists continue to use manual forms of the traditional technique, airbrushing has since come to be strongly associated with digital image editing and manipulation technologies.

Overview

Modern manual airbrushes typically consist of a small, handheld stylus that loosely resembles a fountain pen. The stylus is outfitted with a small needle, which the user activates by pressing on a trigger-like button. Pressing the button lifts a needle to facilitate airflow within the airbrush, which allows for the atomization of the attached paint supply in controlled quantities. The paint supply is typically coupled with its dispenser via a direct container attachment, or within a separate storage unit connected to the dispenser with a hose.

The paint atomization process involves the high-speed distribution of compressed air through a narrow tubular opening known as a venturi. When the compressed air passes through the venturi, it flows across a recessed area where the dispenser connects to the attached paint supply. This generates a stark and sudden drop in air pressure, which forces the paint up the tube into the dispenser. During this process, the paint becomes atomized, which reduces its physical form into microscopic droplets.

Atomized paint has unique physical and visual properties. Its mist-like consistency allows users to blend colors together with greater ease and on minute scales, facilitating pinpoint control over the paint’s hue. It also enables artists and designers to apply paint with extremely fine detail capable of creating photorealistic effects. Many users opt for airbrushing techniques to perform finishing work, but airbrushes can also be configured to cover wide radii, to release atomized paint in patterned arrangements, or to increase or decrease saturation on the painted surface. Airbrushes typically use air pressurized to approximately 20 pound-forces per square inch (PSI), which equates to approximately 137,895 Pascals on the International System of Units (SI).

Artists and designers can choose from multiple available airbrush subtypes including single action, pistol grip, double action, and automatic trigger airbrushes. Single action airbrushes allow users to control the flow of both the compressed air and the paint within the unit with a single touch of the trigger button. Some single action units feature multiple settings, which enable the user to apply various levels of air pressure and paint flow. This design limits the level of control the user has over paint mixtures and airflow rates, making them more suitable for beginners seeking to build their familiarity with airbrushing techniques. Pistol grip airbrushes connect the compressed air and the paint to the trigger, which is outfitted with a pistol-like grip design commonly found on larger paint sprayers. Users can engage the trigger in two stages: the first stage, activated with a light trigger pull, engages the airflow mechanism while the second stage, activated with a strong trigger pull, releases the paint supply. Its two-stage design facilitates higher levels of precision control than single action airbrushes, but pistol grip models are still generally favored by new users who have not yet developed their proficiency with more advanced techniques. Double action airbrushes, which are typically preferred by skilled and experienced artists, use both pull and push mechanisms to control the airflow and paint distribution separately. The push mechanism activates airflow within the unit, while the push mechanism releases atomized paint. Users can increase or decrease the level of engagement associated with both processes to release greater or lesser quantities of pressurized air and atomized paint. Automatic trigger airbrushes use similar principles, but automate the airflow while facilitating manual control of the paint release. Thus, automatic trigger airbrushes are widely favored by intermediate-level users who have not yet mastered the more difficult techniques demanded by their double action counterparts.

Digital image manipulation programs typically include airbrushing tools as standard features. These tools allow users to edit images and render effects that approximate the fine detail and visual characteristics of atomized paint across areas of virtually any size. In many cases, digital artists use airbrushing techniques to render localized image edits by zooming in to a high level of image magnification and applying the airbrush tool to small sections. When viewed at full size, the portions of the image retouched with digital airbrushing tools are usually undetectable to the unaided eye.

Airbrushing has a broad range of artistic, commercial, and industrial applications. In industrial and commercial contexts, the technique is often used to execute custom paint designs, especially for automobiles. Manicurists and pedicurists also use airbrushes to create unique imagery or designs on fingernails and toenails, and airbrushing techniques are also used in the apparel industry to customize garments, handbags, and other fashion accessories. Fine artists use airbrushes to render details and create highly realistic image effects, especially in mural artwork. However, the technique is arguably best-known for its uses in photographic and digital image manipulation, especially in the advertising industry.

Prior to the rise of digital techniques, artists and graphic designers used airbrushes to manipulate and retouch photographs. In this context, airbrushing can be used to add or remove major visual elements, such as people, objects, and background details, from photographs. Airbrushing is also widely used to correct flaws and alter the physical characteristics of individuals depicted in photographs: common examples include removing scars, acne, and skin imperfections; changing the hue or intensity of a person’s eye color; altering the shape of brows, cheeks, noses, chins, and other facial attributes; making hair appear fuller and more lustrous; widening or elongating an individual’s body profile to make them appear plumper or thinner than they really are; and augmenting or otherwise altering the size, shape, and appearance of a person’s bodily features.

Given these capabilities, airbrushing has a long history of use in the advertising, entertainment, fashion, and beauty industries. In these contexts, proponents say that airbrushing is an effective way to create idealized imagery that resonates with consumers. Critics charge that airbrushing contributes to unhealthy body images by creating unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards, especially among preteen and adolescent girls and young women.

Impact

From a cultural perspective, airbrushing’s most profound impacts are products of its ubiquitous use in image-based marketing and advertising. Observers note that virtually all images featured in promotional and marketing campaigns feature some type of direct manipulation, either through airbrushing or similar techniques. Advertisers typically defend the practice on the grounds that it is their task to make products and services appear as appealing as possible to consumers. However, opponents contend that airbrushing contributes directly to multiple physical and psychological harms.

The most common example of negative effects associated with airbrushing derives from its widespread prevalence in retouched portrayals of the human body, especially the female body. It is commonly used to imbue celebrities and models with flawless features that reflect idealized beauty standards, especially with regard to thin body types. Some observers believe such images are a contributing factor to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. At its 2011 convention, the American Medical Association (AMA) voted to adopt an official policy discouraging the practice of airbrushing and other forms of image manipulation in advertising, especially in marketing images created for preteen and adolescent audiences. The AMA’s move was a direct response to concerns over airbrushing’s negative impact on the body images of girls and young women.

Airbrushing has also been criticized for its associations with ageism, as it can make older people appear much younger than they really are. Critics argue that these practices contribute to a culture of youth desirability that creates pressure to appear younger, especially in aging women. This, they contend, contributes to a continued pattern of unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards that follow consumers deeper into their life cycles.

While the problematic physical and psychological impacts of airbrushed advertising imagery are broadly perceived to have the most detrimental effect on women, they can also affect men. Male models and celebrities can be altered to appear leaner or more muscular than they really are, potentially contributing to a similar pattern of aspirational and unattainable standards of physical attractiveness and sex appeal.

In some cases, regulators have intervened to stop advertising campaigns that use airbrushing techniques to create excessively unrealistic imagery. For example, British media authorities banned a series of cosmetics advertisements issued by the French personal care and cosmetics giant L’Oréal in 2011. In its decision, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority stated that L’Oréal’s ad campaign was built around promoting results the company’s products could not realistically achieve, qualifying them for censure under the agency’s code of conduct standards.

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