TrackBack to our post about the Rally In The Valley for more pics of our great models and some exotic cars.

Happy Halloween everybody!

This year was the silver anniversary of the annual Love Ride event. Our buddy Charlie Brechtel was there as an entertainer and media - Sturgis Rider Live interviewer. Man - that guy is busy.

Muscular Dystrophy Association, Reading by 9, Special Olympics, Scleroderma, Big Brothers - Big Sisters, Diabetes Institute and many other important organizations benefited from this year’s event.

The Charlie Brechtel Band joined ZZ Top and Foo Fighters as musical acts providing rock-n-roll for the masses.

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

Charlie Interviews Jay Leno.

Jay served as Grand Marshall for the Love Ride 25 - and all the Love Rides since 1985.

Sabrina Brechtel joins Peter Fonda, Honorary Grand Marshall of the event for a photo.

Charlie and Sabrina with Robert Patrick, Honorary Grand Marshall.

Charlie and Sabrina with Larry Hagman

And a good time was had by all at the Love Ride.

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Photos © Jerry Southworth and courtesy of Sturgis Rider Live.

We thought you might enjoy this little clip from our buddy and airbrush legend Raphael Schnepf. It’s a quick taste of what you get in the video “Airbrushing from Scratch“.

Raphael also demonstrates how to draw and transfer your image.

As well as lots of masking techniques….

This is a great instructional video, especially if you’re a beginner or intermediate artist - and if you don’t have it in your collection you may want to pick up your copy at AirsSource today and start Airbrushing from Scratch.

Visit Raphael Schnepf’s web site.

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The Bay Areas Airbrush Don is here. Only this Don is Owner/Artist De Andre who sells locally, nationally and internationally, thru his website airballin.com. Formally the owner of “The Ave” an urban airbrush shop located in Oakland, California opened in 2004. He got his reputation by doing t-shirts for and networking with the who’s who of the hip hop community.

Snoop Dogg

He has been featured in Black Beat, Vibe, Showcase, Mass Appeal and Hoodstar magazines, and The Oakland Tribune, VBLAZIN Magazine online and other online art and hip hop sites. His work has been featured and displayed on BET’s Rap City, MTV’s My Block and KRON 4 News segments, along with countless stage shows and music videos.

Bob Marley, pencil art by De Andre

Known for his high detailed portraits, self taught with no formal training De Andre has been drawing and into art for about the past 10 years, he has been making his living from art for the past six years. He began with drawing pencil portraits for friends and family for fun which turned into a small business. In 2003 he saw and met another local artist who showed him the ropes of airbrushing. Nine months airballin.com and “The Ave” was launched.

His pencil work is mostly done with a simple #2 pencil and a 4b pencil for the darks on watercolor papers.

He prefers Aqua Flow black and white. And for colors he uses a mixture of Createx and Aqua flow, for the most part whichever is most convenient to obtain when needed. He probably owns over 100 airbrushes and he uses mostly the Thayer Chandler Vega 2000 airbrush guns for his t-shirt works. Often criticized for the use of those airbrushes amongst his peers who tend to use higher quality airbrush guns, his response is “it’s not the airbrush, its the artist. Simply because I am running a business, airbrush guns are disposable to me. So Vegas become that low maintenance disposable gun that gets the job done and I just buy new ones when they don’t perform as I like them to do because they are so cheap” For fine detailed high end automotive work I will bring out the Iwata airbrushes!”

Pretty much in a self imposed retirement from airbrushing. “The Ave ” has closed. He’s even limiting the online orders to a minimum. He has gotten into body painting in 2008 and he is currently teaching art and airbrushing at Berkeley Tech High school.

He has begun tattooing and hopes to be able to accomplish the same artistic credibility in tattooing as he did in airbrushing.

Jimi on a rockin’ guitar.

No Joker when it comes to body art. We especially like this one. Tell your friends.

The shoes are cool too.

You can contact De Andre or view his work through one of his many sites or links:

• airballin.com
• MySpace.com/airballinattheave
• MySpace.com/immortal_images
• ModelMayhem.com/airballin

Sturgis Rider Live girls with Randy Simpson of Milwaukee Iron celebrating the at “I Ride” wrap party in San Francisco.

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How to Save Your Relationship

8/20/08 - The American Society of Young Musicians (ASYM), Las Vegas Chapter, hosted the 1st Annual “Live in Las Vegas” Music Benefit Concert & Awards at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

We were there to celebrate with our friends Ria & Robey Taute from Madame et Monsieur who were receiving the Musicians Angels Advocate Award. Presenting were Jennifer Jay and Saeed Ghorbani.

Also receiving awards were B.B. King (who still looks great at 83 by the way), Wayne Newton, Marvin Sapp, Leigh Jones, Bobby Tinsley, Justin Timberlake, War, Good Charlotte and Diane Shuur. It was a truly ‘Vegas’ evening.

Here it is - one last reminder. The Learning & Product Expo is upon us!

Join artist and instructor A.D. Cook at the upcoming Learning & Product Expo…

Immerse yourself in a unique experience for artists where you can visit an exhibit hall packed with art material manufacturers and choose from a program of 200 art classes. A consumer show for visual artists takes place in Pasadena, CA, October 24-26 at the Pasadena Conference Center.

Stock up on art supplies at low prices! Enter juried art shows! See free demonstrations!

Learn airbrush techniques with Instructor A.D. Cook - Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Classes.

Classes begin October 23rd. Register now to reserve your spot.

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You’ve heard of Top Chef and American Idol… get ready for TOP ARTIST!™ Join attendees and artists center stage at the Free Demonstration area for Quick Draws, Quick Paints and lots of laughs. Come see who will get crowned TOP ARTIST!™ and win great prizes from the sponsors. Think you have the right stuff to compete?

ARTISTS! ENTER THE JURIED ART SHOW
Take this opportunity to enter slides or digital images of your artwork to be considered for The Learning & Product Expo: Art! Juried Art Show.

Click here to learn more about the Pasadena Learning & Product Expo: Art!

Click here for A.D.’s instructor profile and class schedule.

Click here to register.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there.

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Kudos and congrats to our friends at Adrenaline Products for the launch of their new site, and for winning the 2008 NATS, Q-500 with their new plane, the Q-500 Ninja.

The all composite Q500 for AMA Class 428 is as close to “Ready To Fly” as you will ever get! This fast and furious flyer is ready to race in one night.

Imagine how cool yours will be with a little airbrush art. Get your Q-500 Ninja, available in yellow, red/orange and white, and custom paint it to make it your own, or order it custom painted by airbrush legend Mike Lavallee direct from Adrenaline Products.

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While visiting the airbrush students and instructors at the recent Airbrush Getaway in Las Vegas, I met a man who is changing the world… one student at a time. Roger Scovell is the Airbrush Instructor at Derby High School in Derby, Kansas, where they have an amazing program for up-and-coming artists. I was so taken by his story that I invited him to share it with us - and you - in his own words. We hope you enjoy this post and find inspiration in it as we have.

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I believe that my greatest contribution to education would be my airbrush curriculum and the use of instructional strategies that enable students to experience a skill that is not taught anywhere else at a high school level but is highly sought after in the technical fields. My airbrush program provides job marketability along with mature social skills of patience, responsibility, integrity and the ability to work as a team. I give my students the chance to be creative and experience a new form of art that is not only technical, but also crosses the boundaries of traditional and nontraditional. I like my students to think outside of the box, to not accept what is already there, but to envision what is possible. Because of my interest and passion in the field of airbrush, I can bring my skills as a professional airbrusher into my classroom to share with my students. I believe that because of the passion my students have for airbrushing, the industry will continue its influential growth not only in the arts, but also in the industrial sector. The growth and the demand for highly skilled workers will also continue.

From the infancy of my airbrush program in Herington, Kansas, to teaching 20 years of airbrush at Derby High School, much positive growth has been made. In these years, some of the accomplishments I have made in the field of airbrush include: developing a custom airbrush internship with Big Dog Motorcycle Company in Wichita; partnering Derby High School in corporate sponsorship with Iwata-Medea, which is one of the largest manufactures of airbrush equipment in the world; writing airbrush curriculum and assessments that are used in Kansas at the state level for teacher certification in this field; and, writing curriculum used at national technical colleges including Wyoming Technical and Virginia Technical Colleges.

It seems only natural to continue learning, honing my skills and passing the knowledge on to others.

Another of the things I’ve done to contribute to/or accomplished in education is that I try to pass on any knowledge or wisdom I have onto my students in order to better prepare them for their future. Many of my students have gone on to complete college, to start their own airbrush businesses or work in corporations utilizing the knowledge they have learned in my courses.

In turn, some of them will come and speak to my classes about the importance of their education and experience in the real world of work.

I do not strive to change the whole world, I just want to make a positive difference in my world, and in my student’s world and with people that I might influence along the way. I want to give my students hope, partnered with skills they can use so that they too can make a difference one person at a time. I believe that their creativity and their artwork, when seen by others, will share their vision and their hope.

Philosophy of Teaching
I believe that a teacher needs to be someone that can problem solve, make wise split second decisions, be aware of the world around them and then make that judgment call knowing that it may affect people around them. Teaching has a snowball effect, what you present, both in your lessons and your personality, will make a difference in the lives you touch everyday, and in turn may influence how students act or react. Students are personable, they have their own lives to deal with, good or bad, they don’t need the drudgery of just going through the motions of doing busy work. Teaching what I do every day to me is not a job, it’s a chance to explore new ideas with my students. I believe that students come into a new classroom as “rocks”, students that shut off school learning, or “sponges”, students that absorb the knowledge that you put before them. It is up to us to try and change those “rocks” into “sponges”. I don’t want to lose sight that students also have difficult days and that my class is not the only thing in their lives. A teacher should try to make their subjects interesting to both them and their students, everyone learns better in an upbeat atmosphere.

In twenty-five years I have never found teaching to be a grind, I have never awakened not wanting to be at school with my kids. I like to experience the day-to-day changes where there is problem solving and where the teacher and the students learn together. I don’t think I am any more outstanding of a teacher than anyone else.

I do what I can and what I must do in order to make a difference in my school and in my students lives. My students depend on me to guide and prepare them well for their life experiences. Some will try my patience, but they’re still mine to guide. A teacher’s actions and voice will speak volumes to a student. I choose to make my voice a positive one.

My classroom is a safe environment, where attitudes are checked at the door, a room where students are not criticized for who they are, what they wear and they are not afraid to ask questions about the subject or life. No one person should keep anyone else from having a learning and growing experience. There are students that come with barriers, sometimes that means helping to bring down the barrier, or unpack the luggage that may keep them from having that learning experience. A good teacher must be able to pick their battles, knowing when to intervene and when to back off. A teacher may make these calls many times a day and with these calls, influence the class and the opportunity for learning.

Outside of the subject matter, my students know that I am a good listener and will not judge them. Sometimes a student is excited about something good that happened to them and other times it might be something that is bothering them that is beyond their understanding or control and just want someone to talk to. I believe that being able to present your subject in an understanding, but exciting manner and being a good listener are the first steps to being a good teacher. These are things I do everyday with my students.

I know how hard it is to learn something totally new, I am self-taught in the skill of airbrushing. I started my program from scratch twenty-five years ago, learning and researching everything I could get my hands on and spending countless hours and years honing my airbrush and problem solving skills.

I created my airbrush curriculum and competencies from experience and knowledge, which the State of Kansas and the Federal Government has approved, in order to make my classes totally Tech supported. The State of Kansas also used these in order to make the final airbrush test that I took to receive my Technology License. My classes and teaching have come a long way from that first day, and I strive to obtain more knowledge every day.

Student Learning Activities
Students learn through different styles of teaching. My teaching style incorporates auditory, visual, and hands on learning. By teaching these methods in all of my lessons, I feel that my LD through Gifted students have a better chance of success.

In my Airbrush classes I teach techniques not just projects. When a student copies a subject for the sake of the lesson I feel that the student may only remember how to do that particular project but not how the technique can be incorporated in something else. I teach my students the techniques used to create an assignment and then open their minds to the possibilities that it holds in other applications and in the real world. They will remember the technique because they can visualize using it in something they can relate to, or because it is a less daunting task when they can connect with it.

Students need to see the light at the end of the tunnel and not get overwhelmed too soon. So I will take a harder technique and break it down into small sections. I believe that people in general only comprehend and remember a few number of steps at a time, therefore I give my students no more than three steps at a time. Any more than these and they will remember the first step and the last and will loose everything in between. Before they know it they have a finished piece that contains several steps and techniques. We have fun with it!

I believe in using the latest technology to help my students be more successful. My room contains twenty-four airbrush stations, each with ventilation. With six periods per semester I can reach approximately two hundred eighty-eight students a year.

A thirty-two inch HD monitor is mounted high on two walls and one thirty-inch monitor is located at the front of the room. I project what I need for my students to see on the monitors using a station that includes an “Elmo” and “Ken-a-Vision” (HD audio video camera), a microphone and audio mixer, DVD and VHS players, and a DVD recorder to record the demonstrations. Being able to record the airbrush demonstrations has been a dream of mine form many years that has come into a reality. There are many reasons for doing this; one of which is to facilitate lessons for students that miss the live demonstrations. A student can place the DVD recording in any computer and get the same information as all of the other students.

Since a number of students have purchased their own airbrush equipment, having the DVD recording available for checkout will make it possible for them to further practice and hone their skills at home. Another reason is so that students can review a technique or lesson at any time for their benefit. The technology equipment helps my students to see and hear every detail of the lesson clearly. We will be placing the recorded demonstrations and lessons on our school airbrush website, and future plans are to “Podcast”, (digital-media files which are distributed over the internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers), the lessons and demonstrations for the students. We also have a 30” vinyl cutter for some airbrush projects and a 45” large format printer to create portfolios of the students work to show potential employers the skills of the student.

The key parts of a typical lesson would be as follows: I show my students an example of what the lesson could look like when we are finished. This will give them an idea or goal of what to expect. Next I talk about the techniques and tools involved in the lesson; why we are using them and suggest how they could be used in the real world and on the job. I will demonstrate to my students no more than three steps at a time, checking for clarification and understanding at each step. After reviewing the steps one more time before starting, the students will proceed to work on these steps in their projects. An example of each step will be shown on the monitors or posted so that all students can review and confirm if needed.

While the students are working I go about the room to help individuals who have questions and problems, again checking for understanding of the procedure. This process will continue until the project is completed. After the lesson is over the students and I will critique the projects together and have a question and answer session. During the critique I cover what I feel we need to work on and what we accomplished in the project. Students will have time once again to reflect on how the project could be used outside of class. If I feel that we need more instruction in order to be proficient in the technique or lesson, we will do it over again, strengthening what we have learned.

Education Issues and Trends
Public education is facing many serious issues at this time in our history. Issues such as teacher shortages, mandatory testing, meeting the needs of cultural diversity, the student dropout rate, and students lacking motivation are among them. I believe student motivation is the key to solving many of these other issues.

The building blocks of our country are our children. We need to motivate students to become lifelong learners and successful, contributing members of a community. Our nation’s success comes from our children, not just what happens to them in the future, but what we do for them today, this hour. We must learn from our past, make the hard decisions and be strong enough to do what is truly right for our children. It is not enough for a small group of people to carry out this mission, it is within every one of us to make a difference. More and more I see us turning into a society of reactionaries, seeking instant gratification. We have taken the old expression “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” to a literal degree. What is wrong with doing something because it is the right thing to do without looking for something in return? Our children have great eye hand coordination from playing video games and they are able to recite a commercial word for word, but without a sense of commitment and purpose to something more important that helps them to be better people, it seems pointless.

I have often thought that common sense is not common any more; it seems to be a scarce commodity. Today a student is more like a rock than a sponge, where you have to chip away at the barriers and unpack the baggage they bring with them. From a very early age, society tells them what not to do, in fear that they cannot make a decision for themselves. When they meet the reality that our fear of their failure has actually become an expectation of failing, we are disappointed and wonder what went wrong with the child.

So what is the answer to motivating students of today? Each day in the news we hear of gang activity, cults, and groups whether they are of a positive nature or not. That should tell us something about our youth. Children need and want to belong. If there is not a positive role model or someone to give them boundaries, they will seek out other, sometimes less positive ways to belong. Some kids are so isolated, living in their own space, that it is terrifying for them to interact with anyone for fear of rejection or ridicule. They may lash out because being alone is safer than dealing others.

I give my students goals and high expectations to reach, and a reason to be successful. My students own their behavior when they walk into my room, whether good or bad, they know what is acceptable in my class and what is not. I give my students respect and I don’t pre-judge them. In turn, I gain their respect. My students are encouraged to be good listeners, seekers of knowledge and to be problem solvers so they can evaluate and think for themselves.

As a teacher I try to connect with my students, to find their interests and use them to strengthen their social skills and their lessons. I want them to be creative, to feel the connection of turning on the right side of the brain and getting lost in their work. I firmly believe that students need classes like mine, hands on classes that strengthen both their skills and their minds. My students want what I can give them as a role model; direction, knowledge, safety, and a sense of responsibility. It is too often easier to give in to the whim and ignore the needs of students. I present and teach my lessons in a way that my students want more and do not want to miss my classes. They feel a need to be in school and this is what I want.

There needs to be a balance between allowing students to do what they love and having them take tests to tell us what they know for the purposes of adequate yearly progress. They retain things that interest them. Students need a place where there is something to look forward to, a place where being in school and learning is safe, fun, and rewarding to the heart and the mind.

Intentions are only as good as our actions. I feel that I can make a difference in the lives of my students with my actions. As I stated earlier, “I want my students to be sponges of knowledge, not isolated rocks”.

If I can motivate more students to learn by giving them something they value, test scores should rise, attendance issues would diminish, individuals might be more motivated to enter the teaching profession, and the numbers of students dropping out because they have no place in school to belong should decrease.

We as educators must be ambassadors of our profession! We must get the community involved, not only in our schools but also in our classrooms. By community, I mean starting with the parent. We need to create new opportunities for parents to see the positive side of what our students and we as professionals have accomplished in our programs.

A parent is more likely to be interested in what their child is doing in our classrooms than in the school as a whole, as that is what affects them directly. Educating the parents to the workings of our classes opens them up to a better understanding of what the whole school can offer their child in the way of an education. Don’t overwhelm a parent with what the district has to offer, instead show them the new technology you may have in your room and how their child is using it. Or offer to show them how you teach a particular lesson, make it simple but exciting. We must use our soft skills to get them involved.

Many times the parents are surprised at the level of technology and expertise that we have in our classrooms, commenting, “I wish they had that when I was in school”, or “that makes so much since now that I have seen it in action”.

Our excitement for teaching will set the tone. They will look at us with a new sense of importance; they can see that we are trying to make a difference in their child’s life. They may even become genuinely interested in learning more about our classes and how they may help. If the parent shows an interest in helping, find a way they can become involved, even in a simple way, after all it is the connection to our classes that is important.

We often think, “If I could only get some support from home…”, I believe it all starts by educating the parents that we all want the best for their children and showing them what we have to offer. This knowledge and understanding will be shared with others they encounter, thus bringing more of the community together in the interest of educating the children. It does take a village to raise a child, and parents working with schools make a stronger village, thus bringing out the full potential of each child.

above: Roger Scovell, Instructor

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All images and text in this post were provided by Roger Scovell, Airbrush Instructor and
Tech. Dept. Chair, Derby High School. Most images in this post are the work of his students. Used by permission.

Award-winning artist Chris Palin’s approach to art surprises, delights and inspires art aficionados of all ages. Considered an “Urban Contemporary Artist”, Palin is a student of the dramatic and a believer that “life is art.” Inspired by the life that swirls around him, he brings every brush stroke to life with color and intensity.

Join Chris Palin Thursday, November 6, 2008, from 5pm to 8pm at Robert W. Baird & Co., 14648 North Scottsdale Rd., Suite 175, Scottsdale, AZ

Cocktails & hors d’oeuvres
Live entertainment
Creative art exhibit featuring the work of Chris Palin

R.S.V.P.
Please call Chantel Brown at (480) 624-2300 by October 27.

Click here to visit Chris Palin online.