Raphael Schnepf, known in the day as Bob, is working on a new series of fused and airbrushed glass pieces. Known in the 60s for his rock posters and album covers, he migrated from the San Fran area to Humboldt where he met Dan Legree of Savoy Studios. He learned the art of glass painting and spent 25+ years working with them on large architectural installations. After begging off the lead based paints for health reasons, Raphael searched around for another way to create the same light magic.

A friend, Peter McGrain had developed a technique of fusing colored glasses and using traditional lead free paints to create images. Using this technique Raphael created a new style that he has been using for the last year.

Here’s a step by step of one of his latest called “Turbana”.

1) Building layers of Uroboros glass and frit over a drawing..

2) In the kiln ready to fire to full fuse.

3) 2nd firing with brushed trace black image.

4) 3rd firing starting to build airbrush matt.

5) After final firing (8 firings total).

Wow Raf, this is a gorgeous piece. Thanks for sharing. We look forward to more great stuff from your studio.

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All images in this post were provided by Raphael Schnepf at RSchnepf.com and are © 2008 copyright Raphael Schnepf. Used by permission.

Our friend Daniel Power from Melbourne, Australia recently sent us pics of his Chrysler 300 project. This car was painted by Troy at AAA Bodyworks in Melbourne, Australia with House of Kolor ‘Galaxy Grey’ on the top portion of the car over the factory metallic black that remains on the bottom of the car. The two dynamic colours are divided by a 1 inch graphic stripe of House of Kolor marblizer with PPG kandy overlay.

The trunk lid in process in Daniel Powers’ studio.

Daniel created the design in Photoshop and airbrushed it onto the trunk lid over three days. The car took out “Best 300C” at a Chrysler show in Victoria, which was held just 2 days after the trunk went back onto the car. The show had over 1000 Chrysler cars in attendance. More of Daniels work can be found at www.airbrushpower.com.

Check out some of Daniel’s YouTube videos and watch a master at work:

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All images in this were provided by Daniel Power - © 2008 Daniel Power. Used by permission.

In our last post, we teased you with our mention of Project Raven, or as Bob Spina is calling it… the Raven Bike. With this post we’ll tease you some more. We say ‘tease’ because the Raven Bike isn’t quite complete, but we want to share it with you, and Mike Morgan of Wasilla, Alaska (the bike’s proud owner), as a work in process (WIP). So, sans fairing and a few small not-quite-finished-pieces, we’re sharing what we have of this spankin’ new ‘08 Harley-Davidson Street Glide. We’ll bring you the complete bike soon with some nice outdoor shots.

First off, Bob tricked a couple of matching lids for bike owner Mike Morgan aka ‘Ol Skool’ and special passenger Diane…

complete with variegated gold leaf borders trimin’ colorful flames to match the bike.

New-Skool cool for ‘Ol Skool’ Mike.

Color — and lots of it.

Beautiful job Bob - we can’t wait to see her finished.

Above: Bob Spina and A.D. Cook - 1/3/08

Stay tuned for the completed Raven Bike soon.

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Bob Spina - Paint to the Max
Las Vegas, NV (702) 239-2823

Santa wasn’t the only one working late on Christmas eve as I completed my most recent painting: “Ardor” 48″ x 36″ on canvas prepared with gesso as outlined in my article:

“Creating the Perfect Ultra-Smooth Canvas for Airbrush”

My model for this painting is the beautiful Liz Ashley from a recent photo shoot with her in Las Vegas, NV. Track back to that post.

Heavy Metal artist Michael Calandra is our current MySpace featured artist. Michael is a prolific airbrush artist and illustrator and he is also very generous with his Work in Progress articles which he routinely posts on his MySpace blog. Michael has given us permission to post one such article right here on Airbrush Tour.

“This is step one of my new painting featuring model Julie Kim (she’s in my top 40). It is just drawn out at this stage.”

“This is step two. Here I have worked with airbrush into the face and upper body. You can see how the airbrush layers color to model the skin. If you play lights and darks with colors, you can get a photographic effect.”

You can see I have worked into her body with the airbrush.
I had to mask off the whole lower body with a frisket, then cut out only the clothing.
I sprayed the clothing and replaced the pieces of frisket.
Then, I cut out the tattoos and airbrushed that area.
After I removed all the frisket, I worked at modeling her body and skin tone.
The crystal ball was masked off and slowly colored. Highlights were erased with an electric eraser.”

“Here is the next step. I have added background colors and smoke. Then I masked off the lanterns to airbrush them.
I added details to her wings, clothing, and body art.
She is getting close to being finished, but I am still working out background details.”

“Here you go folks. New art just completed! Thanks to my wonderful model Julie Kim! ”

To learn more about Michael Clandra and his art, visit him online at MySpace.com/Michael Calandra.

Other MySpace featured artists on AirbrushTour.com

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All images in this post are copyright © 2007 Michael Calandra. Used by permission.

Remind you of anyone? It’s Dennis Mathewson’s vision of Bob Spina as a tiki-god. Dennis has cosmically captured Bob’s essence - everything, including the beard. What’s more is this tiki is now adorning Bob’s faring on his new Harley-Davidson Street Glide.

Here’s more pics for your viewing pleasure…

The finished piece. Nice work, Dennis!

We should mention that this bike is a work-in-progress as well. The Tiki is the first of many cool graphics planned for this bagger. Bob is painting the rest of the bike and it’s going to be ready to wow the masses at the upcoming SEMA show. So keep your feed fresh for the follow-up on this project.

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All photos for this post are copyright © 2007 Dennis Mathewson - Cosmic Airbrush

View more of Dennis’ Tiki art here.

So I’m on the phone with a buddy of mine, the legendary Bob Spina who got his start a [long] while back apprenticing under Big Daddy Roth, and we’re chatting about our current projects. And it turns out that his is nothing less than the new Hummer Limo for The Little White Chapel here in Las Vegas, which is appropriate since Bob is known as ‘Vegas’.

I had to stop by his shop and take a look at this ‘not-so-little’ masterpiece only hours from its completion. It turns out that Bob did the work on the chapel scenes, flowers and striping and he called Fonzy in for the airbrush work on the figures. Lettering was done by Ross Hurdle.

Bob Spina, artist at large, wrapping up one huge project.

Fonzy used Bob’s likeness on the driver’s side panel mural - and that’s Bob’s Harley-Davidson Dyna Lowrider too. And the lady friend… looks a little young to us - lol.

Want to know a secret? If you turn out the lights, the rings on this couple’s fingers glow in the dark. That’s right - glow in the dark art on a Las Vegas Hummer Limo. Not only the rings but the lights on the chapel and many of the highlights on every mural. Bob’s secret weapon is Alsa’s Super Glow product. Nice effect, Bob! A truly mammoth project executed with expert style and finesse. Just what you’d expect from a master.

The upside of Vegas weddings… they’re fast…

…so hold on. (great job Fonzy with the airbrushed murals)

We can’t wait to see this beast unwrapped and roaming the streets of Las Vegas.

The view from the back, sans tin cans and rice.

One last view of the driver’s side mural painted by Fonzy.

Kudos Bob on this great project — Painted to the Max entirely with Alsa paints and additives on this beast. Lookin’ to dress up your limo? Contact Bob at Paint to the Max (702) 239-2823

Looking to get hitched in Vegas and want to roam the town in The Little White Chapel’s new cool limo?… then call them at (702) 387-5743. As a side note, Kathy and I got married there a while back (1983)… but their limo was a tad smaller and plain white then. Airbrush… changing the face of matrimony everywhere.

Last year at the Bakersfield Thunder Run in California, we met a talented airbrush artist - Lisa Berczal. She was painting tattoos on bikers who couldn’t commit to something more permanent. And while her art may be a bit more temporary, the application is also a bit less painful - quite a bit less actually - okay, none. Given that, we thought we would share her magical process with you.

Lisa also does some really beautiful airbrush work on sheet metal of the American iron variety — visit Lisa’s website at BattleDress.biz