Levant - If you have an idea for an upcoming "Take This Job & Love It" email Chelsey at canderson@wabi.tv

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In May we introduced you to Brad Gillis, the Air Dragon from Levant.

He's been air brushing for over 15 years, and insisted to Joy Hollowell that he can teach anyone to do it.

So Chelsey Anderson decided to take him up on the offer for this month's "Take This Job & Love It."

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Brad Gillis, Air Dragon: "Starting to learn the air brush you've got to learn the basic strokes. You want to start with a dot."

Brad: "Put your air on and just pull back until you've got paint."

Brad: "Get right in there. Don't be scared of it. Notice I'm leaving the air on."

Brad: "And the second stroke you have to learn is the dagger stroke. And it's really the same mechanic except now you are going to move."

Brad: "Start you're motion. Pull back. Let off again. And then the third stroke you're just going to take one of these and blend out. Then you have the fourth one. Which is the line. And those are the four basic strokes and if you can paint those you can learn to paint any of this stuff here."

Once I felt comfortable with the basic strokes Brad pulled out a tshirt that had a stencil on it. This would be a three step stencil project.

Brad: "Gonna paint a pink nose. Just spray in there." Chelsey: "Just fill it?" Brad: "Just fill it."

Brad: "Going to go back to the black you had before and you're going to do the eyes."

Next we pulled the stencil back so I could fill in the background with sand, pebbles, and grass.

Brad: "Now we'll put the cat color in."

We changed our stencil so the background would be protected from the orange color I would be using.

Brad: "You want to get a little light down here for his paws. But you want a little color because if not the white on white won't show." Chelsey: "okay."

Chelsey: "So I'm going to color it in." Brad: "Just color it in."

Chelsey: "Is it too light?" Brad: "I would throw a little bit more paint on there. Don't be afraid to fill in some color."

Brad: "You know if you stand back and just move it quick it will blend it." Chelsey: "Like up and down?"

Brad: "Now we're going to put some spots on that puppy. And just fill in the black." Chelsey: "okay."

Last I filled in the eyes with green.

After the paint dries I'll iron over the design and the tshirt is ready to wear and safe to wash.

So could I be hired for this job?

Brad: "Definitely. You really picked it up quick. You come up with something really good. You've got a good basic control of the air brush in half hour, forty-five minutes. With practice you really could be a painter." Chelsey: "Thanks a lot. I think this is something I'm going to try again." Brad: "Well good!"
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If you'd like more information on Gillis' work or would like any help getting started in air brushing, you can log onto airdragon.com, or give him a call at 884-2037.

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