Airbrush Basics
By Andre 2005

The airbrush is one of the best tools for painting a variety of craft and hobby items. When equipped with an air compressor as the air source, it becomes like a never-ending spray can, with the added benefits of control of the air pressure and of the paint amount. An airbrush can be used to paint plastic models, rc airplanes, t-shirts, nails, and many other items.

How does an airbrush work? Like anything that delivers a fine spray of paint or solvent, it uses Bernoulli�s principle. Air moving at higher velocity has lower pressure. If this air stream happens to be near but above a solvent (e.g. paint), the solvent will be drawn upwards, towards the fast moving air. When it gets to that stream of air, the solvent gets broken up into fine particles, and is blown in the direction of the airstream...More

Art and Design
by Lise Richards

Maybe you’ve faced it before – a new house with an empty room or two. This room is just crying out for some furniture. So off you go to purchase a sofa you admire - then a chair. Or perhaps you purchase a full living room set complete with tables and rugs. With delivery a few weeks off you can just picture your living room (and not surprisingly, it looks just like the showroom). The delivery day arrives and you can’t wait to cut the tags off of your new furnishings. You may have to position the sofa a few times to get it just so, but all in all, you’re pretty satisfied – until you notice there’s no art on the wall. And so you decide to buy some art that matches the sofa. I cringe a little while I write this, but in reality that is how many of us choose art. In fact, little confession, I still have art in my house that I bought because the frames matched!...More

The Basics of Collecting Art: Fine Sculpture
By Shannon Southway

Fine sculpture is a staple of the art world. Many, however, mistakenly find it to be something reserved for museums and professional collectors. They may find it too large or delicate for home or personal display. On the contrary, sculpture is a fine art that should be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates emotionally rich and ascetically pleasing art. The next time you attend an art fair or browse through an online gallery consider a fine sculpture purchase.

Colour Your World With Art
By Gail Miller

When you buy art, you may think you not consciously choosing a colour scheme so much as buying something which appeals to your eye. You may prefer certain subjects for your pictures, such as land or seascapes, but certain colours, which do appear in these types of painting do evoke inner feelings and emotions. We know that some colours are calm and restful, some are hot, fiery and emotive.
 
Apart from colours used in actual artworks, it is easy to change the look of a picture with the window mount or frame used for it's display. Certain colours which may be used to mat a picture with can appear to alter colours used in the execution of a painting. You will not see this unless you actually place different coloured mountboards around a painting. Then you will see how different a painting can look. By selecting the correct colour mount, you can make a good painting look fantastic!...More

The Art of Collage
By Eileen Bergen

Collage, from the French word ''coller'' (to stick), is a technique that incorporates fragments of paper and collected or found objects into artistic compositions. The National Gallery of Art credits Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso with legitimizing collage as fine art. Today any material fixed to a surface may be termed collage.

The Art of Decoupage
By: Eileen Bergen

D coupage is a very accessible craft for beginners but can also be taken to artistic heights. In fact serious d coupage artists are known as d coupeurs (sometimes spelled ''decoupers''). There is a National Guild of D coupeurs (NGD). NGD is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education in the art of d coupage, to encouraging a high level of quality, and to offering an exchange of creative ideas. NGD is worldwide and holds an Annual Convention and Exhibition each April. To see some beautiful examples of d coupage, visit their website:
http://www.decoupage.org/theguild.asp.

The word ''d coupage'' comes from the French ''couper'' meaning ''to cut''. D coupage is the art of permanently decorating surfaces with paper cutouts. The cutouts are glued to the surface and then several coats of varnish, lacquer, glaze or clear-drying glue are applied to give a lacquered finish...More