Crellin - Airbrushing: the essential guide

The results shows greater detail through creating a finer mist of pigment.

This method of applying dye or paint may have existed in numerous forms for various applications until the nineteenth century. It was the advent of photography that got things going in the right direction. At around this time, portraits became very popular, as quick photos could be taken, prints enlarged and then reproduced by artists using the photo as a guide to the likeness of the client. Many worked directly on top of this print, often using chalks and pastels. However, with the development of paint spraying tools, this was to change significantly.

Even after extensive research, there is still some debate as to who can be credited with designing the first airbrush tool. This is primarily to do with the exact definition of an airbrush: is it a tool that has to be physically blown into, have a squeezable ball where a puff of air is emitted, or a constant flow of compressed air?

In 1876 Frank E. Stanley patented a paint atomization device. His device did not use a regular, compressed form of air, but instead relied on a squeezable puff blower. Frank E. Stanley was an award-winning American artist from Kingfield, Maine. His invention was for a device that was able to spray water colours, India-ink and also for all kinds of shading in which colour can be used in a liquid state. Today, its basic design is not dissimilar to the mechanism found in perfume bottles, but at the time his design had a perfect application in photo retouching. His additional design features allowed the user greater control over volume and quality. Because it was powered by a puff blower, it can be argued that in the true sense of the definition of what an airbrush is, this should not be regarded as an airbrush, but as its immediate forerunner. However, within three years (and 1,500 miles away), Abner Peeler was inventing a completely different way of atomizing paint, in conjunction with an air compressor device that powered the tool with a constant source of compressed air.

A design for a paint atomizer from around 1876, which used a squeezable puff ball as its air source. (Courtesy Stanley Museum, Kingfield, Maine, USA )

Frank E. Stanley. (www.mainememory.net)

The dawn of airbrushing

It was around 1879 that Abner Peeler, an eccentric jeweller from Iowa in the USA, conducted various experiments. Using compressed air that was pumped by hand (or more specifically foot), jam spoons and needles, he came up with the design for a paint distributor, and began on a journey that was to develop into the tool we use today.

Abner Peeler. (Courtesy Stanley Museum, Kingfield, Maine, USA )

Peeler is regarded by many as the creative genius behind the initial development of the airbrush. His initial paint distributing device was just one of his many patented inventions. However, being an eccentric jeweller and part-time inventor, his motive lay in the designing of new devices; making money and spending time developing an idea were never really motivating factors to him. He was no businessman and sold his first design prototype of the paint distributor for a mere $10, but later sold the patent for $700 to the Walkup brothers quite a lot of money back in 1882. Peeler can also be credited with the invention of a form of typewriter, twenty years prior to the recognized patented design, as well as dozens of other designs, including a form of foot-operated compressor.

In the three years from 1882, Charles and Liberty Walkup invested in the development of the tool, which culminated in the manufacture and sale of a small number of these new paint distributors at a Philadelphia Photographic convention. Eventually the Walkup Brothers set up the aptly named Airbrush Manufacturing Company, which began worldwide distribution of the tool.

The first patented airbrush paint atomizing device from 1884. ( Andy Penaluna)