Sneak Peak: A new book by Pamela Shanteau

I can honestly say that we are really excited about the publishing of our first very first book, Custom Automotive & Motorcycle Airbrushing 101 written by Pamela Shanteau. This new hard-cover book is 160 color pages and is sure to grace the library of artists all over the world. The foreword is by none-other than the guru of Kustom himself, Craig Fraser.

While this is our first publishing attempt, it is Pamela's second published book. Her first book the Ultimate Airbrush Handbook continues to be a huge success and inspire new airbrushers around the world. I've decided to dedicate this post to a bit of the dialogs I've had with Pam and her husband Donn in regards to this new book. Enjoy!

Pamela Shanteau Reflections

The upcoming release of my second book gives me occasion to pause and reflect on my profession and how I arrived at this point in my career. After twenty five years of airbrushing professionally, I was asked to write my first book “The Ultimate Airbrush Handbook”. It gave me the opportunity to share the “in person” Pamela Shanteau class experience with readers worldwide. I was aided in this Endeavour by a cadre of great airbrush artists that specialized in some of the airbrush disciplines that I do not practice. Their intimate knowledge of their areas of expertise greatly enhanced the content of the book.

"The Ultimate Airbrush Handbook" also afforded me the chance to demonstrate why I chose the tools and materials that I use. An artist is only as good as his or her tools. I prefer to paint with the finest materials available because they enhance my art and help make it the best that it can be. Iwata airbrushes and spray-guns play a big part in my successes. They perform at the highest level and they offer an air-gun or airbrush to match all my painting needs. I know that I can count on their quality and their long lasting performance because they are built with the finest materials and manufactured to the tightest tolerances.

Airbrushing in the automotive arena requires more than just a dependable airbrush. The paints that I use are some of the finest available in the world. RM brands (BASF) such as Carizzma, Diamont and Extreme give me the flexibility to get the effects that I am seeking. Their formulations enable me to paint efficiently and cost effectively.

When I am called upon to produce art in the fine art or commercial illustration venues, I use many pigment choices depending on what I am painting. Again, I use the finest pigments that I can find. Com-Art paints, Claybord Inks and Holbein Aeroflash colors have always seen me through the toughest assignments and performed perfectly. When metal is not the substrate to be airbrushed, I paint on Claybord. Claybord is a hard board similar to a Masonite panel and is covered with a smooth coating of clay. It was created and intended to be used by fine artists. I have found it to be the best airbrushing surface available in the world. Painting on Claybord has enabled me to push my airbrushing skills and art techniques to the limit. In addition to its superb construction, it has the highest archival rating of any painting substrate available anywhere.

The occasion of writing a second book about automotive airbrushing (which is my favorite airbrush discipline), afforded me the chance to introduce the world to the unique techniques I use to create my airbrushed artwork on vehicles. These are not recycled tricks that have been seen over and over. To my knowledge, they have never been used by any automotive painter before and have never been demonstrated or explained in any automotive painting book or video production. Iwata gave me the chance to finally share these previously secret techniques with airbrush painters across the globe in the new book “Custom Automotive and Motorcycle Airbrushing 101”. As always, Iwata is on the cutting edge of airbrush painting which is where we all want to be, that is why they decided to publish this book.

In addition to exposing my airbrushing secrets where I combine fine art technique with more normal airbrushing methods, I instruct and inform the reader on my methods of rendering art and lettering on metal along with the tools and materials that every airbrush painter needs in their arsenal. As always, Iwata went first class with this book, it features a hardback cover and wonderful color photos. The editing and layout by A.D. Cook and Zookeeper is first rate and the photos by my husband Donn “Too Tall” Shanteau are clean and crisp. Everyone involved with this book should be proud.

I truly have been blessed to have progressive companies like Iwata, Ampersand (Claybord) and BASF (RM paints) in my corner. Their first class products and people inspire me to continually strive to be the best I can be. I am sure that “Custom Automotive and Motorcycle Airbrushing 101" will be well received by the airbrushing and auto painting community and personally I look forward to my future automotive and motorcycle painting exploits while partnering with the greatest companies in the world.

Paint Long and Prosper

Pamela Shanteau

Available NOW! Look for Custom Automotive & Motorcycle Airbrushing 101 at your favorite Iwata & Artool retailers and bookstores!