ABOUT US
Hello and welcome to Airbrush Toronto.
My name is Joshua and this website is all about my artistic services that I offer to you and to your company, however this page will give you a little insight into me and how I arrived here.
My airbrushing and customizing career began over twenty years ago in the late nineteen-eighties when I was a student in a downtown Toronto High School’s five-year art program. Airbrushing was not taught in school whatsoever and even frowned upon and so I was forced to learn how to airbrush on my own from what little information existed at that time and by trial and error. Thank god Airbrush Action Magazine existed and for the sacrifices that it’s owner Cliff Stieglitz made to keep it running because it was my Bible. My main influences at the time were many of the artists that were featured in Airbrush Action Magazine such as H.R. Giger, Hajime Sorayama, Mark Fredrickson, Dru Blair, but I was also a voracious fan of comics in general, Robert Crumb art, Heavy Metal Magazine, EC Comics, Fangoria and the Freak Brothers comics series.
My very first paying airbrushing job was creating the branding for a successful local metal band that was playing the live music circuit. That first branding job then led to airbrushing the band’s drummer’s bass drum with the band logo, which then led to creating the band’s fans t-shirts, followed by airbrushing the back of the band members’ jeans and leather jackets. The exposure that I received from all of the airbrushing work that I did for the band resulted in many other airbrushing jobs that followed.
Once I had completed High School I spent my time airbrushing anything and everything that I could get my hands on for clients as well as for my own practice and enjoyment. I also spent those years learning as many trades as possible such as pre-press desktop publishing and graphic design, commercial flooring installation, car window and residential and commercial window tinting, security film installation, short order cooking, bartending, and damaged airline luggage - insurance replacement technician.
In 1995, I left Canada and it’s cold climate and exchanged it for the coastal beaches and the over-abundant sunshine of the free and democratic State of Israel. For a while I lived and airbrushed in the Jewish State’s Capital city Jerusalem, but then I moved to the coast to Tel Aviv because it was better for business and for the beaches.
My most notable clients were the Israeli Rugby Association, The Jerusalem Sevens International Rugby Tournament and virtually every tattoo studio in central Israel. I also arranged and operated a production line airbrushing operation for two major international clothing manufacturers. This involved airbrushing quantities of thousands of items per order, one by one, from men’s shirts to women’s bell bottom tights. One of the more interesting set of clients that I had in Israel were tattoo artists and tattoo studio owners situated across the country. I was hired by one after another to come to their studio and theme it out with murals and art. Because I was in tattoo studios for weeks at a time customizing the studios out, I garnered unique, inside experience into the world and art and the culture of tattooing. On more than one occasion I was offered apprenticeships to learn tattooing and jobs at the studios as a tattoo artist, however the airbrushing kept me very busy. However in 1999, I relented and got into tattooing.
During my years in Tel Aviv, I also found the time to attend Colleges for multimedia studies and computer programming which has helped me tremendously since then. I do all my own websites, edit my own videos and render all of my own graphics. I have a too many photos to share and stories to tell from my years of living in the Muddle East and so that will be left for a book for my grandchildren to read one day, but suffice it to say that I had the best times of my life there and I recommend Israel to everyone.
In 2000/2001, I returned to Canada and continued to do custom airbrushing for private clients located across the globe as well as for a few local corporate clients such as Rickards Red Beer Co, for example. The majority of my orders were for custom tire covers and I ended up doing hundreds and hundreds of tire covers for Americans mostly.
Shortly after my return I also begin compiling textbooks about tattoos, tattooing and the tattooing industry for apprentice tattoo artists, and I have since written 9 textbooks, but that’s a story for another day as well..
In 2004, I rented a studio in downtown Toronto on Temperance St. and began soliciting work from the Canadian corporate world and slowly my labors payed off and I began to be contacted by dance groups, production companies, PR companies, media firms and communications companies for a wide variety of airbrushing services that I offered, from doing temporary tattooing at their parties, to customizing movie and television props, to body painting promotional models for conventions and events.
The most notable clients at that time were FIDO, SONY-ERICSSON and ROGERS communications and MUCHMUSIC.
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CUSTOMIZING AIRBRUSHING CELLPHONES ACROSS CANADA – BLING MY RING
FIDO
ROGERS Communications
Sony-Ericsson
The Hive Strategic Marketing
In 2006/2007, I moved my studio to a mall in Toronto’s trendy Kensington Market and coincidentally business increased seriously. I have since been commissioned to airbrush for brand name corporate clients like Warner Brothers via Lex PR, Converse Shoes, MTV, Comedy Central’s The Jon Dore Show via Insight Productions, Nintendo via InventaWorld, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Proctor & Gamble via Palette PR, GNC via Ark Angel, Easy Sleezy Rock Band via Ark Angel, and many many others.
Warner Bros Home Entertainment/ Lex PR Watchmen Media Events
Custom beer fridges for Coronoa Beer Co.
Asylum Magazine in the UK rated my Spiderman racing helmet as one of the seven coolest helmets in world.
I do not agree with their view that it is that good, but i am definitely humbled and flattered nonetheless.