Airbrush master sharing his knowledge of the art

Not so very long ago, Fred Sicoli was the kid with the spray paint who left his mark on El trains in Kensington. Then he was the guy down the Shore or on South Street, emblazoning names and pictures onto tourists' favorite T-shirts. Later, his paint strokes decorated background set pieces for Mummers clubs.

These days, his visions turn motorcycles into moving sculpture. They're commissioned by collectors and often splashed across magazine pages, with decoration so elaborate that they make the hot babe on the bike seem like an afterthought.

The company Sicoli started in 1996, Killer Kreations, has been recognized with photo spreads in custom-bike magazines like 2Wheel Tuner and Super Streetbike and sponsored by airbrush equipment maker Badger Airbrush Co. Now, at 34, Sicoli is ready to share what he knows and is planning group airbrush lessons in his South Philadelphia studio. The classes will fill a hole he said has existed in art education since his own days at the city's High School for Creative and Performing Arts.

"When I was growing up, there was nobody - I taught myself," he said.

Aside from demonstrating the basics of using the airbrush tools, Sicoli will teach various freehand airbrush techniques, with no stencils ("I like to teach them the hard way," he said) and in a group setting, as opposed to the private lessons he's been giving for the last year. While Sicoli's own designs usually end up on motorcycles or canvas, he has noticed that many of his students were coming to learn how to airbrush objects ranging from cars to cakes.

Or, in the case of current student Al Beck, a retired cop who does wood-turning with recovered wood, a bowl.

Beck, of Marlton, had used various dyes and coloring methods on the vases and other pieces he makes, and he wanted to add airbrushing to his skills. He bought an airbrush and was noodling around with it but didn't have a good idea where to begin. After looking in vain for classes, he figured going to a pro might work. He's had two sessions with Sicoli so far, and at the first meeting brought along one of his pieces.

"It even made me open my eyes. I mean, I'd never airbrushed a bowl," Sicoli said.

Other students have been working in more familiar airbrush territory, such as T-shirts, and want to learn new techniques.

Even with help from fiancee Christen Barilotti, who helps run the business, and Steve LaFrance, who handles material prep and body work, keeping up with a schedule of private, one-on-one airbrush lessons and completing custom-painting projects became too hard. Sicoli said he still wanted to keep teaching, so he decided to switch to group classes. Sessions are being organized now and will be held on Saturday mornings in a workshop and gallery space nearing completion a few doors away from Killer Kreations' studio on South Chadwick Street. A DVD course is also in the works.

"You can come here every Saturday, learn new things, and you don't have to fly to Vegas," Sicoli said, referring to companies like Airbrush Action (www.airbrushaction.net), which holds multiday airbrush workshops that cost $575. Each of Sicoli's three-hour classes will accommodate 10 students and cost $60, including materials. An open format will allow students of different ages and skill levels to work together at their own pace.

Like many things, airbrushing is harder than it looks. Using the airbrush successfully requires getting a feel for controlling the tension. Gripping it like a pen, artists press down on a button to start the air flowing and then pull the button back gradually to release the paint. In the time it took a newbie to make a few blurry squiggles on a piece of paper, Sicoli created a woman's eye with feathery lashes, a nod to the pinup art style that's one of his favorites.

As an artist, Sicoli counts both Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell as influences, and many of his pieces reflect that combination of the abstract and the utterly real. One of his favorite jobs is the motorcycle he painted for customer Mike Kuczynski, a big fan of classic horror movies. Sicoli's design incorporates them on a ghoulish green background on the motorcycle's fairings (the smooth shells placed over sports bike frames to reduce drag and shield riders' bodies): Dr. Frankenstein on one side, Frankenstein's monster and his bride on other parts, Dracula across the front, and Wolfman across the fuel tank.

Angel Anderson, a local airbrush artist who works out of the Airbrush Place on Passyunk Avenue, remembers taking an airbrush class back in art school in 1985, but these days, computer-aided art and design classes are more in demand. For the general public, she suspects that many retail airbrush businesses, which often operate out of small storefronts, are limited by space and can't offer group lessons or workshops.

"It's the kind of thing most people just pick up," she said.

Beck, Sicoli's student, said he tried that approach at first, too. "There is definitely a learning curve," he said.