Artist Strives to Make his Airbrushed Murals Distinctive

Houston, Texas

When airbrush artist, Ray Gatica creates his murals he adds a personal, unique touch to them that make it his own personal style. “I strive to make my murals and art unique, with my own distinctive style.”

Gatica, has done murals and large interior design wall murals, architectural graphics for both private and commercial clients which have included, In, Houston, Reliant Stadium, Houston SPCA, The Marriott, and a variety of architectural and interior design clients, along with a number of private clients.

Gatica's approach is unique because, although, you will see him with the conventional implements for creating wall murals and decorative painting, the implements include small and large brushes, rollers, paint pans, drop cloths, etc. Along with the above implements, you will find Gatica carrying his airbrush and, depending on the size of the project, a small or large nitrogen tank, or compressor to provide the air supply to the airbrush; this is not something found in other artist's tool chest, as not many muralists use the airbrush to finish the art like Gatica does. He has been using the airbrush for over twenty years. 

Along with providing comprehensive commercial airbrush and art and design services he also paints murals and uses the airbrush to soften edges, add shadows and soft highlights to the images contained in the mural.  The results are interesting with the distinctive feel that only the airbrush can deliver..

Gatica's approach to painting a mural is to paint the all the images in the mural with the respective colors. The art will look flat during this stage of the process but then Gatica has learned over the years that it is easier to lay down all the colors first and then come spray with the airbrush the high lights, shadows etc too enhance what is already down. This is what brings the art to life. It goes from two dimensional to 3-D. It really make the art come alive says.

In Houston and the surrounding areas, Gatica works of art can be found in Churches, Grade and High schools, businesses, restaurants, bars and the like.

As, Gatica gets calls to create his art on , he strives to keep his murals unique. This has helped with establishing his style. Clients even call on me to do my airbrush highlighting and shadowing techniques over existing works. Oak Ridge Baptist Church by the Woodlands hire Gatica simply to enhance what they already had laid down. What they had was a flat, two-dimensional graphic that needed something so after straightening some lines to balance the design and adding another coat of paint to the existing graphic, I then proceeded with the airbrush, I added highlights, shadows and contoured the letters to give them a soft 3-D feel. They were quite pleased with the end results. See Before  and; after below.  See airbrushed kidz style tree, before

Along with the shadowing/highlighting techniques, he also uses the airbrush to add soft drop shadows that make the art float on the wall. (Go to see After). See airbrushed tree after.  Along with the techniques mentioned above you can also add other special effects and techniques to further enhance the work.

You can see samples of the artist’s varied works at www.MuralsandBigArt.com, and at www.AirbrushMagic.net.  You can see the artist’s non-commercial works at www.GaticaArt.com.

Contact us.