Metal, material, wood, leather, paper, glass, canvas and skin are just some of the substances on which Dean Loddy has put his artwork.

Loddy brings more than 25 years' worth of airbrushing experience to his art. The Altamont native has always been an artist. His artwork has hung in the school and the lodge at Moon Lake where he worked when he was a teenager. It wasn't until after he'd moved to Wendover and got a girlfriend that he became interested in airbrushing.

“I met this girl and she liked to airbrush model trucks,” Loddy said. “A concert was coming to Salt Lake, Kiss and Wasp, and she wanted me to do a banner. So I used her airbrush to do it, and that's actually my very first piece I ever airbrushed. Then I liked it and kept going.”

An airbrush gun works by passing a stream of fast-moving air through a tube inside the airbrush gun, which creates suction that allows paint to be pulled up from the paint cup. The paint is atomized into tiny droplets as it blows onto paper or another surface. Loddy controls the amount of paint he uses with a trigger. This allows him to blend two or more colors in a seamless way, with one color slowly becoming another color.

When Loddy ended his relationship with his girlfriend, he let the flip of a coin decide his fate. Heads was Florida and tails was Hawaii. Twenty-eight days later, he was headed for the island of Oahu.

“I bought a one way ticket to Hawaii and I lived there for 8½ years,” Loddy said. “That's basically where I honed my skill. My first day that I got there, I hadn't ever seen the ocean before so I hung out at the ocean all day. I didn't know anybody there. I just went and bought a little pop-up tent, like $19 bucks at Wal-Mart, and I actually lived the first three or four months on a beach, but the very next day, I went looking for work.”

While searching for a job, Loddy went to a general store in a shopping center. He met the owner, who allowed Loddy to set up inside his shop and work from there.

“I met my wife, or later on she became my wife, about three months after I moved there, and it was all about work,” Loddy said. “After awhile, at this guy's store, even during the days when I wasn't busy airbrushing, I would work for him. Stocking coolers, running the cash register. I was probably 24 or 25 when I moved there. I would airbrush anything that anyone wanted. I would also set up at the flea market around Aloha Stadium.

“They have two different kinds of flea markets,” Loddy continued. “They have one like most people are used to, old stuff, used things, but the one around Aloha Stadium was all brand-new merchandise. They would bring tourists from Waikiki to this. It is huge. I did real well, everybody wanted it. That's where I learned to do all the things that I did. It was just trial and error.”

Years after Loddy moved to Hawaii, he started painting murals and signs for a man who owned nightclubs. The man liked Loddy's work and asked him to work on his new nightclubs in Anchorage, Alaska, and Columbus, Ohio.

“I went to Alaska for 60 days, and worked on a club for him,” Loddy said. “Then I went to Columbus Ohio, but that club took six months to complete. It was huge. I did everything, all the wall murals, all the signs, there were wall murals on the outside. I just decided, 'Hey, I'm back in the states, I think I might stay.' ”

After that, Loddy moved his wife and children back to the United States, and he went on the road doing fairs, setting up in malls and at car shows. While on the road, Loddy's wife passed away. He realized that he needed to stay home and raise his children. So he set up shop in a sporting goods store in Sherman, Texas, and continued to perfect his craft.

Since the inception of airbrush technology, commercial artists and illustrators realized airbrushes allowed them to create highly rendered images and a high level of realism. Some artists use the airbrush in combination with cut stencils or items held free-hand to block in a controlled manner the flow of paint onto the paper.

Ninety percent of Loddy's work is free-hand, but occasionally he uses a stencil or template in order to create a sharp line and the best piece of artwork that he can. Often, his airbrushing is done in stages, layering the color.

“This car hood is all free-hand,” Loddy said. “Some of the flames I have a cut out to help give me a sharp line and a fade, but basically the artwork is all free-hand. The way that one was done is it's a tri-stage candy coat. The hood was given to me because it was damaged. So I fixed the dents in it. Then I based it silver. Airbrushed the mural. Two coats of oriental blue candy, clear coat. Then the next day I wet sanded, airbrushed the mural again, two more coats of oriental blue candy, clear coat. The next day wet sanded it, airbrushed it and then clear-coated it. So it's three stages to do that job.

“I paint on almost anything that you can think of,” Loddy continued. “There are a few things that I can't, air and dirt. Some windbreaker-type materials have a coating on it that doesn't allow things to stick to it, some of those I can't. Pretty much any kind of shirt, hoodie and jacket. This leather jacket is probably about 15 years old. As you can see I wear it, but look how good the artwork still looks on it. It's wearing, but for 15 years and as much as I've worn this jacket, it's amazing how well it still holds up.”

Loddy can also cut vinyl graphics for signs and banners. He also uses multiple airbrush guns in all of his colors so he doesn't have to clean each gun.

“There isn't anything that I can't draw,” Loddy said. “If you have an idea, I can draw it. Your imagination is my limit.”

For more information about his craft, call Dean Loddy at (435) 401-3808.