Featured Artist
“There were many trials and errors at the beginning. I never
practiced with dagger strokes and dots; I just jumped right in
KIMMO JURVANEN
and taught myself how to paint with the airbrush. I struggled,
but as stubborn as I am I never gave up and after sometime
I don’t know when I discovered my
I started to get the hang of it. It became even more fun to air-
ability to draw; it came naturally, so
brush and I haven’t touched the oils since.
to speak. I have enjoyed drawing
ever since I was a child when I would
draw fantasy figures. I believe it’s
quite common for young boys to try
drawing swordsmen and other ac-
tion figures. My teachers were not very happy with me, instead
of doing what I suppose to be doing, I drew in my books” thus the
beginning of Kimmo Jurvanen’s artistic career.
The younger of two boys, Kimmo was born in Finland. Two years
later his family moved to the small southern Swedish village of
I did continue using canvas, but instead of landscapes I painted
Landsbro, home to approximately 2000 people, where he still
more and more animals. Lately I’ve been painting on Canson
lives with his wife and teenage boys.
fine grain paper, it has become my favorite support, no prepara-
Studying construction and carpentry at the age of 16, Kimmo
tions needed, just draw some key lines with a lead pen and start
was given the opportunity to choose a “free” subject, art was
to airbrush. The paintings look very nice under a sheet of glass
his choice. It was only two hours a week but was enough to
in a nice frame, passé partout as it is called.
introduce him to oil painting. He soon realized art was fun and
Although Kimmo considers himself a fine art artist, using can-
something he wanted to continue. Taking no further classes,
vas and paper as his medium, he has found himself painting on
Kimmo continued to teach himself by reading a book about
other surfaces and realized you can paint almost anything.
painting with oils.
Oil painting became a big hobby that I continued with for about I wish I had more time, I
20 years. Landscapes painted on canvas were my main subject; make my living as a car-
I even tried some animal paintings. Around 1997 or 1998 the penter five days a week
canvas painting became a bit boring, to make an oil painting can so am only able to paint
take weeks, it’s very slow drying, I wanted something different, after work and weekends.
a faster medium. I have been airbrush-
One day while looking through a hardware catalogue, I saw an ing for about eight years
inexpensive airbrush and compressor. Thinking this looked in- now and still struggle
teresting, I ordered the kit. Once it arrived I read the manual to to improve. My favorite
get an idea on its use; I knew nothing about this tool. With no airbrush is Iwata Hp-b.
idea about what kind of paint to use I found some model paint It feels good in my hand.
in my sons room, thinned it with paint thinner and soon learned I use a Richepen 113CI
that using these in my basement was not such a good idea. The for larger areas and also
whole house smelled and I was quite dizzy after a few hours of have a Passche turbo that
airbrushing so I put the airbrush away. I use from time to time for
A few months later Kimmo bought his first computer and in- very fine lines. For clear
ternet connection. “The first search I made on the net was coat on things like bowl-
airbrush. Wow! There are loads of web sites and pictures of ing pins and helmets I use
airbrush art.” a Passche VL. The colors
One airbrush artist that captured Kimmo’s attention was J.W. I like are Golden Fluid Acrylics for canvas, paper and textiles or
Baker, “his wildlife paintings are incredible; I wanted to learn water based auto color called ICI or NEXA for helmets, tanks
more so I wrote him. I never expected any response and was and other harder surfaces.
very excited when I checked my email and saw he had replied.”
J.W. and Kimmo became friends via email, “he was very kind Kimmo Jurvanen has been a contributing artist and subscriber
and helpful, and gave me information about the colors he used to Airbrush Technique Magazine and Airbrush Artist Magazine
and basics on how to paint fur. I found a store in Stockholm that since April 2003. He is a moderator and valued member of
carried the products and ordered black, white, red, yellow, blue, our online forum on airbrushtechnique.com. More of Kimmo’s
it was enough to get started. I knew I could get almost any color artwork can be seen in our Artist’s Gallery or on his home page
I pleased by mixing these from my oil painting experience. at www.kjartwork.com.
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32