Gabe McCubbin's Passion for Airbrushing Sparks The Creation of Artool, One of The Industry's Fastest Growing Companies

By Dave Waite

Many great ideas start on a bar napkin. Gabe McCubbin's begins with a doily.

Made of decorative lace, doilies were intended to be placed under cake or party plates to make food look inviting. But in Gabe's hands, they invited invention.

For a young airbrush artist craving new patterns for his T-shirt canvases in the early 70s, old, handmade doilies acquired at collectible shops, garage sales and thrift stores became his first templates.

"I would scour the thrift stores for them. They made great images with their intricate, textural patterns which were great for textural backgrounds and gradated looks," Gabe said. "They were perfect for outer space or underwater scenes. I used some of the doilies so much they would get stopped up and had to be tossed out."

But the supply of doilies was drying up. Which gave Gabe an idea...

Devilish Details

Growing up in his father's workshop in Sacramento, Gabe drew cartoons while honing his tool skills, and watched his dad create and patent carpentry tools for woodworking.

"I became obsessive when I bought anything," Gabe said. "If the product packaging was made to hang on a peg, I would routinely pick out best one, and look for any manufacturing anomalies in the others, noting the slightest differences. I was intrigued by the details of how everything was manufactured and put together."

Academically, he wasn't much of a high school student, but Gabe would always ace his shop classes, where he learned everything he could on metal, wood and automotive projects.

Surf's Up At The Circus

Following a three-year stint in the Navy, Gabe gravitated to the sunny climes of Southern California with only a suitcase and a guitar. He loved the sunny weather and the beach scene. His first job was painting and refurbishing broken-down teletype cabinets for resale.

For Gabe, Southern California indeed became La-La Land for a time, as the singing waiter served celebrities in a famed hip-and-happening Santa Monica restaurant called The Great American Food & Beverage Company. He worked alongside Katy Segal, an exceptional blues singer who went on to star in the TV show Married With Children, and Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan's daughter.

A girlfriend introduced him to a "wild new scene" with an arty crowd situated in Topanga Canyon that was unlike anything he'd seen before. Airbrushing was surging in popularity there, with a Rainbow Family wearing outfits that were airbrushed from head to toe in colorful patterns.

In 1973, Gabe used his first airbrush at Lady Rain Productions, a studio where he would paint anything and everything, creating custom T-shirts, spraying surf boards, experimenting with early body art and decorating custom costumes for rock stars like Elton John.

"It was a circus ride," Gabe said. "It was where Hollywood and the art community came together."

He mixed his own acrylic tube paints that were squeezed in empty juice bottles with various mediums, and strained through a cheesecloth to get out the heavier pigments.

"This was where I learned my skills in airbrushing, and eventually started making and cutting my own templates," said Gabe, who spent nearly eight months working in the studio.

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Reprinted with permission of Airbrush Action Magazine.