The airbrush is one of the world's most widely used artistic instruments. Since its invention, it has been used almost consistently throughout the last century and today, aiding watercolour painting, portraiture and, most popularly, photographic re-touching. The airbrushes magical effects can be seen daily in any tabloid newspaper or fashion magazine. Aiding or destroying famous faces and bodies, removing or creating facial shadows and wrinkles, and knocking off or piling on the pounds of poor celebrities and famous faces is a daily practice for experts in the art of airbrushing.

However, when a crazy American jeweller named Abner Peeler whom enjoyed inventing things in his spare time originally invented it in 1879 the airbrush did not have such a glamorous beginning. The first ever airbrush was concocted with several odd implements: a jam spoon, a sewing machine needle, a bent screwdriver, soldering pipes and bent metal, all screwed together in a haphazard way on a few pieces of wood. It effectively sprayed small quantities of paint onto primed surfaces, creating interesting effects and impressions. This initial model looked very like a hand held tool, and absolutely nothing like an airbrushes appearance today. Peeler sold the first model for $10, and the patent was finally sold to a firm called the Walkup Brothers in 1882 for $700, a sufficiently large amount of money in the late nineteenth century.

Over the next three or four years, the airbrush took off enormously in the United States, and eventually became established in Europe. Watercolour artists were particularly fond of its use, as the airbrush increased rendering speeds a considerable amount. The airbrush became so popular, in fact, that the Illinois Art School was formed in an effort to teach interested parties good airbrush technique and how to use it properly. The Chicago World Fair in 1893 also boosted the airbrushes popularity to a significant degree, as countless numbers of people visited the exhibitions throughout the summer.

Over the years since the airbrush was first introduced to the artistic circles of the world as a large hand-held tool of the trade, it has been constantly changed and improved to create the handy pen-shaped instrument that is used today. Modern airbrushes are small, economical and run on small motors which allow paint to be evenly sprayed on surfaces such as photographs and paintings. No longer do the celebrities and models of today worry about blemishes, wrinkles or shadows, each photographic misdemeanour can be sprayed away with the handy techniques of the expert airbrush artist!