The artist last summer took a flat $30,000 fee, Zarfati said. The old man asked for 50 percent of the fee for the airbrush art. Zarfati would get the other 50 percent and money for the T-shirts.

Airbrushing is used for creative decorating of apparel, bodies, vehicles, signage, fine art, photos and much more. Although starting an airbrushing business requires only a small work space and ...

There was a legacy, too, of airbrush painting, a technique that had been created for commercial use in the late-19th century but that had pushed its way into fine art respectability in the 1970s.