3 months ago, on April 14, 2020, the airbrush community lost one of its most talented, funny and popular artists: Mike Lavallee. He is best known for his True Fire technique and famously made a name for himself during the late 90’s and early 2000’s as he custom painted large scale projects such as helicopters, boats, trucks, cars, choppers, etc. Mike Lavallee appeared on TV shows such as “Over Hauling” and “Rides”. He brought out stencils and videos for learning his technique and was also a popular lecturer and regular guest at the big American airbrush events such as the Airbrush Getaways, Airbrush Rendezvous and the SEMA Show.
We, the Airbrush Step by Step Team, unfortunately did not have the pleasure to have ever met Mike Lavallee personally. However, we wanted to remember him in our magazine and give him the honour he deserves. For this reason, we asked two artists colleagues of Mike Lavallee for help, those, who knew him really well and appreciated him: The American custom painting artist Alan Pastrana and the Mexican-American artist and illustrator Gerald Mendez.
Read the obituary for Mike Lavallee by Alan and Gerald in Airbrush Step by Step magazine 03/20!