Airbrush Lesson #1

21 August, 2008 03:49:00 Don Johnson

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Basic airbrush lesson #1 by Don Johnson

AIRBRUSH LESSON ONE

by Don Johnsin

Sponsored by Airbrush Technique Magazine

No doubt you found your way here to this article because you are interested in learning how to airbrush, kustom paint. I hear most often from folks who are brand to airbrushing or those who at some point bought airbrush equipment found it to frustrating trying to learn and they gave up. Either way I'm here to provide you with a bit of guidance to finding your way thru what can be the maze of information about airbrushing.

No matter what it is you want to airbrush, kustom paint the steps you must go thru to learn how to use your airbrush are the same. No matter the type of paint you are using water based, solvent based, no matter the type of airbrush; single action or double action learning the basic fundamentals of how to get your airbrush and mind (creative side) in sync are the same.

I'm not going to try and mislead you here learning the fundamentals can be a bit on the boring side but as I'm about to show you it's a chance to let your creative side take over.

I have to give a big thank you to T Shirt guru Rene Romero for providing the images for this article. Rene is one of the best T Shirt airbrush artist on the planet in my book and I'm honored to have his help for this article.

Other tutorials on this web site cover airbrush equipment and basic airbrush lessons #2 thru #5 so here I want to cover the some examples of what could be referred to as the most basic of all airbrush strokes; dots, lines and dagger strokes.

Pictured above you see a picture of airbrushed dots the top picture is of the simple dot done correctly the bottom picture is of course the dot done incorrectly. In the bottom picture too much paint was applied causing the paint to spider web which is cool if that's the effect we where looking to create but in this case we where looking to make perfect dots.

The dot as simple as it might look is the beginning of most of the basic airbrush strokes you'll need to learn in order to master the airbrush. If you where to magnify any airbrush painting you'd see it actually is made of thousands and thousands of tiny, tiny dots which are produced as the paint is atomized via your airbrush. For that matter if you where to magnify the dot you just airbrushed you'd see the same thing tiny, tiny dots of paint making up your dot.

So as you can see the dot is fundamental in rendering any and all airbrush art work taking the time to learn how to create perfect dots is fundamental to your learning to unleash your creativity using your airbrush.

When I asked Rene Romero to provide you with an example of just how powerful the dot can be and how you can turn practicing airbrushing a simple dot into some fun below is what he came up with. I think you'll agree from the simple dot some very amazing art work can be created.

Hopefully you now have a new appreciation for the simple dot and how important it is to your mastering the airbrush.

What you will need to complete this lesson: A good double action airbrush , either gravity feed or bottom feed, air hose , air source be it a compressor or CO2 tank , pad of news print ( this you can buy at most art or hobby stores get the largest size pad you can ) , one bottle black airbrush color either Golden Airbrush Colors, Dr Ph Martins airbrush colors, Comart will work the best for this lesson, an easel or something to lean your pad of newsprint against ( you might find these easier to do standing up , an easel is a great help if you have one)

Please use airbrush ready paints while learning, either DR Ph Martins or Golden Airbrush Colors, even food coloring will work for this. You will learn much faster and enjoy it more if you didn't have to hassle with paint that's hard to use. The paint mentioned above are the best to use, craft paint, textile paint, hobby paint are all fine to use after you learn the basics. Make life easy on your self in this respect, trust me use the colors I suggest, please.

1:First thing we will do is airbrush a simple line across the page. Keeping your wrist locked move the airbrush with your hand and whole upper body keeping your wrist locked .Use both hands to steady the airbrush as you move slowly across the paper. AIR ON FIRST AND THAN START MOVING YOUR AIRBRUSH THAN APPLY COLOR. (You apply color by pulling gently back on the trigger while keeping the trigger of the airbrush fully depressed)

Refer to diagram below.

*air on
*start motion
*pull back on trigger for paint
*push forward on trigger to reduce paint flow
*follow through with air on off edge of paper

I believe its best to learn to leave air on, finger down on trigger all the time even between strokes. Please do not form bad habits now by pushing up and down on the trigger continually while doing these exercises.

You will notice that the size, width of the line you are airbrushing is directly affected by the distance that the tip of your airbrush is from the paper. The closer you are to the paper the smaller and thinner the line will be. The further away from the paper you are the larger the line will be.

Lines:Now airbrush small lines straight across the page about 3 or 4 inches in length. Air on, start moving your airbrush than apply paint as you near the end of the line start forward with trigger shutting the paint flow off and follow through with the air still on. As you go from making one line to the next keep the air on. AIR ON FIRST THAN START MOVING YOUR AIRBRUSH THAN APPLY COLOR.

Do several pages of just these lines tring to keep them as straight as possible all the way across the page.

DOTS: Now that you have mastered straight lines lets move onto DOTS. Again going across the paper make nice round dots not spats but nice round uniform dots . With airbrush square to the paper ( 1 ) air on ( 2 ) pull back on trigger just a little making a nice round dot ( 3 ) push trigger forward paint off ( 4 ) air still on move to the right a little make your next dot . Keep going all the way across the paper slowly. Do several pages of these until you feel comfortable with rendering nice round dots.

PUTTING DOTS AND LINES TOGETHER: So you have now mastered dots and lines, let's put the dots and lines together. Airbrush nice round dots all over your page, in no order just all over the place. Now connect all the dots with nice straight lines. With the air on all the time, even between lines airbrush a line from one dot to the next dot, stop on that dot before going on to the next dot. Nice straight lines from one dot to the next, do not change the shape of the dots as you go. Again notice how the distance of the tip of your airbrush from your paper affects the line you are airbrushing. Close - small tight line, far away - big fuzzy line.

There you have it please practice dots and lines until you have them down cold.

Copyrights :Airhead Airbrush.Com , Inc. Reserved No part of this tutorial may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Airhead Airbrush. Com , Inc.

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