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How to Airbrush

Posted on June 7th, 2009 by Elaine
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Airbrushing is a great way to create beautiful designs and decorations. If you know how to do this, you can decorate clothes, accessories, interior and exterior surfaces, and even automobile. It’s easy to airbrush, as long as you have the right materials and the proper instructions.

What You’ll Need:

Preparing Your Airbrushing Area

  1. Choose your workplace. You need to work in a room that has adequate venting. If possible, try to do your airbrushing outdoors.

    2. airbrush

  2. Turn on an exhaust fan. This will blow out the air from the room as you paint, so you won’t breath in the fumes. Paint fumes are not only cumbersome, but health-hazardous.
  3. Clean the material you are going to airbrush. If there’s dirt or grease on the surface, it will affect the way paint sticks. If it’s a fabric you’re going to work with, wash it first, to remove sizing and unseen dirt clinging on it.
  4. Using your masking tape, mask the areas that you’re not going to paint. For small surfaces, this will be sufficient, but if you’re airbrushing on a large surface, use old newspapers along with your tape.

Positioning The Stencil

  1. Get your stencil, and spray its back with a spray adhesive, instead of just taping it. This will stop paint from smudging and going behind the stencil.
  2. Put the stencil on the surface you’re going to paint. Carefully press firmly, coming from the center, then going outwards. This removes air bubbles.

Airbrush Preparation

  1. Check your airbrush. If you can afford it, buy an internal, double-action airbrush. It gives you better coverage from the paint, as well as extra control because of the double action trigger.
  2. Check the instructions that came with your airbrush and follow them when you fill the paint cup. Afterwards, attach the airbrush to an air compressor properly.

Painting The Project

  1. Get a scrap piece of wood or scrap paper and practice airbrushing on it. Even if you’ve used an airbrush before, it’s still advisable to do this. Practicing will loosen your grip and make your arm limber, so you’ll paint more freely. Try and make lines, daggers and dots on the scrap material.
  2. After a few minutes of practices, go to the surface you’re painting. Holding the airbrush a few inches away, press the trigger forward, to begin the air flow.
  3. Move your arm and the airbrush to the area you’re going to paint. Once your arm is moving, press the trigger, to allow paint to flow. When you want to stop the paint’s flow, just release the paint trigger, but keep the air flowing.
  4. Use smooth, swooping movements with your upper body and arm to fill and airbrush the larger areas.
  5. For more precise details, move the airbrush closer to the canvas. If you want to create fuzzier lines of paint, move it away.
  6. Instead of applying one heavy and dark coat, build the paint in layers.
  7. When you’re done, add missing details with a paintbrush.

Airbrushing will let you create numerous beautiful and pleasing designs on various surfaces. Just follow these tips, and you’ll surely create a masterpiece!

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