Airbrushing Tips From The World Of Spray Paint Art

Ever wondered how you can airbrush a landscape in minutes? Most airbrush art uses very thin layers of paint and you cannot move it around like you do regular paint with a brush. But what if there were a style of airbrush painting that used thick enough layers of paint on a non absorbent surface that allowed you to move the paint around and create incredible landscapes, textures and effects in minutes!

The wonderful thing about airbrush painting in this way is that it opens up possibilities that are between the world of airbrush artists and the world of traditional painters. When you work with a regular brush, you are often not aware of the what you can do with a delicate spray of paint or simply how you can blow the paint around with the air from your brush. Let’s travel to the far off world of airbrush art and learn some new airbrushing tips, tricks and techniques!

So how were these mountains made with an airbrush you might ask?! Well, I’ll tell you. Here are some great tips to whet your appetite for some real airbrush classes. You see, when you can airbrush layers of paint onto your paper, then you can drag them around using a simple household material, newspaper! These techniques come from the world of Mexican spray paint art, but they have been adapted for airbrush with water based acrylic paint by Alisa and Gerardo Amor. Most traditional painters never consider using newspaper and magazine paper as a brush.

Notice the sky in this next painting. Those effects were created by simply blowing the paint around with the air from the airbrush itself! Now that I know how many cool effects you can create by using the air from the brush as a tool, I can never go back. There are so many things you can do by blowing your paint around in different ways. It’s well worth experimenting with.

Most airbrush artists make clouds by simply spraying on a fine mist of paint to create a misty shape. That certainly is one great way of going about it but there are other ways.

Here are some new airbrushing tips to explore:

If your paper is very wet, you can apply wet paint to it with your brush and then use the air itself to move all the wet paint around to create a very natural swirly kind of cloudy sky. You can also apply paint with pieces of newspaper, dragged across a wet canvas to create wonderful streaks of color that can then be blown around with the air to make them look even more natural. Galaxies can be created in this way too! These are exclusive tips and techniques on airbrush like you’ve never seen them before!

Here are some simple clouds, done in the traditional manner, just airbrushed on using the torn edge of a piece of poster board as a quick stencil. Learning how to paint all these paintings in well under 20 minutes each is one of the many benefits of learning how to airbrush like a spray paint artist!

Oh, I didn’t mention that?! Yes, these airbrushing tips all come from the fascinating world of Mexican spray paint art. They have been adapted to work with an airbrush instead of a spray can.

Unconventional airbrush classes from Mexican spray paint artists!

If you enjoy airbrushing, then you have probably airbrushed a waterfall at some point, but adding a bit of spray paint art technique to your waterfall can make them even more solid and real looking. The effects were created by layering the paint on with the airbrush and then using a sheet of newspaper to drag the colors down into the shape of the waterfall.

By the way, the foliage was done using spray paint art techniques using sponges and newspaper. It’s way quicker than doing it with a fan brush! You can cover a lot more space, so it’s good to know how to work this way, especially if you want to do murals later!

One cool thing you can do is add clouds on top of anything when you have an airbrush. You don’t need to wait till it dries like with regular acrylic painting! It sure is good to have an airbrush around and some cool techniques.

With the right classes and tutorials, you can also paint all kinds of incredible things including sea scape. Check out the foam in this ocean scene! How long do you think it took to create? If you said 5 minutes, you’d be right . It was made by again, blowing the paint around with the air from the brush.

Want to learn how to do that?

Check out this video to get some more tips about painting seascapes with airbrush art!

I hope you have gotten some good ideas and enjoyed learning about how to airbrush landscape paintings in new and fun ways!

 

How To Use An Airbrush To Paint Planets :

Painting effects from the Mexican masters of spray paint art

What you will need:

• a single action airbrush that allows you to change colors quickly such as the quick change airbrush or a cheap single action airbrush of almost any brand.

• Poster board

• acrylic paint of various colors including black and white

• windex or other window cleaner

• some plates and bowls and jar caps

• a flat piece of wood to paint on

• water

• hair dryer, heat gun, or lots of patience

Now we are ready to create some awesome painting with spray paint art

1 Place your wood either on the floor or on a table where you can easily paint on it and spray some water on it with your airbrush or just dump some on and let it absorb completely into the wood. This is done to prevent the paper from bending as you paint by making everything equally humid. Your painting effects will come out better when your paper is nice and flat.

2 Spray a few colors on your posterboard on top of each other. You can go light to dark, such as white, yellow, red, black or alternatively dark to light…black, blue, white etc

3 Brush some crinkled newspaper on top of your color mixes and create a mottled texture and other kinds of effects that happen with the different crinkles in the newspaper.

4 Add more paint and repeat as desired. Strive to keep one side bright and one side dark. This will make your planet look 3D when we are done!

5 Make a few of these planets of different colors and sizes wherever you want on your painting. You are learning how to use an airbrush like a spray paint artist!

6 Dry your planet colors with your hairdryer, heat gun or just wait until it dries and go have something to drink. Creating these effects can be thirsty work.

7 Gather your bowls and plates and jar caps and figure out which ones go with which planets in terms of size and location. 

You can experiment by placing them on your painting and seeing what it looks like as long as your painting is dry.

8 Once you find an arrangement that you like, make sure you place some heavy things like coins on top of any of the lighter caps or plates so they don’t get blown around by the air coming out of your airbrush.

9 Use your black and other colors to paint around your caps and bowls.

Mostly use black, but you can add colors anywhere you want the appearance of nebulas and galaxies. It is especially wonderful to add a bit of light behind the dark shadowed areas of the planets.

10 Spray or scoop up some white paint onto a paint spatula or piece of torn posterboard if you don’t have that and shake that paint onto your painting using a lot of force so that the stars come out small. Alternatively use a tooth brush to spatter the paint onto your posterboard and create stars.

11 Remove your plates, bowls and caps and enjoy your painting effects! Now you know how to use an airbrush in a unique way!

How to Airbrush with Spray Paint Art Techniques

First thing is to decide what kind of brush you want to purchase. Most airbrush artists use expensive brushes that have many functions. They give you great control. One example of these brushes is the Iwata Eclipse. This type of brush is called a double action brush. This is because you have 2 ways to control it. These brushes are great fun and you should definitely consider getting one sometime, but for the purposes of airbrushing spray paint art you don’t need such an expensive brush. You only need a brush that allows you to change your colors quickly without cleaning the brush out. If you want to learn how to airbrush like a spray paint artist, you need to be just as fast as a spray paint artist and this makes traditional airbrushes all but useless for these techniques.

In fact you only need a very inexpensive brush that is called a “quick change brush” Harbor freight sells a great model and from time to time you can find them on other websites.

Once you purchase your airbrush, you will also need a compressor and a number of other tools and materials. The best way to get all of this organized quickly is to seek professional advice. When you purchase an airbrush that changes colors quickly, you will avoid many problems that more complicated brushes have. You will never need to clean out your brush after airbrushing because the paint never actually enters the brush. Also they cost only about $11!

Obviously this type of brush is used for very different things than a more expensive and complicated airbrush would be.

Once you have purchased the quick change airbrush, you need to know that you can control the spray that comes out more than you can control a spray can by adjusting the little silver nozzle on the top of the bottles So if you are a spray paint artist, you will find that you have even greater control.

You also get to control the colors you use and what they are mixed with! When you learn how to paint with spray paint, you get used to not being able to mix your own paints or decide how you would like them to be, thick or thin. When you are painting, you have complete control and you also avoid all solvents! It’s a great way to go, especially if you live in a climate that doesn’t let you spray whenever you want to.