Airbrush Lesson 1
part three

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In airbrush lesson #1 part two we went over airbrushing lines and dots here in part three we'll cover shading and dagger strokes.

5: SHADING: Next we will work on shading techniques with the airbrush. We will start on the left side of your paper with the tip of your airbrush several inches back from the surface. Start moving your airbrush straight across the page and lightly apply color as you go. Remember to start moving your airbrush with the air on than gently pull back on trigger to apply color, as you near the opposite edge of the paper start pushing the trigger forward shutting the color off and follow through with air on only. Now with the air still on go back to the left side of the page and start all over again. Your goal is to have nice shading (color) all the way across and down the paper with no signs of starting or stopping. Nice even tone all the way across and down the page.

Now put your airbrush shading skills to work with this circle. First consider which direction your light source will be coming from than apply shading as the light source would indicate it to be. By pointing the tip of your airbrush in towards the center of the object you can contain most of the over spray within the circle. Make sure to follow the shape of the object, in this case the circle. Do not try shading the circle by going straight across the circle but around with the shape of the circle. Going straight across the circle will produce a flat round dot on the page not a nice round looking circle. Imagine it to be a ball and try to bring it to life with your airbrush. Put your shading skills to work on other objects as well, a children's coloring book is the perfect place to test your shading skills.

6: DAGGER STROKE: The dagger stroke is next. You'll find the dagger stroke to be a very useful skill, rendering hair for example or in lettering. The dagger stroke goes from wide to a very thin point. At the widest part of this stroke you want to have your airbrush back away from the surface and as you travel down the paper move your airbrush closer while reducing the amount of color you are applying. This is done with your whole arm and upper body not just your wrist, keep your wrist locked. Dagger strokes should look like the 4 on the right below and not like those on the left.

You can now watch "Master the Dagger Stroke" on youtube below. Watch for more basic videos on our youtube channel AIRBRUSH MAGAZINE

The three examples on the left (above) the paint was applied before I started moving the airbrush not what you want to do. These are much easier to accomplish if you do them big at first; as you become comfortable doing them big start making the smaller.
Once you get the dagger strokes down from wide to thin try them thin to wide, right to left etc.

Summary:Dagger strokes or rat tail strokes are very important to master so practice them until they become 2nd nature before moving on. Review the above relating to how the distance from the surface your airbrush is determines the results. At the top of the dagger stroke your airbrush will be further away from the surface than it will be when you are finishing the dagger stroke or bring it to a point. In the upper two pictures you can see at the widest part of the dagger stroke (top picture) my airbrush is further away from the surface than at the narrowest part of the dagger stroke (bottom picture).

Once you have mastered the dagger stroke in a down ward motion practice them going right to left and than left to right.

7 LOOPS:Practicing doing loops is another good exercise for helping you learn to control your airbrush. The goal here is to airbrush loops all the way across the paper keeping them all leaning the same direction and all the same height and width. Once you are comfortable doing that try rendering them fat on the down stroke and thin on the up stroke. So one side of the loop is fat the other is thin.

Another good exercise to practice for control are these curls using the dagger stroke again.

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I hope you found this article helpful. Two more great resources to learn more about airbrushing, kustom painting are my airbrush, kustom painting magazines. Check them out via the links below. Until next time "It's just paint" have fun. Airbrush Technique Magazine Airbrush Artist Magazine