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By Don Johnson
Airhead
Airbrush.Com, Inc
www.airbrushartistmagazine.com
www.airbrushtechniquemagazine.com
"BASIC STENCIL
USE FOR AIRBRUSHING
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Here we will go over quickly the use of
stencils for airbrushing a design. Using stencils like this one made by Beyond6
and sold by Sata USA makes getting into the world of airbrushing, custom
painting very easy for just about anyone; no drawing skills required. This
flaming skull stencil measures 5 ¾ by 3 ¾ inches and is actually
marketed for body art use but can be used on any number of other surfaces such
as helmets, bikes, t -shirts, models etc. ; its use is only limited by your
imagination. In this example which took me about 5 minutes at the most I pretty
much stayed with the basic design as out lined by the stencil but do not let
this stop you from making your own changes to the design. Add more flames,
change the eyes, add a cool back ground the possibilities are endless and best
of all NO drawing skills are required on your part. Ray at Beyond6 has given to
a guide to go by it's up to you to expand on that and make it your own unique
design.
This same stencil was given away FREE to
everyone who subscribed to Airbrush Technique Magazine
at the time issue #14 was published (July 2006). Thank you Ray and Sata USA for
making that possible. |
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Pictured above is the
Beyond6 Flaming Skull stencil; laser cut and made of a plastic like material
durable enough to last for years. As you will find out many of the stencils
marketed for airbrushing today are made of very thin material and do not last
very long, not so with Beyond6 stencils these are quality stencils which you
will get years of use out of. |
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To help control over spray
while using a stencil of this type you will want to form a frame around the
stencil using masking tape. Doubling the tape over after you attach it to the
stencil will ensure no glue backing is exposed to cause problems. You want the
masking tape frame to be just off your painting surface to deflect overspray
from the surrounding surface as you airbrush. Taping the stencil in place on
all four sides will in most cases just expands the border and you will get
noticeable over spray on your surface; leave the tape lifted just off the
surface to avoid this. |
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Now for the fun part adding
color to bring our stencil design to life; you can at this point position the
stencil where need be on your painting surface and using several small pieces
of tape secure it in place. In this example the surface being airbrushed is
just news print. If it where metal you could use small magnets to hold the
stencil in place.
My airbrush of choice for this little project is an Iwata
HP-CS and paint Golden Airbrush Colors which is water based paint spraying at
about 12 PSI. The first color I airbrush is yellow into the flames; when using
a stencil like this use the least amount of air pressure as necessary to give
you good paint atomization and spray square into the stencil. Spraying from
either the right or left side will in most cases lift the stencil and cause
paint to get under the stencil cut out. So be sure to spray square at the
stencil; by square I mean straight at the stencil not angled to either the
right or left side.
My next color will be red which I will spray
selectively into the flame licks concentrating or directing most of the red
toward the bottom of the flames letting it fade up into the yellow producing an
orange color. At this point you can add some color to the eyes and teeth if you
like also.
Moving onto the skull black will be the next color airbrush but
in just a small amount so it actually produces a gray on the surface. I out
line the skull, nose and eyes with a light shade of gray produced by the black
I'm spraying very lightly. I think it will make the eyes more interesting if we
do not fill them in completely with black so leave yourself some of the surface
color in the eyes.
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When I secured the stencil
to my surface I did so just at the top so it became hinged onto my painting
surface which would make realigning it easy if I had to. Flipping my stencil up
you can see we have a pretty good start on the design; never once where we
called upon to use any drawing skills. |
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Now it just a matter of free
hand airbrushing to finish up the design; remember to keep your airbrush
pointed into the design to help contain the paint within the design. That's a
long winded way of telling you to control your over spray. At this point you
can really make the design your own by adding to the skull whatever you like.
You will find free hand airbrush much easier on hard surfaces if you use a
gravity feed airbrush like the Iwata HP-CS, HP-B, HP-C or Sata 3 airbrushes and
fairly low air pressure setting.
I kept my design quick and simple just
adding some shading using black, a few cracks in the skull and wisps of smoke
coming out each side drifting off toward the top. |
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Here you have my
finished piece nothing fancy but as you can see its child's play to accomplish
and can be dressed up any number of ways to make the design unique and truly
yours. I hope you found this helpful and that you have book marked
www.howtoairbrush.com and will come back to the web site often to see what new
information we have added.
Thank you to all those artist out there who
help make this web site possible by subscribing to our airbrush, custom
painting magazines Airbrush
Technique and Airbrush
Artist; without their support by subscribing to our magazines this web site
would not be possible. |
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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
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