When learning how to gain control of your airbrush it is important to understand that it takes two hands. I know there is someone out there right now saying “I only use one hand”, well good for you, but most of us need two. You want to use your free hand to help steady your trigger hand, there are several way to do it, you just need to find what is comfortable for you. I like to use my fingers on my left hand pushed against my water trap right below my airbrush. Once you have the brush steadied with your free hand, make sure you are holing your airbrush perpendicular (90 degrees) to the surface. Now when you start to paint, move both your hand and arms together in the direction you want to paint, maintaining that 90 degree angle to the surface. To practice this technique, make a control board. Draw a grid of one inch by one inch squares (I used a canvas) six inches across and six inches down. Below that, Draw some straight lines with directional arrows on them, left, right, up and down. To finish it off draw some arcs and squiggle’s. Start at the top, at your box grid. Paint a small dot at every intersection keeping the air on at all times and controlling the start and stoppage of paint with your trigger finger (do this for these exercises and everything else you ever airbrush). Now connect the dots, starting and stopping the paint at each dot (again, not the air). Work horizontally from right to left, once you are done the entire row, drop down to the next row and work from left to right. It is important to work in one direction and then the opposite. you are going to be naturally more comfortable in one direction than the other, so it is very important to work in both directions. Now, finish off the squares you just created by painting an “X” in each box. Continue with the same routine for the rest of your layout. If you would like to see the video of this blog go to my “Check It Out” section of my wed site and click the YouTube button or copy and past this link into your browser. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwCoEEoSkx4&t=1s
Thanks
Dan – The Airbrush Garage