Airbrush Basics and Essentials For Beginners

Airbrush Basics

Airbrush basics are for those just beginning to explore airbrush art and those who want to learn to paint in a new and unique way with their airbrush.

By Alisa Amor

This is not your normal “airbrush basics” information. I hope to show you some new and unique possibilities and artistic effects that you can learn how to paint with your airbrush in a completely new way that you probably haven't seen before.

You can find information about traditional airbrushing for beginners like everyone else in so many places. I want to tell you about new airbrush techniques that are adapted from the world of Mexican spray paint art.

When I first began to learn spray paint art techniques with my airbrush, I had to do a lot of experimentation. I literally spent hours in my garage every day for over a year trying different mixes of paint, paper, and tools.

I had learned the basics of spray paint art from Gerardo Amor in Mexico. There were so many cool painting techniques that I knew how to do with a spray can. Now I wanted to transfer them all to use with my airbrush.

The first thing I needed to do was to find an airbrush that could change colors as quickly as I could pick up a new can of spray paint. After much searching around, I found the “quick change airbrush” from Harbor Freight. This airbrush was only $11!

For those beginners looking for how to learn to paint with an airbrush, most artists don't know that you can use newspaper to move the paint around on your paper. Just like in spray paint art, you can use plastic plates as stencils to make planets. You can use kitchen sponges to take off delicate layers of paint.

To paint like this, you need to be working with thicker paint than most airbrush artists use.

How you mix the paint is very important. One essential thing that airbrush beginners need to know, is that if they mix paint from a tube for their airbrush, they need to filter it before running it through their airbrush. I like to use a piece of cut stocking over my mixing bottles to insure that no lumps get into my airbrush. This makes learning to paint much more enjoyable.

What is nice about the quick change airbrush is that no maintenance is necessary. Most airbrushes require constant maintenance and cleaning, but this brush frees you from that problem! The paint never enters the brush itself, but is propelled directly from the paint canister to your painting surface. You can learn without constantly cleaning your brush! It's just faster.

Airbrushing for beginners usually requires some skill in drawing, but learning to airbrush paint with spray paint art techniques frees you from having to learn to draw before you ever pick up an airbrush. These techniques make it easy to paint space scenes, landscapes, mountains and much much more without knowing how to draw even a stick figure!

Learn To Paint the Easy Way

If you are looking for information on airbrushing that doesn't require you to learn to draw to be able to paint, you are in the right place! It's very hard to find techniques that work this way, but they do exist when you learn from the spray paint artists of Mexico. These techniques make it so that the paint actually does the work for you! You can learn easily and effortlessly with this method.

I hope that you have enjoyed this introduction to new airbrush painting techniques and that you will explore these new options.