Basic drills

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I recommend buying a pad of newsprint paper.
Makes a great practice pad. Cheapest paper to buy. Large 20x30 pad size.
Very absorbent, simulates textile painting aswell.
Beige paper colour allows you to work with all colours.

Print out the provided practice sheets or use your airbrush to create quick practice grids.
(okay, you can also use a pen/pencil and a straight edge!)

"Keep the Air on"
air is always flowing while paint is flowing or not, try to get used to it.

Moving around more freely also helps keep your airbrush at the proper angle while painting.
The airbrush should always remain at right angles to the work surface,
for best coverage and effect and control.
Sometimes this rule may not apply if working with stencils/masks
or to exaggerate fades.

title pic

Dave "AirDave" Winfield is the owner and head painter of Outlawz Airbrush and owner of Outlawz Art.
Located in Southern Ontario, Canada, Outlawz offers a wide array of art services including
Airbrushing Instruction for beginners and hobbyists. A self taught Airbrush Artist with over 15 years
of experience, Dave and his artwork have won numerous Automotive related awards.

AirDave Outlawz

Airbrush Skills / Drills "Paint control"
Maintain paint flow control when painting lines and curves.

Use a grid pattern on your paper to control both horizontal and vertical postioning.
Keep your air on, start moving your airbrush. Control where you paint starts and stops.

Hold your airbrush close to the surface and begin painting straight lines.
Practice moving the trigger gently back and forth to produce an alternating narrow and wide line.
Practice making loop lines, keeping the rounded shape and line thickness consistent.
Combine the two previous techniques to produce consistent loops, this time varying the line
width on upstroke and downstroke. (This technique can be important when producing lettering)

Airbrush Skills/ Drills 1 "Stop - Start Practice"
Create consistent, horizontal and vertical straight lines within a designated area.
Learn to keep the airbrush moving and control your paint flow only at the desired time.

When painting a straight line, your air is on, and your movement begins well before the point at
which you want to paint. Movement also continues well past the point at which painting ends.
Try to paint in both directions (left to right, right to left).

www.outlawzairbrush.com

Airbrush Skills / Drills 3 "Targeting"

Using graph paper or grids created on any paper, target the intersections in the grid
and spray simple dots. Try different sizes, but the goal is to spray a series of dots while
maintaining a consistent size and depth of colour.

Avoid "circle building" your dots,
aim...and spray, allowing your dots to "grow" on their own as you spray.

Keep your air on! while spraying a series of dots.
Practice makes perfect when it comes to accurate target spraying!

Goals: Maintain air pressure and spray lines of dots. Be consistent with size. Be consistent with aim.
Try this skill using different air pressure settings and at different distances from the work surface.

Airbrush Skills / Drills 4 "Circle Control"
This is another variation on line control and targeting.

This time, using a grid or graph paper, spray consistent circles within the squares of the grid.
Trick is to draw perfect circles, in one fluid motion and stay within the grid square.
You starting point accuracy is crucial here!

Try building the circle slowly, with multiple passes adding colour and strengthening the line until you
achieve the circle you want. Try to stay consistent with line thickness.

Try creating your circles clockwise and then counter clockwise.

Goals: To maintain accuracy when positioning the circle. To maintain line width and colour strength.

Airbrush Skills / Drills 5 "Dagger Stroke

Possibly the most basic but important airbrush artists tool!
There is no "proper" dagger stroke, because they are altered to suit each individual need.
But the basic "dagger" or "rat-tail" is a tapered line of paint usually ending in a sharp point.

The "dagger" stroke is ideal for "sketching" with the airbrush, building sharp clean lines
for lettering and illustration, and is an ideal fill tool.
During colour fill, it provides clean interlacing of strokes for consistent and precise colour fill.

Dagger strokes can be produced from "fat end" to taper or vive versa.
They can be produced from left to right and right to left. Curved or arced daggers are extremely easy.

...try all these approaches!

Remember the skills learned with line consistency and control, and remember the lead in
and follow through techniques when creating daggers.

By varying the distance between the airbrush and painting surface,
you can vary the sharpness of the dagger stroke and the taper.
Start painting your line, and as you decrease your paint flow (to produce the taper) move the airbrush
closer to the surface. This will produce a sharper, clearer line as it tapers to a point.

Remember the earlier line control practice, where you tapered the line in and out as you were painting?
You produced end to end "dagger" strokes!!

Goals: Produce both right and left tapered "dagger" strokes.
Maintain line thickness and consistency when painting daggers.
Practice painting "daggers" from "fat end" to taper, and taper to "fat end".
See how the effect is altered when changing the distance between airbrush an surface.