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Tools & Techniques

Using paint has been an on and off affair since I left school. I never devoted much time to it. Mostly I just used pencils, pen & ink and occasionally, ball point pens for drawing. For a short while I played with screen printing which I was introduced to in college.

In 2000 I decided that I wanted to finally learn to airbrush. Well, I had no Internet connection for my computer, but I did have a few magazines and a magnifying glass. I had at least figured out that I had to keep the air on before and after releasing the paint. So away I went. If I got stuck, I pulled out the magnifying glass and studied the images in the magazines to figure out how it was done. The hardest thing to figure out without seeing it, was ‘dagger strokes’.

Fifteen years later and I try and use my airbrush every day, even if I only do a couple of pages of exercises.

My substrates of choice are

Canvas - frames, boards or sheets

Paper & Card - anything I’ve got

Fabric - T-shirts, calico or white lawn

Media

Acrylic inks & paints

Pencils

Coloured Pencils

Pen & Ink

Pastels

Food Colouring

Tools

Paint Brushes - hog’s hair, sable or synthetic. Round or flat. Whatever I need for the job.

Iwata HP-B+ airbrush

Erasers

Razor Blades

Scratching tools

Stencils, shields & found items

Adhesive tapes

Fingers (mine of course!)

Method

When working on canvas or paper, my favourite method of creating art is mixed media. This is simply using a combination of different media. In my case I will draw the picture with graphite pencil. Then I may add acrylic paint or ink with the airbrush. Over the top of this I may use either coloured pencils, pastels or pen & ink. Or I might use them all!

597 Robert Stack

Textile Ink Stencil Portrait on a T-shirt

731 Indiana Evans

Textile Ink Portrait Painting on a T-shirt

826Travis Fimmel

Acrylic Ink Airbrushed Portrait Painting on Blue Poster Board

867 Liam Hemsworth

Acrylic Ink Airbrushed Portrait Painting on Canson Montval Paper

Mixed Media has been great for using up various media that I no longer want to use, and for experimenting with.

Sometimes, when I create a picture using ink or paint while only using an airbrush, I stuff it up. So mixed media to the rescue! Fortunately it can often save an otherwise crappy piece of airbrush art.