Airbrush Art-Your Airbrush Parts

All beginner airbrush artists should understand the parts of their airbrushes and what these parts do. After all how can your create great airbrush art if you do not truly understand your airbrush equipment? Take the time to gain knowledge of all the parts of your airbrush will help you to learn how to properly work your airbrush and also how to take care of it.
If your airbrush is internal mix then it will have a needle. The purpose of the needle is to control the paint flow. Any damage to your needle can cause very bad paint spray patterns. It is important to keep your needle from getting bend and either straightening the needle or replacing the needle.

The air cap and head assembly are on the front of your airbrush and they cover the tip of the needle. The purpose of these parts is to control atomization of the paint spray. Should these parts become dented or damaged in anyway you should replace them immediately. Damage to the air cap and head assembly will effect the performance of your airbrush. Thus like the needle you will be unable to create desirable airbrush art. Both the needle, air cap and head assembly can be purchased at almost any craft or hobby shop that sells airbrushes and airbrush parts.

The airbrush trigger is what allows you to actually operate the airbrush. In a single action airbrush the trigger controls the air flow. In a dual action airbrush the trigger controls both the air flow and the paint flow. Beginners should really take the time to practice on how the trigger works so that they can perfect their ability to airbrush. Your airbrush will have a back lever as well that acts to shut off the air flow and paint flow when the trigger is released. If this should be come damaged then you could have serious problems with your airbrush. Don't worry though it is not hard to replace these parts should there be any damage.

Your airbrush will have a handle on which you can hold onto the airbrush with. Airbrush models come with either a solid handle or a handle with an opening. The purpose of this opening is so that you can adjust the needle without removing the handle in a single action airbrush. Most experienced airbrush artists will actually take their handle off so that they can deal with clogging issues without delay. So the choice is yours as to whether or not you want the handle on or off of your airbrush while you are creating airbrush art.

Pay special attention to the threads on your airbrush. The threads are located on the head assembly and where the air hose connects to your airbrush. If these threads should ever become cross-threaded then you could end up with an air leak. An air leak will effect the function of your airbrush so make sure to take care not to cause any cross-threading in these areas.

Airbrush Art-Taking Care of Your Airbrush

One of the main things that you need to know how to do with airbrush art is how to take care of your equipment. Keeping your equipment in proper working order and clean will save you a lot of money and hassles. Equipment that is not kept clean and properly cared for will break down more often. Also equipment in is not taken care of and cleaned will not produce quality airbrush art.

First let's look at how to clean your airbrush. One rule of thumb to remember is the type of cleaner you use will depend on the type of paint you use. Solvent based paints should be cleaned with a solvent based cleaner. All water based paints can be cleaned with water or a commercial cleaner designed for airbrushes. Windex is useful when cleaner your airbrush between color changes while using your airbrush. Never soak or leave your airbrush exposed to Windex for any real length of time. You should not have to take your airbrush apart every night to clean it, it is alright to only do a complete break down and cleaning once a month. Just make sure you do not go any longer than that. When you take it apart to clean soak it in a commercial grade cleaner overnight. The next morning take an airbrush cleaning brush to it. Make sure to oil your airbrush up before putting it back together.

Most artists find the using their airbrush without the needle cap gives them more control. Removing the needle cap is fine but should you hit your airbrush against something or drop it you could end up damaging the needle itself. So to take care of your airbrush make sure that when you are not using your airbrush that you replace the needle cap back onto it. This will give a little protection to the needle itself should the airbrush happen to fall. A damages needle can be disastrous to your ability to create high quality art, because if you are unable to straighten a bent needle back out or the needle should break completely you will not be able to finish your airbrush art until you can get a replacement.

If you do end up bending your needle you can try and straighten it with either pliers. Place the tip within the pliers and gently try and straighten it back out. Remember to do this gently so that you do not break your needle.

The better care that you take of your airbrush the longer it will last. So keep your airbrush clean with the right cleaners and once a month do a full break down and cleaning. With needles most artist find that the airbrushes coming out of China bend easier than any of the other airbrushes. So look for one that is made elsewhere so that you do not have to keep trying to straighten a bend airbrush. The best airbrushes to use that are the easiest to take care of are name brand airbrushes. The knockoffs are harder to take care of because are made from cheaper parts that break easier than the name brands.

Airbrush Art Tips For Beginners

When you are first learning something new, things can sometimes get a little tricky. You are trying to create a new form of art and are finding that some things may be a little difficult to get to happen. The experts showing you how to do something on a video make it look so easy. You will believe it is easy until you get out there and try to do it yourself. It is at this moment that you realize that you are not able to do what they did. To start with you need to practice with simple techniques until you get the hang of how to do them. Simple techniques will give you a better understanding of the process and allow for you to have a foundation in which to build on.

When you first try using an airbrush you need to use a cheap surface that you can just practice with. A simple black paint with work for this. No need to buy additional colors. The only thing you need to be doing is experimenting with the airbrush. Get used to how it works and feels in your hand. Practice spraying the airbrush at your cheap surface while you learn just what pressure is needed where. If you are using a double action airbrush you should be experimenting to see how far back gives you how much paint spray.

Once you are comfortable using the airbrush then you should work on creating shapes with your airbrush. Using a cheap surfaces airbrush circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. While this may seem stupid it will help you to learn how to create designs using your airbrush. Continue to practice with shapes until you are able to perfectly render airbrushed shapes. Once you have the ability to render the shapes, you can move on to rendering shapes in different textures. This means that you should work on creating shapes with thin lines and shapes with thick lines. This will help you to learn more how to use the airbrush to render broad designs as well as fine detail.

Now that you can render the shapes you should move on to using stencils. This will give you a feel for stencils as most beginning airbrush artists will use stencils to create their airbrush art. Practice using stencils on a cheap surface and still using your black paint. You will also gain knowledge from trial and error on how to remove stencils without disturbing the paint.

The type of paint that is best for a beginner just learning is Golden Airbrush Colors. These paints are ready to use and will save you from having to deal with thinners and such. Save those types of paints for when you have gained yourself some experience with airbrush art. Stick to ready to use black paint from Golden Airbrush Colors because it really does not matter how the paint looks at this point. The only thing that matters is that you learn the basic techniques so that you have a good solid foundation of skills in which to advance you forward with.

Airbrush Art Tattoos

A fascinating form of airbrush art is the airbrush tattoos. These tattoos can be applied to any part of the body and last longer than most temporary tattoos. An airbrushed tattoo will last for 7 days unlike other temporary tattoo that start to come off when you are bathing. It takes time or baby oil to remove an airbrushed tattoo. Tattoos that are done with airbrush art look realistic compared to other temporary tattoos.

Henna as temporary body art does last for awhile requiring time and lots of exposure to water to fade and disappear. Henna though takes a long time to hand paint onto the body. The bigger the artwork the longer it will take the artist to pain the henna design on. Airbrush art goes on quickly thus saving lots of time compared to henna as well as airbrush art is waterproof. Unlike henna lots of exposure to water still will not fade your tattoo.  Where it would take an artist 6 hours to pain on a large henna design the same artist could airbrush the design on in around 30 minutes. This is a major amount of time saved for the artist as well as the recipient that must stay still during this process.


Another great thing with using airbrush art to create tattoos over real tattoos, is that there is no risk of infection due to piercing of the skin with a needle. There is no healing time needed with airbrushed tattoos. The great part is there is no pain involved. Real tattoos come with pain and is one of the reason that some people do not get them. So using airbrush art to create a tattoo gives people the chance to have realistic tattoos without the pain.

Real tattoos are permanent and you are stuck with what ever you get. The only way to remove a tattoo that you do not like is to either do a cover up tattoo or go and have laser surgery to remove the tattoo. With airbrushed tattoos you can get rid of it with baby oil or just wait about 7 days and then it is gone. No need to go and get an even bigger tattoo to cover up the offending one or go through the hassle of laser surgery.

To do airbrush art in the form of tattoos you will need certain products. First off you will need an airbrush gun, 10' Hoses braded hose, stencils, glass airbrush bottles and an air manifold. Then off course you will need airbrush paints that are designed for the human skin. This is usually referred to as airbrush tattoo ink. To finish up the process you will need talc powder and 70 percent alcohol.

The stencils are available in a wide variety of designs thus giving you almost limitless creativity when using airbrush art to create tattoos. The talc powder is to be applied to the tattoo after it has dried. The powder helps to keep the tattoo from fading. The 70 percent alcohol is to clean the airbrush gun and glass bottles with after you are done.

Airbrushed art used to create tattoos will last for 7 days on the norm. Now if you have extremely oily skin it could start to fade in a couple of days. If you have dry skin it could last past the 7 days. To help keep your airbrushed art tattoo for as long as possible keep applying talc powder to it every so often. If you are ready to get rid of it then just rub it down with baby oil and it will come off.

Airbrush Art Tattoo Kits

Airbrush art in the form of temporary tattoos are a fun and exciting way to create temporary tattoos. These tattoos last longer than other temporary tattoos and give a more realistic look to them. Unlike henna that must be hand painted airbrush art tattoos can be completed in a fraction of the time.

Airbrush art kits give you the necessary tools to get you started creating your own airbrush art tattoos. These kits come in a variety of sizes and price ranges depending on the dealer you are purchasing them from. Some dealers also will offer low grade products for a low price making you think you are getting a deal. With low grade products you are not getting a deal at all.

A good starter kit comes from Airbrush Bodyart. The kit contains everything you need to get you started creating airbrush art tattoos and then some. In their starter kit they include 2 single action ABA airbrushes, 2 hoses, 9 glass airbrush bottles, a 2 outlet air manifold, 7 60ml airbrush tattoo ink in red, blue ,white, yellow violet, fuchsia and green and the kit includes a 120ml of black airbrush tattoo ink. The starter kit also give you 50 Vynalaser stencils that can be reused over and over again. Airbrush Bodyart's starter kit runs around $293. Individually all the same products that you get in the kit, would run you around $346.

If you want to step your airbrush kit up then Airbrush Bodyart offers a professional kit. This kit includes a 4 outlet air manifold, 4 single action ABA airbrushes, 12 glass airbrush bottles, 4 air hoses, 10 60ml of airbrush art tattoo inks in white, blue, red, yellow, violet, fuchsia, green, fluorescent green, fluorescent yellow and fluorescent blue and 1 120ml of black airbrush tattoo ink. Also added with this airbrush art tattoo kit is 1 120gm holographic glitter pack and 100 Vynalaser stencils that are reusable.  The kit runs around $544 where as individually purchased these items would cost you around $639.

For those of you who have experience in airbrush art tattoos and want a kit that will allow you to open up your own business doing airbrush art tattoos professionally, Airbrush Bodyart has you covered. They offer the Airbrush Volume Parlor 2000 kit. This kits gives you everything that you need to open up shop and start creating great professional airbrush art tattoos.
The Airbrush Volume Parlor 2000 kit contains a 4 outlet air manifold, 4 duel action ABA siphon feed kit, 4 glass airbrush bottles, airbrush holder, 1 regulator filter moisture trap, 10 60ml airbrush art tattoo ink in white, blue, red, yellow, violet, fuchsia, green, fluorescent green, fluorescent yellow and fluorescent blue as well as 1 500ml of black airbrush tattoo ink. Also included in this kit is 1 120gm jar of holographic glitter, 300 Vynalaser stencils that are reusable and a CD-Rom that gives you Flash displays for your customers. This kit will run you around $994 where as the items purchased individually would run you around $1,242.

As you can see using a kit to get you started learning about airbrush art tattoos or to get enough product to start your business is cheaper than purchasing individual items. Of course after you have gotten started the it don't cost as much to replace items as you need them individually. But to get them all at once separately can run a lot, so if you are just starting out needing everything then the kits are you way to go.

Airbrush Art Paints

When doing airbrush art there are many types of paints that you can use. The type of paint that you use will depend on what you are airbrushing. Some paints can only be used on certain surfaces and are not safe to use on other surfaces. So make sure the paint you are using is safe for the surface you will be putting your airbrush art onto.

Water soluble acrylic paints are used for airbrushing art onto plastic, metal, vinyl, wood, ceramics and cloth. This makes this type of paint the choice for airbrushing art onto your model cars or airplanes. This is also the choice for airbrushing t-shirts as well. But as long as your project is made from the above material you can use water soluble acrylics for your airbrush art designs.

Depending on which brand of acrylic paint that you go with, you may need to thin it down so that it flows freely through the airbrush. Also some acrylic paints require that they be heat set if used on clothing. You can heat set by placing a protect cloth between the design and the iron and ironing the design or you can turn the material inside out and place in the dryer on high heat. If the acrylic does not require heat setting on fabrics then you should still protect the design from fading when washed. To do this place the clothing into a sink of cold water and salt and allow to soak. Then the clothing can be laundered without risk of damaging the airbrush art design.

When doing airbrush art in the form of body art or tattoos you can use paint that is usually termed in two ways. Usually this paint is referred to as body art paint or airbrush tattoo ink. Both forms are basically the same and maintain a realistic tattoo look. This paint will last and is waterproof. To remove you will either just let time take its course and the tattoo fade or rub with baby oil to remove. To help you tattoo last longer apply talc powder daily. This will help the paint to stay on the skin better.

Acrylic nail art paint  is needed when doing airbrushing art on nails. These paints clean up with water while they are still wet. So if you do get any on the skin or another surface where not needed then clean up immediately while it is still wet. The paint will become permanent when it dries. There are a lot of possibilities with acrylic nail art paint that you can do when creating your airbrush art. Colors can be mixed to create your own unique color for your artwork.

When putting airbrush art onto an automotive use acrylic enamels. These are not only cheap but they will not clog up your airbrush like lacquers. Also make sure that you buy mixed colors and avoid any tinting colors, since they do not contain any driers in them.

When creating airbrush art remember to use the right paint for the project. Beyond that when it comes to paints and airbrush art the possibilities are endless.

Airbrush Art On T-Shirts

Putting airbrush art on T-shirts can be a fun and creative hobby. For those that want to take it a step further it can also be fun and exciting business. T-shirts containing airbrush art are popular and unique to wear. What makes airbrushed t-shirts so unique is that one of a kind images can be created giving the wearer a shirt that no one else has. Thus making for a pretty fun hobby or profitable business.

The great thing with airbrush art is that you really do not have to know how to draw. All you need to know how to do is successfully use the stencil that you wish to use for your design. The main key is learning how to control the airbrush gun so that you can get the paint only where you want it and not overcast the paint where you do not want it. Once you master that then your options are endless with the vast array of stencils out there.

A bottom feed or siphon feed airbrush works best when putting airbrush art onto a t-shirt. You should always stick with a name brand airbrush when airbrushing. The best name brands to go with are the Iwata or Badger. The Paasche is also a good quality airbrush to go with. You will save yourself money in the long run when using a name brand versus a generic airbrush.
When choosing an airbrush compressor keep in mind that put airbrush art onto t-shirts does require a high psi. The psi setting should be between 40 to 60. Make sure that your compressor is rated for the type of work you are going to be doing. In this case it will be airbrushing t-shirts. When doing airbrush art onto t-shirts as a business then invest in a commercial air compressor. It will be worth it in the long run.

Most of the times you will need to heat set your paints so that they can be washed without fading or bleeding. There are a few ways that you can heat set your airbrush art onto the t-shirts so that it lasts. One way is all the design to fully dry then place a cloth over it and iron the shirt with the cloth between the t-shirt and the iron. Always keep the iron moving though so that you do not burn the material. Another great way if you are doing this at home is to allow the design to dry then turn the shirt inside out and throw it into the dryer for about 40 to 45 minutes on the highest heat setting. After this your design will hold up to laundering.

If you use a paint that does not require heat setting then you should still set the design. A great way to do this with paints that do not require heat setting is to place the t-shirt by itself into a sink full of cold water that has salt mixed into it. The cold water and salt will help to keep the shirt when it is laundered from fading or bleeding.
Placing airbrush art onto t-shirts can be fun and exciting. But you are not limited to t-shirts. Get creative and airbrush designs onto cotton underwear for you significant other. Airbrush socks for your family. The possibilities with clothing and airbrush art are limitless.