how to hold a airbrush

Patrick Van Laere

Gravity Guru
I notice that many experienced airbrush artists Daniel Power, Roland Kuck do not hold their airbrush vertically opposite the artwork but at an very slanted angle what is the reason for this?
if this would be wrong they would not do this in a tutorial!
 
I guess it depends on what airbrush you use a gravity feed needs a slight angle in order for the paint to flow where as a side feed can be used in any witch way you want
 
I don't know what specific videos you watched, but I'd say one of two things is happening here. First of all, the substrate they are working on might be angled back a bit. So the airbrush will appear to be angled down slightly. The other thing is that they will angle the airbrush slightly depending on the effect they are trying to achieve. Mitch says in his videos to angle the brush from dark to light.

Beyond that, I believe that there is probably a certain amount of tolerance in just how perpendicular the brush is to the work. Like you dont want it to be at say 45 degrees, but if its like 88 degrees its not a big deal.
 
Sometimes we spray at certain angles almost entirely to control overspray, whether to intentionally have it land in a certain area, or prevent it from landing somewhere else.

A good example is a fade, if you sprayed perpendicular to the paper your fade would end up looking blurry compared to a fade that was done at an angle, pointing into the fade
 
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They hold it at that angle so that they have a clear view of the nozzle, usually its with an airbrush with a large cup, or sometimes they do it so that the camera can see what they are doing but mostly to aid them is seeing where the paint is hitting the artwork. With the "B" size cup and side feed you can get away with it because you can see whats going on at the paint end.

Lee
 
I recently bought the Daniel Power Airbrushing with Candies DVD
and there you see that he uses this technique almost all the time also for the fine detail work
even if he makes fine lines.
Fantasy by Roland Kuck he also uses this technique and therefore I ask this question.
thanks Lee that explains it ;-)
 
you can still place the camera at an angle
but do not work differently in an instructional video than usual!
I know this is used to avoid overspray landing somewhere else, but all the time with all the fine details I ask questions about that
 
A lot of time the also hold the airbrush like that so you can see what it is doing .
Never judge how someone is holding an airbrush in a video unless it is a video on how to hold an airbrush.

Daniel Powers series 1 and 2 are great but becoming harder to find these days
 
I am not interested in how each artist holds his airbrush but indeed like you and Lee already quoted to have a clear view of the nozzle and to better see what you are doing, that was the answer I was looking for.

I just ordered the Dvd "True Fire Part 1 With Mike Lavallee" on Amazon, here in Europe it can no longer be found.
 
I am not interested in how each artist holds his airbrush but indeed like you and Lee already quoted to have a clear view of the nozzle and to better see what you are doing, that was the answer I was looking for.

I just ordered the Dvd "True Fire Part 1 With Mike Lavallee" on Amazon, here in Europe it can no longer be found.
A lot of the older dvd's are ahrd to find these days .
Have you checked out Coast Airbrush TV http://www.coastairbrushtv.com/
 
No, I did not know this beautiful site! thanks, there are also a lot of free videos there
Yes there is , The ones you buy are yours forever being you download them to your computer, I suggest as David Monnig suggested to me to burn a back up of it in case your computer dies , But there are a lot to pick from . Oh upside no shipping , not customs and I think no tax on it either :D
 
There is only ONE correct way to hold an airbrush gun...the way it best FITS in YOUR hand. Can't base how to by seeing others. Do what works for you
 
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