B&W Airbrush Paintings in 10 Steps

The above is one of my airbrush paintings from quite a while ago - long before I started this website - so, I will apologize upfront and let you all know that not every step is shown.

However, I think it still may be helpful to show you how I approach black and white portraits.

(of course, there are a million ways to do this - there are no right or wrong ways - only the way that works for you! Remember this is supposed to be FUN!)

For this project all that was used was:

• airbrush equipment
• black TRANSPARENT paint
• masking tape
• exacto knife
• frisket
• pencil
• a surface to paint on

The Basic Formula I Use For B&W Airbrush Paintings

1. Find a great reference photo. Preferably in B&W or converted to B&W.

2. Study the photo looking for the following:

• Tones (i.e. light grey, medium grey, dark grey, black)
• Shapes of the tones (i.e. there is a light grey triangle under the chin)
• Edges (i.e. sharp and soft edges)
• Transitions (i.e. how one area fades into another)

3. If possible, make a copy of the B&W photo and mark it all up with the findings of step 2. This becomes sort of a cheat sheet when completing the painting.

4. Transfer the image to the painting surface in pencil. Don't just draw the outlines - lightly mark all the areas identified in step 2. I typically use an opaque projector because I can't draw.

If your wondering why I do it twice (once on the copy of the photo then again on the painting surface) it's because it is easy to get lost in all the pencil lines on the surface and not be able to figure out why you put them there in the first place.

5. Use tape to mask the outside of the painting to frame it.

6. Paint the eyes to a finished state. Note that this is the only place that I use frisket when painting a face.

When making airbrush paintings of people (or portraits, to state it a little more classy) I always start with the eyes. It is really just a personal preference - but here is my theory. Eyes, in western culture anyway, are the most recognizable feature on a persons face. If you get them a little off, or if they are slightly cross-eyed or googly eyed, it will really stick out. SO.... I start with those so that if I screw them up I can start over without investing a whole lot of time.

7. Lightly start painting the darkest areas of the reference.

I do this to establish some landing points ... I think of it like sketching

8. Build up tones SLOWLY (it is easy to add color, hard to take it away)

9. IMPORTANT STEP - walk away for at least 20 minutes. Come back and adjust.

When you right close up to your artwork and intensely working on it, you'll find that your sense of reality gets messed up (at least I do). Something that looks really dark to you when you are painting it will look way to light 20 minutes later when you look at it with fresh eyes!

10. Erase or scratch away highlights.

Now... of course.... this varies a bit from painting to painting... but overall this is how I approach each one of my B&W airbrush paintings.

An Example

The following are photos show the how the painting at the beginning of the post evolved. Note that most of the photos are steps 7 and 8 where I slowly build up the tones.

If you like this, you may also like:

Lesson: B&W Portrait

Tutorial: Small Manageable Bites