Airbrush Step by Step: Hockey Jersey

In this airbrush step by step I'll go through how I painted the hockey jersey shown above. I get lots of requests for these for baby showers - I guess it is something to make the Daddy's feel included :)

To paint your own jersey, you'll need the following:

• your airbrush equipment
• TRANSPARENT paints in the colors of your favorite team
• white OPAQUE paint
• frisket
• exacto knife
• marker
• a surface to paint on

Scroll down when you are ready to start!

Step 1

To start this airbrush step by step you'll need to draw out the shape of the jersey on some frisket film. I used a marker and cheated by using an opaque projector to draw this one. I also traced some letters for the name across the back (the last name of the baby... in this case).

Notice that around the perimeter of the jersey I have made little hash marks at various random spots... these will come in handy later

Step 2

Next I used an exacto knife to cut out the outer perimeter of the jersey - there is no need to cut the other areas yet... just the outside. Then the frisket surrounding the jersey was removed. Be sure to keep the part removed though... you'll need it later

Step 3

In this step of the airbrush step by step I have started painting the background of the painting. I usually keep them really simple and just use one color - in this case blue. I am going for a starburst effect behind the jersey. I have done it by painting a light mist of the color around the entire jersey and then painting dagger strokes out from the jersey fading them off towards the edges.

Step 4

Alright... this is a bit of a tricky part.

Here I have put the frisket I removed earlier back over top of the area painted blue in the last step. This is a little tricky because it is tough to get everything lined up right. Remember all the little marks I made in step 1 - here is where they become useful...

Simply line up all the marks from the jersey to the piece of frisket and ... voila ... everything is in the right spot!

Also, because the frisket does not cover my entire working surface, I have taped scrap paper over all the remaining exposed areas to protect it from overspray - just in case!

Step 5

With everything lined up, I use my exacto knife to cut all the remaining lines on the drawing... then I remove one color section at a time painting in the appropriate color.

Note that a little planning at this stage goes a long way... as all of the little bits you remove will need to be replaced once the color is painted to protect them from the overspray of the next color... so taking the time to make sure you'll be able to fit the pieces of the puzzle back together again is very useful!

The following is a series of photos showing all the bits removed, painted then replaced...

Step 6

Once all the little areas are painted, double check to make sure that all your hard work is well covered in frisket. I'm serious.... double check!

When you are done checking, load up your paint with the base color of the jersey (in this case red) and then spray on the color slowly. Be careful while your spraying that all the little frisket bits stay stuck down.

Step 7

Remove all the frisket and admire your work so far! If there are a few areas of overspray on the white areas, use an exacto knife to lightly scrape away they paint from the affected area.

Step 8

Now..at this point in the airbrush step by step the jersey looks pretty good at this point, but pretty flat. We need to add some dimension...

... using watered down black transparent paint, paint lightly around the perimeter of the jersey to make it look rounded. Also, spray a few fading lines up through the body of the jersey to make some shadows in the folds. Go easy on these - too many looks muddy.

Step 9

Last step! Remove all the frisket and admire your work!