How To Airbrush Dragon Instructional

Welcome to yet another free learn how to airbrush.com instructional. This How to Airbrush Dragon lesson will cover design layout, fixed masking, hand held shields, how to mix kandies, how to airbrush green true fire and a lot more. As in all of my how tos we make the products we use in the demo available to you, at significant discounts.

To begin with, let's get the basics out of the way. I am using Iwata airbrushes. Specifically, I am painting with the Kustom Eclipse CS and the Custom Micron C. I use the Kustom CS for all of the kandie work, and I use the Micron for all of the detailed art work. I cover all of this in my airbrush recommendations.

This demo was originally supposed to be a video, but the quality was not good enough for that, so I took some stills from the video instead. I hope you can still profit from it.

For a complete list of materials and tools needed for this demo, and custom painting in general, click the link How To Airbrush Dragon Supplies List

This demo is painted on a metal panel that has been primed, base coated and clear coated. All paints used are from the House of Kolor line. It is my advice to you to stay within one product line to avoid paint reactions.

Now let's get on with this airbrushing how to!

How to Airbrush Dragon Step 1: Surface preparation

To begin with you must prep the panel by scuffing it up with 600 grit wet dry sand paper to get rid of any orange peel in the top coat. Then lay into it with a red scuff pad by 3M. Scuff it up until there is no shine left in the clear coat. Next wipe down the entire panel with a good de greaser like (hok de greaser). Finally, wipe the entire thing down with a tack cloth. You want a dust free finish as much as possible throughout the process.

Step 2: Design layout

In the above picture I am peeling off the dragons head shape from the panel. To create the dragons head, I used a plotter cutting machine. I then used transferite transfer paper to move and position the entire design on the panel without messing it up. The way it works is that the transfer paper is laid down over the precut masking material. Then when the transfer paper is peeled off, the masking material with all of its various parts is lifted off its backing paper and is stuck to to the transfer paper.

how to airbrush dragon

When the masking is placed on the desired surface, the transfer paper peels off but the masking remains where it was placed.

I create all of my artwork on Adobe Photo Shop first, then use that as my "reference" from which I airbrush.

 

 

I have removed the dragon face, but notice how the transfer paper has allowed me to perfectly place and preserve the teeth shape, eyes and nostrils. I have also opened up a space for the fire to be airbrushed. With the teeth, nostrils and eyes still masked off, I will paint in the rest of the facial features relative to these reference points.

How To Airbrush Dragon Step 3: Free Handing It

To begin with, I mix up some House of Kolor BC White. I am using HOK medium reducer. You can try slow reducer also, it does work very well for detailed work. I use both. I over reduce the white to about a 75% reduction rate. I need the paint thin enough that it will not spit, and yet not too thinned out or I will have trouble with solvent burn. PSI at the compressor is constantly adjusted from 16 all the way up to 40 PSI. It just depends on the need. For the first stages of the painting it is lower. This will keep the solvent burn down and enable me to layer the paint on slowly and with much control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With my Custom micron I begin to lightly and from about 4 inches away create the light on the end of the snout which will become the light from the fire. At this point I am not even worrying about the texture. I only want to create the form and mass of the dragon's head.

 

In this progress shot notice how I have already begun to create the illusion of depth and light.

To the left I have begun to create the shapes of the spikes on the head. This is only possible because I am using the eyes as a reference point. How to airbrush dragon

How to airbrush dragon Photo 5

I lay in the line of the snout very generally and slowly. There will be time to sharpen things up later. Right now I am only concerned with creating form and shape. Where is the shape turning away from the light and where is it turning towards it? I am also only painting in one side of the face, the other side will be laid in with a little trick of mine later.

In this picture I have created the light spots in various spots where I want the fire's light to be reflected. To create the sharper edges, I move in close and use two hands to steady the airbrush. Proper airbrush technique is imperative here.

how to airbrush dragon

Here You can see the texture I have begun to create by simply painting in some scale shapes that follow the form of the facial structure. I create the scales shapes with really fine lines. I am careful to make sure and not lose the form while adding the scales. To do this I overlap and elongate the scales as they recede. They also are painted in diminishing size as they turn away from view.

 

See how quickly scales are created by simply painting the thin lower edges of them? The under painting I started with automatically gives them depth. But I want a very crisp edge where the snout turns away, so I implement a hand held shield. I find a curve on it that will match the curve of the snout and give it a quick spray of white to create a highlight and a sharp edge with no overspray.

How to airbrush dragon masking

Now It's time to lay in and paint the other side of the face. This dragons face is to be symmetrical so I need to pretty much duplicate the shapes on the side I just painted. To do that I lay down a piece of transparent transfer paper over the entire dragons face. That is why it is important in this how to airbrush dragon.

Then I trace the shapes I want to duplicate by drawing on the transfer paper with a ball point pen. Then those shapes are cut out with a brand new exacto blade and removed. The transfer tape is then removed and the flipped over.

How to airbrush dragon photo 3

It is placed on the opposite side of the dragons face, then very lightly sprayed through with a little white. It doesn't take much, just enough to mark the shapes out.

 

Here is the mirror image ready to be sprayed through. Now spray along the edges very lightly then remove the masking. Once it is removed, Outline line the shapes with some careful free hand airbrushing. Pictured Below

How to airbrush dragon close up

I will develop this side of the face the same as I did the opposite side. Once I have finished with that, I will change over to House of Kolor BC-25 Black.

How To Airbrush Dragon Step 3: Re defining the darks

Using all of that white will cause fog and dulled values to occur due to over spray. The way I get around this is to re define the shadows with an over reduced black base. I continue to use the Custom Micron with spray cap removed for ultra detail spraying. This is a crucial step because it will assure the proper creation of the shadows. And shadows are what create mood, and form.

 

Above is an example of the dramatic difference a little black will make with a little understanding of light and form. In this close up of the nostril and snout see how giving the scales a dark shadow core, while leaving the white outline and gray mid tone area, really gives them a dramatic effect. In addition, because the nostrils are glowing with intense light, the areas around them must be silhouetted by adding black. Move the mouse over the picture to see what I mean.

 

How to airbrush dragon rollover

Above is another rollover image showing the progress as I work the black in and re define the shadows. The roll over image really illustrates the difference in lighting and mood.

 

As the scales turn away from the light, they no longer have a highlighted edge. Instead the edges are outlined in black. I create little outlines with some very close up airbrushing. The lines are almost hairline width! ONLY a Custom Micron is capible of this kind of precision.

Now it's time for a few good coats of urethane clear coat to protect what I have done so far. I apply that with my HVLP mini gun. Once that is cured, it will be sanded, scuffed, degreased and then will come the dragons fire.

How To Airbrush Dragon Step 4 : FIRE!

I paint fire in a very different way from most airbrush artists. I start with wispy, squiggly lines like above. Some of them are softer and more diffused and some are crisper, but definitely no hand held shields in this early stage. Because the fire will be green, it will first be painted white.

True fire must be painted in layers and stages. The process is one of loose to tight, no shields to shields. I join the squiggly lines together in a very organic non uniform way by spraying lightly from a distance. See Below Photo

 

How to airbrush Dragon creation of fire

 

Once I like the shape and values of the free hand work, then I start with the hand held shields. I am using the Mike Lavelle True Fire Set. These were specifically designed for creating true fire. I consider them a must for good flames. The way I use these shields is to spray against both the positive shape edges and the negative shape edges. In the photo below I am spraying against the positive area. In the photo above; the negative. I don't spray against the whole edge, only parts of it, and I keep the airbrush moving closer and then farther way.

A little more freehand work and some more shield spraying to disguise and integrate the shape I just created. Lost and found edges are really important to get the effect of fire. Remember this is only the under painting; the first layers. I will build the fire layer by layer.

How To Airbrush Dragon Step 5: Adding the color

I have decided to make the fire yellow green. I mix up some House of Kolor Lime Gold Kandi and reduce it using only House of Kolor's Medium reducer. I reduce it by about 75%,

What is Kandi? Kandi is a dye concentrate which can be added to either urethane clear coat or inter coat clear. I am using inter coat clear coat by House of Kolor. I don't really use a specific ratio of kandi to clear, I just eye ball it and test it out until it is a strong enough mixture. More on Clear coating.

I have switched to my Kustom CS airbrush for the kandi application. With the yellow kandi, I lightly spray over the fire, allowing each layer to dry before spraying more. Kandi will crack if it goes on too thick with out giving the under layers time to dry. How to airbrush dragon green fire.

Here is a progress shot showing the build up of the Lime Gold Kandi. You have to get it on really bright and intense because next comes the blue and if it's not intense enough, the blue will just overpower it and it will not turn the green color that you want. The process of developing the fire involves repeating the hand held shields to create more layers of flames that melt into the ones underneath. To do this use the white base and then re tint this with kandi. Repeat this process until you have enough layers. You should also alternate between blue and yellow to create the green of the fire. Let the yellow show through at places and fade into the green. This is the same as the yellow fading into the red orange in traditional fire.

Since the fire is supposed be casting its glow on the dragons face, I spray over the face with the lime gold kandi. lay it on thicker in the darker areas. The yellow will function both as a reflection of the green fire and as a base for applying red over to make a red orange.

Here you can see I have sprayed over the lime gold with a kandi apple red mixture. Through carefully applied layers, the dragon is tinted red. Where the yellow and orange are layered in the areas of lighter under painting a beautiful orange is created. Click here to see a final picture of the dragon. This is a how to airbrush dragon how to.

Once the initial kandi layers are on I go back and restate the highlight areas with white which will be painted lime gold . A lot of your under painting gets lost under the kandies and often times needs to be re painted.

There are some areas on the face I want to re emphasize as well, so it's back to the white. I will use this technique all over the dragon to find the highlights again and to re state the details. This is really important for the dramatic lighting that adds to the sinister look of the dragon.

Now I add the flames coming out of the nostrils. I do these the same way I created the other fire. I spray against the hand held template. First one side of the flame...

then the other. I make the edges opaque and the inner flame transparent.

 

 

I follow that with a little free hand to blend the wisps into the main body of the breathed fire.

After much tweaking I arrive at the final product. By tweaking, I mean going back and forth between my white base and my kandies. I also will clean up the edges of the face with black where I want the face to fade into the background.

To clear coat it I wipe the entire image down with de greaser, then when that is dry I tack it down with a tack cloth. When wiping it down, don't over due it or you will lose some of your image on the rag. In the final image, notice how use of free hand and handheld stencils has created multi layered flames.

how to airbrush dragon

Finis

 

How to airbrush dragon final

How To Airbrush Dragon Supplies List

Here is a list of the things you will need for this custom painting project and painting green fire especially. Just click on any of them to learn more.

Airbrushes Needed: I use two airbrushes for all my airbrushing. The reason I use these particular ones is because one is specifically made for airbrushing ultra fine detail, and the other is made for atomizing solvent based urethane paints like candies, pearls and metallics. Not just any airbrushes will work for that. Iwata makes the only ones I know of. Besides, Iwata airbrushes are the best.

How to airbrush dragon

For the Kandi applications I use the Custom Eclipse CS .

For the detailed spraying I use the Custom Micron C .

HVLP Gun: Iwata

LPH80 miniature HVLP gun Used for base coating, and clear coating. Superior atomization and easy clean up.

LPH440 HVLP gun used for spraying primer.  

Paints Used : House of Kolor

BC-26 White in the 4 oz bottle used for under painting.

 BC-25 Black in the 4 oz. bottle used for under painting and for base coating.

Kandies: House of Kolor Pre Mixed Ready To Spray

UK-2 Lime Gold green true fire  

UK-4 Oriental Blue green true fire

UK-11 Apple Red dragon's head

UK-8 Tangerine dragon's head  

SG 100 Inter coat Clear. Use this to protect artwork between stages.

Reducers Used: House of Kolor  

RU 311 Medium Reducer use this to thin the paints and clears, as well as to clean out the airbrush and HVLP gun.

Surface Prep: House of Kolor

KC 10 Wax and Grease Remover use to wipe down surface prior to priming, base coating and clear.

Dura Gold Wet Dry Sandpaper use 600 grit to sand clear coated surface smooth of all orange peel. Use to sand primer and use to properly prepare surface for priming, base coating and clear coating.

Tack Cloths Use as a final precaution against dust on surface prior to all hvlp spraying. Also use to wipe over spray from art work kandi applications.  

Primers: House of Kolor

KD 2000and KDA 2000 Catalyst Used for direct to metal application prior to base coat.  

Final Clear Coat: House of Kolor  

UC-35 Kosmic Flow Clear with Catalyst Use as the final top coat which can then be cut and buffed to a beautiful shine. 

Airbrush Templates:

 This is the only set I use. And it is the one I use in this how to airbrush dragon instructional.

Airbrush Masking:

Transferite Frisket Film Used for almost all masking applications. A must for any airbrush studio.