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Almost everyone loves some form of art or another. A lot of women love to get their nails manicured. So why not combine the two together? Well that is exactly what has happened. Airbrush art has combined with the manicure to give women great opportunities to use their nails to show off great artwork. Airbrush art applied to the fingernails gives a great flare to a manicure. The designs are only limited to the stencils which the artist can get their hands on and the artist’s own imagination.

This form of airbrush art has become very popular, and most salons around the world are offering this to their clients. Airbrush art is also available on fake nails and are sold at almost every store that carries fake nails. You too can get in on this craze and start your own fun and exciting business offering airbrush art on nails.

Airbrush art on nails is not for the beginner just getting started in airbrushing. The work area is very small, and the artist has to have mastered the techniques involved with airbrushing. One main problem that beginners face is over spraying. Over spraying is when the artist sprays outside of the area in which they are trying to spray. When working with nails you do not want to end up airbrushing the person’s fingers. So before attempting to do airbrush art on nails gain some experience with airbrushing on larger surfaces.

The type of airbrush art you are doing will determine the type of airbrush that you need. When doing airbrush art on nails go with either the Iwata HP-A or the Iwata HP-B. These are great for airbrushing nails. Even if you do not go with the Iwata, though, remember to always go with name brand airbrushes and never use any knockoff airbrushes.

You will need an air compressor that is designed for airbrushing on nails. The best air compressor to use is the Iwata Studios Series Silver Jet Air Compressor. While this one is the best one, you can go with any small compressor that has an 18 psi. Preferably get an air compressor that will adjust between 10-18 psi if you do not go with the Iwata Silver Jet.

To do airbrush art on nails you will need nail art stencils or nail art masks. The nail art masks are reusable masks that have an adhesive that does not leave any residue on the nails. Of course if you are really creative and very good you can freehand the airbrush art right onto the nails.

If not, then take the time and invest in nail art stencils and masks. The paint that you will use when doing airbrush art on nails is water based. A bottom coat and a top coat are what protects the water based paint from being damaged. You will also need to spray a light coat of what is called varnish between the artwork and the top coat. Varnish is just a water based clear coat that will protect the paint from getting brush strokes when you apply the top coat.

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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 may be learning that some things may be a little difficult to make happen. The experts showing you how to do something on a video make it look so easy. You might believe that it is easy until actually try to do it yourself. It is at this moment that you realize that you are not able to do what they did. To begin 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 you to have a foundation to build on.

When you first try using an airbrush, you should use a cheap surface that you can just practice with. A simple black paint will work for this – no need to buy additional colors. The only thing you should be doing is experimenting with the airbrush. Get used to how it works and feels in your hand. Practice spraying the airbrush on to 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 (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.

Airbrushed Ocean Wall Mural

Now that you can render the shapes, you can move on to using stencils. This will give you a feel for stencils, since 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.

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When you begin an airbrush art project, you will first need to prep the surface.  The preparation work that you do will be determined by what type of surface you will be airbrushing.   The prep work to the surface will ensure that the paint sticks to the surface, and that nothing  interferes with the airbrushed design.

FABRICS

For airbrushing t-shirts, sweatshirts, denim and other natural fibers, you must  wash the material.  Washing the material  will remove any loose fibers and will take care of any shrinking prior to placing your airbrush art design on it.   So be sure to wash and fully dry your material before you begin.

LEATHER
Leather needs to be wiped down with rubbing alcohol prior to doing any airbrushing. This will remove the oil that is on the leather, which will prevent the paint from sticking to the surface.    Be sure that all the leather has been wiped down,  and that the alcohol has dried before beginning.   When you begin you need to place a base coat of Opaque White first before you begin your actual airbrush design.

WOOD
Wood surfaces should be sanded prior to doing any airbrush art. Take the time to use sand paper and lightly sand the wood down by hand. If you are doing a mural on a wood floor then use a hand floor sander. You don’t want to mar the wood only remove any rough areas. If the wood has been waxed or has a gloss coat then sanding this will remove this and allow for the paint to stick to the surface.

SKIN
Skin should be cleaned with rubbing alcohol to remove any oils from the skin. The skin’s own natural oils will prevent the airbrush paint from successfully sticking to the skin and will cause the airbrush art tattoo to come off to soon. The use of talc powder after the design has dried will help to keep oil from building back up and thus still ruining the airbrushed tattoo.

NAILS
Nails should be clean and buffed prior to beginning.   Buffing the nails will give a rougher surface for the paint to cling onto.  Prior to actually airbrushing the nails,  a base coat should be applied.   There are actually two reasons for the base coat. This base coat will help protect the nail from the paint and help the paint to adhere to the nail better.

METAL
Metal should be wet- sanded to give a rough, grainy effect.   This rough grainy effect will help the paint to adhere to the metal.   With metal actually being smooth,the paint will have a hard time sticking to the smooth surface.   This is why it is important to wet sand the metal first.  A base coat should be applied to the metal before any airbrush art design is started.

Take your time and be sure that the surface you are working on is prepared thoroughly so that the paint will stick. You don’t want  to work on a great airbrush design only to realize that the paint is either not sticking or looks messed up.

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There are two methods of doing airbrush art. One way is that you can use stencils or masks to airbrush your artwork on to your project. The second way is to freehand the design onto your project, without the use of stencils or masks. Nearly all stencils and masks that you purchase are reusable. The stencils are made from different material depending on what the stencil will be used for. However, no matter what material your stencils are made from, they all have two things in common.

1. Purchasing the stencils can start to get expensive.

2. You are limited to only creating designs based on the stencils that you can get your hands on.

While these stencils can greatly aid you in your airbrush art, they also can hinder your creativity. So the best way to deal with using stencils and reducing costs, as well as leaving your creativity open, is to create your own stencils.

If you can trace, you can create your own stencils cheaply. All you need to do is find a design that you like and then trace it out onto paper. Make several copies of the design since you will be cutting on them. Also the airbrush paint will get them wet and they can start to tear. You will want to keep the original design so that you can refer back to it. After you have made several copies of your traced design, start cutting out the areas that you need to cut out. Next place the home made stencil onto your project and begin to airbrush your project.

If you want to use a more durable material to create your stencils you can use the plastic pocket folders. These can be picked up rather cheaply from the store in the office supply section or hit the back to school supplies. You will need an exacto knife to cut your design out. Depending on the size of your stencil you can probably create more than one stencil from this plastic folder. If you purchase the see-through folders, then you can use these for stencils, even if you are limited to tracing your design onto the plastic folder prior to cutting it into a stencil for your airbrush art.

No matter what material you go with, be sure that you remember to cut out your areas slowly and carefully. By taking your time, you can be assured that everything matches up the way it should. If you are doing a stencil for perhaps a dog, then you would want to take your time to be sure that the eyes are the same size, the nostrils are cut out and shaped the way they should be and so on. If you rush, you could end up messing your entire stencil up. The stencil is to aid you in creating your airbrush art and is a big part of the art process. You may have to practice on a scrap piece of material until you get used to how the knife works and how to properly cut out the areas. This will help to ensure that you create a working stencil for your airbrush art.

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