The 5-T’s of an Airbrush Shirts Business
Painting Airbrush Shirts can be a fun and entertaining hobby, but if you want to make a living with it, you better understand the “5 – T’s” and how they affect the outcome of your business.
The “5 – T’s” stand for Time, Tools, Technique, Talent and Trade. If you don’t have all of the T’s, your business will suffer for it. Working on the weakest T will always benefit you.
Let’s start with Time, since it is an integral part of each of the other T’s. If you can’t find the Time to develop the Techniques needed to be a successful Airbrush Shirts painter, you’ll find it very hard to succeed. Likewise, it takes Time to gain Talent, and Time to build your Trade.
While there is no required amount of Time needed, just understand that the more Time you put into your business, the faster you can build it. On the other hand, if you have no Time, it isn’t likely you’ll ever succeed.
The second T stands for Tools. Without the proper equipment and supplies, your success will be limited. While you may be able to Airbrush Shirts using a straw and Easter Egg Dye, you’ll find it hard to build a business doing that.
The basic equipment you’ll need will be a compressor, hoses, airbrush nozzles, and shirt frames (or boards). You’ll also need paints, paper (for early practice), stencils, shirts, and a carrying case. You can start out with a basic model or kit, but you’ll likely want to buy better quality once you reach a certain level of Talent.
Technique and Talent go hand-in-hand. You’ll need to learn the Techniques of Airbrush Shirts before you develop your Talent. Think of Technique as the “how to do it” and Talent as “when to use each Technique“.
Techniques are quite easy to come by. You’ll read books on Techniques, watch videos on Techniques, and take classes in Techniques. The more Techniques you learn, the better the chance is that your Airbrush Shirts will look realistic. Shadows, distance, motion, and highlighting are all Techniques that you’ll need to learn.
Talent is a much tougher thing to develop. Talent is a by-product of combining Time and Technique. The first time you try to paint a moon on one of your Airbrush Shirts, it will look more like a fried egg. By the 20th attempt, it will look reasonably good. By the 100th time, you’ll have a Talent for painting a moon.
Finally, we come to Trade. Trade is the difference between having a hobby and running a business. Trade is the act of swapping your Time, Techniques, Talent and Tools for money.
You can Trade in several ways. One of the easiest is as an employee. Most commercial parks (Disney, Sea World, etc) hire artists to paint Airbrush Shirts for them. You’ll usually receive pay and/or commission.
You can also Trade online. By opening a website, you can paint on commission (“Happy 50th Bob!”) or by creating unique Airbrush Shirts that you sell via eBay or other sales place.
Finally, you can Trade by sharing your knowledge. You can do “Airbrush Shirts Birthday Parties”, or open a studio where you train others.
No matter what you do, keep coming back to the “5 – T’s”. One of the 5 is always the weakest. Make it a point to work on that T, and you’ll be successful in making a living with Airbrush Shirts.
To get started, this book helps you learn Technique and Trade.
This article was written by Robert White.
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Selecting an Airbrush to Use for Airbrush Shirts
Airbrushes come in several shapes, sizes and styles. Single-action airbrushes may be OK to start with, but for most people who paint Airbrush Shirts, a double-action, internal mix airbrush is the best choice. Double-action airbrushes allow control of both air and paint volume.
Next, you need to decide on the feed system for the airbrush. You can choose between top feed, side feed and bottle feed systems. While bottle feed systems make it tougher to paint fine detail, they should work well for Airbrush Shirts. Additionally, bottle feed systems feature quick cleanup and the ability to hold larger volumes of paint.
Finally, you’ll need to select a tip size. Generally speaking, for Airbrush Shirts, fine detail is not as common as it would be for car hoods or helmets. Instead, most shirt art uses broader strokes. This makes mid-to-large sized paint tips the most common sizes for painting shirts.
When it comes to brands, just be sure to stay away from department store brands, since it can be tough to find replacement parts for them.
If you want to learn more about which airbrush to select for painting Airbrush Shirts, read the full story here.
Techniques in Airbrush Painting
“Necessity is the mother of invention”, is a common saying that can be applied to art of painting Airbrush Shirts. Today, the increasing need for high quality finished illustrations in every area of graphic design has brought an awareness of airbrush painting to a wider audience, though each illustrator has his or her own indispensable technique for all their future works. Airbrush Painting techniques are not so much definitive as they are derived by much experimentation by individual illustrators based on both the advantages and limitations of the airbrush. The Airbrush Painting techniques that are being detailed below are those which have a wider and more general application, be it creative or technically based.
The few general techniques of Airbrush Painting are:
Acetate Masking:
Acetate is a completely transparent, plastic material available in sheet or roll form and in a number of different thicknesses. It is useful in Airbrush Painting as a substitute for and complement to self adhesive masking film. The acetate mask can be used to cover the whole image or the cut or broken edge of the mask can be used as a loose mask. Since acetate is thin, like masking film, much care should be taken to place the sheet firmly against the painted surface to avoid any color from getting on the previously painted surface.
Angled Spraying:
This technique of painting Airbrush Shirts involves the blending of two colors without actually creating a hard or clearly defined edge between them. This is achieved by the distance of the airbrush held away from the surface of the artwork and the angle at which the airbrush is held in relation to the artwork surface.
Cardboard Masking:
The technique of the above Airbrush Painting is on the same lines of angled spraying. The advantage of cardboard is that it is readily available and inexpensive. Left over pieces from other studio projects can be used to cut out quite particular shapes accurately and create various edge effects. It is less versatile than acetate or film masking due to the fact that cardboard surfaces are opaque.
Film Masking:
The use of transparent self adhesive masking film in Airbrush Painting is the most popular method of artwork for protecting area that are currently not being worked on. Due to the transparency of the film it allows the covered area to remain visible which is extremely useful in judging the strength of the color and shading against those areas which are already sprayed. Excess or residual paint can be wiped off the surface using a damp cloth provided the paints used are water soluble after drying.
Lettering Technique:
The use of Airbrush Painting when flat or gradated color is required as a backdrop, or when a character or words are to be treated as objects and sprayed to give form. The typical example in which this Airbrush Painting technique is made use of is frequently is in the field of advertising. The rendering of words and letters used to create an impression that they are made of chrome, or some other highly reflective material.
Airbrush Painting is an acquired skill that requires practice, patience, careful planning and experiment. To produce successful work in Airbrush Painting, an understanding and awareness of color, light, tone, contrast and an ability to draw is essential.
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Using Stencil for Airbrush Shirts
Airbrush Shirts have become popular in recent years. People from all walks of life use Airbrush Painting shirts and t-shirts as a media for expressing social and political statements in society. Airbrush Painting is a free hand strategic usage of the spray gun and the medium with or without the use of stencils to obtain a design or textual matter on clothing.
Using stencils for Airbrush Painting is simply another tool to help you paint faster and cleaner. There are three types of airbrush stencils. They are:
Design Elements
Design elements are stencils that, when properly used, can actually end up looking like something you recognise. For example the stencil of a skull can be cited as a design element when painted on Airbrush Shirts.
Design Aid
Design aid would be any kind of stencil that does not produce any recognizable result of its own but is used instead to add an overall design. As an example a stencil that adds texture or dimension to art work would be a design aid. Specific examples would be wavy lines, membrane textures or a brick design.
Edge Aid
An edge aid is an Airbrush Painting stencil whose sole purpose is to make different shaped edges. French curves are the most recognizable type of edge aid.
Using stencils for airbrushing shirts can be either bought or made. The stencils can be made of paper or cardboard. Note that paper made stencils can actually soil one’s art work if the paper get soaked into the paint, thus using a cardboard cut stencil for Airbrush Painting shirts or other materials is more advisable.
To get started an original sketch or outline is required. The design that is required can be cut out on a scrap of paper or cardboard of one’s choice. Once this is ready, place the masking film directly over the sketch. Once the stencil sketch is ready and before beginning to airbrush you may want to build the color by beginning with the background.
After laying the base colors, gently pull off the masking film from the sketch. Position your stencil where it fits your scheme. Coloring can be done by either pulling out inside of the stencil completely or just pulling back section at a time. Care should be taken not to over spray the rest of the painting. This can be avoided by covering the rest of the artwork with paper and taking it to the edge of the stencil. Once the stencil is removed, detailing the artwork on the shirt the Airbrush Painting can be done.
By making use of stencils for Airbrush Shirts or various other materials the art work become cleaner and easier to do. Thus on a lighter note it could be said that using of stencils for airbrushing is an approved method of cheating.
How to Airbrush : Stenciling & Design Tips for Airbrushing a T-Shirt
Learn how to stencil bricks and add stars to your spray paint design when airbrushing a t-shirt in this free video art lesson. Expert: Eric Ware Bio: Eric Ware has been in the business for 15 years. Filmmaker: Richard Kennedy
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