Airbrushes

Airbrushes have a very broad range of uses. Some are listed below.

Technical, medical and commercial illustration, photo retouching, fingernail art, body art and face painting, temporary tattoos, cake decorating, set design, craft and ceramic painting, textile t-shirt and leather (jacket) painting, sidewalk murals, car and truck murals, sign painting, plastic and resin model kit painting, taxidermy, television, film and theatre makeup, fake tan application.

On these pages are photos which illustrate some of those uses.

There are many 'How to" books in our Products Catalogue under Airbrush Equipment.

Airbrush types

Single Action

This is the simplest (and cheapest) type of airbrush available. It has a single on/off trigger for the air supply. There is no control over the amount of air drawn into the airbrush or the ratio of air to paint while in use. Many single-action airbrushes allow adjustment of the paint volume, but only when not spraying. To adjust the spray pattern and the spray density while in use, the distance between the airbrush and the work piece must be changed.

'External mix' single action airbrushes are the most basic. Air blowing across the top of the paint supply tube draws the paint into the air stream. Often the paint does not atomise completely which results in a rather rough spray.

'Internal mix' single-action airbrushes overcome this problem by mixing the paint with the air as it flows through the body of the airbrush. These provide a much better spray quality and allow for more varied spray patterns but are far more expensive. You still cannot adjust the spray pattern and paint flow while spraying.

Overall, the single-action airbrush is great for laying flat colours, but is a very limited tool when the best airbrushing techniques are required.

Double Action

The Double Action Airbrushes, although the most expensive, is by far the most versatile and popular type of airbrush. It has a trigger assembly that gives you complete control over the amount of air flowing through the airbrush, and the amount of colour, which it sprays. Once mastered the user can switch from the finest of washes to a dense, solid colour in a single pass.

Some models have an adjusting screw or ring that fixes the trigger at a certain point so that it can be used as a fixed double action airbrush. This allows the presetting of a fixed spray volume, ideal for nail artists.

A double-action airbrush, although more expensive than other types, is a tool well worth the investment. If looked after correctly, it will serve the user well for years to come.

Gravity Feed Airbrushes

With gravity-feed the reservoir is either mounted on the top or to one side of the airbrush body. They have a more limited liquid capacity and the reservoir is often part of the airbrush body, which means that they must be cleaned out thoroughly between each colour change. However, they are better balanced, and so ideal for detailed work where good airbrush control is required.

Suction Feed Airbrushes

With suction feed the paint is drawn up from a reservoir below the body of the airbrush. The advantages of suction-feed airbrush are that the reservoir can have a large capacity, it can be easily removed and changed for one holding a different colour, and, since removable, it is easy to clean. They do have the disadvantage though of being cumbersome to use since the reservoir can easily get in the way for close up work.