People being anti-airbrush / disliking airbrushing?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Luciferian**

Airbrushing is without a doubt the best way to get perfectly smooth base coats and nice gradients for general shading. You can pull off things with an airbrush that are literally impossible with a normal brush, or would take many, many times as long.

Like others have said though, airburshing gets a bad rap from "pro painters" on eBay who literally base coat the model one color, then do two absurd points of OSL and call it a day. Probably in less than five minutes.

**Luciferian**

frozenwastes wrote:

Anyone who wants to see what good airbrushing looks like and how it fits into a larger process should check out Kenny Boucher from Next Level Painting. He uses an airbrush on almost everything he does, but he never, ever settles for the signature crappy gradient. There's always more glazing and highlights to be done and leaving details unpainted in a gradient is just never going to happen.

Love Kenny Boucher. He's one of my biggest inspirations in painting. Even though I don't own an airbrush, I can learn a lot from his videos by trying to replicate the airbrush effects with a brush, and he always does extensive brushwork on each model as well.

**Luciferian**

I for one simply don't have the space for a spraying booth, otherwise I would have one. Airbrushes are nice, but they're not practical for 100% of people.

**Luciferian**

Yep, I live with my girlfriend in a very small apartment in a very expensive city and it's cluttered enough already. I have the money and the desire for an airbrush setup, but it just isn't happening until we move.

**Luciferian**

Captain Joystick wrote:
Yeah, I'll come clean. I've done that.

I've seen land raiders with random bits of their flat pannels glowing for no discernible reason and rolled my eyes. I've (probably) appeared disinterested when someone tells me they achieved a cool effect with an airbrush. And yes, I've shown preferential treatment to an effect that clearly took hours to do with brush work over an arguably nicer looking effect that was done quickly it an airbrush as an afterthought.

I don't own an airbrush, my condo doesn't really have a layout that's conducive to me having one. (Proximity to windows = surrounded by pristine white carpet). As a consequence of that my painting is strictly limited to what you can attain with a brush, which is what I'm eager to hear about when I ask others how they achieved an effect: if I can do it myself I really want to know how it's done, if it's only doable with an airbrush it takes everything I have to just be polite and not let my disappointment show.

But as far as video tutorials I have no patience for it at all. I've probably left a comment like the one described in the OP, once or twice. Nine times out of ten if I'm looking up a painting guide it's because I'm looking for good complimentary highlight colours, or I'm in a panic spiral over what order of colours I should use when basecoating or something. And nine times out of ten every video I find is a three-part series of 'spray this colour', 'spray that colour', and the occasional 'be very careful not to (obvious bad thing) so you don't break your airbrush'.

Now, I would argue that the majority of people looking up videos on how to paint something are new to the hobby. And I absolutely agree that at least some of them are looking for guidance on how to use their airbrush, I understand this. But you don't need a separate video for every conceivable space marine colour scheme if your core technique is identical. And when you, him, and the other guy are releasing a video every other day about how to paint blood angels, yet again, it's getting harder and harder to find advice on how to paint a consistent, streak-free yellow.

That said, I'm pretty thankful for warhammer tv, they provide a solid baseline and have alleviated like 90% of that frustration.

Pretty harsh, my friend. Pretty harsh.

As far as video tutorials go, you can pretty much substitute some kind of blending for airbrushing based on your preference, whether it be layering, glazing or wet blending. You can probably even use the same colors. Nearly every paint job has to have some brushwork done at some point, and most videos I've seen reflect this.

Also, look at the work of Kenny Boucher of Angel Giraldez as mentioned in this thread and tell me they aren't amazing painters. They also both have a large body of work in terms of lessons and tutorials that I have found extremely helpful, in spite of the fact that they use an airbrush and I don't.

**Luciferian**

Polonius wrote:
I don't think people look at a model, think it looks awesome, and then find out it was airbrushed and hate it.

People in this thread have admitted to doing exactly that.