Airbrush : Principles & use
Article originally posted on 26th March 2008
Here is an article I first write for the French board Makeupmaquillage, but I thought you may find it interesting. The airbrush is not yet realy well known in certains countries, and you may be lost between everything you hear. So here’s the first article of a serie so you can have a full view of it, principles, advantages and problems of the airbrush.
Principles & use
An airbrush is made of a compressor and a gun. The compressor get the air through the gun, where he goes and take the foundation. That way, it’s sprayed like a fine mist on the face or body.
It allow to work, depending on the material, on little to big areas, so you can do bodypainting, self-tanning application, prosthetics painting, nails painting, fake tattoos with stencils, make-up of the face, including brows and eyeshadows. You get an even colour, without any risk of a line of brush or the edge of a sponge, and some superb blending, all that either with a natural or a full cover look.
Be careful, you need to use specific foundations, more fluid and more pigmented or you will get your airbrush to clog. If you really want to use your usual foundation, you may need to add a drop of thinner. Do some testing till you find an adequate mix.
You can find different types of foundation, depending of your need and level of practice :
- silicone based (SB) foundations. It gives the dewy look of a healthy skin. It soften skindetails, last all day and is quite waterproof . It’s got a fine results in HD, unless you’ve got a heavy lighting set, so the results may appear too shiny to your DP. Check with him beforehand. It’s the perfect foundation to start airbrush make-up : as it needs a little time to set, it enables you to do little changes with your finger, brush or sponge, before it’s set.
- water based foundation. You need to master your airbrush to be able to use this one as it sets as soon as you spray it. So, no touch-ups possible with finger or sponge. First try should be the successful one.That way, you can achieve a real mat look, highly appreciated on TV, when huge lights are used. Playing with a face with waterbased foundation and some blushes/highlights in SB (silicone based foundations) are quite interesting, furthermore with ethnic skins who don’t bear much the all-mat look.
- Alcohol based foundation. A blessing for body make-up as it dries quickly, is waterproof and won’t stain fabrics, it’s also a must-have for prosthetics and special effects. Once the alcohol is gone, you only have the pigments : you can have really realistic bruises for example as you can’t see any build-up of foundations. Temporary tatoos are really easy to do with a stencil. They will resist to showers, and last a few days (of course, you still need to avoid any harsh exfoliating for that). On the contrary, if you want to hide strong marks or tattos, you can do several layers to cover it up, without much build up.
All this make airbrush a useful tool for make-up (photo, film, HD, special effects, bridal…) as for tanning application or nailpainting. Speed, thin, hygienic : that’s what you can definitly say about airbrush make-up, and actors often like that.
Next article : how to choose your airbrush.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Hello
Merci pour cet article! J’ignorais qu’on pouvait superposer les fdt à base d’eau et de silicone en airbrush. Avec les méthodes tradi la texture du second a tendance à séparer celle du premier (je ne suis pas sûre d’être claire là, lol)
Est-ce que les fdt à base d’alcool sont 100% sans transfert, notamment sur les vêtements? Est ce que c’est intéressant en mode pour faire les parties du corps qui se montrent du vêtement?
Autre chose, j’ai peu conscience de l’amplitude du “jet” de l’airbrush. Peut on maquilleur qqn d’habiller (mains, décolleté,) sans tacher ses vêtements?
Merci encore!
Bonjour Sophie, toujours ravie de te lire. Et merci pour les questions
Alors pour moi, jusqu’à présent aucun problème pour superposer les deux. Certains maquilleurs font l’inverse : SB avec les aqua en matifiant.
Je pense que ça marche car l’aqua est déjà sec quand j’applique le SB, et ce dernier est vaporisé, donc il se pose et sèche également. je ne sais pas si appliqué au pinceau ou au doigt ce serait la même chose… à tester
Pour le sans transfert, ça ne bouge pas.j’imagine que si la mannequin se frotte sur un drap blanc, il ya peut-être un risque de trace au bout d’un moment.
Mais c’est un des atout de ce fond de teint, il est plutot résistant.
Pour le jet, pas d’inquiétude : un kleenex sur les cols et voilà. le jet sur le visage DOIT être très doux, donc pas de rebond de couleur. l’aéro est très précis, à moins de mettre laéro loin pour aller vite (quand tu enchaines les visages pour de la figu par exemple…) pas besoin de mettre une grosse pression ou de craindre pour les vetements.
Pour les mains par contre, toujours un kleenex et relève légèrement les manches pour pouvoir maquiller au dessus des poignets confortablement. aéro ou pas, les marques de maquillages qui s’arrêtent net au costume/top, ça ne plait à personne !
Lundi je poste un article avec des infos pour choisir son aéro. Je parlerais aussi de la pression.