Sunday Mailbag: Airbrushing Process Tutorial

Q: In your book you are describing the sequence you are foll0wing doing life caricatures. Do you also have a sequence for the coloring with the airbrush, after the pencil drawing is finished (concerning areas and/or used colors)? Do you still stick to the sequence when doing digital life caricatures?

A: I’ve actually been meaning to post a tutorial on live caricature airbrushing but have never gotten around to it. The following is something I put together years ago to show the basic process. I use a different process for digital color, though… this is just for airbrushing live caricatures. The colors are for a Caucasian model, but the principals of using the airbrush to create volume and three dimensional qualities are the same with any skin color, you just use different colors to describe different skin tones.

Also, this tutorial assumes you know how an airbrush works. It’s more about the application of color and values within a linear style drawing.

Airbrushing Caricatures:

The airbrush is a very flexible tool. The same brush can paint a flame of the side of a car, a tiger on a T-shirt, a caricature at a theme park or glass and chrome on a technical illustration. Some brushes are better suited for certain work than others, although almost any brush will do. For live caricature purposes, I am going to recommend a type and even a few makes of brush, and give you my reasoning for doing so. I’m also going to recommend some other tools that compliment the airbrush technique nicely.

The Lines

As impressive as a good airbrushed caricature can be, the lines you put down before painting are still the most important thing. Learning how to draw caricatures is up to you, but there are some things you can do to maximize the effectiveness of a drawing you plan to airbrush.

Although you can of course airbrush any drawing, I’ve found that marker, ink or some similar dark black line overpowers the airbrush, causing you to work too hard any over-paint to achieve an effect that does not appear “washed out”. I would recommend lines rendered in a soft graphite or black prismacolor, which allows for a more subtle and soft look to the painting. I use a 4b 2mm or 6b 2mm graphite and leadholder.  I also use a blending stomp to add some shadows and soften some edges before applying the airbrush.

The Airbrush

As I stated before, almost any airbrush will do, but some do better than others. While a gravity feed brush has some advantages as far as not getting as much paint flow restriction, I find those types of brushes are better for fine studio work. They are slower and more awkward when you are moving fast. Similarly, brushed like the Iwata Revolution or Paasche VL with a bottom feed siphon and bottles are too big and bulky, waste paint, and have too big a spray pattern to be ideal. I prefer a side feed brush, with a set of bottles. It is quick and easy, smaller and lighter than the VL or similar, usually a finer spray, and easy to maintain. I use an Iwata HP-SB or HP-SBS, with a 14-bottle palette.

Other tools

A few other things can come in handy…

• White Colored Pencil– Extremely useful for a quick sharp edge on the side of the face, or as a defining line of a reflected light amid a sea of colors. Easily overused, however.
• Liquid paper pen- I’ve seen this used occasionally effectively. It’s great for a bright highlight in the eye, but if you paint well that’s not an issue. Sometimes used for the same purpose as the colored pencil, but it’s too harsh. Not exactly recommended, but there it is.
• The Template– A French curve shapes object used as a shield for blocking paint from areas. This is an extremely useful tool, but usually used very much as a crutch by the novice artist. I have seen caricaturists who have been “airbrushing” caricatures for years that still paint more with the template than they do with the airbrush. In other words, they use a shield to keep the paint where they want it, instead of learning to control the brush effectively. If you are a beginner, stay away from the template, at least until you can paint an eyeball without any color outside the iris. “Don’t use a template until you can see the white of their eyes”.

GETTING STARTED

With the right tools in hand, you can get ready to do an airbrushed caricature. The following details my color palette and formulas for mixing custom colors. You can use this as a guide. Many of the colors are mixed with water as needed. The method I use does not necessitate any real opacity in your paint. I just use the opaque because I like the feel of the paint… most true transparent are too quick to spider or soak the pages

The Colors

All these colors are Media Com-Art Opaque except Royal Blue and Violet, which are Medea Com-Art Transparents, and where indicated.

Flesh-tone:               40% Iron Yellow

30% Toluedene Red

30% Burnt Sienna

One or two drops of Royal Blue or Turquoise.

A few drops of water

This is a base flesh-tone. DO NOT ADD WHITE. It looks like a ruddy orange, but on the paper it allows the white of the page to show through, creating a decent base flesh color (Caucasian). Obviously, the other ethnic groups have their own color formulas.

Red:                            75% Toluedene Red

25% Water

This is your basic red. Used in the face and on clothes, etc. It is a very thick color, hence the significant amount of water.

Facial Shadow:        70% Burnt Sienna

20% Violet

10% Raw Umber

A few drops of water.

This color is a cooler face tone for shadows and shaping. The raw umber takes a little of the purple-ness out of it. It should look in the bottle like a brownish/burgundy red.

Iron Yellow:              100% Iron Yellow

A few drops of water

Use in the hair for blondes, and clothes, etc. An ochre yellow color.

Raw Umber:               100% Raw Umber

A few drops of water

Useful for darker blonde, dishwater or sandy brown hair. Also good for base of darker brown hair, and for transition in black skin-tone. Also used for other ethnic skin-tones like Asian and Hispanic.

Burnt Umber:           95% Burnt Umber

5% Ultramarine Blue

This is a basic brown, but it’s a little too red out of the bottle, hence the addition of the blue. It’s great for hair, eyes, and darker tones of black skin. Usually watery out of the bottle, but add water if desired.

Dark Brown:             80% Raw Umber Hue (Golden Colors)

20% water

Used for very dark brown hair. Sometimes used in extremely dark black skin-tones.

Black:                         80% Black

20% water

Another thick color, so add water as desired. Some people like it thicker, but it gets grainy if not watered down a little. Used for blacks or shadows of extremely dark brown hair. DO NOT use in black flesh-tone, or for shadows in facial features. This will kill the color in your skin-tones.

Blue:                           100% Ultramarine Blue

Already watery, no need to add water. Used in eyes, clothes, etc. and is also useful to show five o’clock shadow on men (and occasionally women). Also used to darken the shadows of Black flesh-tones.

Green:                        80% Lime Green

20% Raw Umber

5% Ultramarine

None of the Com-Art greens are worth using as is, so I mix mine. The Raw Umber is to take the brightness out of it. Don’t add too much, or you get Khaki. The blue deepens the color.

Yellow:                        100% Hansa Yellow

A few drops of water

This is a basic bright yellow, used for clothes, accessories, and VERY occasionally a fake blonde dye job color (in conjunction with Iron Yellow). This color keeps thickening up in the bottle, so you’ll need to water it down if your bottle sits for a few days.

Violet:                        100% Transparent Violet

No Water. Used for accessories, Etc.

Royal Blue/Turquoise:        100% Transparent Royal Blue or

75% Turquoise, 25% water

No water for royal blue, which is transparent. Background color, eyes, clothes,etc.

Basic Airbrush Strokes

Before we get started with applying color, let’s go over some of the basic movements you’ll use to paint a caricature.

Unlike traditional airbrush painting, where our objects and shapes are defined by color and tone by the brush itself, the airbrushed caricature is a painting within the confines of a linear drawing. Notice I did not say “coloring inside the lines”, because a good airbrushed caricature is much more than a color job. It reinforces and enhances the shapes and forms drawn by the pencil, to create a more dimensional statement than line alone. Effectively used, the airbrush can turn a flat pencil drawing into a multidimensional illusion. However, since the lines do a lot of the work for us by defining the features, their shapes and (hopefully) their structure (anatomy and interaction with the rest of the face), we don’t have to work so hard with the brush. Think of the lines as the basic clay shapes in a sculpture, and the airbrush as the tool you use to smooth it all out, and make it look real.

You don’t have to get that dark with the brush, especially in the face. The strokes you used are smooth and fluid, following the contours of the shapes you’ve drawn, and then going beyond those shapes in places to fill in information missing from the flat pencil drawing, like the shadow under the nose, or the upper curve of a cheek.

Look at the sample strokes on the above image. If you can master a straight line, a circle, a curved line and an “s” line, you can paint a caricature. Remember the drawing holds the color together for you, you don’t have to work that hard, or spend that much time. A circle painted insides the lines of a cheek becomes a natural looking color and highlight effect. Without the lines, it’s just a circle.

You need to develop control and affinity for the brush. Most beginners have problems like at the bottom of the opposite page, with “spiders” and blotches. You MUST keep the airbrush moving when the paint is flowing, or you’ll get similar results. Always being each stroke with zero paint flow. Pull back on the trigger while in motion for paint, and release the trigger while still in motion. This sound complex, but so does riding a bicycle. After enough work at it, it becomes unconscious and second nature. Also try to paint long lines and strokes, following the features for as far as possible before ending and beginning another stroke. The “quick burst” painting method is like trying to stipple the drawing, it takes forever and looks less effective.

Practice strokes in both directions. I prefer to do my circular shapes counter-clockwise, you may prefer clockwise. Experiment, and get comfortable.

One more piece of advice, most beginners struggle with the brush because they are afraid of it. It feels foreign and awkward. So did a pencil when you were two. Be aggressive to the point of screwing up the first hundred tries. You will be a better airbrusher at try 101 if you attack the paper, than if you are timid and do a lot of little stokes and barely use any air. Always push completely down for air, and control your paint flow with the backward motion of your trigger, not with the airflow.

STEP 1.

Blending

If you did your drawing in graphite, use your blending stomp to begin to establish some shadows and shaping. Work underneath features, and pull graphite from your lines into the face. Look at the above image, you can see where I uses the blending stomp to continue my line from the chin into the face, to extend it’s reach and begin the establishment of a “smile line” that would have been too harsh rendered in line. Both the stomp and the airbrush allow you to indicate and establish features that would be too sharp and defined to work in the line. Like the end of the nose, subtle fold in the face, brow lines, etc. The stomp is the starting point for the shaping of your facial features, round out the nose if needed, cheeks, etc. Add some darkness to the eye sockets and the nose bridge area. Soften the hair.

STEP 2.

Base Flesh-tone

Begin with the flesh-tone color. Remember, the white of the paper is as much a part of this color as the paint, so stay light. You can always go darker, but you can’t go lighter. Follow the contours of the features, using as simple a shapes and strokes as you can within the lines. Don’t try to fill the whole space, leaving the centers of features as highlights. The overspray from your brush will soften the glare of the paper. You can go back with a light mist in the center of the features if needed later. Look at the “lineless” painting opposite. Even without the lines, you can see the shapes and forms of the face, but they look blurry and undefined.  This is the way the paint should be applied, not to compete with the lines, but to reinforce them.

Be aware of the shapes of your features as you paint. Is the nose straight, or does it bend out on the sides? Are the cheeks round or oval? Is the end of the nose square or round? You are still drawing the caricature, even though that part may seem to be over.

You can use the soft touch of the brush to complete some structural connections that line cannot do effectively, and only tone can accomplish. Connecting the eyebrow, completing the lower eye socket from the inside corner of the eye to the outside corner, and then along the cheek to the ear, the sides of the nose, on a full frontal view, etc.

Follow the stroke diagram on the right side of the face in above image. I started at the top of the forehead and worked my way down with curved, straight and circular strokes.

Step 3.

Red

Once you have established your base flesh-tone, move on to the red. Use this color to add interest and warmth to the face. Everyone’s flesh-tones are made up of subtle color changes. The skin is redder were it is thinner, and the blood vessels are closer to the surface. An over simplified but good rule of thumb is add red to the areas you’d get sunburned on after a day in the sun (i.e. the tips of features). Your ears are naturally redder since the skin is very thin, and light passes through them somewhat. Your lips, obviously, and the end of the nose where the blood vessels are just waiting to burst after a six-pack or so. Also, remember to scan the clothing and accessories for any red. Or any color you may be using. There is nothing more annoying than having to use a color twice because you forgot the shirt or earrings the first time.

Red is a very unforgiving color. A lot of novices have trouble with it, because it is overpowering, and demands tight control, or your subject looks like a lobster. I recommend that you practice painting faces monochrome with the red, to develop a feel for the color.

STEP 4.

Facial Shadow

This is the most important part of the flesh-tone. With this color, you finish defining the shapes and forms in the face, add contrast by establishing the darkest areas amid the features, and complete the flesh color and the illusion of dimension. It is very easy to overdo the facial shadow. Begin to shade under the features to cool off and darken the shadow areas. This color belongs right where you laid down the blending stomp strokes, NOT on the tops of features where the light is strongest. It helps to have a specific light source in mind from the beginning… often, an overhead and slightly forward source will do, but you can be creative. Stay closer to the face with this color, and don’t be afraid to establish some sharper definition of tone along lines that indicate a very strong separation of muscle or shape, like the bottom of this guys smiling cheeks, his nose, the smile lines connecting his chin and dimples, etc. The darkest areas of the face are usually under the nose, the corners of the eyes/nose bridge area, the corners of the mouth if they are smiling, under the chin on the neck and inside the ear structure. You can also get fancy with this color, adding drop shadows for the nose and/or head like I did on the neck, or for locks of hair that might be hanging over the face, as on the forehead here.

As you gain more control, you can use the facial shadow color to establish a reflected light source along the side of the face if desired. You can see along the left side of the face, where I have left a small lighter area next to the line.

STEP 5.

Hair (The Browns)

Actually, when I say the “browns”, I’m including iron yellow (ochre), which would be the primary color for blondes. Obviously, the hair color in the subject varies widely. Usually, two colors can be combined to create any hair tone. In this case, we want a medium brown tone, so I’ll begin with a base of Raw Umber. The base color of the hair acts as both the mid-tone and the highlight tone. Always use fluid, long strokes in the hair, creating the contours of the major shapes. Then work from the “ends in” and the “roots out”, Concentrating the tone and color on the ends and roots where hair is darkest, and leaving it lighter in the center of the locks or curls for highlights. The simpler you can make the hair, the better. Do not be afraid to get in close and paint a few lines of varying weights and lengths amid the shapes in the hair, to add some texture to it.

Painting hair is very gestural, with broad, sweeping strokes and lots of movement. Paint with your arm, not just your wrist. There is usually a lot more lines in the hair, and it is usually a lot darker than a typical skin-tone, so be more aggressive with your paint.

STEP 6.

Hair Shadows

Now, it’s time to add the second color to the hair, the darker tone. Use this to darken the shadows and create a deeper look to the hair. You will go one step darker with this color than from the hair mid-tone. The order of the tonal value is as follows:

Iron Yellow > Raw Umber >Burnt Umber > Dark Brown > Black

Whichever color you used as the mid-tone, grab the one to the right of it on this list. In this case, we use burnt umber. Lay this color down on the underside of larger shapes and locks of hair, like the brushed-to-the-side bangs of our example, and in the roots and ends where I mention before hair is darker. Also, hair tends to look darker in the crevasses of a curl or waveform, like the upper part of the example’s front wave. This color is meant as a transition from dark to mid-tone, so keep it out of the center of the hair forms, where you want a highlight and ‘shine’ to be prevalent.

STEP 7.

Incidental colors

By this I mean the rest of the palette. You have, at this point, achieved the full flesh and hair tones and shadows. With the exception of the eyes, the rest is just extra information. Take a close look at the eye, and don’t be shy about asking what color they think their eyes are. Get in VERY CLOSE and paint in the eye using a tight circular motion. As you improve your control, try experimenting with the placement of the highlight. The iris is usually the darkest on the opposite side of the eye as the highlight, and under the lid if it partially obscures the iris. Use a smooth gradation, don’t try to paint the “fibers” within the iris, they are not visible to the naked eye from a distance of more than 18 inches anyway. It might take more than one color to capture the eye color. A “Hazel” eye uses both Raw Umber and Green, while a “Gray” eye might be Ultramarine Blue and Raw Umber. Try to get as close to the real thing as possible.

As far as other accessories, like clothes, jewelry, etc., use an approximate color match. Don’t knock yourself out trying to match some shade of green in a shirt or jacket. Who cares? The face is what’s important. Try to add some quick visual interest with some folds in the clothes, and shadows under collars, etc.

STEP 8.

The Background

To finish off the drawing, lay some color in the background. It should be a lighter value than the flesh-tone, and a cool color to contrast the warmness of the face. I recommend using the Royal Blue or Turquoise. Its cool value cause it to recede, and brings the face to the forefront of attention. This is where a template can often be very useful. You can use it to achieve a sharp distinction between the background and the face. Only use it in maybe three places, just to give the separation and some punch. It’s best to use it where the skin and background meet directly, and the darker nature of the hair and other areas will create their own distinction, and the concern of overspray is minimal.

Another trick before you sign the drawing is to take a white colored pencil and use it to sharpen a few edges. This is great to establish some quick reflected light or separate two dark areas that are touching the paint.

Thanks to Dominick Zeillinger for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!