The first and hardest thing to learn is to control the airbrush! One of the easiest ways is to got out on old coloring book and use the pictures to 'color' with your airbrush. You will quickly learn how the brush handles, how to control the amount of color...the distance from the page makes a difference on coverage that is the same way on a cake! Start out just using water on the pages....to see how it covers, then add a bit of color to see how it builds up as you go over and over areas. Try 'shading' an area...darker to lighter shades of color.... then on a sheet of paper tower...try covering the entire towel with a solid color....without banding.... takes practice! The main thing is to keep the brush moving....
Then if you have the basic colors, try adding a drop of say yellow to blue and make green....old grade school color mixing idea....you can create all different colors from the 3 primary colors. So if you only have the basic 3 plus black and white....the color selection is unending. You can also over spray one color with a second color and create a 3rd color....great for shading effects or rainbows!
Don't forget to clean out the brush before you put it away. A quick cleaner is running a couple drops of windex or a dissolved denture cleaner tablet thru the brush, holding you finger over the tip and 'back flushing' then running clean warm water thru it...learned that one years ago in an airbrush class.
I as well received an air brush sprayer for christmas and am very eager to learn. The tips you listed were great ideas! Can't wait to try them. Thank you!
excellent tips bisbqueenb! Thanks. DH got me an airbrush last year and due to health issues, I am just beginning to use it now. Found out the hard way yesterday.....throw drop cloths on your floor if you don't have a "spray booth". Yikes....almost ruined my tile flooring.....my beige grout turned pink after spraying red. What a mess to clean up....but guaranteed I won't do that again. The other thing I do is wear a disposable painter's mask otherwise you'll end up inhaling all those fumes...not a good thing. My white mask was literally red when I got done. That would have ended up in my lungs otherwise. Have fun with it. It sure opens up a whole new world of creativity!
The first and hardest thing to learn is to control the airbrush! One of the easiest ways is to got out on old coloring book and use the pictures to 'color' with your airbrush. You will quickly learn how the brush handles, how to control the amount of color...the distance from the page makes a difference on coverage that is the same way on a cake! Start out just using water on the pages....to see how it covers, then add a bit of color to see how it builds up as you go over and over areas. Try 'shading' an area...darker to lighter shades of color.... then on a sheet of paper tower...try covering the entire towel with a solid color....without banding.... takes practice! The main thing is to keep the brush moving....
Then if you have the basic colors, try adding a drop of say yellow to blue and make green....old grade school color mixing idea....you can create all different colors from the 3 primary colors. So if you only have the basic 3 plus black and white....the color selection is unending. You can also over spray one color with a second color and create a 3rd color....great for shading effects or rainbows!
Don't forget to clean out the brush before you put it away. A quick cleaner is running a couple drops of windex or a dissolved denture cleaner tablet thru the brush, holding you finger over the tip and 'back flushing' then running clean warm water thru it...learned that one years ago in an airbrush class.
Great tips. Thank you
I got one about a month ago, I took cake boards to practice outlining freehand, and also getting used to the pressure control, which will blow your icing away if your not careful. Its hard for me getting the coordination down holding the trigger down and pulling back to add the color and back forward to stop, I keep wanting to start spraying then go towards the cake! But it is fun to use!
I also got an airbrush machine! I ordered mine with my Christmas money, LOL. I also had a lot of questions about it. I had heard of using paper towels and coloring books, but then again, they are not icing. I was wondering about fondant. I have lots of people who want fondant on their stacked cakes just because they are so "clean". How is airbrushing on fondant? I took an extra piece and rolled it out and tried to test it, but I get lots of tiny "spots" when trying to outline or shade on fondant. Maybe I need practice. This is my first time using it. Also can you use pearl dust in the airbrush? I have a stacked dino cake to make to match a costume the kid is wearing. It looks like the dino has orange scales that are dark orange on the edges and fade to yellow in the center. An suggestions on this? I was hoping to use the airbrush to save time, as I also have to cater a dinner the day the cake is due.
I also got an airbrush machine! I ordered mine with my Christmas money, LOL. I also had a lot of questions about it. I had heard of using paper towels and coloring books, but then again, they are not icing. I was wondering about fondant. I have lots of people who want fondant on their stacked cakes just because they are so "clean". How is airbrushing on fondant? I took an extra piece and rolled it out and tried to test it, but I get lots of tiny "spots" when trying to outline or shade on fondant. Maybe I need practice. This is my first time using it. Also can you use pearl dust in the airbrush? I have a stacked dino cake to make to match a costume the kid is wearing. It looks like the dino has orange scales that are dark orange on the edges and fade to yellow in the center. An suggestions on this? I was hoping to use the airbrush to save time, as I also have to cater a dinner the day the cake is due.
Also mine came with no instructions on pressure and is a dual action.
Are the "spots" like spattering? A lot of air brushes do that and there isn't much you can do about it. Air brushing on fondat isn't really any different then BC or paper. You want to keep your pressure around 15 psi. Some people use pearl dust diluted in air brushes but you take a chance of clogging your brush. You can purchase pearl color for the air brush as well as silver and gold and other shimmer colors. www.howtoairbrush.com is a good site for info
Yes, it's like spattering. Didn't show up quite as much on paper towel, but when i tried on fondant, not so pleasing. Then again, maybe the towel absorbed it more so than the fondant. i don't know. I can't tell what pressure it's set on, nor can I tell how to set the pressure since it did not come with a manual. It came with a sheet of the airbrush parts, however a couple pieces that came with it, I can not find in those "parts". I ordered it from TCP global on ebay-same thing listed on Amazon, from same company.
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