I recently made a Betty Boop cake (pictured in my gallery) and the client wanted red and purple. I used my airbrush in an attempt to blend/fade from one color to the other. There are some excellent examples of this on CC and also on Cakelava's website. I see some cake artists make a flawless fade from one color to another. I need any tips on how to do a better job. I am wonedering if they even used an airbrush, perhaps they used a painti brush. I'm clueless. Help please.
Thanks,
Valerie

The main key to remember with an airbrush is patience and layering! apply thin coats and let each dry (it usually doesn't take more than a minute or two for a thin coat to dry completely) before applying a second coat - in fading: don't go back over the lighter area. just continue adding layers/coats to the darkened area untill you get the desired effect. It also may help to start with the lighter color/shade first. HTH!!

Hi! I am new to this site and to cake decorating. What do you mean by airbrush? The spray color in the can?

No, Im talking about a cake airbrush. Go to youtube and put in airbrush cake decorating and you will see what im talking about. Welcome aboard.

For what it's worth, even back in my painting and art class days, red to violet fades were always the toughest for me. You're going from a cool color to a warm color, and violet in particular can be a very rich color. Plus, when most people think of red-violet, then tend to think more of a purple shade, or maybe a fuchsia, than a true mix of red and violet, which is actually a lot warmer of a color. The color you have going through the little heart on the top tier is a pretty good red-violet.

Like was mentioned above, go light and in layers - you can always add more, you can't take any away, and it's really easy to make a blend involving violet (or blue) turn out too dark. I don't know about your airbrush system, but I've had some success mixing a little of each color into the cup together. However, until you're comfortable with this, always, always test your new color on a napkin or some other test surface. And always add the darker color (in this case violet) to the lighter color. Most likely, you won't want a true half and half amount of color - you'll want more of the lighter color.

Practice is always good. I recommend starting with either a color to white fade, or a fade to yellow from either green or orange. Yellow is a good practice color for blending because it is the lightest, so there's much less chance of having the blend in the middle be too dark.

If you don't want to use airbrush colors to practice, you can sort of get the same effect with water color paints. A crayola kids set will do even. The actually coloring method is different of course, but it will help you get used to the flow from one color to another. At least that's my personal experience. I did a lot of water color before I ever got started on cake decorating, and I was able to transfer a lot of color techniques in terms of blends and tints and shades, from one media to the other.

Thanks for all the help. I did a lot of watecolor high school and college but blending with tha airbrush was a task. I wasnt even sure it's possible to blend from red to purple. Both are such strong colors but thats what the client wanted so I told her I'd try. If you look closely there was more of just a "change of color" than a "blend of color" LOL I mean it was ok, but it's something I need to practice on. Again, thanks for all the help. I recall seeing Colette Peters put soft colors on cakes using a sponge or paper towel I think. I might try that too.