Airbrush : the basics.

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.

• 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%u2026) 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.