If you want to take it to the next level, use stencils.
Keep pieces of paper or cardboard cut with specific angles and curves and keep them at your side.
Place them over the piece and spray over them along the edge to transfer the profile to the piece below and get a hard edge.
For more spray patterns, spray through the hairs of a brush for a splatter look. Different brushes make different patterns.
Scrounge around through trash for semi-permeable materials that you can use to transfer patterns, like fishnet stockings, chains, or pretty much anything else with holes in it. Some packaging has some unique cutouts that can save you hours trying to cut it out with an exacto knife.
I will say, take my tips AFTER you get good with gradients and blending.
Another thing that could help, in terms of cost; don't use a base coat with the air gun. It takes too damn long to paint, and to dry for that matter. If you do a base coat with the air gun, it can also warp the paper because it will dry at different rates. Also, its a hell of a ton cheaper than going through a dozen bottles of air brush paint when two sprits of a spray can could do the same.
Use spray paint for base coats. Prep canvases ahead of time with spray paint and let them dry flat in a well-circulated area. This will also help prime the canvas and prevent the air brush from warping small spots because it seals the canvas away from the solvents.
Ones last material thing you can focus on as well, depending on your chosen canvas, are paint thinners.
What he sprays down before literally carving out the buildings is paint thinner. It allows him to move the paint on the canvas. The canvas, spray paint, AND airbrush paint all have to be able to handle whatever paint thinner you choose, so experiment well and make sure you test what happens when the piece finally dries, so it doesn't peel away over time or in the sun.
The only last thing I can say, is that you can also dip brushes in the paint thinner and flick the tips of the brush over a stick (so the brush fibers hit the stick and the dropplets are catapulted at the canvas) to create speckles like stars. The droplets form on the canvas, and nice clean round speckles can be made this way which will have a tinge of the paint around them in it instead of being dead white. Again, it depends on your materials, but it sure beats the hell out of using stencils or individually painting little stars.
The skill is not all in the doing, it's in the method. This guy has a vast number of tricks and techniques that he discovered and fine-tuned after thousands of hours of experimentation so that it is easy for him to do them without a second thought.
Keep that in mind.
Experiment, find what makes you have that tingle in your mind that keeps you asking "what if I try this?!"
Eventually you'll be gasping every day because of how excited you are to try a new technique out.
If he makes it look easy, it's because it actually is... for him.
He developed these techniques (or his tutor did) such that it is merely a flick of the wrist to get impressive results. What you don't see are the thousands of hours of work, hundreds of cans of spray paint, and dozens of canvases that went into making the techniques fool-proof.
90% of the time, the thing you plan on and spend all your energy to make, which you think is your best work yet, typically doesn't strike anyone else as impressive.
The best works, you'll find, come not from planning but from originality.
That is to say, you'll stumble upon your best work and in spite of how little effort you thought you put into it, it's what everyone seems to resonate with.
Remember what I said before about when it becomes easy for you?
Even though you think you put in little effort and cannot fathom why others like THAT piece as compared to all other ones you may have slaved over, recognize that the only reason you think it was low-effort was because you only used all the skills you've compartmentalized (therefore mastered) and don't even realize you're doing it anymore.
That's why people usually like the ones you think are throw-away and run-of-the-mill better than the art you slaved over, made all the grand plans for, and put everything into. It's funny how it works out that way.
They are responding to your journey, not your destination.
Remember, half the fun is finding something new. Ignore WHAT you're creating and instead focus on HOW you're creating. Loving the process not the outcome is the only way you'll never get bored or feel like you've run out of ideas.
Once you accept that, you'll find you've made more pieces than you can count and you'll be baffled as to where they came from all of a sudden.
Good job.
If you want to take it to the next level, use stencils.
Keep pieces of paper or cardboard cut with specific angles and curves and keep them at your side.
Place them over the piece and spray over them along the edge to transfer the profile to the piece below and get a hard edge.
For more spray patterns, spray through the hairs of a brush for a splatter look. Different brushes make different patterns.
Scrounge around through trash for semi-permeable materials that you can use to transfer patterns, like fishnet stockings, chains, or pretty much anything else with holes in it. Some packaging has some unique cutouts that can save you hours trying to cut it out with an exacto knife.
I will say, take my tips AFTER you get good with gradients and blending.
Another thing that could help, in terms of cost; don't use a base coat with the air gun. It takes too damn long to paint, and to dry for that matter. If you do a base coat with the air gun, it can also warp the paper because it will dry at different rates. Also, its a hell of a ton cheaper than going through a dozen bottles of air brush paint when two sprits of a spray can could do the same.
Use spray paint for base coats. Prep canvases ahead of time with spray paint and let them dry flat in a well-circulated area. This will also help prime the canvas and prevent the air brush from warping small spots because it seals the canvas away from the solvents.
Ones last material thing you can focus on as well, depending on your chosen canvas, are paint thinners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EWWFd8ij-g
What he sprays down before literally carving out the buildings is paint thinner. It allows him to move the paint on the canvas. The canvas, spray paint, AND airbrush paint all have to be able to handle whatever paint thinner you choose, so experiment well and make sure you test what happens when the piece finally dries, so it doesn't peel away over time or in the sun.
The only last thing I can say, is that you can also dip brushes in the paint thinner and flick the tips of the brush over a stick (so the brush fibers hit the stick and the dropplets are catapulted at the canvas) to create speckles like stars. The droplets form on the canvas, and nice clean round speckles can be made this way which will have a tinge of the paint around them in it instead of being dead white. Again, it depends on your materials, but it sure beats the hell out of using stencils or individually painting little stars.
The skill is not all in the doing, it's in the method. This guy has a vast number of tricks and techniques that he discovered and fine-tuned after thousands of hours of experimentation so that it is easy for him to do them without a second thought.
Keep that in mind.
Experiment, find what makes you have that tingle in your mind that keeps you asking "what if I try this?!"
Eventually you'll be gasping every day because of how excited you are to try a new technique out.
If he makes it look easy, it's because it actually is... for him.
He developed these techniques (or his tutor did) such that it is merely a flick of the wrist to get impressive results. What you don't see are the thousands of hours of work, hundreds of cans of spray paint, and dozens of canvases that went into making the techniques fool-proof.
Apprentices do as instructed.
Experts no longer need the instructions.
Masters make the instructions.
Glad I could help.
Remember, half the fun is finding something new.
90% of the time, the thing you plan on and spend all your energy to make, which you think is your best work yet, typically doesn't strike anyone else as impressive.
The best works, you'll find, come not from planning but from originality.
That is to say, you'll stumble upon your best work and in spite of how little effort you thought you put into it, it's what everyone seems to resonate with.
Remember what I said before about when it becomes easy for you?
Even though you think you put in little effort and cannot fathom why others like THAT piece as compared to all other ones you may have slaved over, recognize that the only reason you think it was low-effort was because you only used all the skills you've compartmentalized (therefore mastered) and don't even realize you're doing it anymore.
That's why people usually like the ones you think are throw-away and run-of-the-mill better than the art you slaved over, made all the grand plans for, and put everything into. It's funny how it works out that way.
They are responding to your journey, not your destination.
Remember, half the fun is finding something new. Ignore WHAT you're creating and instead focus on HOW you're creating. Loving the process not the outcome is the only way you'll never get bored or feel like you've run out of ideas.
Once you accept that, you'll find you've made more pieces than you can count and you'll be baffled as to where they came from all of a sudden.
NICE
Nice!
Wow...love this smoldering Pepe! It's very introspective! Great job u/polish_snausage! 💞
Check out my frogs I just shared. Not as cool as Pepe though. Love this!
Looks good to me.
I love it, he's so expressive! He looks like he might have a hangover!
You drew me!
Nice shading
Nice! You should call this one (OH TO PEPE) I'll be a classic someday...
Suitable for framing, thanks fren...
Noice!! Keep going, you have talent - Schoolmarm.
Great job
looks good, keep it up!!!!
That would look good on my wall.
Thank you!
Awesome, fren!
Well done, fren!