AIRBRUSH BEACH DESIGN

by Fred Wagner

Hello everyone my name is Fred Wagner and you may know me from this site as Airbrush Dreams. If you would like to know more about me you can find a brief Bio on my tutorial on Bill Cosby. There has been a recent interest in learning how to do beach scenes especially old school such as when I started in airbrushing back in the 70s and 80s, so Don and I decided to do up this tutorial and a second half on Lettering which is part of this design. I hope you enjoy and take something of value from this How To.

Material We will Be Using:

Today we will be using the Iwata HP-BCS (Eclipse) for airbrushing, one sheet of drawing paper, 100% cotton t-shirt material 1 sandwich bag and hollow body q-tips for defeating tip dry. For Paints we will be using Aqua-Flow Paint and for Colors we are using Opaque Black, White, Transparent Red Pure Blue, and Hot Colors Transparent Yellow, Pink and Red. We also will be using ready caps and clear 4 ounce jars for quick color change.

 

 

Step 1
I first mist down the t-shirt with a mix of top binder and water and press down the fibers with a clean sandwich baggie over my hand and allow it to dry which helps keep down the shirt catching any unwanted over spray. After that is out of the way I set up my compressor for 55 psi and my first color will be pure blue. Now this is a strong color so be very careful. I will take a piece of drawing paper and tear it into some pleasing curve that I want for my beach and then place it against the shirt. If wanted you can lightly spray some spray adhesive on the backside of the paper, but it is not really necessary. With the paper on the shirt I lightly spray along the edge of the paper to form the beach and form the outer edge of the water.

 

 

Step 2
I now take the same color and begin to work up the sides of the design to frame the scene and to bring the focal point into the center. I also widened the beach area by moving the sheet of paper to each side of the shirt and softened the edges.

 

 

Step 3
Next I start to build the clouds with the same color I do some High cumulus and some nice stratus. Now being that these clouds are at the top, that means the tops of the clouds will be dark because the sun is setting in this design. I also do the outsides puffy and bring them to a point to the inside to bring your attention into the design.

 

 

Step 4
Next I begin to work on the water and the wave. My wave will be blocking the horizon because I want it to be the main focus of the painting. I start at the right and try to keep the wave parallel with the horizon, you can keep the edge flat, or you can put a little curve to give a little more drama to the wave which I chose to do. As you get to the top of the wave it will brake and curl over on itself creating that beautiful tube that surfers long for. At that point you run your smooth curve down even with the base of the wave and bring your line straight across to the end of the wave.
I place shadowing along the bottom of the breaking water of the wave and the base of the wave and especially at the base of the curl by the tube. This creates great depth in the wave. I also make some curved dagger strokes creating the movement of the wave. I like to leave the upper edges of the wave light because that is where there is less water and there will be more light penetrating. After I have the wave nice and sharp I start to work on the foreground water by darkening the outer edges and creating some old waves that are still dissipating in the shallows, but I keep them out of focus.

 

 

Step 5
Next we are finally changing colors and will be painting over the entire painting with hot yellow except over the sand. Don't go real heavy with the yellow at this point.

 

 

 

Step 6
In this step we will using several colors. First we are using red and working on the lower clouds. Again red is a very strong color so go easy and you can even lower your air pressure if you want to be safe and unsure of your control. You can either cut some stencil clouds for the clouds or freehand them like I do. I worked softly with large puffy outer edges and working toward the middle and getting smaller. Now these clouds are far off in the distance so they are kept faint and out of focus.
Next I switch to hot yellow, I place a cap over the center of the painting and mist a little heavier. Next I switch colors to hot red and pull just a small amount from the outer edges of the water.
And last for this step I switch to hot pink and run a few light dagger strokes into the stratus clouds and a small amount of mist around the sun while holding the cap back in place. I also reflect a small amount of hot pink in the water and sky.

 

 

Step 7
In this step I have gone back to my pure blue and gone back in and sharpened up my wave and darkened some of my blue clouds and around my shore lines. Be careful not to go to dark, you want to keep the painting bright and vibrant.

 

 

Step 8
We will be boosting up the hot yellow to really kick up the painting. While holding the cap over the sun concentrate the hot yellow in the center and then fade lighter out around the edges. You can also work the yellow into the thin areas of the wave and the center of the water.

 

 

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Step 9
Now we can start with the highlights. We will be using opaque white highlighting the undersides of the blue clouds because they are above the setting sun and trying to create not just a solid line, but spots of white to indicate the puffiness of the clouds and on the lower clouds we can run a simple highlighted edge of white. On the sweeping stratus clouds again we highlight the underside edge, but very softly.
Next we turn our attention to the wave. Starting with the breaking part of the wave I will run a solid line along the edge, but not covering the bottom of the wave. And I will also lightly mist the thinner parts of the curl and tube. Next I start to create the foam, caused by the breaking water. This is done by pumping the trigger back and forth while keeping the air flowing. Keep tight to the shirt at the start of the braking wave then pulling further away and releasing more paint as you move down the wave. I also try to leave some areas open at the beginning of the wave and fill in more at the end of the wave. I also layer the white so that some white is stronger in intensity and value. After that I will place some wispy dagger strokes that are very soft looking to imitate the spray off the wave. And next I highlight the breaking waves in the foreground and this completes the highlights. You can also put the hot yellow, or hot pink mist over the bottom of the upper clouds if you like just to give a little spark.

 

 

Step 10
Next we move to the foreground and build our palm trees. The tree is made with all dagger strokes, starting from the base pulling up and curving inward. Next you create the palms branches. You do these by pulling a dagger stroke from the center of the tree and curve out and down. Then you create the palms themselves by doing the same stroke from the center of the branch working forward to the end, also the length of the palms start long and shorten as you get closer to the end of the branch. The palms on the upper side of the branch tend to curl over on themselves so be creative. You can also pull a few loose ones from the center of the top of the tree. Don't feel bad if you first trees don't look that great because mine looked like deformed spiders at the top of sticks for the first year until I got the hang of it.

 

 

Step 11
Next we move to the other side of the shirt to balance the design. I have decided to place a large area of weeds. Now not a lot of people know that sea oats do not grow where palm trees naturally grow. Sea Oat grow up in the dunes in the panhandles of Florida and I am sure in other places similar to this and palm trees do not naturally grow there because of the climate difference. If you do see palm trees there they have been transplanted. I tell you this only because you may have a very fussy customer some day that may rudely point this out and refuse to buy your shirt from you. Gee I think I remember something happening like that years ago. However I have chosen to do a group of weed and curving my dagger strokes in different directions indicating the wind swirling around on the beach. After these are in we pull some shadows toward the outer edges of the shirt because the sun is centered in the painting. Now we are ready to sign our design and put some lettering in which you can find in my lettering How To.

Thank you for hanging out with me and I hope you have enjoyed this how to and more importantly have gained something that will help you with you own airbrush adventures.

As Always
Paint On! 
Fred Wagner
Airbrush Dreams


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