I spent a week teaching in the Custom Paint & Graphics Program at Ohio Technical College a few weeks ago, and I noticed that over half of the students were having difficulty achieving consistant, fine lines. The one thing that they had in common was the way in which they were holding their airbrushes.

"Trigger Grip" is something that varies from artist to artist. There is no right or wrong way to hold an airbrush. As long as you can achieve your desired result, and it's comfortable for you, why change the way you hold it? But, there is a way to hold the airbrush that will make consistency and fine detail much easier for the Newbie and pro alike.

It's very common for the new artist to "knuckle up" on the airbrush. Almost like they are holding a pencil. The index finger is highly angled, and their grip on the AB causes discomfort after only a few minutes of airbrushing. The physical movement of the finger to use the trigger is highly complex and difficult when holding the AB this way. Not only are you pressing down on the trigger to release air, but you are moving several joints, causing muscles and tendons to work against each other. It's no wonder that it's difficult to achieve consistent, fine lines this way.

The way that I grip the trigger is much different. You want to hold the air valve housing (under the trigger) with your thumb and middle finger. Then lay your index finger flat along the airbrush body, with the meaty part of your index finger on the trigger. It should look like you are pointing your finger. This grip can be performed on either a bottom, or top feed airbrush.

When using the airbrush, you push down on the trigger to release air. Now, instead of "Pulling" back on the trigger to release paint, press down harder. The increased pressure will cause the trigger to pull back a fraction of a millimeter, thus releasing a tiny amount of paint. This is a much simpler movement of joints and muscles, and is much easier to control.

There's another thing that I have my students do to achieve consistency. And that is using your non-airbrush hand as a guide. The closer you are to the surface, the finer your line will be. To maintain a constant distance, I wrap my non-airbrush hand around the front of the airbrush. I then adjust my hand to "drag" across the surface.....I'm using it as a spacer. This allows me to keep my needle very close to the surface, without bumping into it. It also keeps my airbrush a constant distance from the surface, resulting in a line that maintains the same width from start to finish.

Now take a look at these lines. The top line is from a ball point pen. The second line is from a mechanical pencil. The third line is from my Iwata Eclipse BCS (.5mm) spraying Auto Borne Black. The fourth line is from my Iwata HP-C plus (.3mm) spraying a urethane red.

Using this type of trigger pull will allow you to achieve incredibly fine, and consistant lines. As you can see, I can achieve virtually the same amount of detail with my larger Eclipse (.5mm) spraying water borne paint as I can with my smaller C plus (.3mm) spraying a urethane.

Using this type of trigger grip will produce immediate and dramatic results. Ultimately, it allows for finer detail, greater consistency, and reduce the amount of muscle cramps in the hand. Let's not forget that it will reduce the amount of airbrush sizes and types that you need to have in your inventory. Who says you can't achieve fine detail with a .5mm bottom feed airbrush?

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