Learning airbrushing techniques from Next Level Painting can be a great way to supplement your painting, but even the great masters had to start somewhere!
Yo dawgs! Today, Kenny from Next Level Painting is going to talk about how he got good at painting miniatures.
The airbrush struggle is real, but it gets easier. Hard work pays off, and the painting speaks for itself. Let’s take a look back in the early days of Next Level Painting and the process of learning the right techniques that worked to make pro-level painting a reality. Let’s take a trip down memory lane!
Back in 2010, Next Level Painting was starting out and figuring out a lot of experimentation. The paint may have been too thick and not as smooth as what you will see from Kenny now. Research and development with paintbrushes helped take Next Level back to the basics to find out the perfect pro-painter techniques. This Tzeentch squad started to work out the kinks, getting smoother transitions and contrasts.
Smooth transitions helped bring the Next Level Painting style to life.
Once Next Level started getting noticed in the painting scene, bigger projects helped get even more airbrush experience. This Titan commission project helped change the game of painting in getting all of the painting growth and flexing those hobby muscles. Soon after feeling his stride with the bigger projects, it was time to bring it back down to smaller miniature painting.
A commitment to excellence combined with patience to the craft helped make Next Level Painting a pro-painting legend.
The Iwata Eclipse HP-CS is the Holy Grail of airbrushes for Next Level Painting. One of the best pieces of advice for getting the most out of your airbrush is knowing all the parts and their purpose. Trial and error is an artist’s best friend. Thinning down your paints is THE best technique discovered to get your paints working just right. Flow Improver is one of the best tools in your hobby tool belt when it comes to airbrushing.
The penultimate technique learned by Next Level Painting is glazing. To get to the pro level of miniatures painting you have to also start using your airbrush for glazes. Letting paints play off of each other, letting paints blend together as you paint them on thin, is what makes glazes work so well.
Use your airbrush to paint with 1% paint and 99% air!
Check out all of Kenny’s musings below in his latest YouTube video.
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About the Author: Barclay Montgomery
