How to Airbrush Dragon Scales
Airbrushing creates smooth, colorful effects on a variety of mediums. Artists value it highly for its ability to create blended textures and gradients. Creating fine detail, such as dragon scales, without a high-end airbrush can be tricky, but you can overcome this limitation through the use of masking and stencils. Properly applied stencils will help you achieve a look that blends seamlessly and very naturally with the rest of your image.
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Instructions
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Lay newspaper down around the shape of your dragon and tape it in place with masking tape.
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2
Hook up your airbrush hose to a can of compressed air and pour paint into the canister on top of the pen. This will be the base color for your dragon. Don your face mask.
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3
Hold your airbrush a few inches away from the surface of your drawing, and press down on the trigger to spray your paint. Cover your entire drawing with your base coat.
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4
Clean your airbrush by rinsing the pigment cup and needle with water. Fill the cup with a slightly darker version of your base color.
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Place masking tape around the edges of your dragon's legs, jaw line, and anywhere there is muscle.
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Spray these areas lightly with the darker paint to create shadows on your dragon.
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Clean your airbrush again and fill the pigment cup with a lighter shade of your base color.
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Lay netting across your dragon. The netting should have large, diamond-shaped holes in it, such as the plastic kind used on fruit in grocery stores. Tape the netting down so it does not wrinkle.
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Airbrush over the netting. Do not fill in every triangle completely. Instead, leave some of the underlying colors showing through by going over the netting quickly and lightly.
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10
Remove the netting and clean your airbrush a final time.
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References
- Photo Credit scales image by Allyson Ricketts from Fotolia.com
