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Airbrush technique

I wouldn't recommend attempting this tut with a mouse, it's definately a tablet tutorial, and you do need to be able to draw or paint. Everyone uses a different technique with airbrush, this is my method, i tend to use one or maybe two layers and just a couple of round brushes, it simplifies things

Start drawing a rough outline of your shape on a new layer

Now create a new layer, place it underneath the outline layer and using a smallish brush, fill it with a mid grey

Thats the basic shape done, you can get rid of the guide layer now, start building up the shape with a darker grey using a small airbrush, set it to around 17% opacity, play around with the opacities until you get one that suits you drawing style

The smudge tool is your friend, you'll probably use it more than the airbrush itself, start blending the shading together with more or less the same size airbrush, don't worry about the edges, you'll clear those up later

Add some light grey highlights to give it a more 3d look, i used a slightly smaller airbrush than i had been using before

Now start to add your rough details, i always start with the shadows first and add the highlights later

Just pick up the light areas bit by bit, use a small brush, zoom up and remember to use the smudge tool to smoothen things out

It takes a while until you're happy with the result, i darkened the shadows again and smoothed it out

Go back to your main shape and refine the shading, add more shadow/highlight and zoom in and smooth things out with the smudge

Time to clean up the edges, just set your eraser tool to paintbrush with a hard edged brush, start deleting the outline, steady hand needed hehe

Just about done, just zoom in and keep adding your shadows/highlights until you're happy with it, if you spend a bit of time with the smudge tool you can get it to look a hell of a lot smoother than this example

You can always play around with the image to get different results, altering the curves can give you a chrome look, i knocked the contrast up on this one and added a texture

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	Start drawing a rough outline of your shape on a new layer
	Now create a new layer, place it underneath the outline layer and using a smallish brush, fill it with a mid grey
	Thats the basic shape done, you can get rid of the guide layer now, start building up the shape with a darker grey using a small airbrush, set it to around 17% opacity, play around with the opacities until you get one that suits you drawing style
	The smudge tool is your friend, you'll probably use it more than the airbrush itself, start blending the shading together with more or less the same size airbrush, don't worry about the edges, you'll clear those up later
	Add some light grey highlights to give it a more 3d look, i used a slightly smaller airbrush than i had been using before
	Now start to add your rough details, i always start with the shadows first and add the highlights later
	Just pick up the light areas bit by bit, use a small brush, zoom up and remember to use the smudge tool to smoothen things out
	It takes a while until you're happy with the result, i darkened the shadows again and smoothed it out
	Go back to your main shape and refine the shading, add more shadow/highlight and zoom in and smooth things out with the smudge
	Time to clean up the edges, just set your eraser tool to paintbrush with a hard edged brush, start deleting the outline, steady hand needed hehe
	Just about done, just zoom in and keep adding your shadows/highlights until you're happy with it, if you spend a bit of time with the smudge tool you can get it to look a hell of a lot smoother than this example
	You can always play around with the image to get different results, altering the curves can give you a chrome look, i knocked the contrast up on this one and added a texture