Airbrushes vs. Washes

I have spent a lot of time using airbrushes and really loved them for a long time. If you want a perfectly smooth background or soft gradient, they are hard to beat. They excel at very soft and very hard edges. When I was fresh out of school for illustration, I used airbrushes all the time, especially to mimic the effect of low-depth-of-field backgrounds. They look very convincing, very photographic. People often seem drawn to these backgrounds. Almost twenty years ago I did a large painting of a Belted Kingfisher with an airbrushed background. I still get a lot of positive comments on that painting, but when I look at it, I just see the airbrushed background.

I have a collection of airbrushes that I really like. They are great tools, and in the days before PhotoShop, they were “go to” tools for illustrators.

When I used them for watercolor paintings, they often looked… well, very airbrushed. Sometimes that got in the way of the subject of the painting, sometimes not. In all honesty, I used the airbrush as a crutch for the weak areas of my watercolor technique. Large, smooth washes of intense colors and subtle gradients can be very hard to control, especially when trying to keep the level of detail high. So I’d turn on the compressor, put on the respirator, and spray in a background. While that may make it sound fast and easy, in fact many of the airbrushed backgrounds took a very long time, such as the water in this 18 x 24-inch painting of a purple gallinule. At other times the background colors were thought out carefully and the airbrush just allowed me to apply them very efficiently.

In the end, I ended up noticing the airbrush in the paintings—more than I want. I also notice its use in other people’s paintings. There is a certain quality about it that is recognizable. Sometimes that gets in the way of an image, while at other times it integrates well.

I decided to really spend some time working on the weakest part of my watercolors, the large washes which were so easy with an airbrush. I got more and more comfortable with wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry washes over large areas. I really learned a lot about pigments as well: which ones are staining and which are sedimentary. This has a profound impact on how a wash goes down. I finally got to the point where I could pretty much do anything with traditional brushes that I had previously done only with an airbrush.

What I found surprised me a little. I always preferred the watercolor washes over airbrushed ones. The washes actually sink into the paper and react with it, while the airbrushed paint seems to sit on top of it. As the watercolor reacts with the paper, it takes on a different quality—sometimes they are tiny anomalies with the way the wash went down, but they seem to have a vibrancy and life to them that never really happened with an airbrush for me. Because the airbrushed background sort of sits on top of the paper, I found that an errant drop of water hitting the background would totally change the appearance of the paint as it settled in. That can ruin the smooth background just airbrushed in.

Here are magnified samples of a traditional wash versus airbrushed background from the paintings above.

…and a few swatches from details of other paintings shown actual size.

I almost always prefer the look of washed backgrounds.

I haven’t used my airbrushes in seven or eight years now. The last times I used them was to save a painting or two where the background got out of hand, and I used the airbrushes to reign them back in. (Occasionally, I would use an airbrush with gouache to lighten a background that got too dark.) Since then, I have really concentrated on my washes and found that I can accomplish “airbrush jobs” with washes, and I like the end results better. It’s a personal preference, but I’m more drawn to a well-done wash and the qualities inherent to the medium than the super-smooth airbrushed look.

For example, I’m not sure I could’ve accomplished the background of this swimming Penguin in airbrush.

I’m still happy with the airbrushed backgrounds on many of the paintings, like the amakihi and gallinule where I spent a lot of time rendering form. However, I do feel a little guilty about those where I just sprayed in an even background or simple gradient because my wash technique wasn’t that great. At some point I’ll probably pull out an airbrush again if a particular project calls for it, and I’m sure it will still be fun. But for now I enjoy not hearing the compressor and not wearing a respirator while painting.

One thing is for sure, there is always something to learn with watercolor!