1. Use the right airbrush: This one is easy. If you really want to airbrush T-shirts, you have to get an IWATA Eclipse HP-BCS airbrush. It is a bottom feed airbrush, which means that the airbrush paint bottle attaches directly to the bottom of the airbrush and is sucked in and out of the nozzle via a siphon created from the flowing air. Start with this airbrush first and you will save yourself a lot of headaches.
2. Use the appropriate airbrush paint: The 2 great protagonists of airbrush T-shirt paint are CREATEX and AQUAFLOW. In my experience, AQUAFLOW “flows” a little better, but is hardly noticeable. You can’t go wrong with either of these two top brands.
3. Wear the right shirt – 100% preshrunk cotton or 50/50 blend. (50% cotton 50% polyester) I have had the best results washing a new shirt at least once before airbrushing it. This removes most of the loose fibers and also takes care of some of that initial color fading that is sure to occur.
4. Use good design: Take your time here. Stunning airbrushed tees don’t just happen. Create a good design on paper first. That way you can erase and make corrections before putting paint on the shirt. It takes some discipline to draw first and airbrush second, but trust me, you’ll waste far fewer shirts this way and end up with a better finished product every time.
5. Make yourself comfortable – Keep your workspace clean and work at a comfortable height. I prefer to stand when airbrushing t-shirts. I use a large pegboard with shelf hooks as my easel. This makes it easy to adjust the height of my t-shirt board, so I’m always in a comfortable position to airbrush without having to kneel or stretch to finish a stroke.
6. Prepare the shirt – After washing it once, please iron to remove wrinkles. The wrinkles act like magnets for spray painting. Use clamps or clothespins to secure the shirt to the shirt board so you have a nice flat surface to work on. For maximum color fastness, spray a coat of CREATEX Frog Juice or Clear Extender on the area to be painted first, heat set, then paint.
7. Take your time – Still no rush. Until you take your show on the road and start shopping malls or trading encounters, take the time to master your skills first. Speed is important and it will come with time, but for now, focus on each shot. Less is more too. Aim for that perfect fade in 1 pass instead of 2. The less paint you put on the shirt, the better.
8. Play to your strengths – It’s definitely nice to be versatile, but if there’s one particular area of Airbrush jerseys where it really excels, go for it! Find out what you’re best at and what you like to paint the most, then master that area. It’s easier to build a reputation for being the best at one thing, than it is to build a reputation for being pretty good at many different things.
9. Heat press – Spray your finished airbrushed shirt with another coat of CREATEX Clear Extender, use a heat press to heat it to 400 degrees for 20 seconds.
10. Rinse and repeat – If you only followed the first 9 steps you could probably go quite far as an airbrushed shirt.rtist, but who wants that? We want to be the best airbrush artist ever. As a great man once said: “Only persistence and determination are omnipotent” If I were to take a picture I made in first grade and put it next to the picture of any other average first grade student, I wouldn’t be able to tell which is which. 30 years later, if you take a drawing I made now and place it next to any other average 30-year drawing, I bet you could tell the difference. Why? Because I practiced more than them.