Airbrush Step by Step – July 2019

03/19 E AIRBRUSH STEP BY STEP 17

"Iron" Mike Tyson | STEP BY STEP

EQUIPMENT – Mike Tyson

Airbrush: Iwata CM-SB 2

Paints: Createx Illustration Colours: White, Violet, Black,

Sepia, Burnt Umber, Yellow, Blueviolet, Viridian-Blue

Surface: Blair Airbrush Paper

Further materials: X-Acto Knife, aggressive eraser, Blair

Skin Texture and Micro Dot Stencil

01

Line drawing

I start by making a basic line

drawing of my subject and transfer it

to my media, which in this case is Blair

Airbrush Paper at 250 x 350 mm.

02

Working on main

features

I begin with the eyes and the tattoo.

I generally start with what features

stand out the most. For me, Mr Tyson

is all about the eyes. I mixed Sepia and

Blue violet to some White to make a

buffered colour. The reason for this is

to ensure that I get a colour that mat-

ches the skin tone of my reference.

Being buffered means that I cannot

spray it too dark as the White limits

its value. Even though it is a buffered

colour, I can get a variety of values by

limiting how much paint I spray. I paint

the structure of the face to match as

close as possible. I can manipulate the

paint with an eraser pencil for areas

that need it.

03

Building up textures

Using the Blair Skin Stencil I spray a very light pass.

I‘m not trying to "paint the skin" with it, just create some

interest in the background. I then start painting the wrinkles

and the iris, using my eraser to bring back the highlights.

04

Creating the lips
Next I created the lip colour. I used the skin tone as
a base and added some Red violet and White. I began buil-
ding the textures in the lips starting with the darkest areas
first. I sharpened up the lines using an X-ACTO Blade and
then used the same colour to add a foundation for mid tone.
I erase out the textures using the blade and continue this
process till they take shape. At this stage I shift my attention
to the various hues in the lips. Using transparent colours I
gently shift areas where needed. A mix of Sepia and Burnt
umber shifted the top lip and added the deepest shadows
to the bottom lip. To finish I use the blade to add the final
highlights.