How to hold an airbrush for less hand fatigue! Less cramps and more painting!

[@allicadabra]

As a healthcare professional I applaud this message

[@TheAIRspace]

yay!

[@karlbecker8775]

I see what you did there. LOL

[@allicadabra]

@@karlbecker8775 who me? 🤣

[@bunchofoxes]

So useful!!! Thank you !! I’m long time experienced artist (read carpal tunnel surgery survivor) brand new to airbrush, so this is double great for me.

[@grega4450]

Another awesome video

[@alevikingo2979]

This video, is really important. I have "tendinitis" (don´t know the english word, since it´s not my native language) and I only can do my airbrushing stuff in periods of 30 minutes max. Of course, playing the bass for years along with a lot of firearms sport didn´t help... but it would be nice to people to pay attention and take care with this so they don´t end up like me. Great video!

[@TheAIRspace]

yup i had carpal long ago myself. Doing things in an ergonomic method helps tremendously.

[@Ghogiel3D]

yep. I do something similar, it's like holding chopsticks. With the brush sitting mostly on a pointed middle finger and being stableized with the thumb. The index mostly long as well for the trigger pull. I will still fatigue pulling back after a while and have been wanting one of those silicone grips for ages now, I am pretty sure it'll help make it more ergonomic for me personally.

[@RCBOSS1969]

Great video, thank you!

[@jamiedriscoll5411]

This was extremely helpful thank you very much - I’m learning airbrush with some wrist /thumb joint issues

[@TheAIRspace]

having to airbrush in a carpal tunnel brace for a little bit very quickly made me change my habits! Im glad this helped!

[@bbwhite1955]

appreciate you

[@Hillbillyable1]

Happy that you put this out here. I have watched just about every one of your videos and have been wanting to ask about your control. Your grip, like you have talked about here, changes very little. but your left hand changes depending on how broad of a sweep or area you are working. Just your right hand alone will do broad strokes. Your left hand, doing medium to broad areas, will hold your supply hose or fitting on the bottom. If you mean to get up close and personnel with detail your left hand moves up to holding the body of your brush forward of your right hand. My imagination? Something you do consciously/subconsciously? Any more tiny alterations that might be helpful? Because these things alone changed my success in control. Thanks for all you do!

[@TheAIRspace]

That is very much very close to how I do it. And it is now all subconciously, I never really think about how I'm doing it anymore. My goal with this video, is get people to think about how their grip affects movement. And of course paying attention to their wrist. Painting one handed is really something people shouldn't do until they are very comfortable but is necessary when using freehand shields.

[@bravensbull4405]

Great call out last time about handle on at all times, you caught me trying to show off... 24 years of fleet maintenance and air tools earned me osteoarthritis in my right wrist so I'm having so much fun learning to paint a bit! Thanks again for what u share!

[@TheAIRspace]

I got lots of arthritic joints.. age and 30 years of plumbing (and other mechanical work) has taken a serious toll!

[@markbarton4344]

I need to start holding mine that way, thanks for the tip!

[@TheAIRspace]

There are a few ways that are acceptable.. but the main thing is be mindful of how you are holding your wrists. If you are going to be painting for hours, it wont take very long before it creates a problem... and trust me wrist pain from carpal really puts a damper on the joy of airbrushing :)

[@LynneTelfer]

Thank you!

[@karlbecker8775]

Good stuff, Bill! As a long time firearm enthusiast, I tend to grip my brush like a handgun. Use your off hand to steady things and let your shoulders do most of the moving, but keep the wrists and elbows locked for the most part. Nice to know I'm not completely wrong. :)

[@TheAIRspace]

Then you know tensing your trigger hand.. throws ya off 🙂

[@jimvoll3434]

Great video. Question how much paint do you put in the air brush?

[@TheAIRspace]

That depends on what I’m doing. But rarely is it ever even half full unless I’m doing backgrounds. Thanks!

[@chickenscratchking6540]

Hey Bill thanks for all the info. Could you tell me what board do you paint on or what paper do you use for larger than 12 x 16 or so. Please let me know thanks

[@TheAIRspace]

well thats a loaded question.. I paint on a lot of things. or have I do a lot on canvas... those are my how i make a living paintings. Usually. ive done a bunch of stuff on aluminum powdercoated panels, and metal panels. And i do some work on plain old posterboard from time to time, and did some neon stuff on foamcore board you can catch in the studio backdrops (or the pac man neon short and the lightbulb galaxy ish tutorial I did But they do tend to soak up paint. I also paint on some illustration board. Crescent if I don't plan on doing any heavy erasing or removal techniques works great and is relatively cheap. Reflex 4g board that I ordered from foxy studios and had shipped across to the USA is a fantastic illustration surface. But with shipping it was pretty expensive. On smaller stuff im ok using synthetic papers, but I REALLY like canvas or illustration board for very large. 12x16 is as large as I like to go with either gessoboard / or clayboard or papers.. the gessoboard and clayboard can warp in big panels and the synthetic is too floppy at those sizes. So i guess that probably doesnt help much because ill paint on anything... But what I paint on is determined by price and purpose. Expensive paintings can get expensive substrates..

[@imrozgill9711]

hey bill did you checked out the airbrush handle by grex .. its sort of like the colani .

[@TheAIRspace]

I like the trigger happy grips. The cola I type won’t fit on the creos platinum brushes I believe. But I do like the design. I may mold some custom ones for me

[@imrozgill9711]

@@TheAIRspace oh thanks for letting me know .. i purchased 2 of em for infinity and blackridge airbrush

[@chadd.9119]

Where did you get the airbrush grips from and how do you like them?

[@TheAIRspace]

Trigger happy airbrush grips. And yes i do.. as a fact I keep meaning to message them and ask if they would make some for my creos . Im getting lots of questions on them.. I did do a live feed facebook video briedly about them. I suppose I should make a quick video about them on youtube as well!

[@mwebb-01]

@@TheAIRspace I should start 3d printing some. I seen them on Amazon to. But better to get from another artist who sells.

[@mwebb-01]

Good video broken wrist three time surgery and bi lateral carpel tunnel too. My wrist isnt my problem I can't feel both hands. Now when I airbrush 20 min later my neck burns lol .

[@TheAIRspace]

@@mwebb-01 youll notice i MOSTLY work vertical .. I have cervical disc disease, looking down for hours is ANOTHER very bad thing

[@ornyflorence8851]

Hello bill , what is the paper you use for the training ?

[@TheAIRspace]

really i couldnt say. you can paint on anything cheap to practice. I early on bought a huge roll of butcher paper and would roll it like a paper towel roll

[@ornyflorence8851]

@@TheAIRspace thanks 😘

[@cisjenner]

You look like Alex Karev on Grey's Anatomy ☠️ thanks for the vid tho

[@TheAIRspace]

Thanks! I honestly have never seen the show.. However i've been told that before but I was WAY younger then!