West Coast Airbrush- Dedicated to the advancement of T-shirt Airbrushing

Freehand lettering with the airbrush is one of the most important skills that an artist wanting to enter the airbrushing business must master in order to be truly successful. Lettering is the one aspect of the art form that the common, everyday airbrush customer can scrutinize. Why? Because most everyone knows how to write, and almost everyone can tell the difference between good lettering and bad.

For this reason, lettering must be one of the first things that you master if you're planning to make a living with your airbrush. Other aspects of the art form will not draw nearly as much criticism the artwork in general need only be at an intermediate skill level to be acceptable to the customer in most cases. Why? Because most airbrush art customers can't draw much beyond a simple stick figure. In this regard, the customer has no technical knowledge of what is bad or good. Mastering the art of airbrush lettering requires practice and perseverance on the student's part. Total mastery of the mechanics of the airbrush is a great asset when learning the art of lettering.

Some lettering styles are simple and can be used for quite a few applications, while other lettering styles are more elaborate and have appeal only for certain projects. I suggest that an airbrush artist learn four different styles of lettering. It is better to learn to do only a few styles of lettering very well than to learn too many styles and not be very confident with any of them.

The first style of lettering commonly used is the simple script style. You'll find that most customers will choose this style of lettering as their first choice. Another popular lettering style is the single-stroke print.

Next, there's the block lettering style, which has that familiar "fun airbrush look" and can be filled in with bright colors to add some pizzazz to any airbrush t-shirt design. Finally, when a little more elaborate lettering style is called for, double-stroke block print might be used. Together, these four basic styles of lettering should offer your customers enough variety to suit their needs.

Once these styles are mastered and your ability increases, you might want to offer a few more styles of lettering. At West Coast Airbrush, we display an average of ten different styles of lettering from which our customers can choose.

If your customers choose a drop shadow or a two-color effect, you can charge a little more per word. If they would like an outline, that's a little more money, too. Adding a gradation of color to the lettering may add yet a little more to the cost. It's up to you whether to charge for these extras or not. But whatever you do, make up a chart like this to display your different types of lettering. It will save you a lot of time trying to explain to your customers what your lettering looks like.

The true essence of freehand airbrushing is in the lettering. It always begins with it and ends with it. Mastering lettering with an airbrush requires a lot of practice, but it's worth it. Mix and match your lettering styles to create total lettering designs, keeping in mind the basic artistic principles of composition, balance, color, and design. Treat your lettering as you would any piece of artwork.

In the end, lettering will always add to the success of any design and ultimately to the prices that you can charge. Below, we have several examples of popular lettering styles that you can use to practice your freehand lettering with.

Single-stroke script is used most commonly when a customer asks to have a name put on a shirt. Fast and easy, this style of lettering can be offered in a variety of colors and sizes. Prices for this lettering style should start at $3 for a name or one word and $1 for each additional word.

Double-stroke script is used a lot by artists who can't easily master creating a thin-to- thick line with a single stroke of the airbrush. With this type of lettering, simply airbrush a letter with a non-varying line width first, then return to fatten the downward strokes of each letter. Price this style at $4 for one word and $2 for each additional word.

Single stroke print can be used for many different applications. It lends itself particularly well to boy's names and multiple-word phrases. This lettering can be dione in different sizes both short and tall. You can stretch it out or compress it for different looks or as space allows in the overall design. Pricing is the same as for the single-stroke script.

The bold style is another really nice style of lettering. The height and slant of the lettering in this style are varied to achieve a sort of cartoon look. Here, two of today's popular colors are used to add to the lettering style's appeal. To begin, the letter is airbrushed and then outlined in black. Next, a drop shadow of deep, rich purple is added to finish off the desired look. Pricing here is the same as for the block style of lettering.

Block lettering is a great lettering style for young kids. The letters are big and bold with lots of interior room to fill up with lots of bright colors. This style is normally done quite large, often with a drop shadow added for a three dimensional look. It can also be done in a chrome effect. Price this at $4 for the first word and $2 for each additional word. For chrome--charge $1 per letter, not by the word.

Bubble-style lettering was the first lettering style widely used by t-shirt airbrush artists 25 years ago. In fact, it was almost the only lettering style used back then. Today, it is one more style that you can offer to your customers who like the cartoon look. Price it at $4 for the first word and $2 for each additional word.

Box print is an easy and effective style of lettering with the box established on the down strokes of each letter. This area can be filled in with color to add to the character of your lettering. Many times, this style of lettering will be used as the first letter of a word followed by single-stroke print to finish the rest of the word. Price this at $4 for the first word and $2 for each additional word.

The brushstroke is another really neat lettering style. Many quick strokes go together to create this look. Simply airbrush a single-stroke print letter, then add to it with manny smaller strokes. Price this lettering style at $5 for the first word and $3 for each additional word.

The style known as rock-and-roll has a kind of oriental look to it. Heavy at the top with an open look, it's a nice style. Often you'll see this lettering style outlined with an accent color to finish it off. Price is $4 for one word and $2 for each additional word.

Now that you offer all of these nice lettering styles, it's really important to display them to your customers. At West Coast Airbrush shops, we use this type of display to sell our customers on a particular type of letteing. All of the styles can be done in a plain, one-color style for the basic prices.

A basic $5 name design sports two different styles of lettering: block and single-stroke script. Add some flashy colors and you've got a winner!

Vanity License plates are a big seller in the 18 states that require only one official plate to be mounted on the vehicle. With 82 million cars in these states, smart airbrush artists can really capitalize on this product. Customers usually want you to airbrush their name or the make of their car. Here are two quick examples on black using opaque Createx colors on steel plates.

Be sure to mix the different styles of lettering and even things up with different colors as well. Sunflower desgns are always popular with little kids, and a quick script name finishes off this design.

The standard $3 to $12 airbrush design almost always includes some form of lettering. With this type of design accounting for as much as 50% of an airbrush shops business, you can see why it's important to master the skill of quick freehand lettering.WCA