Auto Air Fire

Auto Air Fire
reprinted with permission from Airbrush Technique Magazine

by Luc Sabourin




Hi, my name is Luc Sabourin. I'm located in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. I've been airbrushing illustrations and other artwork for a little over 2 years with a special interest in Fantasy art. I'm also a big fan of military modeling, which is where I've learned a lot about airbrush control. I don't consider myself an authority in true fire design but here I will describe one Auto Air color combo that seems to work very well with rendering "true fire".








I truly believe that rendering things that are naturally "in movement" (such as fire), as static graphics, is one of the toughest thing to do. One has to be able to convey movement but also a likeness of the colors. In the case of fire, there are probably hundreds of hues ranging from dark reds, into orange, yellow to "near white". Like many of us painting at home, I use Auto Air water based paints because of ventilation and clean up issues. After studying a few "true fire" paint kits and watching true fire videos, I started to experiment and came up with a good technique and combination of Auto Air colors to render "true fire" in brilliant "popping" colors.

Everybody has their own way of rendering fire but I think that it is important to use a lot of freehand and less shield. For this “paper burning” kind of fire I use Mike Lavallee’s mini true fire templates on a pre-scuffed black metal panel. I will be using Auto Air (or AutoBorne) White, Chrome Yellow, Flame Orange, Flame Red, Red Oxide, Candy Brite red, Candy Sunset and Transparent Sun gold.









The thing I find with Auto Air is that the coverage of a black canvas is not great if you don't use white first. So the first step is to freehand loose high flames in white and partially fill them in. Leave some black spaces for a more realistic and "moving" look. Then using the template, find some curves that more or less match your design and loosely fill in the inside of the flames. Next is to color them with in Red Oxide; overlay this with Candy Red. Go easy on the Candy Red because it bleeds through quite a bit. I typically use it 1:4 with transparent base and further thin it with 4011 reducer about 1:1. The more Candy Red you apply the more it will knock back your first layer.






Now we'll lay down your second layer in white, a little tighter than the first. Again with the template match your design and tighten those flames. Color them in Flame Red followed by Candy Sunset. I went a little heavy on the Candy Red and you can see that my second layer is pink. Not to worry the Candy Sunset will take care of it. You'll end up with fire that's a little more "orangy".





Do the third layer smaller and tighter and color it in Flame Orange and Candy Sunset. The fourth layer is similar except that it is colorized in Chrome Yellow followed by Candy Sunset all over the design. I then do another Chrome Yellow layer of fairly tight flames and relatively low. At this point you can always use black to correct some of the flames that you don't like. You then apply the ultimate color which is transparent Sun Gold all over the design. This color will make all your colors pop and intensify the Chrome Yellow making the fire look hotter. I'm not a big fan of hot spots but using a very light yellow, you can add them to the final design. You're done. Step 13 shows the panel covered in degreaser to give you an idea of what it might look like once it is cleared. It's up to you to use more or less of specific colors to give your fire the hue that you want. A little heavier on the chrome yellow will give you a hotter base. If you move to green or blue hues, there are fewer less colors available but, for example in the case of blue fire I use Candy Brite Blue over successive layers of Midnight Blue, Brite Blue and Laguna Blue. Use as many templates as possible
to avoid a fire that looks to "ordered". Don't over think the design just lay it down. It's also a very good idea to watch videos that are available from a number of artists.




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