First Attempts at flames

Here are my first attempts at flames. first attempts at anything with an airbrush. They are not bad but not so good either. What am I doing right and what am I doing wrong?

Not bad for your first try, Next time don't use the shield so much ,just use it to sharpen an edge here and there so it looks like the flames flow a little more

basepaint said:

Not bad for your first try, Next time don't use the shield so much ,just use it to sharpen an edge here and there so it looks like the flames flow a little more

Click to expand...

AS BP says, thats a good first effort! Flames are probably one of the hardest things to get right ...... just remember that no two bits of flame are the same so it needs to be random and not so many hard edges.
Well done

First attempt... I think you jest!! Well done. Have a look at real flames and see where the colours fall. The shape is important but your brain will tell you if the colours are in the wrong place. As a general guideline, the flame is brightest in the center and darkest on the outside (for an individual flame) so in you case, the yellow in the centre looks odd... Mitch has a good flame tutorial that covers one of the many ways to produce them... Ways to improve... keep practicing... turns out my Mother was right...

If thats your first time with an airbrush then I am impressed,as Mark says have a look at Mitch`s video it will help you a lot.

As above, really promising start

Great for a first attempt . Once you find the style of flames you are happy with they will just flow . If your after stylised then your going the right way but for true fire effect you need to study real fire more for where to put your colours and use the shields less . I sure you will get there .

Thanks folks. Yea theyre kind of a mix of "taped off" and real flames. i used the shields too much. I will keep at it.

Definitely less shielding. I would go for 95% freehand, with the shields just used to define a few edges here and there on your final layer. Ideally you want the first layer just to define the area you want your flames to be, the middle layer to give some shape and direction, and only have the real detail in the top layer, finishing off with some hot spots.

I actually find fire looks more natural without the use of any shields at all, but everyone has their own style and way of doing it, and it depends on the look you are going for. I can't remember the link but mitch (the airbrush tutor) has a killer tutorial for fire.