ARTIST PROFILE

 Gordon Corrins who hails from the Scottish Highlands has been airbrushing since he was a wee lad. Gordon has been influenced by many great artists but always preferred the style and versatility of the airbrush.
 "If I had the choice of what to paint every day I would say portraits without a doubt. People, animals, whatever, creating an expression and watching as they come to life on the canvas in front of you is what gives me the greatest pleasure." says, Gordon
 Gordon is the owners of Aerart Airbrush And Design and is a dealer in Grex airbrushes and E'Tac Paints. You can view Gordon's Art on his website http://www.aerart.co.uk

Airbrush : Grex Genesis XN and XB, Olympos HP100 and HP100C
Spray Guns: Cheapy no name, does the job on smaller objects, but I get a pro to do most of the basecoat work when required.
Paint Media: Etac and Auto Air
Surface Media: Canvas or CS10 line board or whatever I am asked to paint on!
Other Equipment: Faber Castell Erasers, Various standard erasers, Scalpel and other sharp knives
Projector: Artograph
Lighting : Androv Full Spectrum Ionising

DATA

Flames/Fire
Colour Formula, Materials and Techniques

PAINT USED: All Auto Air Colours
Base Coat Sealer Dark
Transparent Cherry Red
Transparent Orange
Transparent Yellow
Transparent White
Apple Red Candy
Orange Candy
Sunset Candy

The all important prep.
 If you are an experienced painter you can skip this part, if you haven’t done this kind of work before please read carefully, it is vitally important.

 Take your red scotch pad and lightly scuff the entire surface, this enable the basecoat to adhere to the surface. Once you are happy with the scuffing clean with panel wipe to remove any residue.

 Apply coats of Auto Air Basecoat Sealer Dark, remember the first coat will look speckly, this is normal for Auto Air, build up the colour with two dust coats and two slightly heaver coats. Heat set and lightly dry sand with 800-1000 grit paper.
Tag rag and Heat set the whole surface, you are now ready to add some colour.  

 Using the Auto Air Transparent Cherry Red loosely airbrush the flames in the desired style. Note: Ensure flame shapes are solid at this stage, the rest of the layers will be transparent. A good reference picture is always good to have at hand. These are freely available. Simply choose the one you would most like to replicate and study the shapes and forms before beginning.

 Tag rag the surface to remove any overspray and heat set.
Mix up your Auto Air Candy Apple Red, ratio is 50:50 with Transparent Base. Apply 1-2 light coats, you will see the colours deepen. Heat set

 Tag rag the surface to remove any overspray. (This is very important at the Candy Stage) 90% Transparent Orange 10% Trans White Start creating your flames remembering to keep them loose. At this stage you can start introducing your shields/stencils if you prefer but the bulk of this layer will be hidden by other layers therefore it’s not essential to be to tight with the design. Heat set.

 Firstly this is a How I not a How to, tha amount of practice and tests I have tried with this it's anyones guess as to the best formula. Here I have used Auto  Air from start to finish and an IWATA HPB Plus. 
 The main thing that I have realized doing this type of fire is layering, light coats of paint, lighter candies and good strong highlights. Without layering the effect just doesn’t work. My first few attempts I tried to actually paint the flames which is a big no no. Use the layering technique to build up the fire and with the correct colour combinations you will end up with something that will resemble “realistic” fire.

EQUIPMENT USED:
Airbrush
De-greaser/Panel Wipe
Tag Rag
Red Scotch Pads
Cleaning Cloths
Tea Strainer/Filter
Measuring Cup
Heat gun
Stencils/Shields

 Apply two or three light coats of Orange Candy, same mix ratio as the Apple Red, this is vital otherwise the Auto Air Candies will not adhere to the surface. Remembering to heat set and clean with tack rag.

 Again using your Trans Orange/Trans White Mix, build up your design using freehand and shields, remembering to keep the layers light and thin.

ARE YOU REMEMBERING TO TACK RAG AND HEAT SET?
 Apply three more coats of Orange Candy paying particular attention to the darkest areas of the surface. Doing this will give the finished piece more depth.

 The design should be getting tighter and the flameS shape more visible. This is where your reference is essential, don’t guess it, copy it!
Mix 50% Trans Yellow and 50% Trans White. It is also a good idea to use Auto Air Reducer with this mix. Build up the shapes and introduce a few hot spots as you go.

 Apply Two or three coats of Sunset Yellow Candy. Remember to tack Rag and heat set as you go.

 Now the design is getting even tighter as you are nearing completion. With the Yellow/White Mix ad highlights to the hottest part of the flames

 Apply Sunset Candy Yellow to tone down highlights. After this step you can add others layers of Apple Red, Orange or Sunset candy depending on your own taste. With your Base Coat Sealer Dark, you can now erase any mistakes or imperfections, also because of overspray issues with Auto Air you can use this to conceal unwanted areas.

 All finished!!
Hope this has been of some help to some of you and as I said at the begining any questions just ask. I know I need to work on my "organic" shapes of the flames but in the daylight the colours do actually work.