Airbrush Nail Course
From the minute you order the course, through to the completion of your first set for your paying client, you will know you are in good hands.
Essential Nails has been training Nail Technicians for nearly 10 years, so there’s not much we don’t know about nails! Airbrushing is a fascinating art and once mastered you need not stop with nails, as the techniques you learn are the same whether you’re decorating a cup or creating a masterpiece on canvas.
So, get a cup of coffee and take a few minutes to learn about Airbrushing in general, and Airbrushing Nails in particular.
Why not watch a short video presentation of our Airbrush Course below!
Yes, let’s start with the basics. Your car is painted using an airbrush, you can get a tan, or paint a fence using an airbrush. These applications need a big airbrush, a lot of compressed air and a lot of paint. But they have one purpose; to apply a beautiful, even coat of paint, no bubbles, streaks, lumps or brush marks. The paint is held in a cup and the compressor blows air through a tiny hole in a nozzle, breaking the paint into small droplets and carrying it in a fine mist onto the surface to be painted. By spraying through stencils, complicated patterns can be easily created.
Although airbrushing was invented to apply lots of paint over a big area, artists quickly spotted the creative possibilities opened by painting without brushes. They could create blends and shading and 3d effects impossible by any other means.
So now, using a miniature airgun and compressor it’s possible to accurately control how paint is applied to the tiny canvas that is a finger nail. You can create, using just a few drops of colour and simple stencils a galaxy of original designs for your friends and clients. You will send them away with ten tiny masterpieces for a brief, but bright life asairbrushed nail art.
What’s in the course?
Quite simply, you get everything! It’s a total package, all the material you need to learn and all the tools and products you need to provide a service to your friends or clients. The tools and products are all professional standard as used in salons and by artists world wide.
Who’s the teacher?
Your teacher is Nail Art Champion Gina Wallace and her lessons are on the DVD that comes with the course.
Gina has been teaching, demonstrating and creating airbrushed nail designs for 17 Years. Her practical and easy to follow lessons will have you airbrushing amazing designs in no time at all.
How do I learn?
You watch a short lesson and then copy what you see on your own identical equipment, it couldn’t be easier!. If you do get stuck, friendly, expert help is a just a phone call away.
You do all your practice on the Nail Trainer Hand, and your final designs are created on its removable nails and returned to us for assessment and certification.
The course should take you a few weeks, it’s fun, and at the end you will have a recognised certificate, and more importantly, the skills you need to create great artwork and earn extra money.
There is over 2 hours of detailed and close up film, graphics and explanation on the DVD.
Let’s have a look at the course in more detail, it’s in three parts:
Part 1, ‘Foundation’.
You’re told how to promote airbrushing services, how to make money doing airbrush nails and about the tools and products you’ll be using.
Part 2, ‘Essential Techniques’.
First, you learn how the airbrush and compressor works. Then you’ll learn how to control the airbrush and the paint depth by carefully airbrushing the lines and shapes on progress card 1. Your hand will be shaky at first and the paint may not go where you want it to. Your lines might be wiggly
and uneven, but don’t worry, after a few minutes you’ll get the hang of it!
Next you’ll learn how to cover larger areas with paint. the object here is to make a nice even colour. You always start at the side of the object (the point of impact or POI) so that any paint splutters do not go in the target area. Then you move steadily into the target area, covering it with circular movements of the airbrush. You’ll still be making mistakes at this stage, but it’s early
days, you’re learning how to co-ordinate your hand and eye. There’s plenty more cards if you mess up.
Now we show you how to fill ‘donuts’. Your target area is smaller and control of the gun is vital. We show you how to change colour half way through, so you can see how you would create a coloured blend. In this example the first colour was green, followed by yellow. There’s no need to clean the gun in between, the colour changes look spectacular!
So what’s next? Well we introduce you to the use of stencils. These are thin plastic sheets with hundreds of patterns cut into them. The holes and patterns are all ‘nail sized’ so you place them over the nail. Spray onto the stencil and the paint goes through the holes and onto the nail, so the pattern of holes in the stencil appears as paint on the nail.
You won’t be surprised to know we’ve designed a progress card for you to practise this essential technique. There are 8 rows of nail shapes and we show you how to spray blends, overlaps, step and repeat and other fascinating techniques.
As before, practice until your relaxed and happy, by this time you’ll be handling the airbrush as naturally as you do a pencil, so now’s the time to move onto the realistic 3-D nails on the Nail Trainer practice hand.
Part 3, ‘Putting it all together’.
You’ve learnt the basics; you can control the airbrush, compressor, airflow, paints and stencils, so now it’s time to create some real nail designs on nails.
So, you will click some of the large nails into the Nail Trainer, and start on design 1; a simple 2 colour blend in blue and red. We show you how to ‘mirror’ the design so it looks good on the left and right hands of you clients.
Design 2; A quick french polish look with a soft smile line. You will be amazed at how quick this is, you can do this design on all 10 fingers in a few seconds, and charge good money for it.
Design 3; is a butterfly wing design in purple and black. This is created by spraying the nail black and then lightly spraying purple through the edge of a stencil, moving or ‘stepping’ the stencil down and spraying again. It only takes a few seconds to complete the design, but it’s very effective.
Design 4; a staircase step and repeat but using a three colour blend. Again the design is mirrored, left and right.
Design 5; Another french polish design, but with a shrt smile line…..beautiful, quick and effective.
Design 6; Another step and repeat using a curvy french stencil offset left and right.
Design 7; This looks complicated, but it used a single image on a stencil rotated to different positions and 4 colours. You’ll see how easy it is when you see it being created on the DVD.
Design 8; A french double chevron. Ideal for wedding nails. It uses the corner of a buisiness card as a stencil. Place, spray, step, spray…and the design is finished. 10 seconds and it’s done.
Design 9; One of our favourites…the ladybird design. Its an orange and red blend and then black paint is sprayed through the multiple holes in the stencil. Quick and beautiful.
Design 10; Two colour zig zag on white. Where the colours cross, you get a third colour automatically.
Design 11; Another nail great for weddings or valentines. Uses a half moon stencil for the lunula and a heart shaped stencil.
Design 12; This is an interesting design showing you that ordinary everyday items can be used to create designs. You spray through a piece of lace with contrasting colours to produce this spiders web effect. It looks like it would take hours, but it’s completed in a few seconds once you know how.
Using these techniques and your imagination you now will be able to improvise thousands of new and exciting designs. The course even includes a ‘Salon Display’ card to show off your designs to your clientel.
Getting your work assessed and gaining your qualification. All you need to do now is to click the 12 completed designs into the progress card and post them back to us, along with your practice cards and question papers. We’ll mark your work and issue a nationally recognised certificate if you pass. If you fail, we will return your work, marked up with how you can improve, along with fresh progress cards and ask you to re-submit.
60% of our students pass first time, of the remainder, most will pass on the second attempt. Re-assessment and certification is free.
The “Diploma in Nail Technology course, Airbrushed Nails” is recognised by Habia, The Guild of Professional Beauty Therapists, The British Learning Association and are a Pathway To NVQ product.
