Ah the old air brush dilemma. Being a total noob at digital art, I thought of air brushes as the holy grail to blending before I got a hint of how value painting should be done. But there's always something about the air brush and similar brushes that makes me impulsively want to find reasons using them. How many layers do you usually use when painting?
Hahah yeah me too! Air brush is actually good when you know how to use/balance it. It’s really satisfying with the blending, but will just give you the blurry effect.
Usually I have around 15-20 layers but that’s for works with a lot of subjects. For this one I just have 3. For pure portraits (with no doodles etc) sometimes I just merge them all to one layer cos I’m still having a traditional feels when doing it 🤣
Trying to force myself to limit my layers not beyond 6 for potato laptop reasons and trying to bank on the traditional feels. It's amazing some people can work with multiple layers? I just need sketch, flats, shades, highlights, and finishing touches for a piece. But I can see the value of using multiple layers, you can make tons of possibilities in a single layer for the overall impact.
Do you watch some tutorials online for digital art or you go discover techniques on your own? I do both but more on the former side of things.