: How do I get this uneven airbrush effect similar to old art deco posters? This is an section from a poster made back in the 1920s or 1930s, that was made using an airbrush: What interests

@Martha945

...or you can do what I did: go buy an airbrush and start painting in a deco style.

You'll find out quickly that spatters and uneven coverage can be achieved without much muss or fuss.

Trust me.

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@Caterina889

For the first example.....

I started with two solid color layers - beige and red.

On the red layer I added a layer mask, filled the mask with black and then choose Filter > Noise > Add Noise



Then, unlink the mask to its layer and use free transform (Command/Ctrl-T) to scale the mask up so the noise becomes clumps.

Repeat the Noise filter, then scale mask a few times (on the same layer mask) to create a basic splatter of the red.



I then duplicated the red layer with it's mask and set up a brush......


The Dual Brush and Scattering dynamics can create a very good "splattering" brush effect. Combined with a tablet and pen pressure used to alter opacity dynamically, you can then just brush on areas where you want more splatter.



Finally I selected the portion of the image I did not want any splattering and filled the area on the layer masks with black.



Again, this is just the path I would pursue. It still needs some refinement but overall you can get some interesting thick airbrush splatter type effects this way. Combine it with the a few techniques for the first sample image and you can get both canvas grain and paint splattering.

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@Caterina889

Realize that anything created pre-1980/1985 was done by hand. So much of the texture you see is probably from the canvas or medium directly and often mimicking traditional elements can be a challenge with digital workflows.

For the second sample image......

I think you can get something similar by simply adding noise to areas after they are painted.



What I did was a brush set to have the Texture dynamic on and a basic distress patter as the texture:


(to see this image better, right-click/control-click and choose Open Image in New Tab/Window)

I then selected portion of the image and, on a new layer, brushed in the darker color. I then used Filter > Add Noise... to add noise to those painted sections:



In addition, I placed a texture layer above everything which uses a noise/distress texture in a ver subtle manner to add more "canvas" texture.



While this may not be perfect, and still take some tweaking to get more refined, I think this may be a good path to pursue. You simply can't get all that wonderful grain and texture with only brush settings.

When I was done with painting everything, I'd probably also try a new composite layer with a very subtle Lighting Effect filter to add just a touch of uniform lighting and depth to the entire piece as a whole.

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