Styles of Airbrushing

Some airbrush artist will argue that there are two distinct styles of airbrushing, those that airbrush 'Freehand' and the those that use 'Masking'. Though most airbrush artists use both to varying degrees as they compliment each other. Masking is used if you want to create a sharp distinct line around a particular part of your picture (like the 'knotwork' on the fiddles). Free hand work is generally done on larger areas and gives the soft edged 'smoking' effects like the sunburst effect on instruments.