JackEb's journey of a newbie

[JackEb]

Hi All,
Dec 2013
its been awhile.... and although some will have noticed me post every now and then they probably dont realise that i am a true newbie.
Those that known me for the last 18+ months will know that i had a set back before i even really got started.
Well the time has finally come YEEHAW
I wont bore anyone with details, (you can do a search of my prior posts if your really that bored ! ) but in the interest of giving other newbies hope i've decided to have an entire thread dedicated to my trials and tribulations of all things Airbrush. I havent put it in the 'star log' because i cant confidently say that i can make x amount of time per week to what is a 'hobby' but i intend on practising hard as time allows.

So here we go, you wont need popcorn, this wont take long !

In June 2012 i managed to fire up my airbrush a throw something into the comp at the time, just for fun !
these two pictures show the result of 3 hours. i didnt do practise sheets, just jumped in the deep end and hope i didnt drown in the process.






I was content with the outcome and was full of enthusiasm to continue forward, but life threw me a curve ball which resulted in me being admitted to hospital the next day.

Fast forward to today; Dec 2013
i am proud to announce that today i finally got to take by first tenative steps back to my airbrush journey
this is the result of 2 hours of faffing around (yes i have the practise sheets ready to rock and roll, i just needed to do 'something' rather than random dots and daggers (no offence Mitch)





its far from perfect, i had 'issues' with the air compressor not holding constant pressure and making me jump when it cut in (note the kinks in a couple of eyelashes LOL ) and its not quiet as dark as this pic shows. (fluoro lighting sucks)

so there you have it.... my 18 month journey of two pictures and a scribble sheet.

I will raise my hand high and happily state that all of my life i have believed that i didnt have an artistic bone in my body (creative yes, artistic no ! ) i am happy to now announce that i am starting to discover that i might have something that has been hiding for the last 53 years LOL

So please laugh, cry or do whatever these pictures move you to do.. because i WILL be back to add more

 

[Mr.Micron]

Glad to see you are back in action , Hmm 53 years you say :d I like them young...
Yes you know I of all people would make that comment LMAO

But good to see you back on you have been missed.

 

[jord001]

That eye looks pretty good considering not painting for ages, You dont have to be arty but it helps a bit You acn do it as you have proved, you just have to paint something else now to catch up on the last 18 months.

Lee

 

[JackEb]

LOL, no I haven't painted in ages ! This is only my 2nd attempt in 53 years !! I've only ever attempted one pencil drawing around 40years ago and the horse/giraffe scared me so much I never bothered again !
And to Mr micron ..... Age is just a case of mind over matter... If 'she' don't mind, it don't matter

 

[Squishy]

Hey Jackie, so good to have you back, us dudes gotta stick together Lol! You go girl!

 

[wmlepage]

I think i'm your opposite, no artsy side, but a bit o talent. I can look at a pic and figure it out, just don't ask me to create on the fly, I'm a good copyist.

Welcome back into the fold.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[shadow2462]

Well glad to see you back , i'm 56 and know a bit about life....(was dead on the table) at one point a few years back. All my life I have had the knack to be "creative" and could make a diamond out of a pile of chit...figuratively not literally but no artistic talent but thanks to my new home I am learning on a curve.

 

[JackEb]

great jackie... glad your back... now dont be a softie..

Yeah right! I may be your little aussie rose but I come with thorns !!

Thanks for the warm welcome back gang

Like you shadow I was 'jump started' 18mths ago. I'm as good as I'm gonna get so I'll work with what I've got and hang around to show you all I'm no quitter if nothing else.
I'm not too sure about a learning curve, it's more like mt Everest at the moment but I can see the long road ahead and I'll just put one foot in front of the other like every other learner

 

[JackEb]

Update....
Heres the practise from the 31st. I got visitors so couldn't post as planned.
I had 'issues' ranging from severe tip dry ( yes with the black!) I assume because of the heat outside of 35C.. And no insulation or air conditioning in the shed. Then the compressor wouldn't maintain the outlet pressure that was set, at one point it dropped to about 5psi while I was painting, so I found the lack of consistent flow and tip dry frustrating, but it's all part of the learning process so it's all good. I bought the brush inside and tore it down and gave it a good clean and lube up ready for tomorrow. (Family duties again chewed up my day today)

I utilised a couple of suggestions made in the past on this wonderful forum and grabbed some kids colouring books and just set about trying to get a feel of the brush, a bit like changing cars, you've got to drive them around the block a few times to 'be comfortable' with it
Again, not expecting any works of outstanding achievement but just getting to know how all the theory that's stuck in my head will flow through my fingers Lol





Then I remembered a suggestion to put the practise sheets behind glass..... So I did. I must say its a great idea ! Do it, date it, take a photo then with a razor blade scrape it off and start again.....

I shall call him "SQUISHY"



I forgot to mention at the beginning that all works, including the practise eye, have been on A4, I've now found the A3 one and that's now behind glass.
I've been using wicked detail and an iwata hp-b plus.

Thanks for watching

 

[Squishy]

HA HA!!!! YAY!!!!!

I find wicked black is a bit of a bugger for tip dry so it always gets a bit of extra reduction. White, which people usually have issues with I don't find a problem. But that's probably just because I'm just a contrary old bag Lol .

Painting on glass is a good idea, because painting on a hard surface is less forgiving, you need better control to avoid spidering etc, and if you can get comfortable with it, you'll be able to paint on any other surface Can already see you're getting some control, varying intensity of colour, and not much overspray. You'll be cranking out killer stuff in no time!!!!!!

 

[JackEb]

Cheers Squishy good to hear that white isn't the only colour to suffer tip dry ! I wasn't expecting it so I just figured it was due to the heat, but today we will see... It's currently raining here with an expected max of 23C so much more pleasant out there.
Currently 7am, I'm just having breakfast and 'pottering' until it's a more respectable time to wake my neighbors up to the tune of my air compressor running.

The blue jelly fish was on glass. I'm gonna give the eye another shot today, but at A3 size and behind glass.
I've been very strict with myself ( gotta happen occasionally) and not take the easy (?) way out and use things to make life easier- why ? Because I figure if I do it 'right' now it will be easier as I go on. There has been no use of stencils/ masking or use of the needle stop on the brush. Again, kinda like learning to drive - jump into a manual (stick) without cruise control or any other 'aid'. If you can master that then I'm happy to use aids.

 

[JackEb]

2 jan 2014:
More life experience learning today !
- don't fill the cup, by the time it's half empty it thickens and clogs the airbrush to the point of only releasing paint on the backstroke !
- when cleaning (total tear down) double check the mini cleaning brush for o-ring. Failure to put o-ring in results in the cap flying off from back pressure and covering everything with 5 metres with ink !

Today I used my 'Chinese' brush hence the wayward o-ring
A3 , under glass. Paynes grey. And moss green
The radiating 'lines' from the eye are wrinkled paper, not my awesome airbrushing skills!

 

[Visual Realm]

Great to see you back at it Jackeb! Hope all is well now! Ive gotten into the habit where if i fill my cup up, i will shake it up every once in awhile as im painting to keep it mixed up so it doesnt settle. Whites are especially bad for this! I normally over reduce so i dont have to worry about it as much, but its a great habit to get into! Keep at it and hope to see some more from you!

 

[JackEb]

Thanks VR, I'm as good as I'm going to get, but I'm still here fighting
it's more of a start than 'back at it' last time was a false start, but I'm glad to finally and confidently starting the long journey ahead. Happy to learn by my mistakes too and no doubt there will be a lot of them but that's part and parcel of any new learning
I know one thing though... I've sooo got to get a quiet compressor. This one would wake the dead !

 

[Squishy]

You're doing it right Jackster! As I was too stupid to look on the internet when I started, and too ****y (how hard could it be????), I jumped in with both feet and no clue about what I was doing. Didn't even know the what the basic strokes were, or that you should keep the air on, or reduce paint etc. So when I finally grew a brain cell and thought to look, it took me ages to unlearn all my bad habits. Start as you mean to go on, and push yourself each time without getting hung up on making mistakes, making mistakes is actually a good thing. I wasted so much time, still, the penny dropped eventually LOL!

 

[JackEb]

Wow,
I cant believe its been over 2 years since I last updated this........ how time flies!

OK, I admit it, I lost it and its taken me awhile to find it, amoungst all the other threads in the last couple of years

Any way,
where were we.....

Jan 2014....... I did the eye on glass... . . . I still applaud @Seamonkey who suggested the glass thing. Its worth doing, if you can control your spiders on there, everything else should be a piece of cake

Fast Forward to early 2015 because for one reason or another the remainder of 2014 disappeared in a blur of family, cold weather and bad health and little motivation for anything apart from occasionally popping in here to see what the asylum was up to.....

So anyway, once xmas 2014 was done and dusted I started to get a bit of momentum back, dusted of the chinese knock offs only to find that they had both seized badly..... removed the Quick disconnects and the crown caps and binned the brushes.... Live and learn, they were cleaned before I put them away but the shed got damp and that obviously upset them,....
I bought myself a Iwata HP-B+ for xmas 2014, just as well really !! must have known something....

as luck would have it,one of the first threads I saw when I came back on here was @Mr.Micron announcing a newbie challenge..... so I figured I'd go hard or go home....

http://www.airbrushforum.org/threads/challenge-time-for-all-the-new-folks-d.11917/page-4#post-173172

I was rather pleased with how it turned out......



it was a confidence boost, and I knew I was hooked...............

 

[JackEb]

ok, so what now.....

too late, by the time I'd wondered what to paint next, Mr.Micron announced a Paint Pal 6.....
OMG, should I ....... could I....... its so small..........

oh what the hell, why not......

@Nada was my first victim...... sorry Nada, ready or not its headed your way.......





Hey, this is FUN...... go figure........... I cant draw for peanuts, but any one can see its a flower.........

 

[JackEb]

ok, so paint pal is done, there wont be another challenge for a little while..............

while I'm waiting for inspiration i'll watch some Game of Thrones..... I was late to that party so I had a couple of seasons backed up.....
Inspiration is a funny thing, hits when you least expect it......

I give you 'The White Walker'

its an odd shaped board, but that's how the projected image came out, the board was labelled 'foam board' so I figured I had the right stuff.....
apparently its nothing like the stuff I should have bought.... again lesson learned..... this never got finished properly due to a mishap with some masking tape, but I WILL BE BACK with this one on a decent substrate. I did enjoy it and learnt a heap, at this point I didn't have any erasers/scalpels or anything else that would have made life a bit easier.... that has now been remedied....

the blue of his eyes is molotow masking fluid,

here is version 1 : May 2015



I've already got a board ready for Version 2......


April also saw me in the right place at the right time on the forum when a used Iwata Micron came up for sale, here in Australia..... so what could I do..........

I was now a member of the cool kids....... not enough talent to justify it, but I will....... I know I will......one day........maybe.........

 

[JackEb]

Then like clockwork, July saw Mr.Micron throw out the challenge for Paint Pal 7......

ooooohhhh I have some scalpels to play with now.......... so off to @jord001 you fly little hooter



did I mention that this silly stuff is FUN ??!!

 

[JackEb]

winter is cold as we all know, and the draw of a hot chocolate in front of the TV was strong, and winter knocks me about a bit health wise, so I erred on the side of caution and waited for spring to arrive down under.

Emerging from hibernation was eminent, August was pleasant....... but unfortunately I'd discovered I had cataracts in both eyes, one much worse than the other.... unless it was fixed pronto, I wouldn't be driving by xmas. that meant getting both done as I'm legally blind without my glasses.... fixing just one wasn't an option - so an extended time off work was called for while I had one done and then waited 5 weeks to get the other done.
Unfortunately Mr.Micron decided another Paint Pal was in order, So sorry @Greg Geilman, I thought I'd picked something that I could do with my problem eyes, but it didn't turn out overly well at all,
Knowing you were a D & D fan I thought this would be relatively easy to do, but it gave me more problems than anything else I had done. Some times the simple things are far from simple......