Portrait/Illustration paint

G

Gary Mills

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As a follow-on from my (debut) Iwata Neo CN thread from yesterday (the gist of which is that I tried to cut corners by using regular acrylic paint, and ended up picking out the nozzle housing thread - as well as the clogged paint - from the airbrush, thus ruining it), I'm wondering what ready mixed airbrush paint artists would recommend for portrait & illustration applications...?

I've seen both Createx & Com-Art on the market, but am slightly confused by some of the colours. Is there any way of cross-referencing the colour tones with the more conventional paints on the market? For example, how does Toluedene Red - which I've ever heard of - compare with a Cadmium Red? Or are colour theory wheels generally used...?

The advice from the other thread has been very helpful, with the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS the overwhelming favourite as a replacement model. Am working on line & wash dartboard btw.
 
For one reason or another airbrush paints hardly ever stick to the conventional names (doesn't realy matter which brand you pick), as far as I'm aware there are no cross reference charts avaliable (only thing I came across is a chart of how to mix RALL colors from schmincke).

In regard to portraits, if you want to do color portraits (I'd advice starting black and white) than there are no premix colors. You'll either have to learn how transparants behave and build up or, when you use opaques how to mix the tones/colors needed.
 
I would suggest watching a few videos by the net about portraits and watch what colors they mix. I would stick to the main primaries, black and white. In addition to those I would get sepia smoke, golden or yellow ocher, red ocher, moss green, violet, and a raw sienna. This way you won't need to mix a tun of colors but just tiny or shade you primary. Com-Art had a selection of starter flesh tines that are helpful. You will still need to custom mix some but you won't need to use a ton of white, red and yellows. Having a base flesh tone is a big plus.

That's at least how I do it. Sd for using Com-Art, Createx Illustration or Etac EFX it all depends what you will painting on.

My tests have shown that on Canvas or Gessoed board use Etac or Com-Art. For illustration board use Etac EFX and for Blair or Yupo use Createx Illustration. They all erase and bind a little different on each.

If you don't plan on erasing and scratching than I would use Golden with airbrush medium and water to reduce. Hope this helps.


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For portraits or illustration I would suggest Com-art, E'tac fx (may also be called Grex) or Createx illustration (make sure its not just regular createx Which is primarily fabrics, or createx Wicked, which I multi surface and can be used, but is not specific for illustration).
Before you spend any cash, as mentioned think about how you think you may prefer to paint - study some methods, and decide if you want opaques or trans paints. Then if you are a good colour mixer and matcher whether you'll get away with the primaries, plus black and white, or in the case of trans paints the primaries, plus opaque white, black and red (as trans red is pink until layers are built up). Some people like either a sepia, or paynes grey for underpainting too. A bit of forward planning can save a lot of cash. I'm a bit on the tight side with monry- can you tell lol.
 
Oh and by the way with the Iwata Neo you should be able to run any of the airbrush paints, inks or dyes. Even Golden fluid acrylics thinned with airbrush medium. However with the Golden Fluids there would be no scratching or erasing.

Hp-CS is a great brush. Using that brush will set you up better than the neo for illustration. And if you use the 3.5 needle then use the finer ground paints. As for the different types of red or other colors stick to the middle of the spectrum shades. Like don't get dark red or light reds get the middle tone one because you can adjust the tint and shade either way. I use Naphthol red, Phthalocyanine blue and Arylid yellow for my primaries the a tinting white and a shading black. Then add in the other colors above that I mention and you have a good spectrum of colors to work with.

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I have etac efx, com art, createx illustration and I also have inspire h2o (only just got some CI to try). I use the efx the most then com art and have tried the h2o I only have one bottle of that, again just to give it a try.
They are all good paints and have their own personalities so you have to experiment a bit but you have to do that with any paint/airbrush combination as they are all different.

Lee
 
Yes Lee has a big point!! And i find as I went nuts and bought nearly every make of paint that I go through phase's thinking one suits me more than another! Thats not true its just that say CI has tip dry, then com art spray's perfect so feels better, then com art sprays thin and doesnt cover like CI..... You get the idea!!
 
Yes Lee has a big point!! And i find as I went nuts and bought nearly every make of paint that I go through phase's thinking one suits me more than another! Thats not true its just that say CI has tip dry, then com art spray's perfect so feels better, then com art sprays thin and doesnt cover like CI..... You get the idea!!
Exactly. That why I stoped using Com-Art the first time and EFX follows the same idea. They are made for a building of color in light layers to leave room for erasing. And Createx Illustration works best on synthetic paper. I actually just went through trying to decide on which illustration paint to buy and all came down to the surface I was going to paint on.


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