Reducing paints problem

czajka

Young Tutorling
Hello. I used search option but I could not find good answer for my airbrush. Maybe somebody can help me before I will throw airbrush through the window.
I have an H&S Ultra airbrush with 0.2 nozzle and Wicked Detail paints. My reducers are W100, W500 or water. It is third day when I am trying to find right pressure and paint reduction for small, fine lines. My picture is already ruined as I was clening it about 6 times from paint, but I still can not find how to make those lines. I have splashes (spiders) from paint or airbrush is choking. I am getting crazy. I paint on plastic board. As it goes not soooo bad on paper it is a disaster on board. I do not know now where is a problem: reduction, pressure, airbrush problem (damaged needle or nozzle), or maybe H&S Ultra is not good for details?
 
OK a few things here. Generally speaking the gun is only 20% of the answer for fine lines, operator skill has more to do with it. How long have you been painting? Getting fine lines takes time and practice. No shortcuts here. What are you painting on? some stuff spiders worse than others. I expect the plastic is having that problem. More practice needed. I often use yupo - a plastic paper. That stuff spiders badly without taking care. What pressure are you running? You might need to reduce the pressure. Do you have a water trap? Is it water in the line?What is the temperature where you are? The reducers are for certain temperature ranges and temperature can affect tip dry as well. A few questions there to help us answer you better.
 
First problem is your new to airbrush and you have a super fine detail airbrush you are trying to learn from .
Next Dots and Dagger strokes and lot of practice , Rome was not built in a day and airbrushing can not be learned with out a lot of practice.
My H&S Infinity .2 has not seen any psi over 6 most time it set around 3or 4 . Wicked is first stained then reduced starting at 5 drops reducer to 1 drop paint. and increasing reducer form there. Building the lines slowly .
 
As stated already, you just started out with the airbrush.... welcome to one of the most frustrating parts of your life :p

Airbrushing has a very steep learning curve which you will have to get through. You will need to build up the muscle memory needed to be able to apply paint without thinking about it. The only way to do this is to keep practicing, just resign yourself to the fact that for the foreseeable future it just won't work as you want it to. We all went through this, it's just the learning process.

Ontop of building the muscle memory you'll need to come to grips with your paint, the reduction, the airpressure etc as indicated when you start out there just aren't any shortcuts (if you want to learn it properly, you could use masks for quick results). If you run into specific problems and have picure's to clearify it people here might be able to give some pointers but in the end it will all just boil down to practicing.

Just stick with it and get through the first couple of months, when the muscle memory starts to kick in you'll notice you'll start to improve very fast :thumbsup:
 
Thank you for answers.

I am painting about 2 months, not everyday, it depends how much time do I have. I painted on paper, canvas, now I have big number of plastic boards and I am trying to use it. The pressure was starting from about 0.8 bar (so it will be some 10 - 11 psi). I have water trap, not much water there. And temperatures since few days are about 20-22 C

Mr.Micron - ok, I will try to reduce pressure. I did not set it lower than 10 psi.

It seems that patience is my weakness. ;) I will keep practicing.
 
patience is the one thing you cant buy or teach, and its one of the most useful things you'll ever use.
You didn't jump straight into doing algebra when you started school, you had to build up to it, and that is what you need to do now. build up to it.

It will take time, the amount of time will depend on how often you practice/paint. Speed (which comes from confidence) is also a factor in fine lines. If you move to slowly then you will get spiders too..
 
Good way to practice lines is get any old kids colouring book, pick an image out of it and blow that image up (If its an A4 colouring book) to A2 and trace the line elements of the drawing you choose. paint it big first at standard pressures (bout 20-25 for gravity) and don't over reduce initially (Aim for that milky consistency in your paint.), being a bit bigger should enable you to sit about 2 cm out or so and aim for a thicker line, then say do the A4 copy of the same image. Bit smaller this time, bit closer about a cm out with the same reduction and a psi of about 15-20..If its choppy add a little more reducer to your cup and keep trying at that pressure but get your reduction right, ie forget pressure atm. Then do an A5 copy, get closer with the airbrush (within a cm)..Go through the same process but knock 5 PSi off but don't change your reduction unless needed..if anything I'd hazard a guess your just reducing to much, I would suggest looking at your reductions before dropping under 10 PSI, very few people paint lower than that and if so its not bold lines they are after. Good luck but as mentioned above much of it is practice..Try searching the leapfrog technique also..
 
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