A few questions for the NEWBIE :-)

[Sway]

Hey all. So, this would be day #2 for me airbrushing. Day 1 was with an old Badger 150 with a leaky teflon bearing but it was still fun. I was talking to a friend about it and he popped by. In his hand was his old Airbrush. Told me to give it a go so I tried it. Long story shot, I snagged the Iwata Eclipse HP-C Plus for $75 dollars from him. Thing still looks new he said he took care of it well.
Anyways, I have been reading a ton online about different air pressures for a gravity feed. I took Mr.Micron's advise and snagged some Wicked Colors Black Paint with the reducer. So the most part of the day I was trying right out of the bottle, a 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 right up to a 1:10 <--- yah I read it on here gave it a shot . I found so far a 1:3 shooting at about 28-30 psi seems to work nicely. But I still get MEGA tip dry every few minutes. If I try going lower it looks very grainy on the paper, as if it was like sand paper. If I run at 30 psi it a lot smoother. I also tried more reducer and lower pressure but still looked the same.
The Iwata Eclipse HP-C Plus has the normal .3mm needle and nozzle and a crown cap. I was just wonder if anyone here has tips on the Wicked Color Black and reducing it and any ideas for psi. I just want to make sure i'm doing at least something right :-/

These are the dots I got with the Iwata and I must say WOW there was a HUGE difference between this and that Badger 150. Any tips or advise?? I"m all ears, well eyes in this case.

 

[jagardn]

Nothing wrong with those dots, keep practicing. It is going to take time to get consistency.
It's funny that you laughed about the 1:10 ratio. My painting on the main page for the Picture of the Month contest was painted with a reduction of about 15 Drops Reducer 15 Drops Transparent Base and 4 Drops of paint. Its about the same reduction, just painted in about 10 layers or so to get full opacity.

 

[Sway]

Thank you, I think in time I will be able to do better. I will have to look at your picture. I"m so hooked on all this stuff now i just hope in time I will be able to figure out the psi, reducing, and then all the actual Airbrush techniques.
And that is an incredible picture you did! I can only hope I will be able to do stuff like that in the years to come.

 

[jagardn]

Thank you, I think in time I will be able to do better. I will have to look at your picture. I"m so hooked on all this stuff now i just hope in time I will be able to figure out the psi, reducing, and then all the actual Airbrush techniques.
And that is an incredible picture you did! I can only hope I will be able to do stuff like that in the years to come.

They key to improvement is persistence, practice, and most of all, Paint what you see. When I got back into airbrushing, I did nothing but practice lines, dots, and dagger strokes for weeks before painting anything. I still practice them a few times a week.

 

[ad fez]

if im doing detail work i use wicked at 1paint : 10+ reducer at around 10psi, through a 0.21 nozzle maybe you could try 1:5 at around 15psi and have a play from there, will flow a little better but not to washed out, try 5:1 at 15 reduce or increase pressure as needed to get spray pattern and opacity you like , if to then add paint and pressure or add reducer decrease pressure etc.... as said before play around you will soon find what works for you

 

[Sway]

They key to improvement is persistence, practice, and most of all, Paint what you see. When I got back into airbrushing, I did nothing but practice lines, dots, and dagger strokes for weeks before painting anything. I still practice them a few times a week.

Thank you for the advice. I think the dots were easy but the Dagger Stroke I think is going to take some time I picked up a bunch of poster board, and I came across really cheap foam board that seems to work okay so I have plenty of practice targets!

if im doing detail work i use wicked at 1paint : 10+ reducer at around 10psi, through a 0.21 nozzle maybe you could try 1:5 at around 15psi and have a play from there, will flow a little better but not to washed out, try 5:1 at 15 reduce or increase pressure as needed to get spray pattern and opacity you like , if to then add paint and pressure or add reducer decrease pressure etc.... as said before play around you will soon find what works for you

Thank you, I will be giving all this a try this afternoon. I will let you know how it works.

 

[ulltraz]

keep the papers you are practicing, date themand write the ratios of the mixtures you are working with,they will be helpfull in the future:to measure your progress and when you need to do some textures they may become handy.:encouragement:

 

[Sway]

keep the papers you are practicing, date them and write the ratios of the mixtures you are working with,they will be help full in the future:to measure your progress and when you need to do some textures they may become handy.:encouragement:

Thank's for the tip! I never thought of that. I tried all different ratio's but for some reason it seems like the sweet spot for me is around 26-28 psi. At a 1:5 at that psi I stopped getting tip dry, the paint had a nice smooth round pattern to the spray.

 

[wmlepage]

The more pressure you work with you will get less tip dry. Not that it doesn't happen, the air pressure will blow it right off, which is why if you see videos of shirt painters spray off to the side frequently, they spray anywhere from 50-80 psi.


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