Hello all from Pismo Beach, CA

I

Izzy

Guest
I'm Izzy. I'm originally from Los Angeles, but wanted to slow down the pace, so I moved to Pismo Beach, a small town in the central coast of California. I now have a small surfboard fiberglass shop, which has inspired me to be creative and explore a more artistic outlook on life.

Anyway, around a year ago I stumbled across some airbrush videos on YouTube, and I thought thought to myself, "I want to be an airbrush artist" So, I had my girlfriend buy me a complete airbrush setup for Christmas haha best gift I ever received. It was love at first spray. It came with an IWATA Eclipse HP-CS, a small air compressor w/tank, some cheap airbrush paint, and a hose. Since then, my friend gave me a Passche VL that he used once, and I just purchased the Badger Krome. I've used it once, but was having trouble trigger getting stiff on me after around 30 minutes of use, and then the paint started flowing with me just pressing for air. I did take it apart, and lube it when I received it, so I suspect it might be the paint I'm currently using. I have the .21 needle in there now and used Createx colors, which I just learned from I believe either Mr Micron or Squishy, on a thread I was reading, is for textile...t shirt art and such, which explained my frustration with dry tip and clogging on my cs. I will be purchasing their recommended wicked line. Curious to see the difference.

I have to admit. I haven't been practicing my dots, lines, blends and daggers/reverse daggers. I figured I would learn as I painted and doodled. I do mostly space scenes, and a mixture of space scenes with landscapes in the forefront using paint brushes (new to me as well). I do feel I've progressed some, but not where I should be. I've come to realize after joining this forum, that these practices are important and essential to being great, and I should pay my dues if I want to be great. I've just converted a room into an art studio and want to take my journey to the next level. I'd really like to learn how learn how to create realistic paintings. Animals, landscapes, seascapes and even fantasy realism.

Well, that's my intro! Haha hope I didn't bore you. I'm looking forward to learning, sharing and perhaps helping as I progress.

Best regards,

Izzy
 
Hey hey , welcome from new Zealand! What an awesome gift, good thing it was the eclipse, often the "sets" lead to frustration and rude words. Look forward to seeing what you've discovered... :)
 
Hi Izzy,welcome from the uk. I'm pretty new too. There's a great bunch of people here with all the knowledge and friendliness you'll need.Having a scout about the forum has helped me alot.Lookin forward to seeing some of your work :)
 
Welcome to the forum Izzy, your intro was ok, no boredom had set in and just to let you know was short compared to some :) Your kit is good which will help a lot but as you said the standard Createx isn't the best to learn with. I see you have browsed the forum a bit and found out stuff already. There's always some one here or not far away if you need any help and there's never a stupid question. Good luck learning what you want to paint. If you have anything you have painted then post it up, we would like to see what you have done so far and its a good reference when looking back to compare your progression.

Lee
 
Wicked is a great choice as it works on so many different surfaces, so will be great on your boards, but good for paper, shirts etc too. I really recommend the high performance reducer, it does not reduce well with water. The great thing about Wicked apart from the fact it is lightfast and so won't fade, is it's versatility and vibrant colour. However those qualities mean that although the pigment is finely ground, there is a lot of it - meaning you may find yourself reducing a bit more than you expect. It's worth getting the larger bottle of reducer. The reducer also has other added benefits such as less tip dry, better flow, quicker drying, harder curing etc. It is also a great cleaner. It's not the cheapest way to keep your gun clean and nozzle clear, but after a while you learn to use only a few drops (it does take some fine tuning) and to me it is well worth not having the frustration of blocked nozzles - as keeping a nozzle clean is an art in itself. Serious blockages, will need a soak in restorer or similar, but using the reducer should make that a rarity.

If you are only wanting to paint on paper or board, then the Createx illustration line (or E'tac efx, Com-art) may be a better option as that is developed specifically for that use, rather than the all round properties of Wicked.

I was the same as you, I didn't do the exercises when I started as I didn't even know there were specific strokes etc. I really think this slowed down my learning - a lot! Getting these basics down means you will be able to tackle anything as they are the foundation of everything you need to know, and you are building the muscle memory needed to make those movements relaxed and natural.
 
welcome aboard.
you're off to a good start with the brush, its a good workhorse.

I've some bad news for you, most water based paint will give you tip dry at some point, some colours / brands are worse than others. You will learn to minimise it or learn to deal with it. . . .
 
markjthomson said:
Hey hey , welcome from new Zealand! What an awesome gift, good thing it was the eclipse, often the "sets" lead to frustration and rude words. Look forward to seeing what you've discovered... :)
Click to expand...
Hey hey Mark, thank you! :thumbsup: ...and to think I almost went for the less expensive Masters G22 set. Glad I went with quality instead.
 
Tobikommi said:
Hi Izzy,welcome from the uk. I'm pretty new too. There's a great bunch of people here with all the knowledge and friendliness you'll need.Having a scout about the forum has helped me alot.Lookin forward to seeing some of your work :)
Click to expand...
Hello Tobikommi! It's encouraging to see a fellow newbie benifit from the more experienced artists on the forum. I've never joined a forum before, but everyone here seems nice, and extremely helpful. I've already gained a lot from just browsing. Thanks for the welcome. I'll post some photos soon.
 
jord001 said:
Welcome to the forum Izzy, your intro was ok, no boredom had set in and just to let you know was short compared to some :) Your kit is good which will help a lot but as you said the standard Createx isn't the best to learn with. I see you have browsed the forum a bit and found out stuff already. There's always some one here or not far away if you need any help and there's never a stupid question. Good luck learning what you want to paint. If you have anything you have painted then post it up, we would like to see what you have done so far and its a good reference when looking back to compare your progression.

Lee
Click to expand...
Thank you Lee. I appreciate the positive feedback. It's nice to know I can come here and interact for answers to questions that I would normally google and have to search for. I've looked for classes in the area or other airbrush artists and have come up nothing.
 
Howdy from New York.
great bunch of folks here and lots of help/info available.
Welcome to the forum:)
 
Welcome to the madhouse, We're all here so we can help people learn how to use an airbrush if you have a question and can't find the answer by using the Search button(a lot of questions have been asked before) post up your question and someone will be along to help you out I'm sure!
 
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