M
MBeattie
Guest
I'm 70 and an almost retired physician looking for something as an avocation. I've never had any training in art, though I would occasionally draw a crude diagram to explain something to a patient. A couple of months ago my wife asked me if I could repaint a wooden parrot figure we had on the back deck. It had been sitting out in the Florida sun for several years and was badly faded. It looked as though it had been crudely airbrushed originally, so I got on line with Amazon and found a 3 airbrush Master airbrush kit with a starter Createx paint set. I was able to "crudely" touch up the parrot and found the airbrushes to be nifty tools. I became more interested and checked out sources on the internet and found the very useful Airbrush Tutor videos and downloaded his practice templates.
After a couple of weeks of dots, lines, daggers and blends, I took on the eye. I guess it came out passably (if you're about 200 feet away!). I did learn a lot, particularly about thinning, cleaning and practice, practice, practice. The Createx paint seemed too thick and I couldn't get consistant results thinning so I located some Golden Airbrush Colors that seemed to work better for me. Also, after reviewing a lot more comments, particularly about airbrushes themselves, I thought I might do better with a better quality brush. So I picked up an Iwata HP-CS. It is very nicely manufactured, has a better feel and is much better at handling paints of varying viscosity. I've done more dots, dashes, daggers, blends and the eye. The Iwata is definitely better but I feel it is the density of the brain holding the brush that is my biggest problem.
I also tried to illustrate my dog. What a joke! Fur is hard but eyes are going to be my nemesis. I think our brains are really designed to evaluate eyes - even from a distance. Just a miniscule variation in the pupil size or light reflection makes or breaks the whole picture.
That about sums it up. I am open to advice about anything. I will be scouring the comments in the forum for tips and, I know, practice, practice, practice.
After a couple of weeks of dots, lines, daggers and blends, I took on the eye. I guess it came out passably (if you're about 200 feet away!). I did learn a lot, particularly about thinning, cleaning and practice, practice, practice. The Createx paint seemed too thick and I couldn't get consistant results thinning so I located some Golden Airbrush Colors that seemed to work better for me. Also, after reviewing a lot more comments, particularly about airbrushes themselves, I thought I might do better with a better quality brush. So I picked up an Iwata HP-CS. It is very nicely manufactured, has a better feel and is much better at handling paints of varying viscosity. I've done more dots, dashes, daggers, blends and the eye. The Iwata is definitely better but I feel it is the density of the brain holding the brush that is my biggest problem.
I also tried to illustrate my dog. What a joke! Fur is hard but eyes are going to be my nemesis. I think our brains are really designed to evaluate eyes - even from a distance. Just a miniscule variation in the pupil size or light reflection makes or breaks the whole picture.
That about sums it up. I am open to advice about anything. I will be scouring the comments in the forum for tips and, I know, practice, practice, practice.