Rookie Questions!

[RebelAir]

Np m8, hope it helps..you prob wn't notice a huge difference so much in how they spray..I rarely have issues with most paints straight from the bottle. Where you'll likely notice the difference is how the build up or cover previous layers, obviously each strength of reduction will require a different amount of passes to get to that 100% intensity of the original paint, its quite useful when you want to use such reductions to build up your pic nice and slow or utilize it for subtle shading..Just be weary of if it goes grainy-this generally indicates your starting to break down the pigment binder. You can over-reduce your paints a lot without too much pigment binder breakdown by using the pre-made reduction concoctions for that paint type..I also use a product called flow medium which reduces this issues, you just replace some of the water volume with the right reducer or the flow medium and it allows you to push the reduction values really heavily..GL m8 and av fun

 

[Teez]

what is an eraser andreza????

 

[Hab]

Teez. Eraser is just that,an eraser. You can use an electric eraser like an Helix or a good pencil style eraser is faber castle. You use them to erase away your highlights instead of using white paint. You can also use them to build up skin textures. Just another tool of the trade. You can also scratch highlights with a razor knife. Another little trick!

 

[Dart Vader]

Theres nothing wrong with mixing on the fly, but it does take experiance, as mentioned a more scientific approach cld be worthwhile when starting out. Get a medicine cup and lots of spare paint bottles and a notepad/diary. Write down your reduction strengths and mix up 4 bottles say of white, leave one at 100% (no reduction) make the others 75%, 50% and 25% IE 75% is three part paint, one part reducer (Water or whatever your using) 50- 2 parts paint one reducer and so on..So for 50% if ya mixing up 50 ml of paint ya wanna ad 25 ml of water/reducer..This method also helps when mixing ya colors as it will enable you to match exactly what you were using prior if you run out..

Mixing just prior to painting is no prob, mixing the night before or a week before is fine too, just remember to put a ball bearing, rock or marble in your paint container so you can shake it up well before using to suspend the pigments evenly, do that on every refill of your cup as pigment can settle quickly and change the shade slightly..Also add a small square of pantihose underneath the lid of the bottle, this strains it for you without thinking about it.

Experimenting is a key to learning how to best utilize reducer in your specific conditions or needs..You can completely remove the blueshift of white by not spraying it ontop of black (its generally the ovespray that does this shifting if you take and opaque white to 100% intensity it doesn't shift (The overspray still might though) or use its complimentery (Black is generally blue based, thats why we use orange to counteract it, some blacks can also be red or green based-Though rarely in AB Paints) if you do desire to spray over black as mentioned..Building your pic from light to dark reduces this issue, or use erasers for highlighting as mentioned..

Practice, experiment or even use the shift to your advantage ..GL and av fun

As a newcomer (on a strict budget) I believe that I have something to add here that may be of some use.
I have been plagued with the issues of tip dry, spidering (new word for me), stipling (dots instead of fine line) and clogging. As I am adamantly a Do It Yourself(er) I then set out to correct these issues. Along the way I learned that these things can be relatively controlled through proper pigment reduction, and air pressure controll. So I set out to make my own reducer. Several experiments landed me at the recipe of 1 part glycerine to 3 parts DISTILLED water. Supplies for this mixture will produce 3 - 16oz bottles of CLEAN reducer for the same price as one commercially sold bottle. Distilled water is used because I live in a large city which has a high content of minerals dissolved in the water. That alone will lend to a faster build up of residue and solids on the tip of your needle.
As additional info: Createx Opaque White has been more of a problem for me than any other paint. It has always resulted in very rapid tip dry for me. My solution was to increase the amount of glycerine in the reducer to 1 part glycerine to 2 parts DISTILLED water. This has the effect of slowing the drying time even more. Another piece of equipment I use is my wife's old mascara brush. This item is excellent at clearing paint buildup from the tip of my needles without damaging the fine points.
Note: As glycerine does extend the dry time for paints I have learned to "pace" myself with multiple passes of the airbrush in one area when I am spraying heavy.

I sincerely hope that this is at least "new" to someone here and does help in some small way.