What is the difference between airbrush acrylic paint and regular acrylic paint?

B

Brian

Guest
Or are they the same with more water in them but they charge you more because it says Airbrush paint on it.
 
No, acrylics are a thick paint in nature. It is made for a brush. Airbrush paint pigment are ground up much finer. If you take a dab of each kind on each finger and rub them between you finger and thumb you will feel the difference. The acrylic will feel kind of grainy and the airbrush paint will feel smooth and also dry faster.
If you absolutely want to use acrylics I would strain your paint thoroughly maybe a couple of times, also it still will need a good bit of reduction, and even with that I wouldn't use it in any smaller nozzle than .3


Josh
 
yer sponge monkey airbrush pants is right, leave them well alone, airbrush paints are much slicker and are constantly being improved upon but one of the main factors is tip dry, even well reduced regular acrylic will be constantly drying on the tip of the needle causing you all sorts if problems if you are must starting out.invest in airbrush paints
 
i have used tube acrylics,, all you have to do is put a little paint in a mixing cup.. and a little water then start mixing,, gradually add more water until it is the right consistency.. and like josh said.. make sure to strain them if you do not throughly mix... there are many artist who used tube paint and use this process..
 
Thanks guys for your advice, it makes a lot of sense when you put it that way :05.18-flustered:
 
ok since your just starting out, if you can just buy ready made airbrush paints.. until you get a lil more experience . unless you just up for the challenge bro. more power to ya
 
Maybe just get one or two specific airbrush paints for now just to learn with. If you are just starting, you don't need the added complication of wondering if your paint mix is right, or wondering if it's your paint, or your technique that needs adjusting. And you can get some awesome effects just using one colour.
 
i have used tube acrylics,, all you have to do is put a little paint in a mixing cup.. and a little water then start mixing,, gradually add more water until it is the right consistency.. and like josh said.. make sure to strain them if you do not throughly mix... there are many artist who used tube paint and use this process..

I do that too with the Golden paint. get a lot more paint for the money but if you are starting out and are really not sure how reduced it the right amount than get the made for airbrush stuff. Wicked is great as well as Spectra-tex.
 
Tube acrylics had a heavy bodied binder in them. Yes you can reduce them down with water and strain them but like mentioned before the pigment particles are not ground as fine. Nor is the pigment load (ratio of pigment to binder) the same as airbrush paints. You also have to be aware that if you reduce a tube acrylic too much you can end up breaking the binder and you pretty much are stuck with expensive watercolors.
 
Agree with most of whats above. Tube paints can be used fine though but like airbrush paints if you want quality it costs. You can get acrylic tube paints that have high quality and finely ground pigments, but again these are at the top of the market in cost. They do reduce well and if you use a flow medium for a lot of the reduction (Instead of 100% water), strain as mentioned, pigment binder breakdown can be kept at a minimum. You can also add glycerin to the mix to reduce tip dry and some also add windex. (Window cleaner), though personally I don't like mixing chemicals like windex into my paint so I use a flow medium like Jo Sonja's. If you want to use cheap paint acrylic tubes, lots of the issues stated above are evident as cheap material and pigment has been used in their creation.

When you way up the costs of buying expensive tube paint and mixing it up yourself you may find yourself slightly ahead of the game as one tube will mix to quite a fair bit of paint pending on tube size but it does cost time and you may find drying times and such affected and is really a trial and error thing to find the right mix...Using the cheap tubes though is great for early practice, but when doing serious work it sometimes pays to get a product especially designed for airbrushing as a lot of guess work and ruined pictures will be removed from the equation..Personally I don't use many of the common brands as I find them extremely expensive for such small amounts. Theres a supplier who makes specialised inks for airbrushing in Australia and I'll happily give em a plug as for $150 you will get 5 x 500 ml bottles which will last close to two years of pretty solid painting..

PS-Buy A transparent primary set and an extra bottle or two of white and no color besides your metallics and such can't be made.....

Heres a link- Airbrush Focus (1300 AIRBRUSH)

GL and av fun...:)
 
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