Practice for 12/14

[Cryptix]

OK well if you seen my last practice session, You would know I am WAY into the beginner zone. But I tried again this evening and I learned a few things.
Newsprint is VERY hard to paint on. Absorbs everything and uses allot of paint.

I am having issues with my com art paint spidering when I get close (within Half inch) even though I have my pressure turned down to 20 (which is as low as my reg goes) on my sprint jet iwata compressor.

It also will sputter a bit and I have to clear it out.

OK for the pics. I chose to add a bit of color and try my hand at layering and shading. I think it turned out well for now. The face was a quickie, I mixed my leftover white and black and shaded out a face.

[Immortal Concepts]

spidering is not always air pressure. You can also have your mixture mixed too thin. I shoot at 35-38PSI with paint reductions as much as 4:1 or more. the higher the pressure and more dilution, the further you want to get away from your surface.

[Annie]

Nice job on the lightning! Big improvement.

For the spidering...do you have a watertrap on your compressor? If there is water traveling in the air line to your airbrush, thats a major cause of spidering.
If not, maybe your paint is over reduced.


On the portrait, you went a little heavy with the paint on the eye compared to the rest. The lips are well painted. The left brow comes a little too far in the middle of the face... you should barely see it. And on the nostril, you should avoid that line thats coming from the edge of the face...it should not conect with the nostril. But hey... it's still a real nice job for a begginer! Thats some good work.


Good luck and keep up the practicing. You are already improving lots.

Annie :)

[Immortal Concepts]

good catch annie i forgot about water trap I just assumed he has one

[Cryptix]

Ya I have a water trap connected to my gun, then my hose then reg then compressor.

My paint was spidering without reduction. (how do you thicken it up?) But I did end up reducing it with a 1/8 teaspoon after I turned it down to 20 psi. I thought it may help.

So out of the bottle I am getting spidering with 20 PSI, I think I may need to just have quicker hands....But how can I get slow and controlled detail if it spiders when I slow down?

[Annie]

Did you shake the bottle of paint a lot? Maybe you're just getting what settled at the top...

It would be a good idea to add a water trap to the compressor, then add the regulator and the airbrush hose.

I'll go on thinking about the problem.... paint out of the bottle should be ok or too thick.... thats a tricky one!

Annie :)

[Annie]

Oh...also, what surface are you working on? Maybe it's a very sliperry surface.

[BigB]

Crptix, Some good advise here but let me throw my 2 cents in if you will. First it's hard to see your problems from the photos available. I do see some spidering so i think your terminology is correct. Just want to make sure your not talking about spitting or splattering. I've never used ComArt paint but I looked it up and it says it's to be used on porous surfaces. This may be your biggest problem thats already over reduced and your using on a smooth surface. As with any water base or bourne paint you must apply in very light layers and occasionally heat set to prevent over saturation. These types of paint are very slow to dry and will wash out once they have been builtup too much. You may want to invest in some different paint. Alot of people seem to like Etac but I've never tried them. I've been using Golden for my illustration work and SEM for hard surfaces like metal. Love to use the URO's (SEM) when ever I can. You need a very well ventilated area to use them though. If your looking for some Auto Air pm me I make you a deal.

[shane]

what kinda air brush you using? the reason i am asking cause it sounds like maybe you have a single action brush, can you regulate your air with the trigger at all? and also i think if this is not the case you got a bad regulator, at 20 psi you should be able to shoot water and not have it blow out like that!

[Cryptix]

Wow I am not sure how I missed your posts, and I do apoligize. (sp)

I have 2 Iwata eclipse hp?sumpin.

I am finding the com art paint is not very desirable for what I would like to do, but I need to suffer through till it warms up here in Kansas. My Garage is not temp friendly and I paint in the basement. But this spring I will move on to uro's in the garage. I want to start true fire practice soon.

[Marge Cameron]

I do use ComArt, often unreduced, and I even use it on hard surfaces, but you REALLY have to keep moving & layer it up with some patience. It will pool up very quickly & spread in a spidering effect very easily, even on illustration or bristol board. For many of the colors, especially the transparent ones, it takes a LOT of very thin layers to build any kind of coverage. Each layer must be completely dry before you shoot the next one.

If you're stuck inside, slowly start replacing your ComArt with one of the following:
Auto Air Colors
Etac
PPG Enviro (recommended!)

All 3 of these products are waterbased/waterbourne & will be very similar health-wise to using ComArt. I think you will have less of a learning curve with any of these paint systems, as they are not as finicky as ComArt on hard surfaces. I hope that even though you're using ComArt, you're still wearing a mask! Sorry, had to throw that in there.

[4dtough]

When I started I tried newsprint, and hated it. I know it is cheap so thats a consideration. I eneded up getting some vellum, was alot easier to work on, it's expensive but not too bad. But then I got sick of that and had to strart painting on metal :), thats when things really get fun

[Cryptix]

Well I do use a mask but definatly not the proper one. I use the cloth masks, just to prevent the overspray from entering my lungs. I do not notice any odor with the comart.

I do need to get a respirator so what is a good one? for when I start uro's but also in the mean time with water based paints.

[Annie]

Well I do use a mask but definatly not the proper one. I use the cloth masks, just to prevent the overspray from entering my lungs. I do not notice any odor with the comart.

I do need to get a respirator so what is a good one? for when I start uro's but also in the mean time with water based paints.

I use a 3M cartridge mask (carbon cartridge) and you can put pre-filters on the cartridge. Works really well. Eventually I wanna get a compresor especially for respirators so I have fesh air (they are not that expensive!) but for not it works really well.

Annie :)

[deetz58]

Good advice Annie. I also use the 3M Carbon style. I pick em up at the paint store for around 20 bucks. Remember that when not using this kind of mask it should be re-sealed in the provided bag or similar ziplock bag. The masks are only good for approximately 40 hours outside of the bag. Just a thought.

[Annie]

Good advice Annie. I also use the 3M Carbon style. I pick em up at the paint store for around 20 bucks. Remember that when not using this kind of mask it should be re-sealed in the provided bag or similar ziplock bag. The masks are only good for approximately 40 hours outside of the bag. Just a thought.


Thanks Deetz, I totally forgot to tell about resealing the mask in something. I usually take the cartridge off the mask and put them in a ziplock bag. My boss used a big ice cream plastic bowl and put the whole mask in.

Remember to take off the prefilters when storing because the cartridge will continue to filter what's trapt in them. You can leave the prefilters un sealed. It doesn't matter. Their purpose is to catch most of the overspray to avoid clogging the cartridge.

You can buy disposable 3M mask with cartridge that you can't take off and you can buy one thats a little more expensive (around 30 or 35$) where you can change the cartridge when needed.

Annie :)

[shane]

another vote for the 3M ones, cheep and comfortable, thats when i where it hahahahahahahahahah :whistling: