Topic awaiting preservation: Anyone have any real airbrush experience

By real I mean Not digital. I am looking at buying an airbrush and compressor to run it. I want to be able to be fairly detailed but this first one will mostly be used to learn with and hone my skills. I expect to buy others later. Does anyone have any experience with this and have any maufacturer or model recomendations?

I once saw an old college roommate of mine using one for his art projects. Does that count as experience.

When I did airbrush back in college, I used a Badger brand with the attached paint well on top. I also had another model brush that I used, but I can't remember the model right off the top of my head. I can take a look tonight when I get home from work.

IIRC, the detail settings are controllable for each airbrush, so you can do broad areas and small details with the same brush. One thing to remember is to clean your brush right after using it. They are a bitch to clean once the paints dry (even if using acrylics) and involve disassembling the brush to peel or scrape paint off. I used to just use Windex or Sparkle window cleaner to clean my brushes as well. Worked better than the "specialized" paint cleaners for the airbrushes, and a hell of a lot cheaper as well.

Air compressors, depends on what sort you are looking for. If you can, I'd get one with a tank and as quiet a motor as possible. The tank so that the compressor isn't running all the time and the quietest motor should be self-explanatory. I have (somewhere in the basement) a Craftsman brand air compressor with a tank, on wheels to make it easy to move around. It's noisy, but I was in college when I bought it and didn't care about keeping the neighbors up when I was feeling creative at 2 am. Take a look at a hardware store for compressors, they are the same thing as the ones an art store would sell you, but without the art store prices.

Note - I haven't actively used my airbrush in about 10 years. Partly because I got burned out from art after getting out of college, and partly because the husband tends to frown on me turning the walls in my office assorted colors (overspray can be fun, say it all together now!).

Oh yeah, get a mask - a good one. Not one of those cheapie foam things with a rubberband to hold it on. I used a 2 cartridge mask similar to the one my older brother wears to paint cars. Overkill perhaps, but I prefer to not blow my nose in assorted colors as well.

Hope it helps some. I'd like to get back into using my airbrush again, I miss the technique.

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I prefer to not blow my nose in assorted colors as well.

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LOL - Isn't that how you get the speckled effect.

Thanks, I have heard of Badger. One of my instructors has several and the only brand name I remember is Iwata. I have researched them and others online but I haven't seen much other than what the sales descriptions say they will do, so I hope to find user experience. I do think I want a dual action to control both air and paint flow in one button.

I also had thought of the big tanks you see in hardware stores and wondered how long one would last before it needed to refill. I do imagine hardware store ones are most likely louder.

I may be interested in used equipment if any one has as well because I will need to keep the price down as much as possible.

Heh, I hadn't thought about using that method for the speckled effect. Although, I always used an old toothbrush to create splatter effects, since I could never get it right with the airbrush.

I don't even know if they sell single action brushes anymore, dual-action is the only way to go. You can also get different size needles to use in the brush. Be careful with those as well, nothing like ruining a brand new needle because you bent the tip of it (/has NEVER done something that silly, noo, of course not! )

Newer air compressors are quieter overall these days, no matter if it's a construction quality or "art" quality. I look at it similar to buying an artbox to hold supplies. I can buy one from an art store, with the "art" dividers and the "artbox" stenciled on the side, or I can go buy a tackle box from the local sports store. What's the difference, besides both being manufactured by Plano?

How long the tank lasts before the compressor kicks in to fill depends on how "hard" you are spraying. If you are doing light details, fine details, etc., then the time between fills is pretty far apart. If you're spraying a large background or laying down some heavy areas of coverage, then it's less. Whatever sort of compressor you get, just train yourself to ignore it when it kicks in. Otherwise you'll be in the middle of some minute, fine details when the motor starts and it'll scare the hell out of you, causing your hands to jerk and of course fuxxoring up your details. Never had that happen to me either, nope.

I've heard of Iwata, sounds familiar. I would suggest a brush with a top fill well as opposed to a side fill cup that detaches. I have one of each, and despite that I couldn't use a larger cup or a container on my brush, I hated the detachable wells personally. They were more finicky to use, but almost more flexible in many ways. You can tip the cup depending on the angle you're spraying at.

_____________________
le coeur du feu
Qui sème le vent récolte la tempête!