Transparants vs Opaque

[lahumidors]

Hello you sea of knowledge out there. Im still learning the ropes of this airbrushing and am starting to try out color. I have purchased a bunch of opaques but I want to learn about transparent. I just dont know when using a transparent is advantages. I usually just thin down my opaques ,,, is this the same as a transp? My next project is Venom so since im a visual learner... where would you all use opaques and where would you use transparents? Im sure this is a preference so I look forward (hopefully) to learning from anyone who is willing to share their technique.

Lance

 

[Rudesaneskill]

Easy dude.

Rarely use trans unless im out of ink.

I use winsor and newton inks.

Far better than trans.

 

[lahumidors]

Easy dude.

Rarely use trans unless im out of ink.

I use winsor and newton inks.

Far better than trans.

So opaques and ink or just inks?

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[Rudesaneskill]

Opacity for coverage.

Trans for overlay.

Inks for blends & fades

 

[Jonathon]

Love the reference piece. Technically you could thin down your opaque to get more transparent but if you think it out too much it won't have enough binder in it so you'd need to add a transparent base in as well. It will add viscosity without adding color and help hold the pigment together (if I'm wrong someone will Def correct me )
The tongue would be a great place for transparents because there are so many shades of red with blue/violet tones in the darker areas. Using transparent paint you can slowly build it till you get the desired look (all in theory for me because I mainly do black and white stuff ) hope some of this helps and or makes sense

 

[lahumidors]

Love the reference piece. Technically you could thin down your opaque to get more transparent but if you think it out too much it won't have enough binder in it so you'd need to add a transparent base in as well. It will add viscosity without adding color and help hold the pigment together (if I'm wrong someone will Def correct me )
The tongue would be a great place for transparents because there are so many shades of red with blue/violet tones in the darker areas. Using transparent paint you can slowly build it till you get the desired look (all in theory for me because I mainly do black and white stuff ) hope some of this helps and or makes sense

Ok cool, that gives me a starting point[emoji106]

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[JackEb]

Transparents always get darker with every layer you add. Opaques stay the color that you mixed or bought (you may still need a few layers for total coverage)

 

[markjthomson]

Have a search through the page... it's a common question... here is something from a way back for starters... https://www.airbrushforum.org/threads/transparent-or-opaque.2060/

 

[musicmacd]

If you are not mixing your own opaque colours I wouldn’t get too Caught up in it all, I use opaque because I want to be as exact as I can with my colour, opaque will not go too dark in like transparent paints which will eventually go to near black.

 

[lahumidors]

I think I got it, a friend explained, for him, that the transp. are mostly used to create shades, tints, transitions, and blends over an opaque. I think this is what y'all mean when you say creating depth. but can be used with enough layers like an opaque. I'm still learning the vocab!!! Does that sound right

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[musicmacd]

I think I got it, a friend explained, for him, that the transp. are mostly used to create shades, tints, transitions, and blends over an opaque. I think this is what y'all mean when you say creating depth. but can be used with enough layers like an opaque. I'm still learning the vocab!!! Does that sound right

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Spot on, there are other Benefits but one step at a time

 

[Tuffnutz]

Transparents always get darker with every layer you add. Opaques stay the color that you mixed or bought (you may still need a few layers for total coverage)

Especially with a 4 inch mini-roller.

 

[AndreZA]

If you want to make your opaques transparent, use appropriate medium or transparent base. Then use reducer (thinners or water or whatever the system requires) to get the flow right. If you use reducer first, it might be too thin before it is transparent enough.

 

[lahumidors]

Here's some info I learned that I haven't read yet. I'm sure it's here somewhere though. For beginners people like me, I found mixing up a transparent color can be used to create a range of lightness to darkness (saturation) simply by adding on more paint. The white from your paper will act like white paint making the first transparent layer very light. Subsequent layers will cause it to darken. This is obvious but when I first started out I thought I needed to mix varying degrees of paint using white to lighten it. Hope this helps someone!

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[musicmacd]

Here's some info I learned that I haven't read yet. I'm sure it's here somewhere though. For beginners people like me, I found mixing up a transparent color can be used to create a range of lightness to darkness (saturation) simply by adding on more paint. The white from your paper will act like white paint making the first transparent layer very light. Subsequent layers will cause it to darken. This is obvious but when I first started out I thought I needed to mix varying degrees of paint using white to lighten it. Hope this helps someone!

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spot on using the white of the paper, the “self control” is the only downside as most of us go too dark too soon! I’m preferring this over opaques lately