What is a good airbrush paper for practice?

Shorti

Double Actioner
I've been practicing dots and lines on regular, white printer paper but I'd like to do a real painting for practice. I dont want anything too expensive but it should be sturdier than plain paper. I saw there is "airbrush paper" like the TerraSlate. It looks like I can get 7mm-10mm white. Is this a good paper to use...or any other suggestions? Minimum thickness?

Also, I see a lot of tutorials show people using a colored background base (black usually). Did the artist paint the background or can the paper be purchased with different colors. So far I've only seenwhite paper. Thanks for the help!
 
I can't comment on terraslate as i've never used it. Theres loads of options, airbrush paper, Yupo paper, bleedproof marker pen paper, Bristol board, etc etc, depends how much you want to spend.

Yupo may be a bit much to practice on as its synthetic and better when you have some more experience.

Id go for bristol board, or bleedproof paper its fairly cheap and smooth to work on. Stay away from canvas or textured paper just to make it easier.

You can get all sorts of coloured paper, I have black card, black paper, grey paper by Canson, yello, blue , green, basically all sorts of colours. Only just got the grey so not sure what its like yet but its twice as thick as standard printer paper. So yes, you can get different colours but you could also paint your paper or surface. Like with metals, if it not already primed you need to paint it.

I'm sure others will put their own options up so hang 5 till you get some more answers.

Lee
 
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Card stock from your local arts/crafts or stationary shop will suffice for practise.
It has a smooth side that will not absorb paint greatly so it’s good for gaining control of Your brush and learning to minimise splatters/spiders.
Remember that if you are using coloured paper/painting in a background it will affect the colours you lay down. Eg if you have a black background and put a transparent white on it you’ll get a blue shift. If you have a blue background and lay down yellow paint you’ll get a green shift - you get the idea.
Many artists don’t paint the entire substrate one colour. They merely paint the background around the image or they paint where the image will go with a base of white sealer and/or opaque white paint
 
You could try contacting some companies and asking for samples of different paper. I've done this before a few times, and got samples ranging from tiny squares - though still usable, to half and whole sheets. Say why you want them, even say you want to write a review here etc to encourage them lol.

Anyway. Even if you only get small samples, it is good to try different papers, see how they behave, and if you find one you like will make you more confident on spending any money.

If you want to try a hard surface look into aluminium sheets. If you can master a harder surface, paper is easier to use, and it's fairly cheap. Prep with a rub down and a high build primer. You can paint on it directly, or spray any colour background you like. Can use both sides, and you can sand it down, or paint over and re use if you want to.
 
I think the others have you covered. The picture frame method is good. I started painting on old tin motor oil cans. I’d paint them black or white with some rattle cans and paint. Once I’d filled them up, I’d paint over and start again. TerraSlate will send out free samples within the US and it’s pretty nice to Airbrush on.


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I know I'm late, but maybe this will help someone.

I've been using this artboard I picked up at Micheal's:

https://www.michaels.com/artboard-by-creatology/10531554.html

I don't know what weight it is, but it's a little thicker than card stock, has a smooth finish, and you can get 100 sheets for $8.49. It has been a cheap solution for me thus far and doesn't seem to absorb the moisture from the paint as much as regular printer paper. It will still curl if you really saturate it, but you could seal it ahead of time to prevent that.
 
I just grab some poster board from the Dollar Tree 2 large sheets for a buck , Affordable :D But as shown if ya want to really gain control and dail in PSI vs reduction placing any photo under glass and practice that way too .
 
I bought a big pack of paper years ago and still have a lot of it left. Its Strathmore 300... something lolol. Comes in a huge notebooky thing. It's pretty decent when it comes to being similar to what I use for more serious work.
Its Strathmore drawing paper, in 18x24.
 
This may sound crazy but my wife has this thing called a "Buddha Board" that she practices on. It only uses water which does eventually evaporate but the brush strokes can be pretty precise and dark. I tried it with my new airbrush and it worked great. Using just water, it looks like black paint and there is no mess and no clogs and no cleanup afterwards and you can make the "paint" dry quickly with your airbrush air. She got it on Amazon fairly cheap. It appears to be some kind of paper but I have no idea what kind it is. Just my two cents worth.
 
T
This may sound crazy but my wife has this thing called a "Buddha Board" that she practices on. It only uses water which does eventually evaporate but the brush strokes can be pretty precise and dark. I tried it with my new airbrush and it worked great. Using just water, it looks like black paint and there is no mess and no clogs and no cleanup afterwards and you can make the "paint" dry quickly with your airbrush air. She got it on Amazon fairly cheap. It appears to be some kind of paper but I have no idea what kind it is. Just my two cents worth.

That is very interesting. I'll have to give this a try. Thanks!
 
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