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VanGogo

Triple Actioner
Location: L.A. (lower Alabama, U.S.)

I tried airbrushing as a kid with an extremely cheap syphon feed as I was inspired by the t-shirt artists I had seen. This was the mid-late 70’s so no internet for great tutorials. Needless to say I failed miserably and gave up.
10 years ago I bought a Master airbrush to paint RC helicopters and planes. Nothing fancy just fades and solid colors. 2 years ago I pulled it out of storage to shade and paint some tombstones for Halloween which sparked my interest in trying to airbrush some art.
After some research and many tutorials on YouTube (which led me here) I purchased an Iwata Hp-CS. I have been practicing for 2-3 months now and still learning and getting frustrated, but it is getting better slowly.
Here is my latest attempt at a skull. 0D121B56-D2E9-40F3-BCF4-13F345274292.jpeg
 
Welcome aboard:)
For a newbie with an airbrush you’ve done well. Your highlight and shadows are off but that will improve with time, there’s so much to think about when you start out, it gets to a point where you think less and just ‘do’ :)

I look forward to seeing more from you as you progress
 
Thanks Jack. I know I have a long way to go. Lol.
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be picky, just trying to point out something for you to keep an eye on :)
Your attempt is way better than my first ones !
Nothing worse than wondering what you could have done better but all the comments are just ‘good job, well done’ - which are nice but not helpful :)
We all started at the same place, we remember the frustration… it gets better, I promise :)
 
Welcome to the forum, we are a good bunch and we have a nice airbrush community here. Nice skull considering your quite new to the art side of things. Keep practising, its the only way. Even after many years we still learn new things and of course we still practice.

lee
 
Welcome VanGogo. That’s a hell of a lot better than my first few skulls.
Weakening that Black will really help soften the shadows and let you build up the tone slower. What paint line are you running?


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Welcome VanGogo. That’s a hell of a lot better than my first few skulls.
Weakening that Black will really help soften the shadows and let you build up the tone slower. What paint line are you running?


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Bought a couple of big bottles of Golden High Flow Black and White, but have a lot of trouble with instant tip dry and the nozzle getting clogged after a couple of minutes. Tried reducing with water, created 4011, and liquitex flow improver, but none seemed to help. And tried straining, but still have the problems. Recently got in some Createx illustration colors, and they work great! So hopefully my next skull will be better.
 
Cool, it’s good to try some different paint and see what you like.
How much where you reducing the Golden colours?


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Do yourself a favour and don’t mix brands of reducer and paint. Stick to the same brand of reducer for the paint line you are using, it’s one less headache you don’t need
 
I tried 10%-50%. After 25%-30%, I would have problems with blow outs/spidering. Tried Golden’s high flow medium to make the black more transparent, but that seemed to make the paint dry faster in the cup and on the tip.
It may be my climate. I am in the southern US. Loads of humidity and quite warm. The white paint would actually work better than the black when it was cooler, but now that it has warmed up they both dry on the tip in 2 strokes.

Jack, thanks for the tip. I was aware of keeping it all in one brand, but was desperate to find a way to use these 2 big and not cheap bottles of paint lol.
 
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I tried 10%-50%. After 25%-30%, I would have problems with blow outs/spidering. Tried Golden’s high flow medium to make the black more transparent, but that seemed to make the paint dry faster in the cup and on the tip.
It may be my climate. I am in the southern US. Loads of humidity and quite warm. The white paint would actually work better than the black when it was cooler, but now that it has warmed up they both dry on the tip in 2 strokes.

Jack, thanks for the tip. I was aware of keeping it all in one brand, but was desperate to find a way to use these 2 big and not cheap bottles of paint lol.
its never easy when you start this hobby, sooooo many variables, so much info , finding the 'best product' etc etc, I just didn't want you going down that slippery path of mad scientist and mixing different products.
I know @markjthomson uses Golden, so he may be able to suggest a good reducer or reduction ratio,
 
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