Please. Help. Me. Spitting!

D

Dee Dee Murry

Guest
I have a terrible time with airbrushing. I paint in acrylics with a brush. I have always wanted to really learn airbrush and how to control it. I would love to use it with my day to day painting (wildlife, pets, horses, duck stamps etc) but I am too afraid to.

Every year I enter the Federal Duck Stamp competition and every year for the last over 20 years I dread the airbrushing part of the painting. It's always a disaster.

I use HP-C and creatix illustration paint for covering larger areas. I also have the micron (Iwata both) for details.

I study up on it every year and get help from people but I still can't make it not spit. Last year I talked to a nice helpful person at Iwata. He told me a lot and I followed everything he said. And bought every thing he said. And read up on everything he said. And I know he was right about it all. But just now came down from painting and I am having the same darn issues as always.

Tonight I was just trying to paint a blue to white gradient from top to bottom. Since I was using a lot of white, I was sure to constantly (after every few passes) take the nozzle off, wipe the tip of the needle, spray water on and wipe the nozzles, sometimes I would take the needle clear out to clean it. I did this constantly.

With a lot of fighting it, I was able to get my gradient but because it was one color basically , it still did spit some but blended enough with the colors next to it I can get by since I'll be brush painting over the top. But at the end of my painting which will take about 100 hours, I will have to paint over areas that are going to be in fog and if it spits on me then the whole thing will be ruined.

So tonight even with all of the cleaning and assembling and disaseembling (I spend WAY more time taking it apart and cleaning it than I do actually airbrushing I am guessing that is not typical?). I could get away with spraying for a short time then the spits start. Often very badly.

I used to spray at bout 30 PSI. The kind person who helped me last year said spray at 12-15 PSI with the HP-C for large areas. I tried that and it just spit BIG spit like crazy. I took it back up to 30 PSI and there was less spitting but still plenty of spitting.

For those of you who I know are really good at this can you actually airbrush for hours at a time and get no spitting at all? If so pleeeease can you give me some tips? I just can't risk ruining my painting at the end of this (plus I'd love to use the micron to smooth water waves and other details but no way could I do that with how I am now) but I really do need to airbrush it to look right.

Sorry for the super long post thank you so much in advance.
 
Thank you Robby!

Createx Illustration paint.
Reduction....? Sounds like that might be a huge missing link!

I don't.... how and what? Could that be the biggest part of the problem?

TY so much!
 
Thank you Robby!

Createx Illustration paint.
Reduction....? Sounds like that might be a huge missing link!

I don't.... how and what? Could that be the biggest part of the problem?

TY so much!
Sorry i missed that you said it was CI.
Well, normally yes but since its CI in an HP-C.....Shouldnt really need it so much.
You could certainly try reducer though , up to 4 parts to every one part paint.

It really sounds more like you have built up crud in your nozzle though, assuming by spitting you mean it puts out big droplets when you start to spray.

If its actually sort of sputtering like paint flow is on and off....thats another story.
 
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Sounds to me like a paint thickness issue so I would experiment with thinning the paint to the point where the spitting stops.

Lee
 
Sorry i missed that you said it was CI.
Well, normally yes but since its CI in an HP-C.....Shouldnt really need it so much.
You could certainly try reducer though , up to 4 parts to every one part paint.

It really sounds more like you have built up crud in your nozzle though, assuming by spitting you mean it puts out big droplets when you start to spray.

If its actually sort of sputtering like paint flow is on and off....thats another story.


Yes it's more spitting bigger droplets than sputtering. Maybe I am not cleaning as thoroughly as I think I am then! I unscrew the nozzle and wipe it clean and remove the needle to wipe it clean also but it is spitting so often I am pretty much constantly doing that. I also spray water and sometimes some cleaner thru the brush should I be somehow getting deeper in the brush to clean? I also push needle in out and while spraying to help clean?
 
Sounds to me like a paint thickness issue so I would experiment with thinning the paint to the point where the spitting stops.

Lee
Thank you Lee it makes sense after reading all this that is my next thing to try!
 
I see your regulator is reading 30 in the pic. Is that during spraying? or at rest?
I hope this is not insulting if im wrong here.
You must set your spraying pressure on the regulator with the trigger depressed. If youre setting it then trying to spray youll find your actual working pressure is at nearly nothing.
 
I see your regulator is reading 30 in the pic. Is that during spraying? or at rest?
I hope this is not insulting if im wrong here.
You must set your spraying pressure on the regulator with the trigger depressed. If youre setting it then trying to spray youll find your actual working pressure is at nearly nothing.

Not insulting in the least! You are right I just set it and leave it there. I had no idea you were supposed to set it with trigger depressed. Very glad to learn this. So do I turn it clear down to nothing when not in use? And turn it up while spraying? What do I do if I have to stop spraying for several minutes to clean the brush?

So appreciate all this advice!
 
With the compressor turned on, depress the trigger so you have air coming through, set the compressor regulator to the psi you want, normally around 20-25 for art.
You’ll notice when you lift the trigger the compressor dial will go up and that’s ok, it’s the pressure you see when your spraying that is important.
No need to change it when you’re cleaning/not using it.

Also remember to undo the drain plug (on the bottom of the compressor tank) to release water occasionally depending on how often you are using it. Remember to do the plug back up when it’s drained
 
Well, hopefully we have got the issue straightened out. Seems you were actually trying to spray at something like 5psi or less. The only reason it would work at all is because you initially get a small burst at 30 when its set like that. Its always nice to be able to help.
 
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Another thing that might be a cause of the spitting is your not keeping your air on as you paint? Remember air on , pull back for paint , paint off, then air off.
If you don't leave the air flowing thru the airbrush after you stop the paint flow you will have some paint left in the tip so the next time you push the trigger down for air you will get drops of paint
(Spitting paint) along with the air!
Hope this helps?
 
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