Anyone wanna suggest a newbie practice paint?

[Dragunov-21]

While my chinese knock-off gear is in the mail, I thought I'd throw the question out there.

I've searched a round a little, but there are so many different types of paint, and thinners etc, that I find myself a little lost.

I figure I'll just get a bottle of black to start with, to practise control etc, but what do I look/ask for? (0.25mm tip on the brush, compressor auto-cuts at 4bar, but can go up to 6)

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Shiva]

so-whatcha gonna END UP painting?
t shirts? takes high pressure and a different gun than solvent based for auto detail work, and still different for tattoo work....
once we know what your end desire is, someone can recommend a suitable paint

[syklystt]

use ink....like india ink and drawing inks in the bottle...theyre good, thin and cheap...use them on an absorbant surface like paper or illustration board, old teeshirts ...paper towels are cheap and work well for practice too....the inks will spray good at low pressures and not clog up real bad like acrylics(tee shirt paints) do.
good luck

[Skids]

could cut up some old sheets, too,

[Dragunov-21]

I'm gonna end up trying finer detail work - spraying plastic models, computer cases, sheet-metal - that kinda stuff. For the moment I just want something cheap for me to spray onto sheets like Skids said or something to practice brush control etc.

Might give the ink a shot, cheers Syk.

*EDIT* When I do actually start, y'know, doing stuff (probably start out with some stencils or something), as far as colours go, should I try starting out with CMY + black and white paint, and just mixing my own colours using smiff's chart? I'm a student trying to start out as cheap as is reasonable, since I've got no idea whether I'll stick with it or not (hence the CKO gear).

[draggin81]

Most people say to start on something absorbent, since it tend to more forgiving. When I started I was hard-headed, though, and just started on pieces of sheet metal. I figured that that was what I wanted to end up painting on anyway, so why bother with t-shirts.
Even using Auto-Air paints, i managed to figure it out, so it worked well for me. (this was the original formula of AA, which was REALLY bad to spray.) After a while, though, I broke down and bought a sketch book just for practicing dots, daggers, and fades in.
Using a CMYK system and mixing to get colors from there is an EXCELLENT idea. I'd probably get a red, green, and blue as well. It just makes it easier to get to those "in between" colors. Of course, having white on hand is always good, too.
Start practicing with the black india ink, then get some good paints and start with those. Alot of people like Golden paints alot. I use E'Tac paints almost exclusively (mostly thier EFX line). I get alot less tip dry with E'Tac than I did with Golden, and most of the time I use it straight from the bottle (no thinning or reducing).
Thier whole line is set up around a CMYK+RGB system, so if you're already familiar with that, it will be easy to use.
I'm not positive where you'd order from in AU, but check etac-airbrush.com or etac-europe.com and shoot them an email. The etac-europe site also has free color wheels you can down load that show exactly where the E'tac colors are on the color wheel.
A few things that tend to confuse people; they have a transparent base (called either reduce-air or extend-air, I forget which one is for the EFX line). Most people think this thins the paint. It doesn't. It lets you increase the transparency of the paint while keeping the viscosity the same. To thin E'tac, add a few dropps of water or condition-aire.
There customer service is the best I've come across anywhere, too, which, to me, means alot.

For a while you're going to be doing a lot of dots, daggers, and fades excersizes. You're not going to be nailing the fine detail or hair-lines for a while, so patience and consistency is the key. But, challenging yourself or mixing things up one in a while is key, too.
The best advice I got regarding practicing and learning was to attempt a painting you don't think you can do. You might pull it off, you might not, but you'll learn alot faster.
As they say, you can't learn to swim by staying in the shallow end.

[Dragunov-21]

Cheers for the great advice (again).

I'll see if I can dig up something locally, otherwise I'll hit the online stores.

Dammit, can't wait for the gear to get here =J

[Dragunov-21]

Ok, so I went to the local art/hobby/book/stationary store, and saw a bottle of top shelf black india ink - 60 bucks for a 500ml bottle.

Bugger that, I thought, so I went for the black india student drawing ink instead (15 bucks neat).

I'm assuming it'll spray just as well? Should I filter it into the gun or anything?

Also, I looked at getting some paints locally. Couldn't find anything airbrush specific - the most promising thing I could find was this (http://globalcolours.com/student.php) Global Colours Fine Art Student Acrylic Impasto.

It seems (from shaking the bottle) to have a similar viscosity to thickened cream. Is this something I can reduce (and possibly strain) or am I gonna have t look elsewhere?

Cheers in advance for any help.

*EDIT* I can also get nozzles/needles up to 0.5mm if neccessary.

[draggin81]

I don't think I'd try that stuff. If it's cheap you could pick up a tube to try out, but I wpuldn't hold my breath on it.
All I can get locally is Createx and Auto Air, both of which are complete junk IMO, so I just order from the net. Airbrushing is hard enough without having to fight your paint the whole time, too.

The general rule for paint thickness is that it should be about the consistency of skim or 1% milk. Where in that range is mostly personal preference and/or depends on what you're doing at the time.

[Dragunov-21]

Cheers Draggin, I might grab a little bottle and try thinning it with water, otherwise I'll search online, or perhaps ask at an auto-repair place?

[draggin81]

Automotive paint is usually solvent-based, which I'm guessing would eat up the seals in your brush (higher end ABs have teflon seals to withstand the solvents. Yours might have them, but I doubt it)
They might have Auto Air paint, though, which is a water based paint made by Createx. When I started out thats what I used for a while.
I'm not too shy about having a negative opinion about Createx in general. I just think they make crappy products. If I had a nickle for every time they came out with a "new" Auto Air formula, I'd have a hell of alot of nickles. IMO, if they did better R&D, and used better materials in the first place, they wouldn't need to reformulate it every month or so.
But, that said, it is cheap, and generally easily available. So if it's just for practice, you could do worse. Plus, once you've been practicing a while and decide to try some better paint, you'll have a deep appreciation for it. lol.

[Tjay]

What he said, I struggled for months with createx
I switched to house of color just to see if it was the paint, and wow

It aint cheap though. I got a 4 oz bottle of ready to spray black and can practice for a long time with that

[alteredair]

I just started out with just cheep acrylic craft paint got 4 oz bottles for about four bucks also got a matt gloss finnish for thinning along with this mixture 4 cups water 2cups rubbing acohol and 1cup window cleaner and 2-3 drops gyliceren check out airbrushtricks.com tonys got some good stuff

[Tjay]

I just picked up a bunch of the water borne paints from createx
Have not had a chance to use them yet, but from the looks of the paint it should spray pretty good.
Been to cold in Dallas to paint but the weather is breaking
Plus I am getting a new 60 gallon compressor and a graphtec plotter in about a month

[sharonsstudio]

:signyeahthat: seenms like everyone gave you an answer.

I actually used my water color tube paints. yes they sucked but it gave me practice,, someone even told me to use food coloring.. never tried it but if you stuck must be some some where!!
Hey they spray cakes don't they!!!

[AndyW]

Yip heard of the food colouring, suppose it is a bit like using "inks"